The ‘special’ schools that aren’t schools
Restrained and scared - the £100k schools failing vulnerable children (from BBC News)
There has long been a section of the “special” education system in the UK that really made no attempt to educate; in the 60s and 70s there was a type of school called an “ESN school” (it stood for educationally sub-normal) where no real attempt was made to teach; rather, untrained ‘teachers’ made half-hearted attempts to merely entertain them. A few years ago there was a BBC drama and a documentary focussing on Black children consigned to these schools on spurious grounds, often because differences in language (such as calling a water outlet a pipe rather than a tap) led to them failing literacy tests (see earlier entry). Private schools do not have to hire qualified teachers, unlike state schools; in the past, state grammar schools hired teachers with subject degrees while other schools hired teachers with a Certificate in Education (Cert. Ed.), later upgraded to a Bachelor’s degree (B.Ed). Today, there was a report on BBC News about three girls who were sent to private schools, which charged six-figure sums annually, which hired untrained and unqualified staff, and used abusive practices which left the girls traumatised.
In one of the schools, which charged local authorities £250,000 per pupil annually, a girl named Leah (now 18) was held down by members of staff for so long that blood vessels burst in her face; she began self-harming in a bid to get out of the school. The other was taken over by a large chain of special schools, resulting in an overnight change in ethos and a dramatic turnover of staff; the upshot was that the use of restraint increased dramatically, with some experiencing it daily, and parents observed that “most of the children were in absolute crisis”. Leah’s mother made a complaint to the local authority, which rejected it, though she subsequently won a disability discrimination lawsuit against the school which led to her placement being terminated. In the other case, the local authority organised a “quality assurance visit” which failed to identify any concerns. The two young girls at that school, currently aged 11 and 13, are out of education.
I was in a special school myself, 30 years ago; that school also hired staff who only had degrees and had no real understanding of anyone’s particular needs, preferring to rely on force to subdue “problematic” or “challenging” behaviour (as long as it was directed at staff; when it was directed at other boys, especially smaller boys, the usual practice was to blame the victim). Some might say that if parents are paying for education out of pocket, it’s up to them whether they let staff not qualified to teach do the teaching, but when these are children with major educational needs, including autism and ADHD, the need for them to at least have a standard education degree or postgraduate certificate is all the more pressing. Surely, the practice of farming out children with such needs to private schools with unqualified teachers should have ended long ago — some time between 1997 and 2010, one might have thought. Any school that trades as a special school should be hiring special staff, trained to understand and address the needs of the children and young people they are serving (who might well be academically quite able), not random people who know only how to restrain and coerce. It also goes without saying that when half of a school’s parents complain and an investigation finds nothing wrong, it cannot have been much of an investigation; local authorities must do due diligence and must also be able to inspect without warning, as bad schools can easily cover up their faults if they see an inspection or investigation coming.
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