Leading UK academic addresses 28th annual IATSE conference

A leading academic said that the vast majority of parents, in a set of in-depth case studies preferred provision for children with SEN/disabilities in mainstream schools, but with resource support and expertise to assist the child, as opposed to placing children in specialist schools. Professor Brahm Norwich of the Graduate School of Education, University of Exeter was addressing delegates at the 28th annual conference of the Irish Association of Teachers in Special Education “Voices from the Classroom: Inclusion, Special Education or Inclusive Special Education” held at DCU Institute of Education, St Patrick’s Campus, May 27th- 28th.

Norwich, an expert in the area of special education addressed delegates on the trends of special school placement and the current issues of inclusion in UK/English schools.

In a wide ranging keynote address, Norwich detailed how the introduction of a National Curriculum in 1988 was an assessment driven tool; not designed to take account of Special Education Needs.

Despite the introduction of a National Curriculum for learning difficulties almost thirteen years later, it ultimately failed to avoid the situation whereby schools were judged solely in terms of exam results. The impact of this led to schools with lower results becoming less popular and children from disadvantaged backgrounds and with SEN disproportionately in lower attaining schools.

The impact of such a system was an ongoing friction between the aims of raising standards and special education needs inclusion in the school system. Gaps still remain in the UK policy on Special Education Needs, with very little reference to the function that units/centres can contribute to meeting the needs of children and satisfying parental concerns as contained in the new UK Special Education Needs Code of Practice (2014) and despite an earlier Ofsted report (2006) indicating some benefits of specialist units in mainstream schools, there has been very little research in this area of provision.