Number of children with additional needs in son’s class

[Sazzle12345]

DS is starting school in September. He is going to a lovely local CofE primary and has a number of friends from pre school in his class. It is a 30 child per year intake.

I have zero experience of teaching and am hoping that someone can put my mind at rest.

I know approx half of the class, and of those that I know 4 have additional needs - likely ADHD / autism (but too young for formal diagnosis). I know 2 of the children very well and their parents are of the view that their children won’t be able to remain in the class for long periods and will need one to one support. Both of them struggle with aggression when in large groups.

Whilst not wishing to sound in any way insensitive to the needs of those children (I appreciate life must be very tough at times for them and their parents), my concern is for my DS.

The class has one teacher and one TA. I don’t understand how the rest of the class will be able to be cared for, let alone given any sort of teaching when at any one time there are likely to be at least 2 children that need to be outside the room and others who will need extra hand holding beyond what is normal in a reception class.

Am I worrying unnecessarily? Do teachers have super powers that I am oblivious to? Or is this sort of number of children with additional needs the norm in a class of 30?

I have tried to phrase this sensitively as I genuinely do not wish to be in any way rude or insensitive to any SEN children or their parents.

Can I ask why as a parent you put him through that experience? You knew what would happen, was it the case that you needed to evidence it not working?

@PizzaPastaWine

I only know due to personal connections, not because of anything that the school has told me.

The children in question are either children of friends or go to nursery with DS.

I know approx half the class.

2 of my 3 DC are SEN and I've worried about the effects on their classmates education, but what they tend to do is have parents collect early/drop off late if the SEN kiddos are making massive disruption.
Also, once the get the EHCP in places for the SEN kids, they can access additional funding for more TAs and if need be like one of mine needs, a specialist school.

I understand your worry about your DC, I remember in school the "naughty" as the often undiagnosed were back then, would spend the teachers time on their behavioural issues and away from the other 29 kids that were expected to just crack on.

But these days teachers are more aware than ever and in my experience (with both jobs I've had and as a sen mum) sencos these days are really pushing, so every kid can flourish

This thread is making me
it's highly likely that the children with SEN won't bother your perfect DC

My DS has ASD and is popular and outgoing, he's a bit of a fly who daydreams if left unsupervised but luckily we were able to pay for the reports that got him his 1-1 EHCP before school started, if only support wasn't based on parents' financial situation. I hope you don't vote tory OP, if all kids who needed 1-1 could access it, many issues would disappear.

FWIW it's very hard to find a SS which is academically rigourous which is why DC like my DS work best in MS. Also to note the local private school are happy to take him as they find the smaller groups are much better for kids with SEN so you can't "escape" into a bubble there either.

Schools asking parents to pick up early is unlawful but symptomatic of how bad things are.

Thought that might be the case. But you said he has had special since age 3 so that's good :)

I do think there is a myth that mainstream school is suitable for all children with SEN. It isn’t.

Agreed, but try finding a suitable school. DS is autistic but has an IQ of 161. He was only offered a place at a school for children with LD’s. So he’ll be staying at mainstream (and being disruptive, unfortunately) until the LA agrees that he needs somewhere more suitable.

SEN parents don’t do it for shits and giggles.

Ill also add that nursery and school are v different. My DS attended MS nursery age 2-3 and really struggled, he's found school no problem as it's more structured and has a focus

My DS class had 32 DC across 2 x P1 classes. There was one child with FAS and ADHD and had a 1-1 TA inplace. During literacy and numeracy time they split the classes into 3 groups by ability and one teacher took each group plus the principal of the junior school took the raising attainment group. I feel the provision was excellent and this was a school that had previously had a terrible report and in a very poor area.

The boy with SEN did put his hands around my DS throat one day (with a 1-1) in place and I don't think it was handled pretty well at the time (wasn't their class teacher in the room) but I raised it and the depute head phoned me back that day and took it incredibly seriously. They are the best of friends now.

Schools publish data of SEN and EFL -
You may use it as one of the indicators to choose school (high or low depending on parents preference). But I am afraid there is little you can do about it if you have already enrolled into the school

For every child like your child there is a child with far more complex needs who do impact significantly on their peers so you can be as skeptical as you want about it but not every child with SEN is like your child.

Absolute nightmare.

In my experience (as school governor), the school assigned a more experienced and capable teacher to the more challenging class (higher number of SEN)

I think this is a bit unfair. Many children on the SEND register won't disrupt the learning of other children. Many children not on the SEND register will. But there are children with SEND in almost every school whose needs are not being met, through no fault of their own and generally not the school's either, who do disrupt learning on a daily basis. Getting a whole class to where they need to be is incredibly difficult with the new curriculum, no TA and children in every class working well below their chronological age. If the class is frequently being evacuated, or being disrupted by a distressed or shouting child, it is very stressful for everyone. I don't think anyone is suggesting all children with ADHD or ASD are like this.

My advice to you would be to give it a try. Get to know the children in your sons class, go to every event your school puts on where you can observe the children interacting together along with the TAs/Teacher. Volunteer in the classroom (if you have capacity, even a talk about something eg. Job/hobby) then you can really see what’s going on.
Also attend all class parties and listen to your child, ask questions.

My daughters class had quite a few children with additional needs ranging from no visible impact on behaviour to hitting and lashing out at kids and having to be restrained by teacher and TA in front of me.

I was genuinely frightened by this child and it put into context a lot of things my daughter had said at home. There was no way on earth I was going to let my child be in that classroom with this particular child. We moved her to private school and we were fortunate we could do that.

I feel like we gave it a chance if it hadn’t been for that one child she would still be there, the other kids with additional needs were absolutely fine but I will not tolerate violence in the classroom even in young children.

And that is where the rub is, because understandably you don't want your child in a provision you don't consider suitable for him which is understandable but you are happy for his peers to have their education disrupted in the meantime. This is where it gets difficult because the needs of one student are being placed above the needs of 29 others.

Btw replace the “children with SEN” with almost any other marginalized category and you’d be banned before you can say “ablist dog whistle”.

If they have one. There is a massive recruitment and retention crisis in education.

@jenandberrys yes I know that, I'm countering all the scaremongering about kids with SEN i have seen.

ds also has children with more severe needs in his class, I've never once thought to demonise them for existing, DS is one of the children who helps them/chats to them and I like that he helps them develop.

you are happy for his peers to have their education disrupted in the meantime

I can’t do anything about that. You could try blaming the LA rather than the disabled kid or his parents, but ofc that’s not the point of this thread. 🙄

chances are there were 4 kids in your class at school that were undiagnosed with adhd/ autism etc…. We didn’t have SEN when I was at school. I really wouldn’t worry about it.

But the LA have offered him another provision unless I misunderstood your previous post?