South London Press, 08/07/2003

Temporary teachers who were rushed in to cover classes at a school for autistic children quit after just one day.

At least five have walked out, saying they are not happy to carry on at the private special school, BBI Education, in Vauxhall, south London. It leaves the school's pupils - many with difficult behaviour needing one-to-one attention - with 13 teachers when there were more than 35 just two weeks ago.

Bosses at the school made long-standing staff redundant claiming a cash crisis a fortnight ago. Many are still waiting for June's pay-packet.

BBI then turned to cheaper temps to plug the gap until summer holidays, even though some have no experience of autism. Four of the 18 who started training on July 7 dropped out before first lessons on July 8 and one went home at lunchtime on the second day.

The remaining 13 are in charge of 16 children, when many need one-to-one care and some need to be watched by two teachers.

Some worried parents are keeping their kids at home and say they are furious at BBI's chief, Bill Goodyear, for the upset.

Joanna Butcher, from Clapham, said her son Luke, seven, was not going back to BBI. "There's no way after all the disruption," she said. "It would do him no good at all. They changed the teachers, the classes and even the classrooms."

For his part, Goodyear said: "Some of the teachers came in for training and said to me at the end of that day this was not for them. One came in for the first day of teaching and told me she had thought about it and decided she was not right for the job. Tuesday was a very, very difficult day and a lot of the kids were very confused, because it was a major disruption. But if you came in now, the school is a different place. The teachers have settled in and the children are starting to get used to them."

Goodyear said he had interviewed all new staff, and added: "Some do not have experience of autistic children, but as a whole they have more teaching qualifications than the outgoing staff."

He said he was "more than happy" that 16 children were sharing 13 staff.

Belfast Telegraph, 24/06/2003

The need for support from professionals, teachers and the community for people who have a child with autism has never been greater, it was claimed on June 24.

Gerry McGinn, Permanent Secretary of the Department of Education, was speaking at the launch of a video and CD-ROM for parents and teachers of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

McGinn said: "The video and CD-ROM are the first of their kind in Northern Ireland and we hope that they will be a significant resource in helping parents overcome their initial shock when their child is diagnosed with ASD, of informing them about ASD, to give them other parent's perspectives, and to highlight other sources of help and information.

He added that the Department was determined to give all young people the best start in life.
"In particular, we are committed to working towards getting that right for young people with special educational needs. These resources, along with 'ASD ? A guide to Classroom Practice,' the booklet recently issued by the Department, will help inform parents, teachers and other professionals about how to best meet the needs of the individual child with ASD.
As approximately 44 per cent of pupils in Northern Ireland with an ASD are in mainstream schools, the CD-ROM will be an invaluable tool to teachers throughout the education system."

The resources were developed by the Department of Education in partnership with Parents and Professionals Autism (PAPA), the Department of Education and Science and the Irish Society for Autism.

Sunday Herald, 08/06/2003

A pupil with special educational needs should be counted as six "ordinary" pupils when calculating class sizes, according to members of Scotland's largest teaching union.

At the annual general meeting of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) in Perth on June 7, delegates warned that a lack of resources and trained staff to cope with some special-needs children was leading to chaotic classrooms and increasing disruption and violence from a number of pupils.

Current policy dictates that the education of pupils with physical or mental disabilities, or social and behavioural difficulties, should take place in mainstream schools wherever possible. However, a recent Audit Scotland report found that the planning for this policy had been patchy and minimal and was often not properly costed.

While many teachers support the principle of social inclusion in the classroom, that should not be at the expense of classmates or even the children with special needs themselves, delegates were told.

By equating each special educational needs (SEN) pupil with six ordinary pupils, the EIS aimed to address the concern that the principle was not being backed up with adequate funding.

In the past, SEN pupils would often have been educated in special schools, but many local authorities are moving away from this model. This means that pupils who would previously have been taught in much smaller classes in special schools are now often taught alongside other pupils in classes of 30 or more (the current class limit is 33).

News Shopper, 29/04/2003

A mother has attacked education chiefs for failing her son, who has not been in school for 18 months due to the fact that he has Asperger's syndrome.

Karen Jones, 49, of Lewisham, in south-east London, says that nine-year-old Charlie needs to be in school to help him with his social problems. Charlie, who was taken out of Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School in October 2001 after being bullied, has now been out of school for 18 months because Lewisham Council has been unable to find him a place.

Mrs Jones said: "I feel disgusted. I want my son in school because he doesn't socialise very well and this is what he needs."

Individuals with Asperger's syndrome, believed by many to be on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, have difficulties getting on with other people and show obsessive or repetitive behaviour.

Three primary schools rejected Charlie and the council only provided him with a home tutor when his condition was diagnosed in May 2002.

Mrs Jones said: "We thought it was pointless to keep going to schools if they would refuse him. It was only when we found out he had the syndrome that the local education authority was forced to provide home tutoring."

A spokesman for the council says that a decision should be made this week on getting Charlie a school place when the case goes before a special-needs panel.

TUSCULUM, Tennessee, USA: The mother of a young boy with autism could land up in jail in a fight with local schools.

Kim Mabry’s son, Jordan, is nearly 10 years old, and appearances would suggest that he is a normal, active fourth grader. But after Jordan was diagnosed with autism in November 1998, a dramatic struggle between Mabry and Metro schools has erupted. The dispute has resulted in, among other things, legal action which threatens to put Mabry behind bars.

In the autumn of 2002, Jordan’s Enhanced Language Resource class of around 17 students was moved from a Tusculum Elementary School classroom to Metro’s Granbery Elementary because, according to Metro School officials, the school could better accommodate the students. It was larger and had more special-education teachers.

Jordan’s private behavioural therapist, Kacy Darnell, has worked with Jordan and often attended classes with him since shortly after he was diagnosed with autism. She was at his side in the days following the move and noticed that the new environment was affecting Jordan’s behaviour. She said increased class sizes and numerous daily transitions could be difficult for a child with Jordan’s condition.

"With big classes, he has no attention span,"  said Darnell. "Not to mention the fact this is two, three weeks into school. It just wasn’t a good situation."

Mabry said school officials at Tusculum had never complained about Darnell’s attendance in Jordan’s classroom. Not so at Granbery. In the months following Jordan’s move to the new school, Mabry says, Granbery principal Lori Donahue complained about Darnell’s presence. But Mabry said the problem had occurred only after Darnell alerted Mabry of schedule and class-size changes, which she then brought up in a conference with Donahue.

Mabry claims that the changes in Jordan’s routine were a violation of his Individual Education Programme (IEP), which personalises educational needs for special-education students.

Metro Schools eventually denied Darnell the right to accompany Jordan to classes, saying that such "supplemental" aid as would be provided by a behaviour therapist must be done by a Metro employee.