What hope for AS kids Gove's changes

National Curriculum sets expected attainment levels. So when we attain them is part of what's set.

Schools don't help their performance scores by having lots of pupils doing resits or sitting exams a year after the curriculum requires. Even if that concession is to help disabled kids.

Remember this Government thinks the triumph of the Olympic Paraplegic games is the answer to all our problems. Treat yourself to a read of Issue 2 of asprire 2 Fulfilling Potential: making it happen - the Governments's on line magazine for young disabled.

Sport will secure equality of opprtunity for all disabled young people.... well....maybe for some

NC is more about what subjects are taught and how isn't it?  At which age exams are sat could be changed without changing the NC surely?

I don't know if you can claim national curriculum isn't the problem.

National Curriculum and Exam Boards set the attainment goals for teaching. Increasingly it is a very rigid framework, directed at pushing through the able majority towards high scores.

What this is doing is increasing the marginalisation of less able children, including many disabled children, who cannot fit into that framework.

Some schools are offloading their SEN responsinbilities to increase their performance scores, leading to ghettoisation of less able children in those schools attemptong full SEN provision, but inevitably getting lower scores and more criticism for underperforming.

Added to this Gove and his associates have imposed various bizarre requirements on teachers, like minimum marks to certain disadvantaged groups, to artificially peg performance.

What this Government is doing to education is truly horrendous. But they have enough support from the electorate to get away with it.

I think we are witnessing one of the most appaling and shameful episodes in British history. This Government is experimenting with society to achieve ideological ends, while supposedly getting us out of recession, and in the muddle no-one can see the level of damage being done.

We just have to hope that in the near future people like Gove are called to account for this madness.

I thought my son would benefit from education in a mainstream school, I wanted him to learn important life and social skills to be able to cope one day in ‘the real world’. However even though he has come a long way, I now feel that we have failed him. He is in Yr 9 and about to embark on his GCSE’s which the school feel he is not ready for, academically he is very bright but he uses his energy trying to cope with the school environment.  He was recently assessed and the psychologist said that he is creating a safety zone for himself, he puts his bag on the table in front of him, knees come up and head goes down. Of course the teacher then tells him to sit up etc and when he doesn’t comply ends up in detention. So the environment is not right for him.  He also requires one to one help as he is severely dyslexic, but I am told that this is not possible, so the school is under resourced. Therefore there needs to be more specialist schools or the current school system needs to radically change in order to accommodate ASD children. I was told by the school that with the new changes, it will make it more difficult for my son as exams will be taken at the same time, ready or not, and only one re-sit will be permissible, and teachers will have more pressure to reach targets, meaning that they will have to come down heavier on those not ‘up to scratch’. I do know exactly what I want for my son and that is an education, which he is entitled to, and the support necessary to achieve. I do not feel it is the curriculum at fault but the lack of support. So I have to agree with intense as things stand. The problem now for my Son is trying to access a specialist unit at this late stage. I do feel very frustrated at the moment and like I have let my son down.

Where is your evidence of the "raft of parents"?  Studies/research please?

I would imagine you may have misunderstood, as I said above, it's not the NC that is the problem, it's lack of flexibility from schools/teachers and lack of reasonable adjustments.  That doesn't have to be related to teaching by ability rather than age.  Schools as a whole fail children, it's just that they fail neurodiverse children even more.  You could say that a parent of a gifted & talented child didn't like the fact that classes were mixed ability, that's not an issue specific to ASD.  I don't agree with inclusion for lots of reasons but mixed ability classes don't work anyway in my view.

In my eldest child's previous primary school, she was held back in learning because of the children at the lower end of ability and she was bored.  When I approached her teacher about this his reply was "we like it like that because the more able children can help the less able children out".  I should have been charging a consultancy fee for her.

Social skills can be taught outside of school, although they are often part of the input in an ASC unit (as in my youngest's child's school).  Life skills are just that, life skills, learned along the way and with the bulk of the teaching of that side of things coming from family.

A school for high-functioning children is what I want, I can't speak for others.  I know my children will learn as they are very keen to do so, perhaps in a style that differs from the traditional way in school and with more flexibility, but I don't have a problem per se with the NC.  I just want a school that understands their difficulties and is set-up to avoid problems known to be an issue in autism.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/oct/10/britains-divided-school-system-report

 "We need to change the way we teach, we need to make it more attractive, more fun, take the pressure away so we are not just worrying about the amount of information we can stuff into children's brains,"

According to the EHRC report, bullying is rife in the classrooms, corridors and playgrounds of Britain's school. Two thirds of young people claimed to have been bullied at some point between 2004 and 2006. That proportion rises to four fifths when it comes to children with special educational needs (SEN). One woman writing on Mumsnet said her son had high-functioning autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. "He was bullied daily," she wrote. "The children knew that they could coax a reaction from him, so would goad him and call him names, walk up behind him and poke him like a dog and then run off." Yet it was her son who was excluded.

It is a depressingly familiar story to campaigner Julie Maynard, who has a 15-year-old autistic son, Joshua, and who has represented dozens of other parents of children at the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal.

"Are you really surprised that children who are perceived as different are bullied? The sadness is that many SEN children do not have the language ability or cognitive ability to defend themselves," said Maynard. She talked of children with learning disabilities and autism having to "fend for themselves in dizzy, mainstream schools, unsupervised at lunch and play".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5350506.stm

http://www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk/lib/liDownload/236/Schools%20in%20England%20are%20failing%2020,000%20children%20with%20autism.pdf?CFID=14760677&CFTOKEN=46780697

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3309458/Put-your-autistic-children-into-a-primary-school-or-well-prosecute-families-are-told.html

http://annakonline.com/ako-partners/childline/scandal-of-mainstream-schools-failing-to-tackle-bullying-of-kids-with-autism

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/327072/My-autistic-son-has-been-cheated-out-of-an-education

http://www.ukessays.com/essays/education/the-problems-autistic-children-face-in-mainstream-schools-education-essay.php

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2006/dec/12/schools.uk1

http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/3028/1/Meehan11EdPsychD.pdf

There's hundreds out there...maintstream is just not equipped for autistic children and they are definitely not equipped for it.

There is a raft of parents out there who have concluded that the NC is unsuitable for their children, and instead, they want a curriculum that is tailored to their childrens specific needs and requirements with support in important areas they are having difficulty with, capitalising on their talents and strengths, and providing the life skills and social skills to function successfully as an adult. They are not interested in ASD schools that offer the NC with its classes arranged by age rather than ability. Many ASD children have uneven profiles which means that the school has to teach by ability on a subject by subject basis rather than by what the NC specifies for their age. Time also has to be found to teach life skills and social skills and there isn't much time left in a week after teaching the NC subjects...

This is why many parents feel that they have no choice but to home educate.

A school for high-functioning children is nothing to do with the National Curriculum Arran.  It's do do with the environment of the school, the provision of reasonable adjustments/flexibility, understanding of sensory problems etc.  Have no idea why you are blaming parents when it has nothing to do with parents and everything to do with the Government and lack of autism awareness generally.

What exactly do you want out of a school for high-functioning ASD kids? Do you just want to replicate the NC or do you want a different curriculum? If you want a different curriculum then what do you want the school to teach?

I'm no fan of Gove but I still think there are too many parents who haven't clearly made up their minds what they want which is why there is a weak opposition on the ASD front.

I agree it is a very regrettable time we are going through. The current Government, not just Gove, looks for scapegoats to cover for their incompetence, and I guess they feel their supporters will not rebel against them over those disabled children who will suffer disadvantage.

You have to face the reality. Gove is a nightmare for teachers as well as pupils. But Gove reflects the Government he belongs to, and that Government can rely on a significant part of the electorate who probably feel the same way.

We're in a recession. For all the talk of recovery it is frankly barely detectable if at all. The present government is supported by people who have mostly profited by the recession and who see the losers as deserving what they get.

Its like Maggie all over again.... a few eggs will get broken. Gove's behaviour is deplorable, inexcusable, unprofessional, even incompetent, but he is backed by his supporters, and that's the trouble.

If we are to have recourse, it may have to be the Courts in Europe. And NAS, well, lots of good intentions but not bite....

I was badly let down during my schooling; classed as 'non-academic' and slow, I was placed in the lowest sets for most subjects apart from English.

During an educational psychologist assessment when I was 10, my verbal IQ was shown to be 111, but my performance IQ was only 68, so no global IQ could be given. Even my verbal IQ had its disparities: low score in arithmatic, low score in comprehension, but a very high mechanical reading score (at the 15 year old level), and my general knowledge was very good.

I went through school thinking I was stupid, when I am clearly not (having a 2.1 history degree under my belt, 8 GCSE grades A-C, and A and B A levels). For example, my mum has told me that my creative abilities and art-work were not too bad, but I failed GCSE art because I did not understand the instructions or course-work requirements. The same happened with French - I started off with potential to get an A, but was then placed in the lowest set because the teachers did not understand my learning style.

I think the NAS needs some teeth to tackle this with.

I never did agree with inclusion.  High functioning autistic children need their own special schools that can cater for what they need.

Hi - enlightened local authorities or parents with autistic children were the prime movers in setting up autistic schools.  Maybe we'll get a few more with the academies??  Don't know what anyone thinks about that suggestion.  We certainly need more suitable provision for many of our children who suffer greatly as things stand.

Hi Hopeful,

I wouldn't worry too much about this new blah from Gove as I do not see it being implemented any time soon.

He does seem like a carer politican as he is in the job to climb higher and for the pay.

I think there are other areas of the education system he's been tampering with others need to consider.

urspecial

from teachers and parents alike I hear nothing but what  dreadful things this man is doing to our education system. my eldest daughter is in private education as the local school had failed her badly - it was looking like she had special needs. When tested by another school, no SEN just a bad school system that had plonked her where it was easiest as she's not going to get them climbing the league table ladder. She works hard and does her best - she's far from acedemic but the education system let her down. My 5 yr old with AS is home schooled as no one could convince me they knew what they were doing and the "plan" was to suck it and see, so to speak. He would have been left to crash and burn before any intervention, and even then that would be hit and miss. So I did not feel I was able to trust them. He may go into main stream, he may stay home and have a tutor - when it's appropriate - we are Just going to take it one step at a time. 

He can't hold a pencil easily and yet plays chess - there's def no hole that will fit him in mainstream! 

School is not everything, an education is.