Scottish education needs to change, right now.

[Easypeelersareterrible]

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/scotsnet/5217850-scottish-teachers-can-i-do-anything-apart-from-go-off-sick

I’ve just read the above thread and it’s just so shocking. I’m not a teacher and therefore don’t want to derail the thread, but everyone in this situation is being catastrophically failed. The teacher, who can take no more, feels she’s been put in an impossible situation and has no choice but to leave. The child with SEN who sounds utterly distraught in mainstream schooling. The other pupils in the class who are only P1 and have to try to learn in an incredibly distressing situation. Imagine being only P1 and this being your only experience of school!

We need to open more special schools and pupil referral units. Mainstream schooling needs to be for those who want to learn and are capable of learning. By putting children with unmet SEN or disruptive pupils into mainstream schooling we are not meeting their need while at the same time destroying the education and mental health of those willing and able to learn. ‘Inclusion at all costs’ is failing Scotland.

Why can’t politicians see this, and take the decision that desperately need to be taken?

*Brain is frazzled and I did not write that correctly!

https://www.gov.scot/publications/statutory-guidance-part-2-uncrc-incorporation-scotland-act-2024/pages/4/

After further investigation it seems a child/ family can go to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman and then onto court if need be.

SPSO is pretty toothless. The last person I know who went to them waited nine months then was told their LA was being asked to have another go at answering their complaint. And that was that.

So the whole ‘exemption for ASN children’ thing is totally meaningless, as councils can recover any VAT they incur in the course of their duties directly from HMRC. Doesn’t surprise me. Lip service being paid to ASN parents yet again.

Yes that is all they mean by ‘exempt’: that councils can recoup VAT they have paid to independent schools the same way they can reclaim VAT for eg outsourced printing. But it unfairly discriminates against Scottish children with ASN who do not have the same options as English children with SEN to access mainstream independent schools or independent online schools.

Absolutely - add in a lack of diversity of state options in Scotland. But hey, they got £29m in the budget yesterday, that’ll resolve this enormous crisis…too bad we’re not green energy or something sexier!

The state sector is a complete and utter lost cause until specialist schools and pupil referral units are reopened. That is the only thing that will salvage it now. I mean CfE has to be binned as a failed experiment too, but until the classroom environment is a place where people can learn what hope to we have?

CfE is utter shite that thousands of experienced teachers knew it would be but as usual we weren't listened to, just made to get on with it and expected to improve results.

Remember the ridiculous named person scheme - loads of money wasted on training for something that teachers didn't want - thank goodness it bit the dust.

Ministers need to listen to those at the chalkface before implementing more nonsensical ideas that will push Scottish education further down the toilet.

I don't think that this can be just a funding issue.

Isn't Scottish education funded above English education due to the Barnett Formula? And Scottish teacher pay scales are above English ones.

What seems to happen in English schools these days is students are sent to alternative provision or swapped with other schools in the chain, before an attempt at reintegration or a managed move. Exclusion can still happen but an alternative must be found first. Students are certainly not just left in the environments where the challenging behaviour happened.

Probably much easier with higher population density though.

Politicians ignoring problems is a lot worse than funding issues, bad as the latter are.

Disclaimer: I haven't experienced the Scottish system, just know a little about funding.

It was experienced teachers who cushioned the landing of the introduction of CfE. Now those teachers are retiring and we have new teachers who were taught under it themselves, just trained with it and have none of the experience of teaching a proper curriculum to rely on.

Finland was for years held up as a shining example of progressive education. Except they had the same thing there and as the impact of their previous system and ethos has lessened, their results have dropped too.

One difference in England is their curriculum is much more knowledged based so the have the knowledge to apply the skills rather than the CfE which tries to teach skills in the absence of knowledge.

There are no chains like academies in Scotland. Schools are run by the local councils.
There are 3 primary schools in our town. It was quite common for a child to be offered a fresh start at ours after being at the other primary. Then when they proved to have issues at ours the only other choice was the RC school but amazingly every time we asked for a fresh start they "had to keep places for any RC children who might move into the area" so we were stuck with them.
Strangely they always managed to magic up a place for a child without behaviour issues.

Not sure the academies in England are a great idea either though.

Definitely not. OH worked in one and said it was a complete dictatorship and a nightmare to work in yet got outstanding from OFSTED.

Ah, but we were "consulted".

In our LA, it consisted of our PTs telling the EOs why it wouldn't work. The EOs sent in their report. The powers that be ignored it.

@WearyAuldWumman same old, same old. So glad I'm out of it now

Same here.

No I don’t think it’s solely about funding either - it’s the ‘we can cater to nearly all needs in one setting and save money doing it’ ethos. Yes, easier to have diverse schooling options in densely populated areas. Sadly, in Scotland, a lot of diversity comes from the private sector.

There was also that big qualification review that seem to not actually look at the qualifications.

ifs.org.uk/news/growing-gap-school-spending-pupil-between-scotland-and-rest-uk

Scotland spends around 18% more per pupil than the rest of the UK.

I suppose that's partly population density though.

Just the name of the qualification authority. You can imagine the brainstorming session now, can’t you! Except the Scottish government won’t have come up with it themselves, they’d have paid £5m to some consultancy to do it for them.

yes from the IFS report:

’However, spending per pupil in Scotland has been higher than in the rest of the UK for a long period and educational outcomes have continued to disappoint over the last decade.’

so we have higher teacher pay, higher funding - certainly points to other issues at play.

CfE is famed for failing to teach any knowledge. Just skills. But without the knowledge based that goes with the skills, the skills are useless. But they’re not going to admit a failing so we’ll be stuck with it for years.