Postby Dud1ey » Fri Aug 30, 2024 10:20 am
I’d really love to see the impact on SEN covered as that’s a real issue. As the above poster says, neurodiverse children often do not suit the usual set-up of a state secondary - very large intake, very little personalised pastoral care, even where there are TAs/LSAs they are usually dedicated to the children with the most severe behavioural issues (which of course makes sense). The noise and size of the schools can be overwhelming and distressing for an autistic child for example.
Not all autistic children manage to get EHCPs. It takes years and due to lack of funding they are much harder to get than a few years ago. So many parents who have decided to make sacrifices for their SEN children are being whacked with an additional fee increase because the EHCP exemption for the VAT on school fees is very narrow.
Now I appreciate that even being able to consider funding for independent schools for SEN is a privilege. And I also appreciate that the VAT has been on the cards for a while. But the way it was discussed pre election was that SEN would be protected. And they are not for a large number of people. The SEN friendly (not special schools, but smaller more nurturing schools that are more welcoming of SEN) are often not the larger more established schools that charge high fees and have expensive facilities. Many of us would have budgeted on that basis. I hope the journalist can focus on this issue instead. In my case I would have preferred to send my child to a state school like my other children, but the options presented to us did not inspire us with confidence that the SEN would be adequately catered for.