I wrote recently about J receiving a 'Pupil of the Term' award at his school, and I have found yet another certificate for him, this time being 'Pupil of the Week'. The school is not small in number, so it is a real achievement that he is earning these awards amongst so many other students. I am biased, and am proud to be so. J is such a good boy ; helpful, diligent, thorough, happy, cheeky, and talented, to name a few of his qualities (although they also sound like some alternative names for Snow White's Dwarf friends).
He has just over a year left at this school before he leaves for college. The college is a part of the school, and therefore is suitable for his needs and abilities, and will teach him and build on his already learnt life skills.
It seems as if it was only yesterday we were saying "goodbye" to his first school, with years ahead of him at his current one. I did have a lot of reservations about his current school before he started there, but luckily, apart from the initial bumpy start with him being put into the wrong class (for which I had him moved quickly after his behaviours of head banging and stress were blighting his home life), it has been very good for him.
I think it is natural for a parent to question their choice of school for their child, and when the options of school are limited due to there not being enough special education schools around, and the current ones not being big enough (for the amount of children requiring this kind of schooling, who have to stay in mainstream and struggle), the worry can increase as you don't have much of a choice, unless you have a few hundred thousand pounds a year to pay for private special education schooling, and then you can be choosy - but for the majority of parents this is not an option.
I do have a complaint about the transition from school to college though. When children in England leave school at the end of their education, it is around 6 weeks BEFORE the rest of the school years finish. This means that there will be a a large proportion of 15-16 year old children who are taken from their routine of school, and have around three months of nothing - those that are lucky enough to snaffle a place at a residential unit or activity centre, or who have the money to spend on keeping their child occupied and safe, will cope a lot better than the majority who will have barely anything, and will become harder to manage at home because of the ridiculous amount of time between finishing school and beginning college.
What do working parents do? There are parents that work 'school hours' but will have little choice but to either spend a lot of money on paying for care for their child, or who will have to take extended leave or even hand in their notice.
It seems incomprehensible that this amount of no schooling is allowed each year.
Also remember that with the budget cuts the current Conservative government are implementing, school budgets are being reduced by around 11% which is huge. Couple this with the enormous cuts to the social budget of each council, and there is a threadbare service being provided for a lot of desperate families.
Spin doctors will throw figures and waffle out to try and skew the evidence and facts, but the truth is, state education is a low priority for this government - facts do not lie.
Education is the foundation building blocks for children's learning. Without a comprehensively funded backbone, there will be less opportunities for the majority of state educated children to achieve. I am talking about all children here, both mainstream and special education. Why do politicians never learn from history?
And why do the populace still allow this to continue? If it is a case of "in my day......" then it is sad that these older generations think so little of their grandchildren and great grandchildren's futures.
Then there are some out there who have no children (their words) for whatever reason (age/choice etc) who proclaim they "don't care" and "are glad" that money is being saved from the education budget, but they forget that these children have the potential to go on to be doctors, dentists, pioneers in medical science et al, which directly will impact on them at some point in their life.
We have to hope, and argue, that these latest cost cutting themes will be revoked.
