Thirty-seven MSPs have voiced their support for a campaign by Glasgow-based charity Deaf Connections to teach more hearing children to use sign language. A parliamentary motion has been lodged by Sandra White MSP asking the Scottish Executive to investigate the introduction of sign language to the school curriculum. The motion was introduced after the MSP saw the positive results of the charity’s deaf awareness training at St Brendan’s Primary School in Yoker.
Deaf News, September 2000.

Campaigners trying to save the threatened Alderman Knight School in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, are staging a public rally to drum up support. They have arranged the event at the Town Hall in the wake of a county council announcement that £300,000 will be given to mainstream schools this year to provide for special needs children. But none of the cash will go to schools in Tewkesbury. It will go to schools in the south of the county where the first special school to close in the county’s special needs re-organisation plan is located. The county council says it is fairer to place pupils with moderate learning difficulties – and the money spent on them – in mainstream schools. But many parents fear their children’s education will suffer.
Gloucestershire Echo, September 11, 2000.

Thanks to the Big Brother television series a young woman may at last get the life-saving operation she needs. Big Brother winner, Craig Phillips, is donating his £70,000 prize money to the cost of a heart and lung transplant for Jo Harris, who has Down’s Syndrome. And Channel 4, with the show’s producers, have pledged to match Craig’s donation. Jo has been turned down for an operation in Britain because of her disability. Stanford University in California is the only medical centre in the world that is prepared to operate on Jo and the operation will cost at least £250,000. According to her father Mike: ‘The British medial profession says Joanne’s not a priority because she has learning difficulties … they are saying that if there is somebody else, a so-called normal child, they will get the operation.’
The Mirror, September 20, 2000.

Parents fear their children will be at risk from violence if plans to shut a special needs school go ahead. Teachers and parents from Thurlow Park School in Tulse Hill, London, called for reassurances from councillors and council officers over the safety of their kids. The protesters claim that if the school shuts, the children could be educated with youngsters with behaviour problems who could be aggressive. But at a meeting at the school last week, Sandra Morrison, Lambeth’s head of special needs, said there was no intention of putting children at risk, although she stopped short of guaranteeing their safety. Lambeth Council plans to close a number of special schools including Thurlow and re-open the Thurlow Park Site and another site for secondary and primary children with complex needs. Parents and teachers of Thurlow’s 51 pupils are concerned about what ‘complex needs’ will mean.
The Mercury, September 20, 2000.

The first day at school is a challenge for any child but for Natalie Lawson-Lee the hurdle is even greater. Natalie, four, is the first child with Down’s Syndrome to attend Bishop’s Cleeve Primary School, Gloucestershire. She is in a class of 30 and receives ten hours of help a week from a learning support worker . Although Natalie is getting the most out of mainstream education her mum, Lindsey, firmly believes in the benefits of special needs education. ‘If her ability had been any less I would have been in a dilemma but she is willing to learn and very able. Her understanding is of a normal age but that is not the case for everybody and sometimes children need to learn in a special needs environment.’ Natalie has already experienced both types of education. There are 16,000 children with special needs in Gloucestershire of whom 1,300 attend special schools.
Gloucestershire Echo, September 21, 2000.

Parents at Southport’s Sunshine House have vowed to keep the pressure up in their fight to keep the school for visually impaired children open. A final decision on the future of the school has been put off until March next year when a feasibility study will be completed. The RNIB executive council agreed to delay any decision to close the school until a study is carried out into developing proposed respite care and family services on the site. Parent representative, Kerry Seddon, said parents were pleased the study was going ahead but the fight continued to keep the school open. The RNIB have been reviewing the long term viability of Sunshine House and a special review committee recommended its closure. Parents reacted angrily to claims from the RNIB that one main reason for recommending the school close is indications from local authorities that in future the number of children placed at the centre is likely to decrease.
Maghull Champion, September 27, 2000.

A radical overhaul of special schools in Blackpool is set to begin – and parents are being quizzed for their views. Education chiefs at Blackpool Council have embarked on a major re-think of how children with physical and mental difficulties should be taught in future with possible changes beginning as soon as 2002. The options include various re-organisations of special school provision alongside re-vamping and extending facilities in mainstream schools. Special schools in Fylde and Wyre are also to be reviewed in line with Government demands.
Blackpool Gazette, September 28, 2000.