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Useful LinksBackchat Newsletter - Issue 75 - September 2003
In this issue
- A new approach to Special Education
- This and That..
- Concerned about Road Safety?
- Your Questions Answered
- Free School Meals Have you replied?
- Free school meals Consultation Meetings
- And finally
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SPTC Annual Conference - | |
| The speakers include Roy Harrower of Lothian and Borders Police who will provide information on drugs and alcohol abuse and Dona Milne of the Healthy Respect project. She will give information on a useful "advice" website which helps parents talk to their youngsters about sex. Add in plenty of time for discussion, lunch and a chance to ask questions about the insurance and it should be a good day. | |
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As we previously reported, the Executive plans to introduce legislation this
session that will bring an end to Records of Needs and change the way special
education is viewed. The Additional Support for Learning (ASL) Bill will, as its
title suggests, focus on what help youngsters need, rather than on the nature of
specific problems. It will introduce a more inclusive approach to who qualifies
for extra help at school. It will include all children who have problems with
education whether these are short term or permanent difficulties. It will
include children for whom English is not their first language, travelling
children as well as those who are more commonly thought of as needing support
such as children with dyslexia. | |
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End to the Record of Needs | |
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The end to the Record of Needs is part of this new, more inclusive approach as
all children needing additional educational support will be included under the
ASL provision. Only those needing input from other services such as the NHS,
will fall into a different category. These children will have a co-ordinated
support plan aimed at ensuring the different services work together. | |
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The change is getting a mixed reception. There's agreement that the current
Record of Needs process is flawed. It takes a long time, is very bureaucratic
and, at the end of the day, there is no guarantee that the resources will be
available. However, parents whose children currently have a Record of Needs are
anxious in case the support their children currently get becomes less certain
and there are reservations about the process of putting in an appeal. | |
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Resources | |
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However, the big question, as always is resources. Will there be sufficient
money to fund not only those who currently qualify but also to meet the needs of
those youngsters who will fall within the scope of the legislation for the first
time? This question has been given real meaning by Audit Scotland's recent
report on the mainstreaming process which followed the 2000 Education Act. Audit
Scotland confirmed what many knew - that extra money was needed to make
mainstreaming work and it was not provided. | |
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SPTC were therefore very pleased to be part of a small group discussion with
Peter Peacock, the Minister, about the bill. Much of the discussion was about
resourcing and at the time he did seem to be listening. We'll watch the passage
of the Bill keenly. | |
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Enquire | |
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It is appropriate to start with news of a change to the helpline number for
Enquire, the national advice service for special educational needs in Scotland.
They have introduced a new low cost number - 0845 123 2303 | |
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Scottish Food Fortnight | |
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If you've ever been somewhat shocked at the sight of a baked bean pizza or
challenged to explain what is Scottish food, how about joining in Scottish Food
fortnight. You could run a parents food tasting evening of Scottish dishes. You
could have a menu of cullen skink, haggis and neeps, cranachan with
millionaires' shortbread on the side, all rounded off with oatcakes, crowdie and
tablet. I'm getting hungry just thinking of this. Although the official fortnight is 20th September to 5th October, this is the kind of event you can hold in your school at any time and it beats baked bean pizzas! | |
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Anti-Bullying Conference for Parents | |
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The anti-bullying Network and the Ethos Network have joined forces to run a
Conference for Parents on the theme "Parents and schools, a two-way
partnership". | |
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The argument is that good relations between parents, staff and pupils help
promote positive behaviour and reduce incidents of bullying. If you want to be
part of the action, the conference will take place on October 25th in the
Carnoustie Hotel Angus. Ask the office for an application form included in the mailing. The fee is £10 but SPTC will fund 50 free places from our support fund. Please phone the office for details. |
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Judith Gillespie writes about the launch of a new package designed to teach youngsters about road safety. | |
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In our recent survey, road safety was the second biggest concern for parents in primary schools and the figures suggest that this is very justified. In 2002, fourteen children were killed on Scottish roads and 2,767 were injured - 509 of them seriously. Put another way, road traffic accidents cause 88% of accidental deaths for the 0 - 19 age group in Scotland compared to 7% from drowning and 5% from drugs. Quite often, when parents raise the issue of road safety, they think of speeding cars, badly parked cars outside the school gate and of selfish parents who have no concern for other people's children. However, at the launch of Street Sense, a new resource pack to teach road safety in schools, one headteacher reported that, in the last five years, six children from her school had been involved in road accidents and in each case the child had run out in front of the car. So, whilst car drivers have a heavy responsibility for accidents, there is a need to teach children to be more street wise. Step forward the Scottish Road Safety Campaign who have developed a road safety curriculum which ties in with the different levels of the 5 - 14 curriculum. Moreover, they have developed a resource pack for schools and have sent it free of charge to every school in Scotland with two copies going to schools with more than 400 pupils. To give you a flavour of what is covered, it starts quite sensibly with teaching young children to cross the road safely and even suggests that they should hold an adult's hand. How many times is that a battle for parents and how nice to have official support for what most parents try to do. Another part of the programme teaches children that there are blind spots around cars and that the driver cannot always see someone who is behind them. The exercise demonstrated at the launch saw a group of children standing in a circle around a car with one pupil sitting in the driver's seat. He was asked to say whom he could see. Those that were visible were given a yellow vest to put on. It was quite clear at the end of the exercise that the children were shocked to see just how many of them were not wearing yellow vests because they could not be seen by the driver. Another element was about safe cycling and included important information on checking that the bike is road worthy and emphasised the need for wearing a helmet. As a cyclist myself, I was interested to pick up the advice for my own use. The great thing about this programme is that it provides all the information parents would like children to have and it offers a real opportunity for parents and schools to work together. The full Street Sense package can be found on the Scottish Road Safety Campaign's website www.srsc.org.uk Parents can dip into it and find what is appropriate for their child/ren. Perhaps your PTA/PA and school could organise road safety weeks involving parents, teachers and most importantly pupils. Tackling the number one cause of accidental deaths is surely a very worthwhile exercise for both parents and teachers together. | |
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Help please! What information should we keep
confidential? | |
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Confidentiality is about protecting named individuals. So, if someone contacts
you about a problem, you can discuss the problem but not mention the name of the
person in any way unless they have agreed in advance that they are quite happy being named. This is even more important if you are passing on a letter or email of complaint that you have received. It is important that any personal details are blanked out first. However, some information which people think is confidential is not. For example, information on school funding is public information and can/should be shared with all parents, not kept secret under some mistaken idea that money matters should be kept confidential. | |
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Who can vote at our AGM? | |
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The short answer is all the parents and teachers that attend. The PTA is not
just the committee - although many think it is. The PTA is a membership
organisation, owned by all the members and run by a committee on their behalf.
The AGM is when the PTA committee reports back to the parent and teacher members
and is held accountable for what it has done, for the events it has organised
and for how it has spent any money that's been raised. In the AGM all decisions
should be based on the majority vote of those parents and teachers who attend.
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We understand that we should not spend PTA money on text books, but what about leaflets explaining school policies? | |
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This is a grey area. In theory the school should be responsible for
communicating with parents and for telling them important information about
school policies. On the other hand, it is very much part of a PTA's job to
improve links and communication between home and school. It is also in the
parents' interests to get such important information and the PTA money is not
there just to buy more computers or run children's discos. On balance, the PTA
can fund leaflets like this, but it's right to question what you are asked to do
and to be persuaded that it is a good use of PTA funds. | |
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Responses to our survey on free school meals are coming in at a steady rate. It is clear that the survey is prompting quite heated discussions up and down the country. At present the numbers are fairly evenly balanced between the three options. The survey runs until 31st October, so there is still plenty of time to respond. | |
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Free school meals Consultation Meetings | |
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We are supplementing the survey with two open meetings - one in Glasgow and one in Edinburgh, with apologies to everyone who lives outside the central belt. Two member schools have kindly agreed to host the events. In Glasgow the meeting will be at Hillhead High School on Wednesday 8th October at 7.30 pm In Edinburgh the meeting will be at James Gillespie's High School on Tuesday, October 14th at 7.30 pm Remember, a new bill proposing that school meals should be provided free of charge will come before the Scottish Parliament this session and the results of this survey will provide very important evidence of what parents think. | |
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The language lecturer was busy explaining to his class about double negatives
and pointing out how saying, "I have not said nothing" actually means "I have
said something". In full flow, he went on to add that there is no parallel
double positive in the English language. "Aye, right!" came a voice from the back! |
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Article 182 - published on 01 Sep 2003
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