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.

xenia wouldn't leave her bed for £100k

she thinks we should all bring our kids up (well the nannies can bring them up) to earn at least double that if they want any chance of happiness

I know. In fact the average wage is £20k but some people do take on second jobs, build up businesses and make a lot of money. It seems to be not just brains that lets you do that but inclination, hard work - old saying harder I work the luckier I get etc. It's certainly worth people without much money trying to think of ways they could make their lives easier by earning more though surely?

total hijack but just have to say - Xenia i have a huge amount of respect for someone who seems to get a constant bashing and yet still comesand joins in these threads.

It is unfair that people berate you for being sucessfull. I have missed many of your more contravercial posts but your opinion is your opinion...you shouldn't have your lifestyle thrown in your face every time you say something people do not agree with.

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anyway, back to the discussion.

Most people who have had a lower than desirable educational standar but then go on to be sucessful are usually those who have traded on what they do know. they may not be academically able but they are wise and street smart. Not all intelligance can be graded by GCSE's

dh could have left the RAF and doubled his salary....but he chose to stay because he loved the work and valued the people he worked with.

I could earn more, but love my job. There is more to life than pots of money (but being strapped for cash is crap IYSWIM)

And looking after a SN child is hard work that leaves very little time for one job, let alone 2.

I don't think xenia is successful

depends how you define success

I think it is very sad if we have to encourage our children to go into a certain career in order to earn enough that they can pay for their prospective children to go to public school merely because the state schools don't provide an appropriate education!
Surely it would be better to make solid, positive changes so that every child can have the free and appropriate education that they are entitled to?
And those who want to pay for private schools are free to do so, but it should not be because they feel they have no option because the state school option is so horrific.
We have looked into private schools in our area, and their provision for dyslexic children is little better than that at the state school my children were in.
And the class sizes were similar.
So what would be the point?

I'm sure my first sentence would have been grateful for a spot of punctuation there!

Not read this thread but when I first heard the story I just thought that any sensible education minister would very quickly realise that we need very good special schools in this country and we should not be shutting them all down and banging on relentlessly about the wonders of inclusion.

absolutly HC.

I think we are all debating the wrong thing. we shoudln't HAVE to find £15k to pay for our childs education.

My son is just a valid memeber of society as every other child, his educatin should be just as important.

Snowfun - as i say i have missed amny of Zenia's threads but fro what i gather she has 6(?) ids and earns £100k a year.

i would say that, financially at leat she is succesfull in her job.

It is unfair to keep throwing her life choices at her in every thread simply because she has taken a different path to many of us.

no more hijack's i promise.

While I do respect Xenia's right to an opinion - and I also admire the way she hangs on in there - I resent her seeming lack of empathy for anyone else's existence. It really does seem to be a case of 'My Way or the Highway' and that those of us who do not follow her life path are somehow flawed as people.
It's not about intellect, intelligence, qualifications or even hard work, in my opinion (and life experience) some people just do not have the 'personality' or skills to be corporate heads, fat cats or mulitmillionaire entrepeneurs. That doesn't make us lesser people though.

Sorry, shall we get back to Ruth Kelly?

From the Labour '97 Manifesto "New Labour believes in a society where we do not simply pursue our own individual aims but where we hold many aims in common and work together to achieve them. How we build the industry and employment opportunities of the future; how we tackle the division and inequality in our society; how we care for and enhance our environment and quality of life; how we develop modern education and health services;"

Ruth Kelly has chosen to pursue her individual aim. She was elected on the basis that she shares & promotes Labour Party beliefs. So when she chooses private education, people have every right to be angry.

Also from the manifesto - if you're interested;
In education, we reject both the idea of a return to the 11-plus and the monolithic comprehensive schools that take no account of children's differing abilities.We support the greatest possible integration into mainstream education of pupils with special educational needs, while recognizing that specialist facilities are essential to meet particular needs.

We have now had a Labour government for 10 years. Long enough to have seen more change I think. (And doing a deal whereby Microsoft got every school, library, college etc in an ongoing financial headlock is a typically shabby way to have provided IT).

Sorry - lack of italics on the manifesto para's there. But I'm sure you can see which is me quoting and which is me ranting!

Mulling it over I think that I'm with coppertop. If you are advertising that state schools should be at least a viable option for all children (and hopefully we're actually aiming at them being a good or even best option) then I think that RK does need to give more of an explanation. It isn't clear as to whether the LEA considers that its provision was adequate for RK's shild - if it isn't then that should have been addressed as well as or even before RK flew off to the private sector.

Personally I'm very grateful to have the private option, and have no moral issues about using it. But I don't pretend that I think that many of the state sector schools are good enough yet. RK would argue otherwise and therefore should have to stand by her convictions.

Sorry filthymindedvixen before we get back to Ruth Kelly can I add to "personality, skills" or inclination. I work in the not for profit sector through choice after a number of years working in the city. I enjoy doing something which is imho socially useful and does not have the same high count of to*** as the city law firm I worked in. Xenia when you come across these "little" people who have positively chosen to work in jobs which do not pay lots of ££, do you manage to conceal your feelings towards them?

I really hope you never need to use the NHS A&E or intensive care, police, hospice or other vital public services where most employees' earnings fall short of £100,000 pa.

p.s. most of the £100k jobs you describe will be off shored before long.

My thought when I heard about RK was that if she, in her position in life, can't get the appropriate help for her child from school, god help the rest of us.

My parents suggested that I did something I enjoyed (so I did pre-kids). So I'll suggest the same to my children. My bf from college is very wealthy (Xenia league- maybe more) but she's no happier than me.

Incidentally my son attends an SLD/PMLD school- there are 6 in his class, with 6 members of staff (its not 1:1 all the time though, some are part time). Some of the children in the school require nursing care. A place in the school costs the LEA £15 000 a year. So adequate provision for dyslexia could be presumably be provided for very much less.

my child doesn't have sen and indeed isn't of school age yet. i do live in east london but that is the end of my opinion qualification...

i have tried to think of this dispassionately, as imo ruth kelly has no redeeming features and is a repellent person. but i just can't get past how scornful this is, way beyond hypocrisy. if state ed isn't good enough for her child's needs how can she possibly support a regime which says it is??

David Cameron supports her though in her right to make the choice of what is best for her child. Of course he does - his party being in favour of "choosing" education with your fat salary. Not much of a choice for most people then!

I wonder how many other Labour politician's children, SEN or not, attend state schools?

How many of the ones with special needs do?

If the ex-boss of education is running from the system she presided over, then indeed it is a damning decision.

She may be doing what is 'best' for her child.
It is not best for the morale of all the parents of children with special needs in the education system we all pay for with our taxes.

It is a disgrace!!! Rant over.......

I have to say I am quite surprised how vastly David cameron is missing the point.

If I had the funds, we know exactly which school DS's would attend- a Quaker school near home.

And that's OK, because I haev not built a career (one successful enough to enable me to pay £15K for a school place) on my belief in socialism (albeit very watered down new labour) or my skills in running a state education system that caters for all.

(And re the jobs debate- for every fat cat there has to be a number of lower paid staff who run / manpower the organisation at various levels- every Cpuncil leader needs poeple to run offices, process payments, clean rods, build roads etc etc etc). A top heavy society just cannot function.

If everyone has a degree, the it will become increasingly common for degree holders to have jobs they are (theoretically) over qualified for.

So there can never be a socirty wher most peolpe can pay for private education (At the prices here- some European countries differ vastly I believe).

As such, Education Ministers have a responsibility to rpovide decent (not merely adequate) education for all children, irrespective of whether they ahev SN, low income backgrounds

Do you think private schooling could help someone develop their EQ? I'd settle for a bit of empathy enhancement. Dyslexia and SN in general are two of the few reason I would pay for education but if the school her kid was good enough for her neighbours kids with SN why is it not good enough for dear Ruth?

Odious womann well I hope she confesses that and has a good old go with the self flagellation. How many stroke do you reckon that sin is worth????

I am not going to generalise about private school students but a private education at taunton certainly did nothing for the EQ of my XP, or the Dh of my sister!. Quite the reverse I suspect.