Schools should be legally obliged to take in pupils with special educational needs, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland suggested yesterday. Assistant general secretary, John MacGabhann, said every pupil had the right to attend a school in their own locality with their friends and siblings. But too many schools were either covertly or overtly avoiding enrolling some pupils with special educational needs, sometimes claiming not to have the resources to cope. Mr MacGabhann said the National Council for Special Education had legal powers to designate schools for individual pupils and should use those powers. The designated schools should then be given the resources to be able to meet the student’s needs.
Irish Independent, Dublin, May 9, 2006

More Oxfordshire primary schools are crammed into ‘nightmare’ classes of 36 or above than any other South East authority, according to Government figures. Bob Martyn, spokesman for the Oxfordshire Association of Teachers and Lecturers said: ‘Class sizes have been creeping back up. On top of that, teachers have an increased number of children with special needs and their teaching assistants have been taken away to help provide planning, preparation, and assessment time so they have more behaviour issues to deal with. It’s a nightmare for any teacher to have that sort of class. Trying to control all these different groups at once and seeing every child has got work at the right level – that’s the sort of thing that makes teachers burn out with stress.’
Oxford Mail, May 12, 2006

The parents of an 11-year-old boy who cannot read or write will today go to the High Court in the hope of forcing an East Anglian Council to pay for their son to attend a private special school. Emma Jones and her husband, Ian, the chaplain at Wymondham College, believe their son, Evan, needs specialist teaching in a £19,000 year special school in Suffolk to overcome his severe dyslexia,dyspraxia and behaviour problems. But Norfolk County Council believes that Evan should be taught – with extra support – in a mainstream village primary. After a series of independent tribunal hearings which ruled in the council’s favour, Mr. and Mrs. Jones will today ask the High Court in London to review how Evan’s case was handled.
Eastern Daily Press, May 12, 2006

Mainstream teachers are now regularly doing dangerous and unpleasant tasks such as cleaning out tracheotomy tubes and changing nappies. A report publish this week said teachers are being asked to work ‘above and beyond the call of duty’ because schools lack the resources to support children with the severe special needs. Huge demands are being placed on teachers who lack proper training and could be vulnerable to legal action if something goes wrong, according to the study carried out by Cambridge University academics for the National Union of Teachers. Problems are greatest in the most disadvantaged areas where schools often face ‘a critical mass of unmet needs that overwhelm staff and create a downward spiral of achievement’, the report said.
Times Educational Supplement, May 19, 2006

Parents who have children with special educational needs face an uncertain future with the closure of three Tyneside primary schools. Gateshead councillors voted to shut Tyne View, Lindisfarne, and Windmill Hills schools in 2007 as part of a bid to cut surplus places. But now parents who have pupils with special needs at the schools have blasted the Council for failing to inform them about alternative places. Director of learning and schools at Gateshead Council, David Mitchell, has given a reassurance that all parents of SEN children will be consulted individually about an alternative placement which will best meet their child’s needs.’
Evening Chronicle, Newcastle, May 25, 2006

A specialist school for disabled children is set to move to new £6 million premises. The Thomas Wolsey School, based in Old Norwich Road, Ipswich, will be built with state of the art buildings in the grounds of nearby Thurleston High School. News of the move coincided with Suffolk education experts calling on the county council to rethink its policy on inclusion following a report from academics on problems in schools when special needs children were included. However the head of Thomas Wolsey, Mrs Nancy McArdle, said she was confident that the link-up with Thursleton would create no such difficulties. ‘It’s almost the best of both worlds because pupils will have the opportunity to choose.’
Ipswich Evening Star, May 26, 2006

Conservatives have suffered a setback in their campaign to stop the closure of ‘special’ schools. An amendment to the Education Bill put forward by the party stating that ‘no special school shall be closed by a local education authority without the consent of the secretary of state’ was voted down by 369 votes to 147.
Children Now, May 31, 2006