To think that children with special needs should be included in mainstream schools where ever possible

[ReallyTired]

Before I get really stoned, I do work in a special school and I know and I know quite a few children with special needs. The school I work at is very good and the kids make fanastic progress.

I think its right that there are some special schools, for children who really cannot cope socially or academically with mainstream. Even then I think children at special schools/ special units should mix with mainstream children as much as possible.
However I think its a mistake to think that special schools are a pancera for everything wrong in state state education.

Children who attend special schools often spend quite a long time travelling to school. Their course choices at keystage 4 are often limited because a special school is very small. The very small number of children can make it hard to find a good friend. Especially for girls who are often out numbered by boys.

I think that for inclusion to work there has to be more than just extra funding. Secondary schools need to be smaller. Somehow schools need to achieve a more human scale, prehaps by splitting larger secondary schools into smaller units. Maybe we should have middle schools like Bedfordshire.

There are children like young carers or children in local authority care who get forgotten about. When you get to know an individual child you realise that they aren't a monster, in fact they are just like your child. Inclusion needs money and resources to work well.

Look this is from Hampshire CC and is similar to the stuff our council says:

"Car seats and booster cushions as required by Government regulations areprovided along with other specialist equipment needed to make thejourney safe. This equipment is the property of Hampshire County Counciland must be returned when it is no longer required."

I assume they mean these regulations

I do remember being sent something saying that new regulations meant that any child without an appropriate booster seat and below a certain height would not be allowed on school transport...

I cant open that link!

Oh I managed to in a new tab...

This is what worries me though on the exemption listings

"Emergency vehicles, including ambulances and police cars, are exempt"

The word 'ambulance'. Especially as some children do actually go in on patient transport services aswell

I think they'd struggle to call them an ambulance! Taxis give them more of an opportunity to take the piss but having looked most councils are still providing car seats in taxis for regular journeys. They all refer to those guidelines as well. Provision of escorts seems more variable. We're seem a bit lucky here.

I wouldn't trust the tranpsort services here- they left an 11 yr old son of a friend outside school after collecting him tooe arly. he is blind, ASD, and has severe developmental delays as well.

They are readily available though- had ds3 gone to the unit, they admitted before asked that as we couldnt leave ds1 at school due to his sn, ds3 would have needed transport.

the transport service here is great

ds2 has totally charmed the socks off his driver, who now calls him tiger, buys him gifts for his birthday and xmas, and even brought him something back from his holiday

and the rest of the staff at the transport office buy him gifts for easter, xmas and birthdays too

his main driver has said he will miss ds2 when he changes school in sept, and the transport is no longer needed, and has asked to keep in touch with him

That sounds like ours lou33. Christmas presents every year, lots of banter and lots of care. DS1's driver/escorts would never drop him somewhere alone (they'd know he'd run off!)

yes, its great, no way would they leave him anywhere unless myself or dd1 was waiting to collect him

I haven't read the full thread but would say that inclusion is clearly often a good thing but only if properly supported.

I have recounted this before on MN, but recently in our village school there were 2 SN children in the reception class. The other reception children were fine with them. However, one required full time class room support and the other required a reasonable amount. This support was given by the normal classromm TAs who did not have any special training and of course while they were supporting the SN children, they were not helping the other children. One of the SN children had agression and behavioural issues and constantly disputed the class. The school were unable or unwilling to deal with these issues and in the end over a third of the parents withdrew their children from the school. At the end of the year the child with the greater SN was also withdrawn.

My point is that this was prevented from being a positive experience for anyone because of inappropriate and insufficient support and I think that the inclusion of SN children in mainstream schools must be accommpanied by dedicated (as opposed to reallocated) resources otherwise it can cause problems for all.

if a child has need of full time one to one help then their is generally provision made to employ a person, specifically for them

ds2 has a full time assistant at school, though at times she will go and do things with the other kids, so he does not rely on her for everything, to create some inependence

if the school had not provided this support, and assuming their was a statement in place for the children, i would be wondering where the funding had gone for the sn assistant

yes riven

actually , not only is it paid for by the lea for ds, but the school also pays extra out of their own funds so she can do more hours with ds2 (he gets the max hours paid by the lea already)

oh how odd lol

ds2 got 26, which i am informed was the max they will fork out for round here, so the school add the other 6 hours themselves

must be max for ds2 then, his cp means he cant stand or walk and uses a wheelchair, but he can use his limbs and communicate