[senco-forum] Why do we take it?

Yes, dolgrog, I can change my job.  And who will that help?  

  And don't assume I don't have a disability either, just because I choose not to discuss it in public.

  As I understand it, this forum was set up to help me do my job more effectively.  Telling me or implying I am useless is not helpful.

  Amanda
  Secondary SENCO
  Cornwall
  Thinking of leaving the forum after all these years because I am so fed up with the flac.

dolfrog <dolfrog at tiscali.co.uk> wrote:
  Hi Andy

As a parent of children with SEN issues, and having SEN issues myself
(Special Environmental Needs) I am very aware of the failing of the system
that has been created by out Local Authorities. Basically they are not
accountable to those they have been set up to serve. Namely children who
need to be educated according to their special educational needs. 

You are an employee of the Local Authority and like any employee you have a
contract with your employer. But unlike the private sector your employers do
not have to sell their product to potential clients. So if your employers
provide a rotten service we the consumers in most cases are not able to walk
away and find a new supplier of this service. So unless you are self
employed or work for another agency, this type of comment goes with your
selected option of employer. 

So parents and teachers and Senco have a right to say when the system is
wrong, so that improvement can be made, and if you work for an organisation
that is not capable of providing an effective service to it customers you
should be working to create change to make a more attractive service.

Your employers dictate how they spend their money and from our perspective
they have got their values and priorities wrong. If you have a child who has
a disability, all you want is a thorough diagnosis of all the possible
causes of their problems to be carried out in one set of consultations, and
for the Local Education Authority to provide the correct levels of support
that your child needs. If they can not afford all that your child may need
then they should help you try to raise sufficient funds via alternative
sources. 

This does not happen and for Parents of children with SEN issues have to go
to war, with teachers, schools, SEncos, Educational Psychologists, LEAs,
Appeal panels etc. All to get the support their child needs and should be
put in place from the time they start formal education. And you wonder why
we complain. So if you can't stand the heat Get out of the kitchen, or get
the system reformed so that it works for our children.

The problems with UK education is the system, which is wrong, the structure,
the politicians who claim to want to improve education, just keep on
throwing money at providing the same failed structures but in new clothing.
The LEAs are not accountable to their customers, the children and parents
who have to use their schools, and as one Canadian Engineering Professor has
commented "We are trying to teach 20th (should now be 21st) Century classes
using 14 Century Teaching methods" And the same applies today. Many schools
are trying to find out what each child's learning style is, but very few
teachers are capable of adapting their teaching style to match these
learning styles and that is where it all falls apart, high levels of
illiteracy as teachers fail to engage pupils because they can not match
their teaching style to how a child has to learn. And some teachers just
continue to repeat the failing teaching style because that is all they know,
or choose to believe is the only way to teach.

Unfortunately you have to pick up the broken pieces of this horrid mess, and
come in at the sharp end, when parents are exasperated by this failing
system as they discover that the education system is not the wonderful
system they were lead to believe. So until the system in which you find
yourself in improves considerably, you will just have to grit your teeth and
take it, All of us with disabilities do this every day, but we can not opt
out of having our disabilities, but you can change your job.

Best wishes

dolfrog

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of EPY45 at aol.com
Sent: 12 January 2007 21:11
To: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
Subject: [senco-forum] Why do we take it?

SENCO forum just seems to have evolved into one long 
'let's-slag-off-schools-and-local-authorities-and-take-them-to-court" tirade
all of the time.

Is there any other SENCO in the whole of England who believes that we in 
schools and our colleagues in local authorities have got better at
assessing, 
identifying, and meeting the SEN of children and young people over the past
ten 
years and are doing a much better job? Or am I the only one?

Andy, SENCO

Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall