Why do you send your child to school?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot about this recently, especially as I see more and more parents opting to unschool their children….. and I think they are onto something and here is why.
Recently a green paper for SEND provision came out; it promises that more will be done in terms of identifying and supporting SEND at an early stage. However, I believe there is a fundamental flaw. It doesn’t take into consideration the fact that the current curriculum and education system is no longer conducive to what children need and how they learn, for many reasons.
In the last few weeks I’ve spent a lot of time in various school and college settings. I have not seen one teacher who doesn’t wish for the best for each of the pupils they come across. But teachers are tired. Their job was difficult enough before the pandemic but since then their job has become even more challenging. I have seen teachers that are desperate to do the right thing for children, dedicated, hard working, overworked and underpaid. I have see teachers who are trying to do their best with limited resources and massive class sizes.
Head teachers, who before they can even begin to provide support to teachers, are trying to work out if they have enough staff to even open their school! I see teachers literally running on empty desperately trying to plug the massive gaps in children’s learning, because of the disruption that the pandemic created. Teachers are despondent because there is no way they can plug all the gaps and make up the lost ground, yet the government is still expecting the children to take SATs and meet a certain standard at the end of the year, despite nearly two years of missed education. I see teachers trying to do an impossible job. The range of needs within classrooms now is absolutely massive. A normal classroom teacher is not an expert in special educational needs. Even SENCOs are not necessarily experts in special educational needs. They have a passion for it, and they choose to learn a bit more about it but many are not specialists in dyslexia or autism or ADHD.
I’ve been reflecting on my time in schools and I’ve walked away and I feel desperately sad, but I also feel really angry because our education system, and what we’re expecting children and teachers to do, is not fit for purpose and is failing our children. We are pushing our children through a knowledge based curriculum that doesn’t assess skills or provide a rounded education. The curriculum that the government is asking teachers to deliver doesn’t fit with the reality of what children need or who they are.
There is so much research and we know so much about the best ways to support autism, the best ways to support dyslexia, the best way to support ADHD and to develop critical thinking and how to get the best from people. Yet somehow all this brilliant learning doesn’t dovetail into the curriculum. It’s like the worlds are colliding, but they’re all colliding in the wrong way. Teachers aren’t allowed to use their gut feeling anymore. They can’t trust their instincts because Ofsted is so terrifying because their pay is judged on how far they move a child in a year.
I am forever grateful to the dedicated teachers that go into schools everyday continue to try hard to move forward despite it feeling impossible. I’m genuinely not sure where any of this stops but I just felt like it was my responsibility to highlight some of the things that I have seen in schools in the last few weeks. The green paper has some great ideas but feel too far removed from reality!
And so why do I send my children to school?
Probably for all the wrong reasons, but so they can jump through the hoops that enable them to get a job when they finish school because I don’t feel like I have the skills to do this myself! I’m left with an overwhelming and uncomfortable feeling that the curriculum needs to change to meet the needs of children in the 21st century, encapsulating everything we have learnt about how children learn best and can thrive and fulfil their potential.