Why 'throwing' money at SEND is old-school thinking

Yesterday's Guardian article by Richard Adams led with this: Education secretary Bridget Phillipson says extra funding for mainstream schools will help break down barriers.

I disagree.

It will create further division, more barriers for more children to access learning.

This strategy by Phillipson anchors us into the old-school paradigm which is systematically dimming our children's lights and leaving them in the dark. It will without doubt contribute to a rise in the number of children in poor mental health, struggling academically, socially and emotionally to cope with day-to-day life in, and out of, school.?

So how can we think differently about the problem we face?

What if there wasn't a problem in the first place? Stay with me here, as I am sure this sentence may create resistance.

If you are a parent you might be thinking:

'Of course there is a problem, my child is refusing school. They are falling behind, failing academically. They can't read like their peers. They are anxious all the time and I don't know how to get through to them.'

If you are a teacher your thoughts might go to:

'How can you say that Julia? I spend most of my time managing behaviour, which since COVID feels out of control in so many children. I can't teach. Parents are expecting me to 'fix' their children and I can't. My hands are tied and I feel like I am failing all of them.'

If you are an educational leader or head teacher you may be screaming at me:

‘Don’t say we don’t need the money. We do!’

So I appreciate my invitation to see the opportunity (rather than the problem) may create a powerful emotional reaction in you. And I want to offer some hope and a new way of looking at the level of disengagement our children are showing. Because I am not denying the fact that millions of children around the world are wholesale disconnecting from learning. They are.

When this happens it is like cutting off oxygen to their soul.? They suffer. Massively. And there is a tidal wave of children who cannot survive, thrive or flourish in school coming our way if we do not look through an entirely new lens.

Here's the perspective I want to offer. It is perfectly normal for a child to react, be stressed, anxious, not be able to learn, when we sit them down and contain their creative energy for five days, a week, six hours a day, 39 weeks of the year and for 14 years. We are literally saying 'who you are does not matter'. We need to acknowledge we are destroying their human spirit.?

This is the situation the government needs to answer. Whilst they might be inheriting a 'mess' of an education system, they can show us they are serious about change and safeguarding our children's mental, emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing.

In fact as parents, teachers and human beings I think it is time we demanded that they up their game and we do not fuel the inadequacy of their policies or initiatives by engaging in old-school thinking with them. It’s time to become informed about how quickly we can turn things around. We need to have conversations that leave no where for anyone to hide who props up the brutality of educational practices that diminish who our children were meant to be.

The solution as I see it

This is about investing in embedding a culture of learning, growth and human flourishing within our school communities. That means in our homes, our classrooms, our teaching staff rooms. Talking to teachers I know the staff room can be full of despondency and disconnection. I've been in a meeting where when it turned 5pm one teacher stood up and left. Didn't say a word. She simply walked out. As an entrepreneur, I know how important the culture of an organisation is to the success of the collective vision. To me this is inexcusable behaviour. Yet no-one said a word either.

American sociologist Diane Vaughan talks about normalization of deviance. Where a shift in what is considered an immoral code of conduct becomes culturally normalised. What is clear at first to be an unsafe practice is gradually taken on as normal, when there isn't an immediate catastrophe. Short cuts made. Excuses used. Mistakes covered up. The early warning signs are ignored, distorted, adopted as acceptable. But ultimately it does lead to a catastrophe, which is unfortunately what so many parents are seeing as their children's lights go out and they become scared, lost and alone.

Phillipson's educational strategy makes it normal that there is something wrong with more and more children. It is easy for those of us with children with SEND to buy into this; even when we believe in our hearts and gut that in fact they are brilliant, sparky, curious kids who want to jump, skip and hop their way through learning. We know our children want to learn, because learning is as natural to us as breathing.

Children are sending us a clear message. ENOUGH! 'I will not sit down quietly. I will be seen.' But if we are to truly see them, then let it be through the lens of what they are naturally good at, that they can become great at over time. Let us be sure that we are focusing on seeing the brilliance in every child. Because that is a much simpler solution to implement.

Take Ollie, for example, when I met him he was 13 years old and had experienced about 10,000 hours of schooling, including SEN support since Year 2. He was still feeling a failure, had nothing to show for himself, and told me 'the person I want to be has never made it into school'. Within 12 hours of Lights On Learning we had turned that around. Finally Ollie had something he was proud of. The teachers noticed the difference. The head teacher did too. That year he had his best academic report ever.

When we bring children's dreams and desires to the forefront of our collective vision, we shift our thinking very fast into the new paradigm. And that ￡740 million investment can now truly knock down all barriers to entry. Because every child, regardless of how their brains are wired, has the ability to shine when we focus on giving them the chance.

If more children than ever are struggling within the current model then it's time to question the thinking behind the model, and not the kids.

Sending you a copy of my book Bridget Phillipson!

And if you who want to glimpse into the paradigm I am in, and play your part in dissolving the old-school model that has a stranglehold over all our children's potential I highly recommend you buy my book, Lights On Learning; A Parent's Blueprint For Happy, Fulfilled, Curious Kids.

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If you want to learn more about the transformations parents experience with their children using my Lights On philosophy and tools visit my story page on my website. https://www.lightsonuniverse.com/stories