Teaching assistants and the extras that schools provided nowadays

It was the Warnock Report.

I seem to remember
that there was some research/report which said that children did better in mainstream. Would have been in the eighties or very early nineties. I was suspicious that it was for money saving reasons! When I first started teaching I had a downs syndrome girl. Lovely pupil but I had no clue as to how to help her! Her parents were adamant that she should stay in mainstream but eventually realised that a special school would best fit her needs. She went from a class of 30 to one of 6...

The requirements for schools have changed dramatically in the past 40 years.

Many people forget that until the 1970 Education (Handicapped Children) Act many children with mental health and developmental disorders were excluded from schooling. They were considered to be unsuitable for education and local authorities were not required to provide any education or school places. Many were placed in long term institutions or psychiatric hospitals or kept at home.

That's good Anya. No such luck for the ones I was talking about.

I used to love my visits to Special Schools as part of my LEE role. The staff were very special people themselves and worked hard for, and with, their pupils.

I've just checked online and three of them are still open.

I agree that children and their behaviour has changed for a whole host of reasons. The special schools I was talking about were for very specific conditions not general behavioural issues nor were they huge. I mourn their loss. Such dedicated and informed people whose attitude to the children in their care was incredible. It used to be such a shock for parents when their child had to leave. I should say that I was a SALT and worked in special schools and mainstream ones too before moving on to adult services of which there were very few!

Ahhhh! But which came first....closing specialist schools and the 'insistence' of mainstreaming?

Also what was considered 'unsuitable' for a 'mainstream' school 50 odd years ago has now changed.

I'm not saying one is right and one is wrong its just a far more complex issue. In many cases schools are doing a fabulous job on a very limited budget and all those TAs who do a marvellous job giving their all are usually only on minimum wage.

Standard round our way is a class of 30 with one teacher and one teaching assistant. Inevitably within the 30 are a huge range of abilities etc

Inclusivity in schools is generally a good thing but it does have the potential to create difficulties in meeting the needs of all children in a class of 30. One class for six year olds had one teacher and a part time TA. The budget couldn't stretch to full time TAs for one child who was on rather autistic spectrum and not yet confirmed as needing special school. The second child who was eventually assessed as needing a small school that specialised in children who were persistently disruptive, aggressive and unable to learn, not least because of the chaos that was the child's home life. Forty years ago both those children would probably be in those huge boarding schools.
We want more for all our children and I'd be happy to pay more tax to ensure smaller classes, well qualified and supported staff and recognition of the excellent work in the majority of schools

Many Specific Learning Difficulties (autism, dyslexia, etc.) were not recognised and so these children struggled in man stream classes and teachers struggled without support.

I agree Morgana even nurseries have curriculums these days.

The soft introduction is not just due to your GS speech delay and shyness. It is standard practice now.
I have great admiration for SALTs my son was helped as a 3-4 yo. Lovely to hear your GS has caught up.

So much more is expected of children and their schools now. Certain levels of learning at a certain age for example. When my kids were at school it was all very laid back and quite frankly the teaching was poor. Standards now are much higher. Also much higher amount of paperwork! I suspect that in addition teachers and teaching assistants now spend more time and energy in helping pupils whose parents are unable or unwilling to properly fulfill their parental role.

There used to be a wide variety of "specialised" schools including ones for children with speech and language problems as well as for more obviously learning disabled children and those with physical, visual or hearing problems. The insistence on mainstreaming for all has led to closures of so many of these excellent places. A very big loss of staff expertise and experience that the employment of a few classroom assistants and volunteers can't hope to compensate for.

That's a good point Jane
DGS has now caught up with his speech and would I believe be in main stream education.

But I was just thinking of the things that require the schools (of today) budget to stretch in away that previous generations school budget didn't have to.

(Haven't had to ponder about this subject for a number of years! )

Possibly the extra classroom input is due to children with additional support needs who might previously have been in special schools which have now been closed?