C.E. Jottings

Some SEN Statementing questions answered by Special Needs Jungle.

Best just go straight to Tania Tirraoro's post on Special Needs Jungle to read all the answers in full. Lots of good advice, too. Here are the questions, with some single word answers: Can I still apply for a statement now? Yes Is it better to wait for the new system? No Will my statemented child be moved to an EHCP right away after Sept 2014? No What’s this about a key worker and will we get one? Maybe. Will... Read more →

How many pupils will be entitled to an Education, Health and Care Plan?

Following a lead from @scope on Twitter, "Excellent article from @jreynoldsMPon the battles families with disabled children face & the current #ChildrensBill", I find that in a knowledgable article for Progress Online, "Transforming the Lives of Disabled Children", Jonathan Reynolds MP repeats a statistic I have read elsewhere: "it is estimated that only 13 per cent of disabled children or those with SEN will actually be entitled to [an Education, Health and Care Plan]." Where does this figure come from?... Read more →

Support and Aspiration: DfE publish 'Progress & Next Steps' document

This just published and taken straight from DfE web site: This report sets out a summary of the key responses to the consultation questions in Support and aspiration, current progress and our further plans for the vision in the Green Paper, in which: children’s special educational needs are picked up early and support is routinely put in place quickly staff have the knowledge, understanding and skills to provide the right support for children and young people who have SEN or... Read more →

How many children have SEN? Again.

Actually, I was googling "Brinks-Mat" and "Stephen Lawrence". Links between criminals and detectives in the two cases had been mentioned on BBC TV, last Saturday, as I was making myself a slice of cheese on toast for breakfast. Searching for something quite different, in other words, as I find often happens Google threw up "Can 20 per cent of schoolchildren really have special needs?" - an article by "writer, biographer, journalist and broadcaster" Peter Stanford in yesterday's Daily Telegraph. 20%... Read more →

Queen's Speech & SEN - more next week

We can, next week, expect DfE Ministers to set out their detailed response to consultation on the SEND Green Paper "Support and Aspiration" and a timetable for what they are describing as the biggest reform of special education in 30 years. In a DfE press release, accompanying the Queen's Speech to Parliament yesterday, the Minister, Sarah Teather, says, "In our Green Paper, Support and Aspiration, we set out plans for the biggest SEN reforms for 30 years – giving parents... Read more →

Are we failing 1 in 4 boys said to have 'special educational needs'?

"Back in July, I queried the valueof the term 'special educational needs' when it was being applied to so many children". That was how I began a posting here on 14th September, following the publication of an Ofsted report that among other things suggested that the term 'special educational needs' was being too widely applied. In July I had asked whether it was time to junk the term special educational need, after reading in the parliamentary debate on the Academies... Read more →

Ofsted queries too wide use of "special needs"

Back in July, I queried the value of the term "special educational needs" when it was being applied to so many children. I was following the debate on the Academies Bill as it passed through Parliament. Lord Low of Dalston advised the Lords that ""Twenty-one per cent of children have some form of special educational need." Rather tentatively, I suggested that "if as many as 1 in 5 of our children have 'some form of special educational need' there is... Read more →

Time to junk the term Special Educational Needs?

Is special needs a fad that harms children, as Francis Gilbert asserts in today's Daily Telegraph? Make up your own mind. In the Second Reading of the Academies Bill, Lord Low of Dalston who is also a vice-president of the Royal National Institute of Blind People, informed the Lords that "Twenty-one per cent of children have some form of special educational need." (As compared with the 2.7% who have statements of special educational need.) It strikes me that if as... Read more →

Just another parent; just another child

A story you've probably read many times before - different parent, different child, different disability. It's all the same in the end. But take a look at the story in today's Independent on Sunday: The boy in the corner: Why do children with special needs still get such a raw educational deal? The system set up to help children with special educational needs can be as frustrating to parents as mainstream classes seem to their kids. With education a key... Read more →