Of course I can’t possibly know the answer to that question as it relates to your school – but I can offer one possible answer which many special needs teachers have given me when I have spoken with them.
And indeed it is an answer that I believe many special needs co-ordinators would agree with.
It is the issue of managing parental expectations in terms of what the school can offer and what the special needs department of your school can do.
Because so many special needs co-ordinators have said that this is a particular issue for them, my colleagues and I who have been working on Special Needs Week have made “Managing Parental Expectations” one of the key themes on the Special Needs Week website.
The aim of Special Needs Week which runs from 13 to 17 June is to help teachers across the school understand the vast range of work that their colleagues in the Special Needs department are facing on a daily basis.
The site contains details of over sixty different special needs that schools are now facing, along with information about products and materials that can be used to support SENCos in their work.
There is also a review of what the law says in relation to special needs for each of the four constituent parts of the UK, as well as a look at the growing issue of mental health problems among young people.
But my own view remains that it is the management of parental expectations that is a core issue for SENCos – which is why our website has a particular focus on this issue.
The article on parental expectations is here, and I do hope that both you and your special needs colleagues find it and the rest of the Special Needs Week website to be of interest. You can reach the home page of the site here.
If you have any thoughts or questions about our work in trying to support Special Needs teachers and raising the profile of special needs among all teachers, I would be very interested in hearing from you. Please do drop me a line.
Tony Attwood
Joint co-ordinator, Special Needs Week
Special Needs Week is kindly sponsored by Aspire GB, Clicker 7, The Dyscalculia Centre, Dysgraphia Help, Fisher-Marriott (StarSpell), Multi-Sensory Learning, ptuk, Robinswood Press, SENPress, Turnabout Programme, and Type and Test.