I have never called a child with SEN ‘naughty’ not have I heard my teaching friends do the same. We live by the rule ‘all behaviour is a communication’.
I have taught in both mainstream and special schools. Far and away the most progress happens in special schools. The happiest faces are in special schools. Everything is a celebration of your child and the community, everything is set up to not only meet their needs, but help them to thrive. This includes that ratio of staff. We gradually work with children to desensitise them to/or find copying strategies to deal with their triggers. We aim to give the child the best chance of independence in the world.
Never in mainstream have we had the time, the facilities, the staff to put in the same level of care. Yes we will do our best with what we have for your child but bare in mind we also have 30+ other children all with their own unique stories to tell, some may have EHCPs , others waiting for theirs, sone might witness domestic violence, others might not know when they’ll next be fed, some may have raised themselves, their parents disengaged and unwilling to set boundaries, others may be being sexually abused. An average class may well have all of the above at any one time. All of these children will be expressing themselves through their behaviour. That is a lot of behaviour to support in one small room and teach at the same time. How does it not impact on the children within it? Are teachers not allowed to express their frustration at that impact after all it is down to them to prove progress?
You have chosen to keep your child at home, which is, as op say, the ultimate segregation. I am not against home education I thought of it for my own.
There are not enough special school places overall. Those who want them can’t access them. Then there is the other issue of stigma, those who need them most won’t access them.
I have taught a child who would have benefitted so much from special school. Mainstream was too much sensory wise for him. He spent his days literally sitting on, me screaming in a high pitched distressed tone like that of a newborn baby, banging his head and rubbing his face on me. When I invariably stood up to support other children he would be some more distressed and follow me trying to climbing me, throwing himself to the floor whenever I couldn’t hold him.
He was still waiting for his EHCP as mum and dad were very much in denial and afraid. We had no official funding for him so we used to beg borrow and steal any TA with an absent child. The lack of continuity meant he only would come to me.
The other children used to zone out because of the noise, a constant high pitched newborn cry. How I taught anything that year is a wonder. He wasn’t the only child with needs. I had a child with an EHCP who needed me to do SALT work with him, I’m ashamed to say we failed all the children that year, not through any fault of our own. How was that situation in anyone’s best interests?