After 30 years in schools I have seen alot of change in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. Some is good – children aren’t often taken out of class to do “special work with Mrs Smith”. Mrs Smith was an unqualified person with no specialist training given a 2 minute chat asking her to “hear Jonny read please”. Nowadays the child is included in class based activities, not singled out. But, like our household budgets, schools are now struggling to manage increased costs of basics. Special needs budgets have to be prioritised and, sadly, needs ranked. Schools have little “spare” money for SEN support for what are lower needs or early screening for learning difficulty. Schools Week have raised this in their article of “crisis”. Many SEND parents know this all too well. But, schools, like families, have to focus on the things needed most (with SEND this is the higher needs). Sadly, that it’s not likely to be your child who is lost in the class of 30 even though they try hard but struggle every day.
All children should have teaching based on knowledge of how they learn best, what helps them and what their barriers are. Early dyslexia screening will show the “risk factor” for this learning difficulty. Dyslexia has different forms and affects children in a variety of ways. It isn’t always the “words move on the page”. Sometimes it is a spelling issue only. Dyslexia can lead to disorganisation, not being able to write at pace and sometimes occurs with other conditions. Despite being the most common learning difficulty, DFE data shows the least is spent on it out of all needs.
