(UK) Exeter, England: SPED school shut down for week; struggling to handle rising demand

Nov 24, 2018, Devon Live: This is what life is really like inside Exeter’s troubled Steiner School https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/what-life-really-like-inside-2254834 Real life inside Exeter’s troubled Steiner School has been revealed by a member of staff who knows it inside out. A concerned teacher has told how they believe such large numbers of children with high special needs and insufficient funding has led to many of the problems that saw the school immediately closed as a temporary measure and has resulted in it being placed into special measures. An Ofsted inspection has highlighted shocking failures in leadership, teaching standards and the safety of pupils at Steiner Academy Exeter in Cowley Bridge Road. The 442-pupil school was shut down for more than a week following the visit from inspectors in October who discovered a catalogue of failings at the school including leadership being 'dysfunctional at every level', Kindergarten pupils being physically restrained by teachers and a lack of support for vulnerable children. Other concerns raised by the watchdog include teachers being subjected to regular physical assaults by pupils, the needs of children with special educational needs not being met and a lack of evidence that safeguarding checks have been made when employing new members of staff. … The teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “The real situation here is funding and also bad practice. … "We have many children with varying high and low degrees of autism, along with children who have other needs such as ADHD, dyslexia and social anxiety. … “Of course every child has the right to be educated, but they also have a right to be looked after. We were clearly failing and we need money to put that right. “The school has had to rapidly expand due to demand for places without being able to cope with it. Some other Steiner academy schools have only introduced one extra class a year, but we had two new classes every year since the school began. “The Ofsted report said teachers reported they didn’t want additional needs children, but that’s not true. Steiner is amazing for additional needs but the main reason we don’t want any more is because we need to cope with the ones we have first. … “What doesn’t help is special needs school funding has been cut. We admit to our failings and our major failing is you can’t run a school like this on a budget of around £3,500 [$4,500 US dollars]per pupil.”… Moira Marder, chief executive officer of the Ted Wragg Trust, said: "The Regional School Commissioner has yet to decide on the future of the school. Our role still is very much short-term, making sure the school stays open and is safe for the children on a daily basis."…