Ruth kelly send her child to private school because of SN

[PeachyClair]

part story here

Now I haev no problems with private schools as such, just seems this woman is partlyr esponsible for completely effing up the chances of SN kids (such as mine) in mainstream, then she opts out.

Most parentscaring for sn kids don't have £15k a year to make that decision.

Wonder if she realised what she was planning when she was the Minister? Coz that would explain the state of Sn in aminstream schools frankly.

And on the same day I geta letter stating mys ion can't have any occupational therapy because his Teacher ahsn't had the time to fill in the forms by their deadline.

One of the DTS godparents is a school teacher in a state primary school with a high percentage of children with behavioural problems, and in her opinion, they have received a lot of money to do more with kids - the problem is getting the parents to work with them and not against them (she works in the south east).

I personally think throwing more money at the problem is not the solution but I don't know what the solution is so interested to hear from the more informed.

If everyone followed your super career advice Xenia then you'd have no nurses, social workers and social services staff, teaching assistants and teachers, Community Support Officers and police admin staff, armed services personnel, physiotherapists, childminders, retail services staff, local government officers, librarians or nursery nurses. For starters.
All of these occupations pay poorly by your own exalted standards and yet people go into them, plenty of us with postgraduate degrees and other high-level qualifications, because we want to put something back into society, not because we want to be able to afford to have a little gel in to put up our Christmas tree for us. and if you honestly think that the staff you interact with when you go private at every possible chance are paid much better than in the state sector then you really are losing your grip in reality. Care Assistants in BUPA hospitals are still paid rubbish wages.
Some of us (not me as it happens) are feckless enough to then go on to give birth to one or more children whose needs are not met by the state sector. We are discussing choice on here - some of us have made positive choices not to go into the corporate sector and a lot of your posts lately remind me how lucky I am not to have to socialise with people with your attitude.

Ditto UCM.

fi we could all do a bit extra to afford these things - they wouldnt be such a bone of contention.

Marina, thank you - you have posted most eloquently for me - I had to restrain myself from a posting which would have been out of character for me - and probably swiftly deleted!
Both my curent jobs are among those you have listed and explain why I am so pitifully paid in monetary terms, but have great job satisfaction.

Marina, thank you - you have posted most eloquently for me - I had to restrain myself from a posting which would have been out of character for me - and probably swiftly deleted!
Both my curent jobs are among those you have listed and explain why I am so pitifully paid in monetary terms, but have great job satisfaction.

Ruth Kelly says: "It is not uncommon for pupils with substantial learning difficulties to spend some time outside the state sector to help them progress - sometimes this is paid for by the local authority."

Hmm - how often does the LA pick up the bill, and how often does it pick it all up, how many children are funded this way and how many parents have to go through tribunals and still fail to get what they need and get turned down.

this is a cop out

dinosaur,
they would have the money if we weren't at war you know, in two countries;
there is plenty of tax money, just as said before, not impetus to do it nor vote winner.

am afraid we live under government happy to murder children in iraq and afghanistan and not educate their own at home..

Marina but the way market forces work is that if they couldn't get people to be nurses then the wages would rise or we'd bring the nurses in from abroad which of course is what we do.
I don't have a child with special needs and it must be very hard if that is so. I do know occasionally people get the LEA to fund places at some residential/boarding schools but I think it's rare. Other parents can afford that but usually only those who would otherwise have paid school fees anyway.

jj, that sounds terribly hard indeed. I do know some nannies who look after children with special needs whilst parents work full time but obviously that depends on the child's needs and what is best for the family.

Do we know what the needs of Kelly's son are?

I think Ruth Kelly has a perfect right to send her child to the school of her choice, and I also think she has the right not to tell the world about her child's problems.
But I also think she should then either (a)announce that she is using her position in the party to campaign for every other parent to have that right or (b) resign

I said this on the other thread. Maybe Ruth Kelly wasn't aware how bad can schools and LEAs can be regarding SEN. No one knows until they experience it. People don't believe me when I say I have to fight for basic equipment (like a special ruler) or to even get a child with limited hand function an assessment for IT (that's the assessment, not the equipment)

Everyone I speak to just assume everything is provided and 1-2-1 comes automatically.

We do have educational choices, just unfortunately they are out of most peoples price range. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be available. In an ideal world, I would send my child/ren to a different fee paying school if I thought my child would thrive and do well.

I did look into it but realistically private is not good for a disabled child. If you go private you lose statements, and lea funding and accesss is not good. A child with a learning SEN like dyslexia would however, benefit from smaller classes and more structured schooldays.

And, yes, many famillies with a child with a disability or severe learning difficulties are living in very poor households due to the child needing more care but this should not be confused with a less severe special educational need (like dyslexia or dyspraxia) These would not stop a parent from working.

For a separate thread, but I do wish that people wouldn't lump Iraq and Afghanistan together indiscriminately like that. Quite different issues, the one thing in common is that both have been extremely badly handled.

Re "Maybe Ruth Kelly wasn't aware how bad can schools and LEAs can be regarding SEN".
But she was the Education Minister - it was her job to know!

My 10yo nephew is severely autistic and my DB managed to get him into a state run special school two years ago after he struggled so badly at a mainstream school. He has thrived since then and can now recognise his name. His parents are over the moon with his progress and cannot speak highly enough of the school. My brother, who is also autistic but not as bad as my nephew, also went to a special needs school because he could not function in mainsteam and that was a blessing for him (he is in his 40s now).

Are these schools inappropriate for dyslexic children and what sort of extra help do these childre need?

xenia - ruth kelly's son is dyslexic, but I don't know what they mean by 'complicated'.

Depends. Some parents take children out of private schools if they have needs which emerge later and the parents need more state help. Other parents who can afford it may even want a residential place in the private sector for a child they would oterhwise have had at the local comp.

Speedymama - Getting a place in a special school is very difficult. Ds1 is autistic, with delayed fine motor skills and a lot of sensory issues but has absolutely no chance of a place in a special school. I would've thought that getting a place in a special school for dyslexia would be almost impossible.

I don't know much about dyslexia but I was wondering if getting a private tutor for a few hours a week would help a child with this affliction?

Also, let's not forgot that Ms Kelly's other children do attend state school and she plans for her dyslexic son to attend state secondary school. She has not opted out of state education in favour of private which is how some in the meeja would like to slant the story.

I meant to say she has not completely opted out state education in favour of private.

I think the problem people have with this is that the Labour govt has been happily closing down special schools, using the argument that children with SN can get the help they need within mainstream schools. For an ex-Education minister to take their child out of a state mainstream school (albeit temporarily) and moving them to a private school because the child's needs aren't being met at the state school shows that this obviously isn't the case.

Personally I wouldn't care if she educated all of her children privately. The point is that the child was moved specifically because a mainstream state school couldn't give him the help his SN required.

i heard this just now. I am so angry about it.

We had a meeting with the child assesment service when my DS was 4.
we all sat around with all teh proffessionals (salt, OT, community pead etc) his teachers, the inculsions officer of the local LEA....there were about 20 of us in this room.

The community pead was going through her report and givng her guidance of how to best deal with Ds.
then someone asks about how well he can be expected to do at school if he progresses well.

the answer was "this is a child that will never fully thrive in a mainstream education"

Obviously that was a blow to the stomach for me but i took it as positivly as i could and asked "how do we go about getting him into a special school then?"

the man from teh LEA looked at me as if i were from another planet and answered "you can't, there is no special school provision for children like ds"

basicly the government have sepnt the last 15 years closing every single sn school they can find, and cutting teh funding for the ones who have been able to survive the cull.
there are now no places for children like my ds and despite childcare and medical proffessionals telling them that he will never fit in a mainstream school the government seem to think they know better.

so instead we have to struggle on in ms.he gets bullied, isolated, he falls further and further behind his peers and i become more and more frustrated at a system designed to fail.

The woman makes me sick. how dare she spend conferance after conferance telling us that inclusion is best and then go and find a nice expensive SN school for her own child.

speedymama - depends on the child, really. Dyslexia is an umbrealla term for a variety of learning difficulties, so 5 children with dylexia might have 5 rather different 'problems' - one might have reading difficulties, another might be ok at reading but have horrendous spelling problems etc etc.
One of the common problems is that learning by rote can be difficult and information seemingly taken in and retained can appear to have disappeared the next day. Private tuition can help with a dyslexic child's self-confidence, which IMO is worth doing.
But for many dyslexic children extra tuition is not helpful as having to spend all day coping and concentrating in a classroom with a load of instructions means their brains are 'fried' (as myu ds puts it ) and don't cope too well with having to do 'extra' work. And teachers can be very unsympathetic if the extra help is taken during school hours.

My brother is 11 and has quite severe dyslexia.
If assesed whilst giving orla answers to questions he is above his age but given his written responses he is assesed on the level of a 7 year old.

Yet he has been refused a statement. I bet RK's child got one within the bat of an eyelid.

My brother is 11 and has quite severe dyslexia.
If assesed whilst giving orla answers to questions he is above his age but given his written responses he is assesed on the level of a 7 year old.

Yet he has been refused a statement. I bet RK's child got one within the bat of an eyelid.

oops sorry