Tynwald Totally Out Of Touch?

[Foxtrotlima]

Gladys, what you said has total merit, and yes, is a totaly workable compromise. There is only one fly in the ointment, and that is that the staff are being deployed to Onchan. Again, there is the issue of travel.

 

I probably have too much insight for my own good on these things, but even to get a child with SEN to a local school, it means getting up at 6am to get them ready. This is going to have to be put back at least an hour to get them ready for the trip to Onchan.

 

I am not sure if you are familiar with the concept of normalisation (aplogies if I am being rude here, but it is not something a lot of people are familiar with). The issue that the parents of children at Jurby School have is that why *should* these children, who have difficulties to overcome that hopefully the majority of children will never have to deal with, have to travel so far to obtain an education?. I have a 13 year old son who attends RGS, and believe you and me, he would me most miffed if he had to travel to QE2 daily. All we want is for the children who attend who have SEN to attend a local school, and be able to grow up with their peers.

 

I really do appreciate your views on these issues, and what the parents of the aforementioned school is that the current SEN pupils be allowed to continue their education at their local school. I feel it is inevitable that the the SEN department is going to be shut down, but we are imploring the Department Of Education to allow these children to be allowed to finish their education.

[Gladys]

Thanks for your reply FTL. But it has to be said, if the current SEN children are able to finish their education at Jurby, what happens then? Will incoming local SEN children not be allowed to participate in the facility because it is to close? Or should they be allowed? Either way, we have the same problem, but different children?

 

Couldn't pressure be brought to provide a larger SEN facility, say, in Ramsey, so that the current children needing this facilty, and the others in the future, are nearer?

[Foxtrotlima]

Gladys, that is totally what we want. Unfortunately, the junior school does not have facilities for SEN children.

 

It appears to be the general consensus of opinion that that it is total inappropriate for 11 year old children to be educated with infant school children. My memory appears to fail me, but I believe that infant school cuts off at year 3, whereas juniors go up to year 6. It would take some real real progressive thinking on behalf of the Department Of Education to put these provisions in place and I am going out on a limb and saying that they won't be able to get these in place in the next 3 months!

 

We would welcome wholeheartedly what you suggested, and I really hope to see these things come to fruition.

 

Again, thanks for your views, they really are appreciated

[Gladys]

I agree, normalisation (and I don't know specifically what that means, but I can make a good guess) doesn't include children attending a school at below their age. But aren't there now enough children needing this facility close-by, sufficient to warrant a proper SEN base in the north of the Island?

 

Forget about the choices offered by the Dept of Ed, but broaden the mindset. Totally out of the box, (to coin a horrible phrase) but why not make Jurby the centre for SEN (not exclusively) in the north?

[Foxtrotlima]

Historically it was Gladys, it was a flagship centre for SEN. It was only when the new Auldyn Infants was constructed a couple of years ago that it was decided to put a "Star Centre" ( I have to admit, I am shuddering at the name as I type) in the Infant school.

 

My son, as I said, is 13 years old now, he started Jurby School 9 years ago, and the SEN was thriving then. Demographically, there are proportionately more children in the north of the island with learning disabilities than in any other area on the Isle Of Man, and that is why Jurby School was chosen. I am not sure if you or anyone else realises, but Jurby is acutally a community school and therefore has no catchment area and was an ideal candidtate for a SEN department.

 

I am guessing that only time will tell on this one, but as a parent, we are not going to let this one go without a fight.

 

Edited because at 2.30 am I had forgotten the word "catchment", and used the word caption. Doh.

[Paul H]

I’m going to get a right ear-bashing for this, but here goes!

 

What did we do before the Department of Education invested millions of pounds over the past few years building, equipping and staffing these special needs units? In the defence of the Department I have to say that the facilities offered to all children on the island are remarkable in comparison to what they were a few years ago, not to mention what is currently available in most European countries.

 

We are privileged to live in a society that acknowledges the needs of handicapped people and bends over backward to provide a reasonable level of care and education. If the inconvenience of having to travel a few miles to school seems too much to bear then spend a moment to think of those who have no school at all.

 

As for Tynwald, David Cannan and all… It takes a brave person to lay it on the line sometimes and none of them are brave enough to do it. If the economics and practicalities of the matter mean upsetting some people then at least be fair and spell it out. But that won’t happen at the best of times, especially not in an election year.

 

Tynwald’s rejection to face these people is typical of the weak leadership that runs away from decisions that are hard to make and run the risk of being unpopular. Sometimes these decisions have to be made, someone has to do it and those some ones should be bold enough to face the people it affects.

[Billy One Mate]

Paul H your reply stinks of self interest (only joking) are you looking for the taxi fares.

 

On a serious note I disagree totally with your comments. Using the argument "what do they have elsewhere" is a red herring and bears no relevance to the question here which is that these children who require special attention have had a facility that they are used to are having it removed for the sake of a few quid. Yes the facility will be provided elsewhere but this will result in change which could have a damaging effect on the children and families involved.

[Paul H]

Paul H your reply stinks of self interest (only joking) are you looking for the taxi fares.

 

On a serious note I disagree totally with your comments. Using the argument "what do they have elsewhere" is a red herring and bears no relevance to the question here which is that these children who require special attention have had a facility that they are used to are having it removed for the sake of a few quid. Yes the facility will be provided elsewhere but this will result in change which could have a damaging effect on the children and families involved.

 

Believe it or not I am actually quite alarmed at the number of Taxis used daily for transporting kids to school, patients to hospital etc. But if this is the best solution to providing for the needs of these individuals and for the economic and practical running of the various departments then so be it. (Incidentally, my firm does not do these runs).

 

Likewise applies to the special needs units. As I said before, someone has to make a decision that will not suit everyone and I wanted to emphasise the point that Tynwald were shying away from their accountability.

 

If indeed they are satisfied with the decision made by the Department of Education they need to make it clear, and as I stated in my previous post, they would be quite justified in commenting on the positive aspects of the work done by their department of Education over recent years.

 

As for comparing us to ‘what they have else where’ I think is very relevant and considering the kids in this world who are homeless, starving, terminally ill, abused or neglected without anyone to turn to, we should be grateful for what we have got.