The Consultation on Every School A Good School: The Way Forward for Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Inclusion will be brought to you via a province wide road show. You can see the dates and venues below. Go here: (www.deni.gov.uk/index/7special_educational_needs_pg/review_of_special_educational_needs_and_inclusion.htm) to the consultation document as well as the response document which all parents should make time to respond to.
I have already spoken at length about this document and every time I read it, it is more and more appalling. I personally cannot wait to scrutinise the civil servants who will be trying to present this abomination to parents and teachers during their upcoming road show. Should be a good laugh. I hope these individuals were picked for having thick skins because they are going to need them. I predict a no holds barred verbal assault from audiences province wide. If this does not happen, there is something terribly wrong. No parent, whether they have a child with special needs or not, could be happy about this document.
Particularly, parents of children with autism and other difficulties have to remember that the special needs budget is not and never should be culled from or included in any other pool of money. The budget for our children's education is and should always remain separate. What does a child with autism have in common with a child who is from the Travelling Community or a recently bereaved child or a looked after child?
My child's diagnosis is autism and is not a result of his culture (Travelling culture or any other culture) and will remain with him whether I am alive or dead. (Mind you, AutismNI/Autism Ulster are trying to prove the exact opposite right now, with their own roadshow 'Trauma of Autism' and psychotherapist Rosie Burrows is going around the province trying to drum up business for a nice little earner of a research project to prove that culture, the trauma of the Troubles, caused your child's autism - argggh - more on that later, much more!)
The consultation is ludicrous and an exercise in brinkmanship - let's see just how far we can push society before they revolt. The day Katrina Rooney leaves her post (or is unceremoniously pushed from it, will be a 'whoo peeeee' day for me and my child.) My son already has his pet name for her and its not because he has a lisp that he pronounces her last name with an L.
Please take time to read this document and the plans that the department of education has for your child. Take time to tell your child's teachers about the document because some of the teachers I have spoken to have not been informed about it. If you are a teacher, your union needs to be on board with this one because teachers are central to this plan, and will also be the 'fall guys' when it inevitably falls apart. Place notices up in your schools about it to make sure everyone knows.
I am not aware that the 'roadshow' meetings below will be accommadating persons with special needs so you will have to contact them and ask first. You can phone the Department of Education at: 028 9127 9279.
All meetings below take place between 4.00pm and 6.00pm.
The meetings are very inconveniently timed and in fact many teachers may or may not have time to attend and parents who are waiting on their children's buses and other forms of transport may have to take their children along to the meeting, if they can attend at all. Spouses will not be home from work by 4.00pm and for many, there will be no dinner on the table, and many of you will have to arrange care/babysitting and your own transport. If you live in Glengormley, for example, a taxi ride to Dunmurry, will be rather pricey.
Whoever decided 4-6.00pm was a good time for a meeting should have thought about the audience to whom these meetings would apply. Maybe that's just the point, maybe they thought long and hard about who might be coming and did their best to make it difficult to attend? Nothing in this consultation is about our children so why should the 'roadshow' be about accommodating parents?
For you in Belfast, the meeting in 'Belfast' on Thursday 24 September 2009 is not actually in Belfast, it's in Lisburn (Dunmurry) so if you who want to make your voices heard, if you live in the North or East of the city, please leave enough time to get to the Dunmurry location. Again, the rationale for holding a Belfast meeting in Lisburn when there already was a meeting in Lisburn last week, is not known. There is a plethora of conference and meeting venues in Belfast which could have been booked for this meeting negating the need to place it outside of the city. When you attend you will have an opportunity to ask why this has happened.
If you are a parent and if you think 'someone else' is going to take care of this for you, think again. Please read the document and attend these meetings. If you cannot attend because of inconvenience, please let the Department know why by contacting them.
DATES AND TIMES OF MEETINGS:
Leighinmohr House Hotel, Ballymena 22 Sep (Tuesday)
The Strule Arts Centre, Townhall Square, Omagh 23 Sep (Wednesday)
Beechlawn House Hotel,Dunmurry, Belfast 24 Sep (Thursday)
The Lodge Hotel, Coleraine 28 Sep (Monday)
The Canal Court Hotel, Newry 29 Sep (Tuesday)
The Armagh City Hotel, Armagh 30 Sep (Thursday)
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