Literacy news
The Poverty Trap
15 Sep 2009
As a new report lays bare the bleak connection between economic disadvantage and educational difficulties, local authorities are sending SEN pupils to mainstream schools that are ill-equipped to cope. Kerra Maddern reports.
Pupils from poorer families are twice as likely to be officially diagnosed with special educational needs (SEN) as other pupils, new official statistics have shown. And head teachers believe there is now a cultural divide for SEN, as more and more children with difficulties are being sent to mainstream schools.
Figures for January 2008 show that among those in primary schools eligible for free school meals, 28 per cent had SEN; just 13 per cent of all pupils were eligible for free school meals in the same period. In secondary schools, 12 per cent overall were entitled to free school meals, but among SEN pupils this rose to 25 per cent.
“Disability cuts across all classes, it doesn’t matter about background,” said Eddy Jackson, head of Highfurlong, a specialist school in Blackpool. “But there are now many cultural connections between disadvantage and SEN. “Those from poorer families often don’t get the same rich language experience, and their parents have different expectations.”
The statistics also show a sharp rise in the number of children with SEN without statements - the annually reviewed written record that ensures a child receives the support they need - being put in mainstream primary and secondary schools, as well as independent schools. Additionally, the trend of fewer pupils being statemented has continued, with a 2 per cent fall between 2007 and 2008, while numbers attending special schools have stayed relatively static, accounting for 1.1 per cent of all pupils since 2004.
But there has been a large rise in the number of SEN children in secondary schools without statements - up from 13.6 per cent in 2004 to 17.8 per cent four years later.
The numbers of SEN pupils on roll at local authority-run and independent schools have been decreasing slowly since 2004, although the private sector saw a small increase in 2008. This is partly due to falling birth rates and also because of the rising number of SEN children being put in mainstream primaries and secondaries.
In 2004, 16.1 per cent of children in primary school had SEN; by 2008 this had risen to 18.1 per cent. Secondaries have seen an even bigger rise - up from 13.6 per cent to 17.8 four years later. But there has also been a slight increase in the numbers with statements sent to special schools.
(TES September 2009)
