ii) Training
There are those that state categorically that inclusion of special needs children into mainstream schools is imperative and those who argue that schools which cater specifically for children with special needs and where staff are specifically trained to meet these needs is a more realistic option for children with special
needs.
A report by the BBC news stated that (4)“Ofsted Inspectors criticised mainstream schools for relying too heavily on teaching assistants to support SEN pupils, saying experienced specialist teachers were more effective” Special needs schooling compared, BBC News (online), 19th November 2006, from . The article goes onto say (5)“The training and development agency must ensure teachers receive more training on issues relating to pupils with learning difficulties and disabilities, inspectors said” Special needs schooling compared, BBC News (online), 19th November 2006, from .
iii) Funding
Funding for early years setting is hard to come by and getting the required information to apply for funding is extremely hard. It seems all government money goes into mainstream and special needs schools (6)“Spending on SEN nationally in 2004–05 was around £3.8 billion and spending of about £4.1 billion is planned for 2005–06 (an increase of 7.8%)— some 13% of all school education spending.” The House of Commons – Education and Skills Committee report on Special Educational Needs, Third Report of Session 2005-06 Volume 1.
3) EVALUATION
Our setting experiences with integration of children with special educational needs
I have been working in early year's settings for the best part of six years now and I have observed a greater number of children with severe special needs (specifically learning difficulties and behavioural difficulties) being integrated into these settings. I am currently working within one of the settings. We gain as much information as possible from parents regarding their child’s needs before the child starts at nursery but our experience has been that even at this stage parents are not aware that there child has a special need so when their child starts nursery we have to try and assess what exactly that child’s difficulty is and then set up and IEP followed by professional intervention. Every child who enters the nursery is valued and supported accordingly. Small nurseries such as ours may have only 2 members of staff for every 8 children, and currently we do only have 2 members of staff, we sometimes struggle to plan 2 different curriculums’. The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice document states
(7)“When an early education practitioner who works day to day with the child or the SENCO identifies a child with special educational needs they should devise interventions that are additional to or different from those provided as part of the setting’s usual curriculum.” Special Educational Needs, Code of Practice, (November 2001) published by Department for Education and Skills. If one practitioner is taken away to plan and work with that particular child it means that the other practitioner is left with 15 children to cater too, so it may be to the detriment of the other children.
There may not be these issues with a larger nursery which has a greater of number of staff to play around with and with some schools there may even be a dedicated SENCO working in partnership with class teachers.
4) CRITICAL ANALYSIS
i) Background Information on the works to be critiqued
There are two works to be critiqued the first is by author Kenn Jupp and the book title is Everyone Belongs. 1992, London. Kenn Jupp is a qualified teacher in the field of special education. He was appointed to the headship of Overdale School in Stockport a new school with both children with Severe Learning difficulties working alongside mainstream children. The second is a document produced by The Integration Alliance (Disabled people and Allies Working for Inclusive Education), which is a member organisation of the British Council of Organisations of Disabled People, which is published by the Integration Alliance, London, 1992.
Kenn Jupp’s bias is toward inclusion in mainstream schools for all. He goes onto discuss the immorality of segregated schools, He remarks that “the mark of a civilised society is that it supports its weakest member”. He goes onto say that
“When admitted to a special school that caters primarily for those who have severe learning difficulty, it is inevitable that children with speech difficulties will be grouped with others who also have problems of communication.
How do we expect such children to develop communication skills when they are unable to hear see good standards going on … Similarly, our special schools only accommodate children who have a range of needs, such as challenging behaviour or poor social skills, or perhaps high dependency. This presents very little opportunity for any child to witness good models and in general creates a poor learning environment.”
The author also explains that funding a special school is a waste of money, he states that “a major proportion of this extensive financial commitment is not directly effective as far as the child with special needs is concerned”, he goes onto say that “Local Education Authorities spend huge amounts of money on transport costs, maintenance, and teachers salaries”. The Integration Alliance (Disabled People and Allies working for Inclusive Education) agrees with this and states that “The Government Audit Commission states, in its research document on Special Education, that £1 billion per year is spent on special schools”. They go onto to say “we would advocate transferring these funds away from unnecessary school buildings, especially boarding provision, into the salaries of support staff in mainstream schools, and adaptations of mainstream school buildings”.
Kenn Jupp also says “As things stand, equal opportunity is not something that people who have a severe learning difficulty can realistically expect either during their school years or in adulthood. After leaving their special school, we can with some degree of reliability predict the way in which their lives will continue to be severely limited in opportunity, status and just about everything else” The Integration Alliance states similar
“The long-term exclusion of any young people from the mainstream is socially and educationally harmful to both groups of people and segregation of young people evidentially leads to segregation in adult life, and is recognised by disabled people as one of the fundamental causes of our inequality in society. Integration is therefore a Human Rights Issue. The breaking of relationships, which are an inevitable result of segregation, is the most serious form of social deprivation, and in itself damages young people's ability to learn”.
Kenn Jupp remarks that at the Overdale School they introduced a playgroup for young children, both non-disabled children and children with severe and quite profound learning difficulties attended and the reaction of the non-disabled children toward those with special needs was remarkable, to them, disability was invisible.
ii) Conclusions to the work critiqued
There is much to agree with in both pieces of work. Certainly Kenn Jupp and the Integration Alliance tries to persuade the reader that special schools segregating pupils is morally wrong. Kenn Jupp does however state that the staff within special schools have skills and knowledge that could easily be transferred to working within a mainstream school and money certainly could be saved by not investing more money into building special schools.
Kenn Jupp stated that non-disabled children did not see disability whereas my own experience is the opposite as many children in my current setting often ask questions as to why a child has this disability and why they are reacting in a certain way.
5) RECOMMENDATIONS
i) Mainstream or Special School
I feel that with all the help and support provided by the District SENCO, The SEN code of Practice and the SEN Toolkit, it is easier to support children with severe special needs in our early years setting but feel a dual placement system would be better. This is when the child attends a mainstream setting as well as receiving specialist support outside of the nursery setting. I do not think that the best place for a very young child is a special needs early years setting. Maybe the question is not where the child is cared for or taught but the quality of education and care that the child receives. Play is an important element for any child’s learning, this is especially true for young children with special needs too and the best place for this in my opinion is at a nursery/early years setting.
In our setting we have come to realise that very often what maybe thought of as a learning difficulty usually ends up as just delayed learning.
ii) Training
An Early Years SENCO needs to attend just 3.5 days general special needs training days per year, which in my opinion is woefully inadequate. The House of Commons – Education and Skills Committee report on Special Educational Needs states that (8)“The Government needs to radically increase investment in training its workforce so that all staff, including teaching staff, are fully equipped and resourced to improve outcomes for children with SEN and disabilities”
The House of Commons – Education and Skills Committee report on Special Educational Needs, Third Report of Session 2005-06 Volume 1.
Many teachers are receiving training (9)“At the initial training level, we now find an insistence that all teachers in training must be exposed to a compulsory component concerned with meeting special needs in the ordinary school” Mongon, D et al, Special Needs in Ordinary Schools, 1989, Cassell Educational Ltd, London. So I therefore think that Early Years Practitioners also need special needs inclusion training whilst undergoing their initial childcare training.
iii) Funding
It would also be beneficial for early year’s settings to receive funding for those days that a child/children attends the setting to employ a specialist support assistant to ensure that the child is accessing all areas especially if your setting is a small working on the minimum amount of staff.
REFERENCES
Critiqued Work
Jupp, K. (1992) Everyone Belongs: Mainstream Education for Children with severe learning difficulties, Souvenir Press, London
The Integration Alliance (Disabled people and Allies Working for Inclusive Education), “The Inclusive Education System: A National Policy for Fully Integrated Education” (Date accessed 22nd January 2007) which is published by the Integration Alliance, London, 1992 from http://www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies/archiveuk/integration%20alliance/inclusive%20ed%20system.pdf
Books
1Alcott, M. (1997) An Introduction to Children with Special Educational Needs, Hodder & Stoughton Educational, London.
7Special Educational Needs, Code of Practice, (November 2001) published by Department for Education and Skills
9Mongon, D et al, Special Needs in Ordinary Schools, 1989, Cassell Educational Ltd, London
Websites
2BBC News Education (online Wednesday 8th June 2005) “Special needs’ education queried” 14th November 2006, (Date accessed 1st February 2007) from
3BBC News Education (online Wednesday 12th July 2006), “Special needs Schooling Compared” (Date accessed on 19th November 2006), from
4BBC News Education (online Wednesday 12th July 2006), “Special needs Schooling Compared” (accessed on 19th November 2006), from
5BBC News Education (online Wednesday 12th July 2006), “Special needs Schooling Compared” (accessed on 19th November 2006), from
6House of Commons Education and Skills Committee – Special Educational Needs – third Report of Session 2005-06 Volume 1 Ordered by The House of Commons printed 21 June 2006 (Date accessed 27th February 2007) from URL
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmeduski/478/478i.pdf
8House of Commons Education and Skills Committee – Special Educational Needs – third Report of Session 2005-06 Volume 1 Ordered by The House of Commons printed 21 June 2006 (Date accessed 27th February 2007) from URL
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alcott, M. (1997) An Introduction to Children with Special Educational Needs, Hodder & Stoughton Educational, London.
Benton, P. and O’Brien T. Special Needs and the Beginning Teacher, 2000, London
Farrell, M. The Special Education Handbook, 1997, David Fulton Publishers, London
Friel J, Children with Special Needs – Caught in the Acts, 1991, Jessica Kingsley, London
Jupp, K. (1992) Everyone Belongs: Mainstream Education for Children with severe learning difficulties, Souvenir Press, London
Mongon, D et al, Special Needs in Ordinary Schools, 1989, Cassell Educational Ltd, London
Porter, L. Educating Young Children with Special Needs, 2002, Allen and Unwin, Australia
Roffey, S. Special Needs in the Early Years, 1999, David Fulton Publishers, London
Westwood, P. Commonsense Methods for Children with Special Needs, 1993, Routledge, London