Why red tape is ruining my childs education
I’m fuming. Now is probably not a good time to commit my thoughts to black and white. It’s the eve of my daughter’s 14th birthday. She is a gorgeous, kind, caring teenager. She has a tight group of friends who love her to bits, and two little brothers who worship the ground she walks on. But she has specific learning difficulties. I have known about these since she was three. And since then it feels very much like I’ve had an enormous fight on my hands to get help for her to further her education.
It’s a bonkers situation. I’ve spent many evenings penning emails back and forth between school and county. One teacher told me she was just slow. Year upon year the situations for her classroom help changes. She has one to one. Then she doesn’t. It has to be shared between five of them due to lack of funds. She’s performed well in last years tests, so well that she doesn’t need help. Which has led to this years failure to score on her reading tests because she was left to sit the test without help and no extra time.
I’ve had enough. This is not good enough. Red tape is seriously hampering getting the best out of Cara and her future choices. It’s ruining her education.
Dyslexia is a huge deal
One in ten UK citizens have dyslexia. This is total of six and a half million people. Like Cara one in four have it quite seriously with a number of other difficulties (she has Irlen Syndrome too). In my personal opinion the educational system in the UK is failing ALL diverse children. The problem is that children are all diverse. No one child will learn in the same way as the next child.
I spotted the signs of dyslexia in Cara when she was very young. She could do a jigsaw which was pretty complex, but couldn’t arrange her words – they simply didn’t make sense to her. The school referred her to an educational psychologist who then sent her to a speech therapist. I kept pressing that it was dyslexia. She could relate a photo to a spoken word but couldn’t start to spell the word. Her vocabulary was great. But I was told she was “very slow”.
And so it began. The fight. Ten years later I’m still fighting. And I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one.
Education is precious, and so is funding
Now I’m not blaming the schools. I’m not blaming teachers either. They mostly have to teach a curriculum which is geared towards end learning goals. Precisely because the end learning goals are judged on an exam grade, from A* to G, they don’t know how to diversify. Each county in Great Britain has to provide a document which outline the Special Educational Needs document published by government. They must have an inclusion document. The words are there but the practice is very far removed. But I can vouch for this personally, teachers aren’t trained for the reality of a classroom of 34 with diverse needs. It just doesn’t work.
Once in a teaching job, you can apply to train as a special educational needs coordinator. Most schools have one SENCO per secondary school (600 plus pupils), because that’s all schools can afford on the pay grade.
There is a chronic lack of funding in education full stop. Special educational needs children without behavioural problems are hit or miss in their identification. This leads to a substantial number of well-behaved but truly struggling children falling through the educational net. The system in the UK is ranked one of the bottom ten in the WORLD. If it’s broken, why don’t they fix it? Because it costs money! But isn’t a better overall level of education for ALL children in the UK better for future economy?
The system is failing our children.
We are letting this government, and chronic lack of funding fob off our kids. Because of this we are raising a generation of kids who are afraid to fail. Afraid to try, because they’ve already been branded failures by a set of tests geared to statistically pit one school against another without looking at the economic climate, location or relative wealth of the school. It is not the child’s fault – it’s the system. The system stinks.
SATs – standardised testing
I truly believe that these evil and vile things are part of the problem. Children are tested for literacy and numeracy from the age of SIX. Yes you read that correctly. Six years old. They have to sit and answer questions on phonics, times tables and basic reading. Cara has just sat her final SATs this year. In year nine (13-14) they are asked to read and break down a piece of literature. For fuck sakes, a child with complex learning difficulties is asked to delve for tone, author style and prose form in a piece they possibly can’t ever READ. How is this educating enablers? It’s not.
You see, these SATs are nothing more than statistical ways of comparing school performances. To rank a school against a competing school so that the government can see that the pittance they put into the pot is being well spent. Well yahoo. Teachers must teach a rigid curriculum. Give children facts to repeat like parrots, and commit to memory for an exam. They’re possibly never going to use these facts again in the real world. I mean can you remember anything from your last algebra final?
It’s unfair, it’s un-inclusive and it’s downright DISCRIMINATION.
My child can read. But it takes time. It takes a lot of bloody effort. And after all that effort the words still have very little meaning when they’re jumbled up in her head.
I can’t change the world
Give them the tools to succeed
I can’t change the world. But I can and will change hers. We have already read a thousand books. Laughed until we cried and got upset over Harry Potter. But she is growing up and falling through the gap, no, the gaping void of special educational needs discrimination in the UK educational system.
Yes I’m going to call it discrimination, because that’s exactly what it is. I have met some wonderful people and support whilst we have been on our journey. There are options for her, I can home school next year. Something I’m seriously considering. I can make a complaint to the County, this will be like peeing in the wind, they are part of the same failing system after all. Because her SATs results were so low this year she is probably entitled to extra help for her GCSE’s. But that won’t change the strict rules and regulations the examining boards put in place for kids sitting their examinations.
I really am fed up. I can’t imagine how Cara must be feeling.
Red tape is a complete cockwomble.
26 Comments
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very eloquently put, i cannot imagine why they don’t listen to you more.. You are an amazing mum and advocate for your children. we have just battled for 2 years to get Harry into the college of his choice ( Derwen residential) where he will do performing arts and crafts. these will all play to his strengths. the Advocacy service in Bangor were instrumental in helping this to happen. I wish you luck but you have an amazing intellect so feel sure you will gets things to change. xx
I’m not a teacher in the UK nor a teacher who works with children, so my expertise is limited here, but I can assure you (and I know this will come as no surprise to you) that the people who have the power to make things change do not care. They add special educational needs to curricula, but that’s just lip service. They don’t think things through, they just want to look like they care so they get votes next time around.
This isn’t discrimination, it’s downright indifference and cynicism. And that’s much worse.
Ignorance is bliss so they say. But it’s a sad state of affairs. I bet they’d mind if it were happening to their children x
I’ve always thought SATs were such an unnecessary stress for school children. This sounds like a really frustrating situation but I’m sure Cara will do well with such a fantastic supportive Mum behind her. Thank you for sharing such a well written and important post Shan 💖 xx
Bexa | http://www.hellobexa.com
Very sad that you have to fight for this so hard 10 years and it is still an ongoing battle. I see children failed by the system all the time. She is so lucky to have you.
Keep fighting the fight!
Kate xx
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCDkbJn_5s2yAyuDGgtDwuLg
What a frustrating situation. There really ought to be more help available. I can’t say I see the point of SATs other than to provide national statistics, they don’t seem to have any bearing on the child’s future at school. My daughter is about to go into year 6 and I thought they’d use them for the secondary school to work out sets etc but apparently not! X
I totally agree with you, the system simply doesn’t work, Can I wish you all the best for the future #kcacols@_karendennis
Thank you Karen, it needs a reshake and a reshuffle!
I don’t see the point in SATs either. It’s not at all necessary to know how well a child is doing. It’s such a shame she’s not getting the right level of support at school but I’m sure you’re making up for it at home! I hope she had a wonderful birthday!!! x
Sophie
http://www.glowsteady.co.uk
She did Sophie, I made sure of it! Thank you for your comment!
I have so much sympathy with this post. I have 2 with dyslexia, one of whom has just sat GCSE’s this summer and wasn’t even allowed any extra time. We are just crossing our fingers he passed a few! #KCACOLS
Crossing my fingers for you too Fiona! I have one maths genius and one dyslexic with specific learning and educational needs, so there’s no grey area in our house 😀
The entire public sector is woefully underfunded imo – I’ll never understand why as a country we sink so much money into stuff like Trident when we still having kids leaving school unable to do the basics. I hope that Welsh govt’s changes to school data will start to have the impact they want on this though; I have concerns about scrapping the comparative data but, on the other hand, it is an opportunity to improve the focus on wellbeing and individual progress. At the moment there is so much weighting given to SATs that even if a child makes a ton of progress it means nothing if they don’t hit the desired level. :/
Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next time. 🙂
Completely agree Jess. But we must sacrifice our children’s education and the NHS to protect the UK? With nuclear warheads? It’s woeful where the Cons priorities are, and how much precious cash have we sunk into Brexit negotiations? Why make or children statistics? I’m all for comparing school performances, but there’s got to be a better way of doing it. I love the Finnish model. We would benefit from looking more closely at how they operate.
This must be so frust and it’s so awful that you are still fighting and things keep changing. There really does need to be more funding and support for those children who need help. To navigate the school system. I am totally agreement with you about standardised testing, it makes me so tempted to homeschool
Completely agree, and I’m seriously considering taking her out. I know her English and Welsh has improved, but is it enough? That’s what I have to think about this holiday x
Sounds like an incredibly frustrating situation for you both. It seems mad that the support she gets changes from year to year, surely when you have a diagnosis of special needs a plan should be put in place that continues from year to year. I hope things improve for you next year. x #KCACOLS
I’m dreading next year because she will have the added pressure of studying for GCSE’s and getting the examining board to listen to her needs is going to be an absolute nightmare 🙁
such a shame that so often the people in charge of budgets and deciding what our kids needs so often are so clueless. Unfortunately its the same thing here in the States. Maddening, but I do like the word cockwomble. Never heard that before, but I’m going to use it #KCACOLS
I so love that you enjoy my sweary word usage 😀 It’s a very underused word and I love it. I’ve plenty more up my sleeve.
Yes it’s annoying, and infuriating, I know it’s bad in the States too and that you have a lottery there of which schools are just poor and which are brilliant.
I must admit this is my fear, and I can’t understand why they wouldn’t want to listen to you. After all you know her better than anyone.
It’s all about them having superiority and money on the purse strings. She needs help, they won’t give it to her because she’s not ‘bad’ enough and the schools don’t have the resources to deal with them 🙁
Completely agree about standardised tests. They set certain students up to fail and then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. If it helps though, one of my closest friends has severe dyslexia and she’s just completed her training as a solicitor. With a mum like you in her corner anything can be possible #KCACOLS
Argh I’m crossing everything! I do a lot with her at home so I hope it’s enough!
Wow, this is so well researched! It is wonderful to see a mother so invested in her child’s life, and striving to help other children on the journey.
It really must be very frustrating from your viewpoint. It’s frustrating for any parent. Funding is a bug-bear of mine. Don’t get me started. #kcacols