Mail from SOS!SEN- Green Paper

[SanctiMoanyArse]

Hi

True to form the Green Paper is announced just as schools break up.It is expected to be published in the Autumn and should provide for more consultation. So the merry-go-round starts up again!
Will they never learn?

You will be interested to learn that, according to some newspapers it is announced "amid concerns that the diagnosis may be being overused to explain simple bad behaviour - or even in order to get more money for schools." This kind of nonsense has ellicited contributions from ill informed or ill intentioned journalists all wanting to get on the "badly behaved kids" bandwagon. One journalistic gem from someone called Francis Gilbert is headed "Special needs is a fad that harms children". So now we know - parents are making a fuss about nothing and we can trust the intellectual likes of FG to save the country millions and leave the kids unhelped.An orchestrated campaign to discredit and cut funding for SEN is likely to spread - so beware.

We cannot let this level of bias, ignorance, and stupidity go unchallenged and need to get our views across to the Minister, Sarah Teather as soon as the opportunity arises. If she were to receive evidence from all parents individually it would be an impressive load.

We have written to our MP for Twickenham, Vince Cable asking him to try and get us a meeting with S.T. as early as possible. We strongly urge all parents to send in to the Minister at the Dept. of Education their concerns and particularly to refute this dangerous nonsense that is being peddled at a time when politiicans are seeking to make cuts anywhere they can make them. We have other ideas for campaigning since the Lamb Inquiry was a very limited one with a fair bit of cherry picking. Watch our website from beginning of September.

Meanwhile the easiest way to check on the Green Paper announcement is to Google Sarah Teather MP and then follow up the refs to Green Paper. There is also http/www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/rosa-prince

Marion Strudwick

--
SOS!Special Educational Needs Registered Charity 1112475
35 Staines Rd, Twickenham TW2 5BG
tel: 020 8538 3731 fax: 020 8255 7657
website

We all need to be vigilant about the Green Paper and make sure that our views are heard when it is published.

Have a look here www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7904999/Sharp-rise-in-number-of-special-needs-pupils.htm l

And here www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article7144811.ece

Yes, as I said on my other thread, "I am beginning to wonder if I am just paranoid, or if The System really is out to get special needs children!"

(It all comes down to cost. SN children COST! And in this "age of austerity" nobody, least of all Local Authorities and PCTs want to foot the bill)

The Lamb Report changed nothing, as evidenced by all the Tribunal goers on here...

I live in fear of what will happen next to the Special Educational Needs system, particularly if the Academies Bill goes through.

I really don't expect that the Green Paper will be good news for children with SEN, although I really do hope that I am proved wrong....

More letters to my MP!!

Well, of course I have "dogged determination" my child's future is at stake for FFS!

And as to having a legalistic frame of mind...I didn't have one when I started out but I certainly have a legalistic frame of mind now...due to the attitude of the LEA who pushed me to Tribunal and mostly learnt from my fellow Tribunal goers on MN!

Dunno... Sanctimoanyarse must have connections!

Lets campaign for mumsnet to get her on for a SN only webchat - afterall she'll be twiddling her thumbs all summer

I think you get the email if you have ever phoned their helpline -- it's just appeared in my inbox.

And in other news a leak from the DoE suggesting the schools code of admissions could go 'to streamline education bureaucracy'. It's all go, isn't it?

Mine too.

Have called their helpline a few times but only the last time did someone ask me for my email address and then I started getting emails from them.

Connections? I wish I ahd connections with the bloody sleep fairy, got a 3 hour drive at 5 am

Am trying to stoop myself panicking until I know whats happening. DS3 is safeush I reckon in his SNU but ds1 well! It's an ASD dx and a pretty dolid pone but his statement is behavioral; he;d kills someone without his 1-1 that ahs just been upped though.

Philipa Stobbs, a senior Government adviser and expert on special needs, said children were being ?over-labelled? when they might simply be falling behind in school.

Would love to know just how much rl experiance she has

Earlier this year, Philipa Stobbs, a senior Government adviser and expert on special needs, said children were being ?over-labelled? when they might simply be falling behind in school.

She went on: ?I don?t think it?s very helpful to infer that children behind in their learning have SEN.

?They are only working below the standards they should be achieving.

?Teachers need to sidestep the label and look at children?s progress in a more responsible way, using their age and prior attainment.?

worrys me becuase ds is cognitvley able as long as he is taught in way that works for him oh and right equipment .So basically seems she is saying oh dont worry if he fails becuase he would never attain anyway ffs he can

I see Marion Strudwick's warning that there would probably be a concerted campaign to discredit SEN and cut finding is coming true....SHAME on those journalists and those senior people in government that are trying to ruin our children's future. No doubt their children are in private education so they don't care.