what education problems?

Hi,

I'm maybe not best placed to be commenting here as my son has not yet started school but I already have concerns (as posted on another thread), therefore I do have an opinion on this.

From my experience, school teachers and nursery teachers are a bit hit and miss with skills in this area. My son's nursery keyworker is fantastic and has completed a lot of further training but she has done this because she has an autistic child herself and therefore has an interest and dedication. As the nursery knew about my son's situation before hand, they were able to place him under this ladies care intentionally and for that I will be eternally grateful. However, I know of a mother who placed her son in a private nursery and they had no clue of how to deal with his autism, set him back a few steps and she paid for it!

Outwith autism, I think there are many varied needs of children which are not being met in our school systems. The teacher of my elder daughter told me last year that my daughter was 'new ground' for her as they had never had a child with such a high reading level in the school before and they didnt know what to do for her. A year later her new teacher has stopped giving her the standard reading books as there is no point and they bore her. Effectively they didnt know what to do so are doing nothing and she is stagnating.This school in particular seams to want only this middleing group of children with no specialised needs (I dont believe they exist) and can not cope with anything outside it.

I dont know how much focus is on dealing with children with specialised needs in teaching degrees but surely, this is where training on the matter should begin. Similarly, student teachers require to do a number of placements, is there any requirement that at least one of these placements should be within a specialised school? More focus during teacher training potentially would spark more interest among teachers and promt more of them to follow specialised careers or even just aquire extra training on the issue. Like I said, currently its hit or miss whether your child has a teacher who is willing and able to provide the support they need. I know of 2 autistic children who have been removed from the school my son is meant to be attending and i'm not holding out much hope that he'll get what he needs from them.

I know there are fantastic teachers out there with the patience, ability and want to help children like mine develop and learn but there is no standardisation of basic knowledge and awareness. In the case of autism and related conditions, it is not that children are just simply not improving because there is no support, it is actually detrimental and can make the child's specific symptoms worse which is unacceptable.

Sorry if I went on a rant,

Cheers, Silver

Hi,

I'm maybe not best placed to be commenting here as my son has not yet started school but I already have concerns (as posted on another thread), therefore I do have an opinion on this.

From my experience, school teachers and nursery teachers are a bit hit and miss with skills in this area. My son's nursery keyworker is fantastic and has completed a lot of further training but she has done this because she has an autistic child herself and therefore has an interest and dedication. As the nursery knew about my son's situation before hand, they were able to place him under this ladies care intentionally and for that I will be eternally grateful. However, I know of a mother who placed her son in a private nursery and they had no clue of how to deal with his autism, set him back a few steps and she paid for it!

Outwith autism, I think there are many varied needs of children which are not being met in our school systems. The teacher of my elder daughter told me last year that my daughter was 'new ground' for her as they had never had a child with such a high reading level in the school before and they didnt know what to do for her. A year later her new teacher has stopped giving her the standard reading books as there is no point and they bore her. Effectively they didnt know what to do so are doing nothing and she is stagnating.This school in particular seams to want only this middleing group of children with no specialised needs (I dont believe they exist) and can not cope with anything outside it.

I dont know how much focus is on dealing with children with specialised needs in teaching degrees but surely, this is where training on the matter should begin. Similarly, student teachers require to do a number of placements, is there any requirement that at least one of these placements should be within a specialised school? More focus during teacher training potentially would spark more interest among teachers and promt more of them to follow specialised careers or even just aquire extra training on the issue. Like I said, currently its hit or miss whether your child has a teacher who is willing and able to provide the support they need. I know of 2 autistic children who have been removed from the school my son is meant to be attending and i'm not holding out much hope that he'll get what he needs from them.

I know there are fantastic teachers out there with the patience, ability and want to help children like mine develop and learn but there is no standardisation of basic knowledge and awareness. In the case of autism and related conditions, it is not that children are just simply not improving because there is no support, it is actually detrimental and can make the child's specific symptoms worse which is unacceptable.

Sorry if I went on a rant,

Cheers, Silver