Send in the City – Inclusion Failure by Bristol Schools

Inclusion Failures in Bristol:

It seems not a day passes without tales of Send woe occurring across the internet, social media, disability support pages and mutterings around the playground.

Send in Bristol is the story that just isn’t going to go away. This is because the problem is endemic from Government, to local council to inclusion departments at schools.

After a chaotic day in Year 7 yesterday at a school my child had only been at for two weeks, a revelation was made by senior leadership which knocked me sideways.

Inclusion and Send support was the most important factor when deciding upon which secondary schools to apply for.

I’ve said time and time again I had an hour long meeting with the school’s SendCo before choosing our school as a first priority. And, when we were given the school, I had another hour long meeting in which we went over in painstaking detail about what needed to be put in place. I observed the SendCo himself making extensive notes.

I know the primary school Year 6 teacher with a diligence and empathy teaching has not yet knocked out of her went into similar detail in her own meetings.

My child had several transitioning days at the school where I made it abundantly clear to the inclusion team that he was autistic and may struggle.

I felt really confident before my child started knowing that he had everything put into place for the next steps in his learning.

When things started to go wrong pretty quickly last week and escalated this week, my son became so stressed he was unable to go to school today.

I ended up informing the school that he would not be in and why. I also added the fact that I was not surprised he was so stressed, especially so at being called a ‘liar’ by SLT.

Of course, the staff member concerned phoned up saying she was most “put out” about this comment, that she had in no way called or insinuated my child was a liar. My son could overhear the conversation as my iPhone appears to only transmit in mouse volume or megaphone. Right now, it was a megaphone level and he was in outrage at the injustice he could hear.

I can confirm that the member of SL was definitely not as put out as we were to become. It transpired from the conversation that this Bristol school did not have any of the information about my child’s disabilities or any reports at all. They had definitely been given them.

The inclusion team had not told any of his teachers that he has autism, it wasn’t even on their records that he has a diagnosis of autism. This is despite the fact that I have also filled in medical forms and many meetings had taken place.

Sensitive information about my child was lost somewhere in what sounds like a GDPR cock up and sheer bloody incompetence.

Privately, I think the school owes my child a big apology for failing him with inclusion. I can see the invisible buck being passed between each person I speak to and very unfairly the now retired SendCo and doubly unfairly, his previous primary school.

To add insult, the school seemed surprised he didn’t have an ECHP in place. Yeah, you and me both, but let’s thank Bristol City Council for their flagrant disregard of their basic legal requirements.

Send and inclusion in Bristol is the joke that just isn’t funny. Children are hurt and education is damaged beyond repair because of incompetence.

This is a heavily oversubscribed school in the central Bristol area that is highly regarded in the city. After two weeks, I think the school is a bloody disgrace and can file its Ofsted report along with all the other missing Send information they have lost into their inclusion black hole.

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