| Topic: | Re:Re:Don't suppose somebody could explain ... | |
| Posted by: | Dan Filson | |
| Date/Time: | 31/05/09 23:09:00 |
| I first read any of this thread today and it makes dismal reading - much of it a slanging match. There are a few sane comments in there Adam Beamish, who comes across a wearied former officer of Hounslow slightly despairing at the mud-slinging and Alan Clark, who must be bemused at intruding into this private grief, and one or two others. But the councillors and ex-councillors bring local politics into disrepute by the way they conduct themselves in this thread and on this site. From what I understand from all this, Hounslow Council may or may not have cut the overall resources to English language education for children without English as their first language. What the Council seems to have done is delegate the funds previously disbursed centrally down to the schools to administer under local management of schools (schools are obliged to spend a certain % on special education needs but can exceed that %). The downside of such delegation is that not all schools have the same % of pupils in need so the resourcing being delegated may not match the need to spend that the schools may have, and the schools may have to make difficult decisions as to whether to buy back into this service or spend the money elsewhere on the majority of the pupils. Some schools will do little or nothing to aid their children with special needs, others go out of their way. Now I don't know if I have read the facts right, partly because the thread is so incoherent, so i may have read all this wrong. I am surprised the Headteachers and the NUT were not consulted, if that is so, but not surprised no Headteachers have joined this thread as they probably despair at the doings of this Council (and that may not be affected by the 2006 election results). As to the NUT, I know Christine Blower who heads the NUT - she was for a long time a special needs teacher in a neighbouring borough, and she is not normally shy at coming forward. If the NUT was not consulted I am sure they are very capable of protesting but this is not an easy issue to get across to the majority of the general public. Yes parents do have a responsibility to prepare their children for school - I learned to read before I got there - but it is expecting a bit much of parents who do not have English as their first langauge ti get their children ready to the same level of confidence in English as their peers in the Nursery or Reception class, and it is equally difficult for children who arrive in England at say age 7 or 9. What a pity this thread could not have been conducted in a rational, unabusive and coherent manner on the actual issues. Both "sides" have a legitimate perspective as to the best way to proceed but it wasn't displayed here. |