Dear Parents and Carers
Every day of this epidemic we receive an email from the Department for Education (DfE) with all the updated guidance issued by Government. It is a massive email because guidance is issued or amended every day, and it takes some wading through. As it arrives, I look for the same thing: a forum for us to feedback to the DfE what we have learned from this period of lockdown. I did get excited a while back as I was offered the chance to take part in a survey so the DfE could learn from schools, but unfortunately the survey had been contracted out to a research group who were focusing only on how effective DfE communication had been.
This is a wasted opportunity to say the least. One example would be the learning and welfare of our most vulnerable students. Through shutdown, we have been running small groups in school and it was obvious, very quickly, that the students in these groups have never been happier at school. The groups are smaller, there is more attention for individuals and the site is quiet and calm due to the tiny numbers. As a consequence, the students we have invited in are happier, learning more, attending more regularly and making great progress. Needs are being met whether they are autism, social needs, emotional needs or mental health. The provision we are offering is working far better.
This might seem obvious, and small groups would benefit all children. However when it comes to children with special educational needs, in my opinion the agenda has now become ‘inclusion at all costs’ and this period of lockdown has proven just how damaging this can be to some students. Please don’t misunderstand me. I firmly believe in an inclusive education system, and schools must do everything they can to adjust provision to suit learners, but decreasing budgets coupled with increasing needs mean that, with the very best will in the world, the adjustments can only go so far. We will always be a big and very busy school and these things are impossible to change. Through austerity, and even more so now, the agenda really is driven by costs and not need.
The devastating cuts to SEND budgets nationwide have been justified by an opinion that all children are better off in mainstream education as it gets them ready for life. How? What part of life crams 1,700 people into a building all dressed the same and all being told when to sit, stand, eat and walk? The system works for most and, with adjustments, can be made to work for many more. But when I see the positive changes in the students we have on site at the moment, thanks to a quiet site and greater attention, I know I can’t replicate that when all students are back. The kids know this too and it makes them upset.
A Secretary of State with creativity, vision and drive would not waste the opportunity that has landed in their lap to reform education. Not only for students with SEND, but in many other ways. Having no league tables has made no difference whatsoever to teachers and how hard they want to work for kids. Ofsted has vanished and has no role to play at all when the country needs the public sector. Technology has had to be used, and now it is, we mustn’t ever go backwards in this area. And there is the holy grail of educational reform: changing an academic calendar designed around agriculture which actually damages learning and the economy.
I watch Gavin Williamson on TV and can’t help thinking the words I hear are not his, so I can’t say whether he lacks the qualities we are looking for or is not allowed to express them. But what is clear is that no other Government or Education Secretary has ever had the opportunities to improve education for everybody as much as this one. All they have to do is ask schools what this lockdown has shown us and how we can use this to improve education for everybody. Why are we so desperate to get back to normal? Why not make normal a lot better?
Rant over – best wishes and keep safe.
Andy Perry – Head Teacher
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