SEND | Schools Week

Taxi drivers can now take a course in transporting SEND pupils

Taxi drivers can now be trained in how to look after pupils with special educational needs and disabilities on their commutes to and from school. This online programme will offer taxi drivers and pupil escorts a qualification that proves they are competent to work with pupils with a range of special needs. Run by Spectrum […]

Why a SEND initial teacher training pathway is a bad idea

Inclusive pedagogy should be built into the fabric of every initial teacher training programme, rather than bolted on as an afterthought, argues Jacqui Ver Loren van Themaat Many people across the sector have called for more in-depth knowledge in initial teacher training (ITT): more behaviour-management strategies, more focus on subject knowledge, and more special educational needs […]

Pupils with special needs waiting for school place more than doubles

The number of pupils with special educational needs waiting in limbo for school places has more than doubled, according to new figures. Released last week, the government data shows pupils with special needs statements or Education Health and Care Plans who are waiting for a school place rose from 1,710 in 2016 to 4,050 this […]

Internal inclusion units in schools will not fix behaviour

The answer to schools’ behaviour problems is not to create more unregulated provision – accountability is key, says Jackie Ward Behaviour tsar Tom Bennett has – after much consultation with a variety of “successful schools” – published his independent review Creating a Culture: How school leaders can optimise behaviour. After raising an eyebrow at the […]

Nearly half of schools fail to offer work experience to SEND pupils

One in three schools is not offering pupils with special educational needs (SEND) work experience, sidelining “precisely” the young people who need the most employment help. New government figures show that 42 per cent of schools and sixth forms are not offering their SEND pupils any kind of “work-related activity”, let alone ensuring they get […]

SEND learners are airbrushed from education policy

Influential literacy reports by leading think tanks and charities have ignored the thousands of children who will never catch up in reading and writing but who can still achieve a full and rounded education, says Chris Rossiter “Dyslexia isn’t even a thing”; “exam extra time is a middle class purchase”; “the dyslexia industry selling specialist […]

Independent special schools are cost effective

It is in everyone’s interests to get SEND support right, says Claire Dorer. For many pupils that means a place in an independent special school It’s rare to see media coverage on special needs provision in non-maintained and independent special schools (NMISS) without cost being mentioned. Generally this is in relation to absolute costs and […]

£215 million to adapt building for SEND pupils won’t go to most needy

Special needs funding is now being allocated as “a blunt instrument”, with cash handed out based on population growth, rather than more sophisticated measures, according to a major charity. The Department for Education (DfE) last week announced it was setting aside new funds to improve special educational needs (SEND) provision in mainstream schools from 2018-22. […]

Private special school places cost £480 million per year

A lack of state-funded places is forcing councils to spend hundreds of millions of pounds to send pupils to independent special schools. Councils sent up to triple the number of SEND pupils to independent special schools last year compared with six years ago, Schools Week can exclusively reveal. Councils blame the shift on a lack […]