Petition Re inclusive education

[HMSfaSENd]

Am not sure if this link will work.... But here goes!

www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/lord-nash-department-for-education-government-must-put-back-all-the-guidance-on-inclusive-education-in-the-special-educational-needs-code-of-practice-so-schools-and-college-can-be-better-at-including-disabled-children-and-young-people?share_id=UUQxDdHfmD

www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/lord-nash-department-for-education-government-must-put-back-all-the-guidance-on-inclusive-education-in-the-special-educational-needs-code-of-practice-so-schools-and-college-can-be-better-at-including-disabled-children-and-young-people?share_id=UUQxDdHfmD

Off to have a read, now.

Thanks Ellen I am hopeless at these links!

Signed

I must admit, that while I believe in MS offering a properly resourced and inclusive education for those with SN, I don't want that to be at the expense of special schools. Some DC truly can't cope in MS and the good role models, the access to MS curriculum and facilities and the benefits to the MS DC to have disability 'normalised' don't always make up for the anxiety and distress of a DC with SN who is in the wrong school.

My own DS is in MS, but I find myself firmly on the fence with this.

I am on the fence too ellen having seen both sides of this. I have worked in a seriously under resourced setting trying to include children without proper training and with some staff who seriously lack knowledge, empathy and the willingness to learn.

Now I have a Dd who is struggling in MS but there are no specialist settings that will either take her or meet her needs academically. So she is to stay in MS for secondary and our only catchment school has 1300 children in it !!

I am not saying she hasnt had benefits from being in mainstream but it is very hard to force people to understand how difficult it is for some children to fit the box!

I signed it because I am worried about DCs not having the opportunity to access MS in the future. Our LA has form for lumping together all children with SN and sending them to local LA special schools that don't particularly meet the needs of those children ( and in many cases don't allow them to meet their potential because they are not perceived as children who can achieve).

I get where you are coming from but if the choice is removed from parents then that cannot be right, the changes potentially undermine our children's right to a mainstream education. What next? Where does enforced segregation end.

These are backward steps eroding the hard fought rights of our children.

Zen I have experienced the lumping together too. In our LA it isn't just lumping together in special schools, they are now lumping children together and sending them off to mainstream independent schools rather than promote inclusion in their own communities. This way I suspect they actually save money because they don't have to make provision in smaller schools and can share TA time amongst the children, the cost is therefore the child's right to be educated locally and reasonable adjustments don't need to be made in smaller schools. Small rural schools I suspect will welcome this!

In my LA, about 10 years ago, all the special schools, except for the one which dealt with very severe SN, were put under threat of closure to fund the inclusion policy. Virtually all DC with SN were to be included in MS whether appropriate or not. It took a change in local government to 'save' the SSs. There would have been no choice but MS. I think there has to be a middle way.

Signed - really important legal right, even if not everyone uses it

Ellen I agree it shouldn't be one or the other, I worry that a bias against local mainstream inclusion is on the increase, why should a child in a rural area have to go to a school miles away from where they live? We must retain the right to choose though also the right to ask for a special school place where that is appropriate. My child initially had a dual placement, the LA wanted him excluded from mainstream education from the age of two. He went to an "outstanding special school" which did not meet his needs but saved the LA a bit of cash.

I am not anti special schools, I just feel the choice should not be lost.

I don't think all of Inclusive Schooling has gone, or is this more recent than the autumn code? I'm a bit 'meh' about it - I know more parents wanting specialist than mainstream but maybe that's my friends! The code does put mainstream as a basic default I thought?

Wish I knew how to link things properly, anyone have access to the BBC democracy link?

www.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/house-of-lords-25422373

Thanks. Now I'm really confused after the link - I thought without a plan children went to mainstream schools?

I think if LAs have their way children go where it is cheapest, if they have provision in their statements they must go where that provision benefits the biggest number, in my child's case that means he must travel longer than the recommended journey times and is so tired by the end of the week he can hardly function. It a crap, he has a right to a childhood and part of that is to go to school locally and have friends in his community.

I should add that of course I will be challenging the current situation at the next annual robbery review

I can't sign this, sorry. I think we need more special schools, not less.

I am also offended by this line:

"WE KNOW INCLUSION WORKS, enabling thousands of disabled children to access a mainstream education where they can learn, make friends and feel they belong in their local communities – something which is impossible in even the best resourced special schools."

The day my DD1 (8) started her special school was the day she made friends. Her latest worry, is that she doesn't want to be 12, because when she's 12 she'll have to go to another school and her best friend will only be 11, so he won't come too.

She has friends at Special School -children who see her for who she is. As an equal. As an 8 year old. Not someone to pity. Not someone to be 'kind' to.

I've never seen a petition yet where I wished there was an opportunity to sign 'against'. Now I have

Sorry Lougle I certainly didn't mean to post a link that would offend anyone on here. I am glad your child's special school works for her. I think there will always be a need for choice and that is what I personally don't want to lose, I worry that segregation will become the only choice.
Thank you for sharing that you were offended it helps to see both sides.

I am being really dim here but I haven't understood what the petition is for. Sorry, it's definitely me, long day alone with children.
Is it that you want all of Inclusive Schooling added to the new sencop?
Is it that the new sencop suggests children with sen and no plan should go to special schools (in the link baroness low seems to be saying this)
Is it that the new sencop doesn't seem strong enough on the right to mainstream?

Lougle I have asked for the thread to be removed. I would hate to cause offence and this has made me realise how different views can cause discomfort if the wording isn't right. I will try to be much more careful in future.

Lougle I haven't looked at the petition first day back chaos but I want to back you again about sp sch .as I have endlessly said I turned down a mainstream place for dd2 for a sp sch and truly it has been one of the best decisions I have ever made