Hawkswood special school in Chingford, London, is to close from August next year after the Special Educational Needs (SEN) row took another twist. The school, which faced an uncertain future after intended changes to SEN provision were announced earlier this year, will finally close after councilors decided that its 43 pupils were not enough to sustain the school’s future. All pupils currently attending Hawkswood will continue to be educated at the school until July 2005. However, children who would have continued at the school after that date will be subject to a review assessment, evaluating their special educational needs, to find an appropriate alternative school place. Pupils will either be relocated to other special schools or mainstream schools in the area.
At a Cabinet meeting last week, Coun. Chris Robbins said: ‘We are intending that we raise the standards of Special Educational Needs within our mainstream schools. Our Ofsted report told us that we were not doing enough for our main schools and we were putting too much into our special schools. There is no doubt Hawkswood is still under-subscribed. Forty-three pupils is not sufficient to maintain the school and we are recommending that it should be closed. In a statement this week the school said: ‘Naturally we are all extremely disappointed at the decision. Although the situation does look bleak, the needs of our children remain our paramount concern. We must now all work together to ensure whatever schools they ultimately move on to, the very best education continues to be offered to them. We are obviously also concerned for the jobs of our dedicated and experienced staff because they are the ones who know the children best and will help ensure their progress. There is a chance Waltham Forest may lose some valuable staff members to the detriment of our children’s education’.
Walthamstow Guardian, October 2, 2003.

Deaf children in Wales are at risk of losing out on a basic education as they are forced to cope in a hearing world. They are wasting years learning how to speak instead of being taught sign language and as a result are experiencing high levels of mental health problems, according to the British Deaf Association in Wales. Richard Jones, community advocacy officer for the BDA in Wales, said 2 per cent. of people suffer mental health problems but that shoots up to 27 per cent. in the deaf community. ‘Children are made to feel like failures if they can’t speak’, he said. ‘So much of their time in school is spent teaching them to speak at the expense of their education. Eva Fielding-Jackson, youth training officer for the BDA in Wales, said: ‘Many deaf people I know are emotionally disabled because they can not communicate with people properly. You hear some really sad stories from people, and you think if their parents had learned sigh language it would be different. There are no schools for the deaf in Wales any more, only units at schools. And often you find at break times the deaf children are on their own because no-one will speak to them’. The BDA would like to see residential schools for the deaf so that children can develop a more secure culture and identity.
Western Mail (Cardiff), October 13, 2003.

A father was today celebrating a second victory over Gloucestershire County Council meaning his severely disabled son will receive the care he is entitled to. Owen McCarthy began the battle for justice for his 16-year-old son Tristan two years ago. Mr McCarthy claimed Tristan, who has cerebral palsy, was not receiving the level of care that had been agreed with the Council. But despite winning the case in the High Court, the Council still failed to provide the level of physiotherapy it was ordered to, he said. The dispute was finally settled at a new hearing in the High Court yesterday. The Council was told by Mr Justice Wall that it had to adhere to an amended care plan for Tristan, as they should have done in the first place. The Council has also been told it cannot appeal against the decision. In addition the Court will continue to supervise implementation of Tristan’s statement of special educational needs until July 31 next year to make sure that all the provisions in it are adhered to.
Citizen (Gloucester), October 17, 2003.

Anya Souza, one of two trustees of the Down’s Syndrome Association who have Down’s syndrome, has expressed her grave reservations at proposals from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence that all pregnant women should be offered NHS tests for Down’s syndrome. Writing in the Daily Mail, Anya says many mothers who discover they are carrying a Down’s child might believe that the ‘safest’ and ‘kindest’ option is to terminate the pregnancy. ‘What such terminations imply is that people with Down’s syndrome are worthless – and believe me, we’re not. We are all people with individual feelings, individual personalities and individual lives which can be as rich and rewarding as yours or mine.’ According to Anya, terminations should only be carried out for medical reasons and, in her opinion, Down’s syndrome is not an illness. ‘Sure I look a bit different from other people but I am definitely not ill. I’m just me.’
Daily Mail, October 22, 2003.

Haqeeq Bostan, research and parliamentary officer for the disability network Radar, says a single equality body could benefit disabled people. According to Haqeeq, if some equality issues – whether race, gender, or disability – were more equal than others, a single equality body would lose credibility instantly. The concept of diversity must incorporate all areas of society. While it was important to recognise concerns that introducing a single body would mean a return to sidelining the views of disabled people and loss of specialist knowledge, there was also a growing belief that equality could no longer be seen as concerning minority issues and that disabled people had much to gain from being thrust into the mainstream of equality and diversity. He said the vision must be of a country where human difference was routinely accepted.
Guardian Unlimited, October 29, 2003.

Teachers in Dunbartonshire, Scotland, have called for more training on educating children with special needs in mainstream classrooms. Frank Healy, East Dunbartonshire’s representative for the Education Institute of Scotland, who conducted the survey, said: ‘Teachers in this area have made it clear they think things need to change. Teachers are not saying they are against mainstreaming pupils with special needs – they are saying changes have to be made concerning training and class sizes’. A spokesperson for East Dunbartonshire Council said that it was committed to developing education for children with special needs and reviewing and developing its policies within existing frameworks.
West End Extra, October 30, 2003.