I know many autistic children who suffer with severe school anxiety. My own child was one of them. The number of them who would respond positively to the head teacher rocking up at the house and asking them to get in their car is precisely zero.
Headteachers should pick up absent pupils from home, says education secretary Gillian Keegan
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Keegan apparently thinks that children and young people school refuse because cba. Good luck with that, lady
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And that's before we even touch the feasibility of head teachers giving up their day jobs to drive around the catchment area checking in on every sickness absence
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If I could have got my child into school, if it was possible to get my child into school, my child would have been in school. It's not feckless parenting. It's a collapse of CAMHS funding, specialist support services, SEND provision, everything else this government has vandalised
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Why I am focusing on autistic children and young people:
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@TabitaSurge
I don’t think this is aimed at autistic kids - that said it’s still a bullsh*t proposal.
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@mcdon_al
It's not explicitly aimed at autistic kids. But if you look at which students constitute the group who are persistently school absent, voila
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@TabitaSurge
I would have left scratch marks in the walls as they dragged me out. 100% this would have made me less likely to ever go to school again
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@stand_for_all
Oh yes. One forced-schooling experience as traumatic as that is more than enough to put an absolute line under the possibility of reintegration into mainstream school. I speak from painful experience
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@TabitaSurge
What a nightmare.
What happens when they freak out? Do the head teachers call the cops? What happens when they freak out even more? Do they get shot?
Not as likely in the UK i presume but power in the face of anxiety is frightening.
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@TabitaSurge
On a practical level this is such a ridiculous idea
- car insurance issues
- safeguarding (kid alone in car with HT)
- Heads just don’t have time to pop out of school like this
Some times these politicians need to learn it’s better to say nothing.
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@TabitaSurge
The minister’s proposal is a nonsense. As a retired special school head I would not have countenanced such an approach for the very reasons you cite. What disturbs me is how out of touch a Secretary of State has to be to propose such an ill thought out and simplistic idea.
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@TabitaSurge
You've spent years garnering the skills and experience to be a Head.. Obviously these are best put to use running a taxi service.
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@TabitaSurge
I made the mistake of reading replies on posts about this. So little understanding. My lo, as far as we are aware, has no SEND needs, but this would not help him at all
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@TabitaSurge
There are schools who physically drag children in kicking and screaming. These are not safe places to leave children. It's devastating how many children we meet in the home ed community who've been seriously mistreated.
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@TabitaSurge
Gillian clearly hadn’t read the dfe guidance on attendance and mental health, before opening her gob…
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