But I Smile Anyway…

Today, our prompt is courtesy of our darling Dar. Thank you, Dar! Please be sure to visit Dar’s blog to read her posts and say hello. And follow her while you’re there if you’re not already.

Your prompt for JusJoJan January 23rd, 2025 is “emphasis.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Ooh, interesting word!

I don’t know if enough emphasis is on the right areas of improvement in education, right now, in the UK.

Sure, they want to overhaul SEND provision (that is the provision for children with Special Educational Needs).

That would be brilliant, and a much-needed overhaul, as the present system ain’t working, my friends. Ask me, an experienced EYFS teacher, who has seen the steady changes in expectations, provision, budget, and level of need itself.

Who knows why it is happening, but every year, over the last five years we have seen an upturn in the amount of children requiring a lot more support, joining the Reception classes. But nothing has changed to support them.

In fact, those specialist provisions for children with more complex needs are shutting, and this means those children still need the education they are entitled to, but the environments they are forced to attend aren’t suitable for them.

Overstimulation, dysregulation, insufficient staff to support individual needs, stress on both children and their families, as well as the staff who are trying to cope with the usual cohort, plus a myriad of needs that they may not actually be trained to specifically support.

And then there are those children with what would be classed as low-level need. They still need individual support, however, with the majority of staff trying to juggle the needs of the complex SEN pupils, as well as teach a whole class, they get less attention.

It’s not fair on any of us. We feel, as staff, that we are failing. The parents feel school is failing them. That child is being failed because they cannot access what they need.

So, here’s hoping the emphasis is on funding and improving the provision, so we can truly support all children.

(Oh, and while we’re at it, that National Curriculum? It needs a total overhaul! The Covid generation will never ‘catch up’. We need to meet their needs where they are, and progress from that. New, realistic targets and goals, please.)

I’m not asking for too much, am I?