Special schools in city 'will not be closed', says education trust
THE future of Lincolnshire's special schools has been opened up to parents.
They attended a county council consultation at the Bentley Hotel in North Hykeham.
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Pupils enjoying a game of musical chairs at St Francis Special School in Lincoln.
Paul Snook, of the CfBT Education Trust, Lincolnshire's school improvement service, presented a broad outline of what the review may entail.
Parents had worried some special schools would close, which he said was not the case.
He said: "It's not about closing special schools or saving money. We do have an aspiration that needs are met in mainstream schools, rather than just special schools."
The council currently spends £24 million on educating county pupils with additional needs, £7.5 million on transporting them around the county and £6 million on the 79 children educated out of the county because the authority cannot meet their needs.
The consultation was called after lessons were learnt in the consultation process into funding to schools for special needs.
The review has been set in motion to address several issues, one of the biggest being the miles children travel to get the right provision – sometimes from the deep south of the county to Lincoln.
According to the plan, it wants to make education locally accessible and inclusive.
Possibilities include mergers with academies and the federating of schools – when two schools are governed by one body and an executive head.
Heather Busby, 43, of Pointon, near Sleaford, said: "I'm not entirely convinced they will not close special schools.
"My son has massive physical needs. Intellectually, he is fine. He went to mainstream school, but, because of the pressures, it was not appropriate for him.
"I'm worried that instead of taking centres of excellence and putting them in other areas of the county, they are going to take special units and stick them with academies."
The feedback from parents will be used to compile a report to go to children's services who will then put together a proposal.
There will be public consultations held in the autumn on the proposal.
5 Comments
by Lorena Hall, Lincoln
Friday, July 02 2010, 4:22PM
“I would just ask parents who read anons comment to not let it get to them. that person does not have a clue about our children and their lives. It is not our kids who have the disability; it is those who fail to see past their own eyes that have a very definite disability namely anon!!”
by Angela Finney, Lincoln
Friday, July 02 2010, 3:07PM
“I think anon should get some balls and put their name to a comment like that.Personally,as a disabled childs parent and tax payer with non disabled children I think the money being spent on acadamies is a disgrace as funds are being diverted away from special schools.These are not children and young people with special educational needs who could be integated into normal schools but children with complex medical conditions and disabilities who can never achieve a mainstream education.Seriously,with all the things our taxes do cover,what person would deny a child the chance to be educated to the level they can reach!!”
by Aimee, Lincoln
Friday, July 02 2010, 2:09PM
“Anon mark 1,
I would agree that tax payers¿ money should be spent in the best interests of the local and national community. However you seem to assume that educating a minority of people with disabilities will not be in the tax payers¿ best interest. On this point I cannot agree as I have researched some of the greatest influencers of our world such as, Thomas Edison, Beethoven, van Gogh, Sir Issac Newton and Napoleon Bonaparte and discovered that they all had disabilities. Therefore I cannot follow your argument that educating people with disabilities will automatically mean a deficit to the tax payer or society in the long run. I feel it is impossible to tell which children, with or without a disability, will be of benefit to society in the long term because I am not mystic meg.
Regardless of a child¿s abilities we offer our children the right to be educated, something which most first world countries are proud of. In this case a review to find the most effective way to do this in Lincolnshire will hopefully lead to a more effective system for all children, although this will largely depend on the success of LCC and the effectiveness of consultations.
I would ask you to consider the benefits that children and adults with disabilities can contribute to society as a whole. I firmly believe that a strong and supportive education is the gift we can offer all children in our society and the by being world class in our education system we offer our future generations the best chance of success.
Key to this consultation and subsequent review will be a deep understanding of the needs of children with disabilities and how we can create an effective way to educate our children. I wonder if we would consider this a waste if we had the benefit of seeing the huge difference some of these children could make to the world.
So please, can we accept that Hitler failed and we thankfully do not have an ¿elite race¿ running the world. We are all different with different needs and just because a child has a disability it doesn¿t mean they stop having rights as children.”
by anon, lincoln
Friday, June 25 2010, 6:41PM
“You are obviously a very narrow minded, heartless person to say such a thing, those schools provide specialist education and support to disabled children and their families, I wouldnt say within a tiny minority either!!”
by anon, lincoln
Friday, June 25 2010, 9:27AM
“These schools waste enormous ammounts of tax payers money to look after a tiny minority and they should all be closed...”