Ofsted: Special needs used to make up for poor teaching
Ofsted, the education watchdog, summarises the findings of its special educational needs and disability review:
“Despite extensive statutory guidance, the consistency of the identification of special educational needs varied widely, not only between different local areas but also within them. Children and young people with similar needs were not being treated equitably and appropriately.
“At present, the term ‘special educational needs’ is used too widely.
“Inspectors saw schools that identified pupils as having special educational needs when, in fact, their needs were no different from those of most other pupils.
“They were underachieving but this was sometimes simply because the school’s mainstream teaching provision was not good enough, and expectations of the pupils were too low
“Some pupils are being wrongly identified as having special educational needs and that relatively expensive additional provision is being used to make up for poor day-to-day teaching and pastoral support.”
