Eastfield headteacher: Funding priority should be on special educational needs schoolchildren
The Government's investing over ÂŁ1 million to help areas with 'high levels of disadvantaged pupils'
An Eastfield headteacher says schoolchildren with special educational needs to be a priority for funding.
We told you that the Government is giving over ÂŁ1 million to Scarborough to 'help with high levels of disadvantaged pupils and low educational attainment.'
Vicki Logan runs Overdale Community Primary School and said: "I'm very grateful that that money is coming into this area and it's very, very much needed. I don't think it absolutely isn't enough for the level of crisis that schools are in presently with budget issues and post-Covid impacts and things like that.
"If you've got a child in there with very high needs and we have some classes with up to three children with very, very high needs then that drains on the staff that are in that room, meaning the quality of the education for the rest of the children has been reduced and that's incredibly sad.
"We also have some children who have very high level of need and they're causing severe problems within the classroom. Staff feel like they're failing these children because mainstream schools aren't equipped to manage special educational needs children as their priority.
"We're a mainstream school and we want to be inclusive in every way possible. A high level SEN when it becomes behavioural is distressing to staff. We have days where we're spat on, kicked, bitten, scratched and sometimes it can take four of us to manage these children.
"The SEN system is broken. I used to refer to it as being fractured or fragile but it's actually broken now. We are getting an increasing number of children with these needs in to all schools across the coast.
"We've already had some meetings about this and spoken about hubs being created and things like this, but it's not being addressed. We're still in the same situation and that's upsetting for staff when they feel they can't meet the needs of their children because that's their role and teachers are passionate."