Friday 18 April 2014

P is for Provision, Policy, Practice and Parents


In the UK, major changes are under way in the provision of special needs education.  Due out in September there should be a new Code of Practice that will govern how schools will provide and educate children with special needs. It proposes that schools must teach students of all abilities in a mainstream setting by personalising and carefully structuring lessons.  Teachers will become responsible for all of the children in their class and must provide the required differentiation to allow them to succeed. They should regularly assess and develop students' progress and will be held accountable for this.

Various articles and the comments on them show the polarisation that is now taking place between those in government and those in the actual teaching community.  The way forward appears to be a top down approach with reductions in funding, an insistence on teachers doing more and disparaging remarks about the quality of support assistants working with children with special needs.  Parents are given the false hope that all will be much better but are also slated for wanting more individualised support for their child.

I feel as if I am swirling around about to go down the plughole.  I care passionately, I work with support staff who also care, I listen and try to encourage parents to fight for what their child needs and all I can see is a wide chasm opening up where these children are going to lose out because they are not allowed the education they deserve due to lack of funding and unrealistic expectations placed on the shoulders of their class teachers and parents given false hope that things will be better.

I recently attended a local authority conference about the proposed changes and me being me raised the question of just how many parents had been informed about the changes proposed because in my school no parent was aware until I told them.  If looks could have killed I think I might have been dead!

Please let me know your views on our changing educational systems wherever you are in the world.  What government legislation is making a positive difference?  Are you struggling with financial issues in implementing educational changes?  Let’s share good practice and please forgive my moanings.


TpT resource P is for Pempi’s Palace – please visit my store and hopefully find something you can use in the education of children!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Pempis-Palace-England

4 comments:

  1. I am personally sick of the uk government using education as a political football, making changes for changing sake and blaming teachers for everything, teenage pregnancy, riots in London etc
    Nice to meet and connect through the atozchallenge. http://aimingforapublishingdeal.blogspot.co.uk

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    1. Yes - it certainly appears that way sometimes, Charlotte. Thank you for your support and comments - these are the little things that make a big difference!

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  2. I'm a speech pathologist in private practice and recently a parent complained that his child's pre-k teacher should be working with her on her speech production. I think classroom teachers have enough to handle without taking on responsibility for more.
    Visiting from the A to Z Challenge. www.widowsphere.blogspot.com

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    1. Thank you for leaving your views as another professional involved in special needs. I think most teachers would like to do more for each child in their class and we all know which children would benefit from just that little bit extra support - it really does come down to there are not enough hours in the day and there is only 1 teacher per 30 children (as humans we don't have litters of babies and there has to be a reason for this?)

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