Cameron confronted about special schools inclusion policy

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I can't help but feel that the heckler was being pretty unreasonable, though I understand completely why he is angry. Cameron tried to answer his questions but he just didn't listen. I feel quite sorry for both of them.

news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/David-Cameron-Is-Confronted-By-A-Parent-Who-Struggled-To-Get-Chil d-Into-Mainstream-School/Article/201004415620837?lpos=PoliticsFirstHomeArticleTeaserRegion1&li d=ARTICLE15620837DavidCameronIsConfrontedByAParentWhoStruggledToGetChildIntoMainstrea mSchool

I agree Fio, luckily we have a great SN school a few miles from us (which we are trying to get dd2 into) but i know many children that either have to struggle in MS or they have the long journey each morning getting to a SN school.

both mainstream and specialist provision need to exist so parents can decide what's best for their child.

My dd certainly would not benefit from being left with a carer / ta to teach in mainstream. Don't see how that's the best place for her needs at all. However, can also see the position of this father -cos if her needs were purely physical then I guess I'd want schools to be accessible and have that choice

I agree with Fio.

DS is now at a fantastic sn school. but when we lived in surrey i was told he was a child that would never thrive in a MS environment. i was upset and asked where and how we went about getting him into a SN school. the asnwer was simple. you can't because there aren't any.

Labour decided that inclusion was the cheapest option so that was what they tried to force upon us.

If it really is the case that it is now easier for a child to get a place in a SN school rather than just being told to go straight into MS then good.

School is not there as a form of childcare. the idea is to educate. why is it that a child with SN's education is deemed anything less as importnant as their NT counterparts.

Actually Fio I am a bit too - confused as to how his reversing the push to mainstream is being portrayed everywhere as a push to special schools.
Not the same thing at all

Well I think he was entirely reasonable. I have read that excepert from the Tory manifesto and thought the same myself. If it wasn't for a certain amount of bias towards mainstreaming, children like my dd2, who isn't just 'a bit behind' and has very little speech , would probably be strongly encouraged to go for special schooling/discouraged from going for mainstream, due to the cost implications.

Dd2 has a full-time TA, is due to get a swanky communication aid costing £6K, and is generally probably quite costly to keep in mainstream. I fear that her future there - she is currently in year 4 and I have always planned on her moving on to a mainstream secondary school - would be in real jeopardy under a Tory government. She is well-behaved and undemanding and could certainly be 'contained' well in a special school setting at a fraction of the cost. Maybe she'd even get to 'go out into the community' occasionally instead of being part of it as she is now .

Ditto
DS2 has gained extraordinary skills because he is in a safe suitable enviroment where his needs are met and he is able to flourish.
His school is truly fantasic. I am incredibly lucky and grateful thathe got a place. many of his friends didn't.

(I should add that I do have experience of special schooling - dd2 attended a special school nursery and it was cr@p. Her years there were wasted and unhappy. The school wanted to keep her on for reception and were extremely hostile and uncooperative when I decided to move her to mainstream.)

aw Fio I am sorry - that's just how it is here and I appreciate that it may well be different elsewhere. Dd2 really was just contained and not educated, and so were my friends' children there (all of whom have moved their kids elsewhere now - mostly to out of county special schools for children with ASD).
And they do call trips 'going into the community' .

My one friend who still has a child at that particular school (moving on this year though) said it was the worst mistake she's ever made and that the school has instituionalised him. Dd2 would be going there over my dead body.

My son is not "contained" in a special school - and actually your suggestion that special schools are holding factories or intended to lkead to residential care is fucking insensitive and offensive.

I chose my sons special school - not because I couldn't be arsed to work for a mainstream place but because it would have been appalling for him.
He recives an education which is able to support him and push him in the areas that he does well in but help him cope withthose areas which are a struggle.

I will not charicature some of the mainstream experiences I have witnessed becauseb I know that for many children mainstram is their best and optimum situation.

My sons school takes children who are very bright but who cannot access the ciriculem in the same was as an average student. They may not leave with GCSE but they will recieve an education which challenges, stimulates and supports them.
A lack of GCSEs does not negate the value of the experience.
It would be nice if parents using mainstream would not charicature special schools as undemanding dumping houses.

And my spelling has gone to shit ...

Here is what Bartley has written in the Grauniad

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/apr/28/jonathan-bartley-david-cameron-special-needs-schooling

I am really sorry for upsetting you and Fio. Our special school fecking awful though. I don't know a single person who is happy with it - out of the 10 or so parents of children who have gone there/are there.

10 or parents of my acquaintance I should add, sorry

my experience of inclusion is that the child rarely gets the support they need and are entitled to. I am a teacher who, twice during my teaching career, felt like I was letting down children in my class who were simply not allowed the funding to give them the support they needed. I did my best but it was not enough

Surely the point is that inclusion is good for some children and sn schools good for others and that the choice should be there for the parents and the child to make?

A crap school is a crap school, SN or mainstream. I wouldn't dismiss the whole concept of schooling due to one bad experience.