Parent, South of England
My stories
My School Story
My son has complex SEND (under 10) and during the ADHD medication shortage the school decided to move him into a class of children who were unable to communicate with him and very loudly vocalised all day. He couldn’t cope with the noise and had no one to interact with (his EHCP stated he needed to be in a language rich environment. When he went back on medication they refused to move him back to his original class.
He started to become physically ill going into school and he was very obviously extremely distressed about school and showing signs of extreme distress. It got so bad he was having vagal responses (absences) in school. The school still insisted they were meeting need. We have removed my son from the school and he is doing well but on professional assessment by educational and ed psych professionals we have been told he learned nothing education wise for 3 years at this setting so obviously it was not the right setting. He wasn’t learning, he was ill and and mentally ill yet we were being told he was fine: how can you trust an education system that lets schools lie like this?
He started to become physically ill going into school and he was very obviously extremely distressed about school and showing signs of extreme distress. It got so bad he was having vagal responses (absences) in school. The school still insisted they were meeting need. We have removed my son from the school and he is doing well but on professional assessment by educational and ed psych professionals we have been told he learned nothing education wise for 3 years at this setting so obviously it was not the right setting. He wasn’t learning, he was ill and and mentally ill yet we were being told he was fine: how can you trust an education system that lets schools lie like this?
What happened next...
We are awaiting placement and my child is learning and engaging well with education at home. He has very marked anxiety in relation to structured learning and can become very upset and his self esteem has been badly damaged by school but the love for knowledge is there and he is doing really well.
How I think schools could be better.
There needs to be more of a focus on schools acknowledging when they can’t meet need and acceptance that some children can’t learn and socialise concurrently.