SEND parent: "They just constantly feel like they're failing"
A mum of an autistic child says shoehorning SEND children into standard education can lead to long-term damage
A Surrey mum with two autistic children has been telling us about how snowball effects can occur with SEND children in the mainstream system.
It comes as national movement went to Downing Street yesterday (November 18) lead by Motherland star Anna Maxwell Martin.
Along with 22 parent groups and campaigners, Maxwell Martin, who has spoken previously about navigating the Send system as a parent, is calling on the Education Secretary to reconsider reforming primary Sats.
They say the current Sats system “actively harms” children with Send, leaving them often disengaged from school as they move on to secondary.
The Government said last week, in its response to the curriculum review, that it had “no plans to radically change the shape” of primary tests.
Abigail Shepard is from Farnham and has two autistic children. She explained how the system can be harder on those that struggle
"You have children that are struggling and the more they struggle, the more the rules constrict and that makes them more dysregulated and causes more distress and then you end up with kids that are being excluded"
Abigail told us about her own personal example
"She made a mistake, which she got punished for, but it absolutely snowballed. She was getting more and more detention. She was getting excluded once a week or once every two weeks and it was just it was awful."
Sats are the exams that are sat by pupils in year six, and can often have significant implications on a child's next step in education
Abigail says that the nature of this pressure, combined with the previous snowball effect can have a damaging effect
"They just constantly feel like they're failing. And I think exams and things like SATs as well just compound that problem for children who are already struggling"
Abigail told us that she would want to see a system where wellbeing is clearly valued as the most important thing
"We just need a system where well-being as a whole is put much higher up than marks, grades, attendance, stats like that."