Any other Scottish teachers sad and disappointed this week?

[tiredtiredteacher]

Year 15 in teaching and it's just getting too much.

The ASN failures are what are really getting to me. I am personally failing the most vulnerable children and there is no alternative. What can I do with a non verbal incontinent child while I'm trying to teach 24 others to read? Then there's the most aggressive, violent six year old I've ever encountered, who desperately needs psychiatric help but apparently only needs a play based curriculum- don't even get me started on freeflow.

What is it going to take? A child to die running away from school? A child to die being attacked in school?

I love my job but it is killing me.

Also the severely disabled like my ds1 would not even have gone to an LA school at all in the 80s it would have been a joint Social Work/Education place in a residential setting - but all closed down rather than modernised, then the severely disabled went into the the LA special schools and those in the LA special schools were moved to mainstream - I don't think there is an increase in real terms, it's just different ways of packaging it. There was one autistic boy at my younger son's mainstream - he was mild by the standards of my older son but very severe by the standards of mainstream. There is no generally accepted definition of what 'severe' and 'miild' even mean, it's all relative to what you are comparing to. The autistic boy 'attending' mainstream was hardly ever there as he was a reduced timetable and his mum had to be his 1-1 . But at my older son's school he would have been the star of the show, lightyears ahead of the others

My ASD child would have coped fine if there was just more discipline and calmness. When kids are constantly shouting, pushing, shoving, throwing things, both in class and outwith it was just overwhelming. There are special schools and if I had enough energy I could have fought to get them into one but like so many ASD kids my child excels academically and a lot of special schools don’t cater for that as well.

In England children like yours can be funded by councils to attend mainstream independent schools. That is not an option in Scotland.

The term ‘additional support needs’ covers a very wide range of needs including bereavement, drug dependency, young carers. One of the biggest reasons for ASN is English as an Additional Language. This has meant the category has really become too broad to be useful.

Yes bereavement is a serious issue but pointless to bundle it in with severe disability. There was a Scottish Politician who said that he believed all Scottish children have Additional Needs - this kind of romantic self righteous 'include everyone' thinking has made the whole system unworkable

No it doesn't.

I'm an ASN teacher. Other issues will be recorded but being a carer does not equal additional support needs. EAL and ASN are also separate.

So we're seriously saying the 40 percent of ASN doesn't include EAL etc?

The problem partly is the reporting, no idea what constitutes ASN according to this.

www.alliance-scotland.org.uk/blog/news/joint-media-statement-additional-support-needs-in-scotlands-schools/

Sorry - link would help!

You are wrong, which is worrying if you work in ASN:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/supporting-childrens-learning-statutory-guidance-education-additional-support-learning-scotland/pages/2/

1. The Act provides the legal framework for supporting children and young people in their school education, and their families. This framework is based on the idea of additional support needs. This broad and inclusive term applies to children or young people who, for whatever reason, require additional support, in the long or short term, in order to help them make the most of their school education and to be included fully in their learning. Children or young people may require additional support for a variety of reasons and may include those who:

• have motor or sensory impairments
• have low birth weight
• are being bullied
• are children of parents in the Armed Forces
• are particularly able or talented [15]
• have experienced a bereavement
• are affected by imprisonment of a family member
• are interrupted learners
• have a learning disability
• have barriers to learning as a result of a health need, such as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
• are looked after by a local authority [16] or who have been adopted
• have a learning difficulty, such as dyslexia
• are living with parents who are abusing substances
• are living with parents who have mental health problems
• have English as an additional language
• are not attending school regularly
• have emotional or social difficulties
• are on the child protection register
• are refugees
• are young carers

Numbers (2023):

Possibly depends on council- ours definitely includes EAL under the ASN umbrella.

There are also so many babies being born premature and ill who survive now but survive with very complex needs. We need so many new units and special schools which cater to wheelchair users, behavioural issues, autism etc.

I have seen a pupil holding a Hat against the wall by her throat - no exclusion.
I have seen a support worker tackled to the ground, the child sit on her chest and repeatedly bag her head in the floor causing so much physical damage and trauma that she never returned to work - no exclusion.
I have been physically assaulted several times, repeatedly verbally assaulted, had threats made to me etc - nothing is done.
Last time I was I was told to F off and called a “fat c*nt” it was suggested I give the child a colouring in sheet instead of asking them to do class work. (Child has no SEN diagnosis and is just violent when he doesn’t get his way). The children in the class are terrified of him. We have had several parents pull their children out of school stating his behaviour as the reason.
The whole system is screwed!

Child has no SEN diagnosis and is just violent when he doesn’t get his way

A child who is violent when they don’t get their way has ASN. Thry do not need a diagnosis to be entitled to support though many children with SEBD are undiagnosed - this is particularly the case in deprived areas. But inappropriate/violent response to challenge is an ASN regardless of diagnosis. However, simply not excluding children and leaving them in mainstream is not ‘support’. There is a need for need specialist intervention in specialist centres which no longer exist (and probably several years earlier in their education). As it is, their behaviour will continue into adulthood and they will end up in prison - but not until 25 because despite the SNP thinking you are old enough to be married, vote, ‘change gender’ including consenting to a range of destructive medical interventions at 16, they don’t think you should be held fully accountable for your crimes until 25. And by then you will be teaching their offspring…

why on earth didn’t you move him?