2 years ago

#governent #autism @RishiSunak #help #funding #school #ehcp #ideas

...rest of letter of video before #605, email for full [email protected]

Aleena is not the first autistic child, but it is as if she is and that schools have not adapted to meet the needs of neuro-divergence children but just lay it at the governments door for funding, whereas schools should have a set amount of money every year that should be spent to enable ALL children access to the same good education and meet ALL their needs by preparing and adapting.
At the end of the day, school should be about finding a way so that every student gets the best education!

Ideas:
1. When funding is given to schools, which I believe is £5,000 per pupil, they should make aware how many students have a disability such as Autism, ADHD, Asperger’s or other physical/mental disability (this is already known as all these conditions are found pre-nursery and schools already meet ISEND/parents before start of term to discuss), and for those students funding should be £10,000 or £15,000 on day 1! – I don’t know how much more is needed to pay a special needs/disability teacher who will concentrate on those children in class.

2. All schools should have dedicated special needs trained teachers for each year group ie Nursery, Reception and all Year Groups. Every year there are disabled children and the teachers claim neither the time nor experience to support them, and so these children get let down.

‘By failing to prepare, they are preparing to fail’

3. All Teachers should have as part of their initial training special needs /disability training at an advance level, which I believe they don’t currently have.

I believe it not just about funding although this is the biggest part, as funding is done through EHCP, it just the wrong time and with an unnecessary long process as the 3 term review cycle and EHCP taken minimum 20 weeks is a process that is almost a year long to establish what is already known and feels unintentionally discriminatory, certainly not beneficial, but it’s also the way schools are not preparing for autistic/disabled children adequately in a way that is able to support them fully from day one.
I hope these words have some effect and that the right and necessary changes can be made to help to end any discrimination and inequality that happens for autistic and disabled children. I know what I say may not help my daughter as by the time any changes are made, she will have lost a year or more, but children in the future may be helped by what you can do today, and maybe it will trickle down the line and help Aleena’s future.
In the words of Murray from BBC/Chris Packham documentary ‘Inside our Autistic Minds’ : PLEASE HEAR US!

Yours Sincerely,

Harris and Anikie Maguire,
Aleena’s Parents.

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