Jan 27, 2019, Schools Week: Social and emotional needs focus for new SEND schools https://schoolsweek.co.uk/social-and-emotional-needs-focus-for-new-send-schools/ More special education free schools are set to open in 2020 than in the previous five years combined, with almost a quarter focusing on social and emotional needs for the first time. Thirty-four special free schools are due to open in 2020-21, compared with just 32 in the period from 2015-20, data from the pro-free schools charity New Schools Network (NSN) shows. Of those, eight schools will specialise in social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs for the first time. The data comes as government statistics show 32,000 more pupils were added to the SEN register between January 2017 and 2018, rising to 14.6 per cent of all pupils from 14.4 per cent in 2017. It also follows a government call in March last year for bids for a “special wave” of free schools for excluded and SEND pupils. Ministers said at the time they expected many more schools to open from 2020 on. Barney Angliss, a SEND consultant, welcomed the increase in schools, but warned they must not be allowed to become places for mainstream schools to dump their excluded pupils. Anne Heavey (pictured), the national director of Whole School SEND, said she had “big questions” about how the government would recruit enough specialist teachers to staff the new schools. Vacancies in special schools and alternative provision have tripled since 2011, and were 100 to 150 per cent higher than in mainstream secondaries, the National Association of Head Teachers claimed last year. … Another eight free schools specialising in autism are due to open in 2020-21. With SEMH schools, this makes up 47 per cent of all approved free special schools for that year. Others focused on severe learning difficulties (SLD), moderate learning difficulties (MLD) and speech, language and communications needs (SLCN). A NSN spokesperson said the schools offered “fantastic opportunities for families who have been marginalised for far too long, and who now have an opportunity to receive the right education for their children”.
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Loss of Brain Trust features over 9,000 news stories published worldwide since January, 2017
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
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What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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