Governments segregation of Sen children

[Crazyhousewife23]

I’m really annoyed with the government and the attendance targets they push and the lack of specialist school places. She started in September and are under an ehcp. My child is regularly sent home after only an hour of being in if she has a meltdown and they have now informed me I need an attendance meeting due to how much time at school she is missing but they are sending her home. She is not working or being educated. She is in a room with a couple of teaching assistants and about 10 children painting, playing and listening to music. She is supposed to be learning to read and write and is already behind with her development (non verbal), I’m honestly debating about pulling her out and home educating but I’ve another child who is older to home educate so I’m worried I won’t be able to do both. I just feel she is being so let down because she isn’t learning and I understand this isn’t the schools fault as she should be in a specialist school but the local authority are saying she is fine in mainstream school despite the school saying she needs a specialist school. What’s really sad is how many children are in the same group as her in the same position and the fact that the school have had to set up these rooms in the first place (only one in the area to do so). Is this what has become of the country since labour. Let’s segregate these children, decrease the small amount of funding they get and make it impossible to keep them in school but push people away from home education. My eldest child is also Sen hence why we are home educating already( failed for over a decade by the education system, la etc).

I totally agree.
I am a teacher with a really high need class this year (teaching 25 years and I’ve never had such high percentages of really high need children). These children are non verbal and can’t access most of the lessons I teach (phonics, maths, literacy). Some join in things like music. I struggle daily as I have one teaching assistant to cope with these children and the rest of the class (some of these children also need extra help sometimes). At times it feels as if no one is getting the help they really need. I’m not skilled in teaching nonverbal children to read, I do t have the resources the children need like small trampolines and spinning chairs, my ta is wonderful but only paid just over the minimum wage and is doing the job of a highly skilled SEN teacher but with less pay, less training, no resources and probably more children in a group than she would in a SEN unit. Senior managers and parents know but as the chidlrne are ‘happy’ and there’s no money nothing is done.
I really feel for these children and c an only apologise for the system. When I first started teaching it was true inclusion where children with additional needs had a TA to help them and children with more complex needs would be in a small unit attached to a mainstream class where they would be taught by specialists and then go into the class with support when possible. Children with more complex needs would be in a SEN school. Now it’s just join a mainstream class an hope for the best!

If you want SS, did you appeal when you last had the right of appeal?

Have you requested an early review of DD’s EHCP?

When the school is sending DD home, are they formally suspending her or are they unlawful informal exclusions? Check what the absences are being recorded as.

When was/is DD 5?

Personally, I wouldn’t deregister and EHE. I would pursue further support via the EHCP. You may have to appeal, but an EHCP can fund far more than the vast majority of parents can afford to fund themselves.

This isn’t just a Labour problem. The SEN system was an utter mess well before Labour came to power last year.