SEN and labels - the great debate

It was reported in many press education sites (including http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/sep/14/half-special-needs-children-misdiagnosed) this week that a recent Ofsted report has identified serious problems with regards to the way in which children are classed as having SEN. The criticism was that schools' day-t0-day teaching is not of a sufficient quality which leads to some underachievers being classed as having SEN. Those identified as such create a drain on resources because they are given specialist help. If classroom teaching was better, fewer pupils would be identified as having SEN.

It is very dangerous for schools to label children as having SEN and providing extra help where this is unnecessary. It can have a negative effect on pupils' confidence and could contribute to further underachievement. The main problem lies in the fact that classes are just too big to be able to offer dedicated one-to-one support to pupils in the mainstream classroom. Teachers are left with an impossible task whereby they are meant to teach to a great many pupils, keep control of the class and identify individual weaknesses of pupils. Pupils thrive with one-to-one tuition because the dedicated support a tutor can provide is so different from the kind of education the pupil gets in the classroom. Of course, what a pupil learns in class is important but extra assistance from a tutor allows pupils to ensure they have properly understood what is happening in class and the tutor can work at the pupil's pace.

Perhaps cynically, there was a suggestion that labelling pupils as requiring SEN assistance led to a greater provision of funding to the school. I would very much hope this is not the case but if it is, it is necessary to find a new way of funding SEN so that all pupils are given help when they require it and to the level they require. Those who do not require SEN assistance but are underachievers should get the help they need to ensure they do not become victims of the system. Only by identifying a pupil's needs on an individual basis and identifying those needs correctly will we be able to give that pupil all the help her or she deserves.