The head of Scotland’s deaf school has revealed that pupils are losing out because teachers can not communicate fluently in sign language. Janet Allan, principal of Donaldsons College in Edinburgh, claims the problem is so bad it is like a pupil being taught by someone who can not speak English. In an education report to the General Assembly, she compares the situation for deaf children in mainstream schools to one where hearing children are taught by teachers with a low level of Standard Grade English. A Scottish Executive spokeswoman said: ‘Ministers recognise that mainstream schools may not be suitable for all pupils with special educational needs. We expect education authorities to take decisions to ensure pupils are properly supported.’
Edinburgh Evening News, April 5, 2004.
Teacher Susan Elkin’s criticisms of ‘special arrangements’ in examinations for pupils experiencing difficulties have been described as discriminatory [see News Digest for March]. Writing about her son, who has dyslexia, Alison Holman, of Surrey, explains: ‘As someone with normal intelligence but specific difficulties, why shouldn’t he have the same opportunities as others? In his exams my son was allowed extra time and access to technology to allow him parity with his peers, not to give him an unfair advantage over them.’ Another parent, one of several challenging Ms Elkin’s views, said of her son, who has autism: ‘Without the “special arrangements” which Ms Elkin holds in such contempt, Daniel would find it almost impossible to cope with tests at school. Is it fair that he should not be able to participate in exams because he has a hidden disability.’
Daily Mail, April 6, 2004.
Prominent Russian education leaders are visiting Bolton to learn about how to teach disabled children within mainstream education. Three education directors and a translator have travelled from Moscow for a study tour around the North West which will involve them visiting Bolton Institute. At the Institute they will be given presentations to help them learn how to make their education services more open to people with disabilities. Lecturer Joe Whittaker said that in Russia the concept of inclusive education was only just beginning to take hold.
Bolton Evening News, April 17, 2004.
There is a ‘disaster waiting to happen’ in school classrooms because of teachers being expected to administer medication to special needs children, the UK Government was warned today by the head of a leading teaching Union. Sally McKee, president of the Ulster Teachers Union, called on the British Government to urgently examine its policy of allowing special needs children to be placed in mainstream schools without providing teachers with adequate support and training. In her keynote address to the UTU annual conference in Newcastle, County Down, she said the growth in the numbers of pupils with special needs in mainstream classrooms was to be welcomed, provided the education and care of pupils was safeguarded and enhanced.
Online.ie.News, April 16, 2004.
The education of all children is being harmed by the Government’s ‘disastrous’ policy of closing special schools and sending pupils with learning difficulties and unruly behaviour into mainstream classes, teachers said yesterday. The second biggest teachers’ union called for an end to the closure of special schools saying the ‘one size fits all’ model of inclusion did not serve the needs of some of the most vulnerable children and disrupted the education of others. The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers overwhelmingly agreed at its annual conference in Llandudno, North Wales, to oppose the inclusion of children with needs that could not be met in large classrooms, particularly those with challenging behaviour. According to one delegate, Mavis Garnett, from Kirklees, however admirable in principle the reality of inclusion was unworkable. She said: ‘The special needs assistant who signs for the hearing impaired pupil gets in the way of the large screen computer provided for the visually impaired while trying to avoid the open route required by the physically disabled while not obstructing the language specialist. How can we even think of placing a physically vulnerable child in the same room as physically aggressive and emotionally unpredictable peer? How dare we be surprised when fear or even physical injury results?’
Daily Telegraph, April 17, 2004.
The special needs of children at a school threatened with closure will be the main priority for educational officials in Cheshire. The county council has pledged that the individual requirements of every Kingsway pupil with special educational needs would be fully assessed and met should the school close in 2006. Director of Education and Community, David Cracknell, provided the reassurance in response to a direct request from Lynn Hardwick, the executive member for social services. After a one-hour debate the council’s executive supported the recommendation of the School Planning Panel to proceed to consultation on closure.
Daily Post (Liverpool), April 21, 2004.
Staff at a Dudley school have been ordered to learn about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder after a tribunal ruled that an excluded pupil was unlawfully discriminated against. Lee Grosvenor, 14, was excluded from Wordsley School a year ago for three days after he swore at a teacher and left the lesson before the bell went. His parents Mark and Kim Grosvenor said it was unfair because their son was disabled. They were backed last month by a special educational needs and disability tribunal which concluded the exclusion amounted to unlawful discrimination. A Dudley Council spokeswoman said the council would work with the school to ensure that the training ordered by the tribunal was completed by the end of July.
Times Educational Supplement, April 23, 2004.
Efforts to improve inclusion in early years were backed by an education minister yesterday. Catherine Ashton, who is Minister for Extended and Inclusive Schools, backed reports from Disability Equality in Education and the Centre For Studies on Inclusive Education. In a joint statement, the two organizations said: ‘By promoting inclusion in the early years and childcare settings we are ensuring that disabled and non-disabled children can work and play together without discrimination. These two initiatives will also help foster good race relations at the earliest stage in all settings and schools with lasting benefits throughout education and the wider community.’
The Journal, Newcastle on Tyne, April 27, 2004.
Sophie Needham, who had a series 14 temporary teaching assistants in mainstream after her two full-time assistants left, has won a case at the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal. The Tribunal ruled that Sophie, who has cerebral palsy, had been discriminated against by her school which failed to provide continuity in the recruitment of support staff. Since September 2002, schools have had to ensure that all pupils with disabilities are treated no less favourably than others and are not disadvantaged in any aspect of school life, from teaching and learning to access to afternoon clubs or the lunch queue. Cases taken out by the Disability Rights Commission are aiming to ensure not only that individual disabled pupils have a decent education but that schools, colleges and universities have to gear up to a sea change. By 2006 they will be obliged to promote equal opportunities and anticipate the needs of the disabled rather than adapt to them on a case by case basis.
The Independent (Education), April 29, 2004.
