Summer is Joy for Many - But Fear for a Quiet Minority.
A solitary summer for some.
How does it feel for SEND learners whose alternative provision placement ended in July, to not know where they’re going (if anywhere) in September?
“Our patience will achieve more than our force.” - Edmund Burke
‘Patient’ is the last word most would use to describe my nature. However, the last few months spent learning about the commissioning conveyor belt has taught us that there is an awful lot of worthwhile activity which can be done, whilst waiting for things laid out clearly but now out of our hands to cook – bubbling away [often in silence] in the unknown distance [behind a closed door somewhere]. Force is counterproductive and so we make ourselves useful instead.
It’s taken time, trial, error and reflection so that we know a lot more now than we did 12 months ago. For example:
The time it takes from beginning to start line for the quietly absent learners joining our new school or part time Alternative Provision;
The support families and partners could do with so that we can all work together to create something valuable for those children trapped in the gaps between provisions and decisions;
The vast differences between the way commissioners work with settings like ours and within their own teams, and our role in making that work productive and painless for families;
The uniqueness of every one of our learners, who although sharing identical issues, must navigate them in vastly different ways, depending heavily on who is representing and supporting them.
It should not be based on the luck of the draw.
One thing each of our part time, full time, online, on site or hybrid learners share, is an urgent need to be part of something that is theirs. Our collective help with achieving clarity over what their place in any setting will look and feel like when it is ‘agreed’ is significant.
For children with SEND and severe school anxiety, their prospects, wellbeing and clear view into the future is in the hands of others, who they often don’t know the face, name or voice of. Exacerbated by the fact that this person speaking for them changes alarmingly often - a sign of the difficulties concealed behind those closed doors and an indication as to why they remain closed perhaps?
For these young people, it is not being patient that will help them worry less and so be able to step back into learning in time. This is because they have no knowledge of timeframes or what information has landed successfully on the right desk today and how better their chances might have been if it had landed on a different desk tomorrow.
It is openness, consistent communication and simply being included in the journey along that SEND journey which would make the transition and eventual arrival at a most suitable destination feel like a long-awaited homecoming for this forgotten minority.
To find out about how Beyond Creative Education can help and what we do, please browse our About pages.
You can send us an enquiry or request a prospectus by emailing office@beyondcreativeeducation.org
