What did your school do last lockdown for SEN children?

[discoland]

Last lockdown non-keyworker children with SEN were only allowed in for 2 mornings a week. My five-year-old DS has ASD and very developmentally behind ect. During lockdown 1 he missed the final five months of nursery which I don’t think helped.

The fact school would only allow him in 2 mornings a week is one of the reasons I’m dreading another school ‘closure’ so much. Tbh I don’t really understand the logic of why the SEN children had to be collected halfway through their day once they’d already been mixing in the classroom for a couple of hours with the same children.

It also made it difficult to homeschool my other child on those days.

I wondered whether this was the norm compared to other schools?

For my (at the time) year 6 child with an ECHP

Lockdown 1 : ourselves and the school risk assessed that he should stay at home (he was hospitalised for asthma the previous year) He does not do homework at home let alone actual schoolwork so he got virtually zero education. Once his then year 1 brother went back in June, so did he (his consultant was happy that he was at no greater risk in school)

Lockdown 2 - as soon as it became obvious the school wouldn't be opening after Christmas we decided he would go in full time. He had fallen even further behind his peers and wasn't dealing well with the idea of education at home. Within 2 weeks I was asking if there was the possibility of his brother also going in and the school basically told me that they were just waiting for me to ask. (His brother does not have SEN but they counted him as vulnerable because he lives in an autistic house, with both his brother and me being austistic)

Both DC (both ASD) were offered school places in the first lockdown. We didn't take them originally but DS1 (Y8) ended up going part time for the last 2 months.
In the second lockdown they both went full time to their respective schools (one primary, one secondary). Both mainstream.

My son attended a SN base attached to a mainstream school. It closed with the school. Then places were made available at a different school (being used as a local hub for children of key workers). Different environment, different staff - just wasn't going to work. The school really didn't care and made any parent asking about support feel as if they were lazy/just wanting their child out of the house. We got one 'safeguarding' phone call every two weeks. Moved to post 16 provision from Sept 2021 - much better.

Lockdown 1, nothing. Lockdown 2, in school full time with the key worker groups. Child with SEN and social worker.

During both lockdowns the LA special schools shut to all pupils apart from those that had both parents keyworkers or if a social worker said that the child needed a place.

My son attends a special school and he got feck all 😡
It was bloody hard trying to educate his little sister and he was totally depressed.
The school took 11 weeks to even make contact to see if he was ok 😡

Dd attends independent sprecialist school and attended all the way through as could every other pupil in the school. Some parents chose to keep their child at home though.

My two have sen and both ehc plans. They didn't go school during the first lockdown but did during the January lcokdown this year - but just twice a week. I had to fight for that!

My kids school seems marginally better than your kids school (I mean just 2 mornings per week, wtaf!) but not much better. There was quite a few children at DC's school needing keyworker provision and schools prioritised them which is fair enough but they are gave capacity to key worker children who had one parent at home. Keywokrer children were given as many days as required which wasn't helped that we live near a raf base so a lot of raf families which are key workers (again fine but some had a parent at home!)

So that left barely any space for vulnerable children.

I hope if it happens again they will prioritise vulnerable children over key worker children who have one non key worker parent at home.

A woman I know sent her kids to school 5 days a week because her husbands an electrician. She was at home.

My son cannot be at home during a lockdown again. He won't do any work, his attitude prevents my younger dc getting any work done. He becomes anxious, withdrawn and it takes him weeks to get settled back into school after a prolonged time off! For his own sake he needs to be in school.

My child with SEN got the same fuck all as every other child considered unworthy of a school place.

The SEMH school I teach at offered school as usual to all pupils. Those who were CEV, who live with people who are CEV or whose parents wanted to keep them at home were taught online 1:1 for maths and English each day, had resources delivered, visits from teaching staff at least once a week and as many phone/video calls throughout a week as was helpful.

My son didn't get any time at all. He attends a speech and language unit which he is only allowed to go to for 2 years and he missed so much of it he was given an extra term but it doesn't make up for the time he missed.

Wow I'm quite shocked at the amount of SEND children who were overlooked. School’s bloody well can't close again, they just can't!!

Our school closed to most children early in the first lockdown but encouraged all SEND children/families to apply for days in our local hub if they wanted it...very few did.
After may half term we reopened to anybody who wanted a place and remained open throughout the next lockdown. Very few bubbles burst so our children have had reasonable provision. We did ask for volunteers to drop down to 3 days a week when numbers were scarily high and that helped a bit but it wasn't forced on anybody.
Live lessons were offered via Zoom 3 times daily but more often than not I was talking to myself.
If there are any school closures due to Omnicron I fully expect to keep going throughout this time.

Naff all for us. DS is on the SEN register. Tried home schooling whilst working but he needs 1:1 support to keep him focussed. He ended up in school with DH. Lockdown 2 he was in his own school because I returned to face to face clinical work for NHS. School rang and asked me not to send him. They also refused a place for a former looked after child who has SEN. It wasn't good.

Our school took every single vulnerable, PP and SEND child.

Any child with an EHC plan could be in full time if they chose, a few took this up. Being on the SEN register didn’t guarantee a place though.