Rona Tutt, a leading special educational needs expert, warns in a paper published today that nearly 1.5 million pupils with special needs are being demoralised by targets, tables and testing regimes that set them unreachable goals. The former president of the National Association of Head Teachers, who was awarded the OBE for her work as a special school head, highlights the conflict between targets and the Government’s aim of an inclusive system where all pupils feel equally valued. The paper, co-written by Tricia Barthorpe, former head of North Lincolnshire’s special needs service, puts pressure on the Government to overhaul an SEN system which MPs have described as ‘not fit for purpose’.
Times Educational Supplement, September 1, 2006

All publicly funded bodies including those in the education sector will need new arrangements in place by December 4 to positively promote disability equality for employees, students and other service users. Under the new responsibilities colleges and schools must develop disability equality schemes showing how they intend to meet the requirements of the new duty and they must also ensure that disabled people are directly involved in putting together the schemes.
FE Now, September 1, 2006

Education secretary Alan Johnson hailed a new special school in Weymouth as a model for the rest of the country during a visit yesterday. The Secretary of State joined Schools Minister and South Dorset MP, Jim Knight, for a tour of facilities at the new Wyvern School in Dorchester Road. The potential Labour leadership candidate said that the £6.5 million spent on the building was worth every penny and was a shining example of how mainstream and special schools can share the same site. Wyvern is relocating from its current cramped building to state-of-the art premises built alongside Wey Valley School and St. Nicholas and St. Laurence School. After touring the facilities, Mr. Johnson told teachers and pupils assembled in the new sports hall that Wyvern epitomised what the Government wanted to do in education – namely co-locations which knitted together great facilities for children of all needs.
Dorset Echo, September 15, 2006

A multinational American company has been hired to smooth the way for a controversial new city academy in Islington. Edison Schools has been hired to transform Islington Green secondary school into a new academy at its premises in Prebend Street, Angel, which has the City of London and City University as its £2 million sponsors. But the move has been attacked by the National Union of Teachers who claim that the company in America had previously ‘kept out’ children with special needs at its schools to boost results. The allegation comes as education ministers have gone out of their way to insist that the new academy, Islington Green School, will be completely non-selective. Edison Schools vehemently denied the claim, maintaining they do not exclude special needs children.
Islington Tribune, September 29, 2006