New Academic year; New Head. Welcome

Of course no news of any parents' get togethers in the school, but let's be patient just a little longer.
So we will be having a parent's get together in a parent's house. You will have to be part of our network.
If you are like-minded you can contact us on e-mail where (regrettably) you will be vetted.

WHAT IS GOING ON ON THE SCHOOL PREMISES?

The Primary Care Trust, who run doctors surgeries and community medical services, have a base in Harlowfields .
WHY? And why has the school not informed the parents? There are a number of issues relating to this.
Outsiders with nothing to do with the school are on the premises, which raises issues of child safety. Surely the parents need to know the proceedures that might or might not be in place to protect the children. The PCT  seems to have meetings and occupy rooms on the premises which must mean more security.
Is it right and accepted practice to have any outside organisation working in the school, indeed a Special Needs Scool?
Is the number of pupils deliberately kept down to about 110 when the school was designed for 140 and funded for that and it seems to us that demand is high for places.
It makes a mockery of having an enlarged school in the first place, and all that promised.
What do the pupils get out of it? Anything?
The LEA should be telling us, i.e at the meeting with parents last term. But they seem excessively shy about this, which suggests there is something wrong with the whole process. Watch this space.

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PERMISSION AGREEMENT FORM

Permission to be transported in staff cars on occasion.
Are these staff cars appropriately insured to carry pupils. Please tell us
Permission to give first aid treatment
Are any staff trained to give first aid TO CHILDREN. They were not . This is urgent.

Please be careful to only give your permission to things you are happy about as it might affect liability if anything goes wrong (we hope not) School please reassure us.

ADMINISTRATION OF MEDICATION IN SCHOOL

GOOD- a victory for the website and supporting parents.
At last a detailed policy given to parents which covers details and will hopefully alleviate previous horror stories including sightings of (illegal?) STOCK BOTTLES in school. All this could have be sorted out years earlier if the school had taken any notice of parents' valid criticisms and it should not have required intervention again by Bill Rammel M.P.

HOW DO YOU FANCY EARNING £400 A DAY?

If you are an old, past it Head or similar you could apply to be a School Improvement Partner for Special Needs
You might get assistance to relocate (you could afford a bigger house on that salary) and a leased car etc and no doubt lots of time off for boring, pointless meetings.
For between £80,000 and £146,000 I'd sit through boring, pointless meetings
Barbara - is this your dream job? You're talented, have a consultancy background, previous experience as an effective head and a proven track record of raising achievement (look at those P scales)
If you're interested contact Debbie Holmes - Special Schools SIP Manager on  01245 436149

Or perhaps you'd like to be
A SPECIALIST TEACHER FOR CHILDREN WITH ASPERGERS AND AUTISM

The pay is unfortunately nowhere near £80,000 and it's only part-time 0.6 at Harlowfields
There is also a 0,4 post at Braintree, but the ad doesn't say whether you can combine the 2 posts
We must say Specialist Autism Teachers are highly prized and rare , so why would anyone want to do it part-time
LEA please explain

A PARTICULAR VIEW ON AUTISM
This is about a boy in America known as the horse boy in the Sunday Times Mag.
He started to go backwards, loosing his language, and enters a solitary hell called "extreme autistic loneliness" by Leo Kanner 1943. This boy could say 5 words but lost them by 18 months, but he did make good eye contact
Early intervention is crucial , but he , like many didn't get it
The causes are the suspected interaction of genes with toxins and there is a report due out soon on the possible role of plastics and pharmaceuticals.
The brain becomes wired differently; the white matter in the frontal cortex, the brain's computer cables, becomes overgrown, instead of connecting all parts of the brain.
There may be (1) A mass of cables leading to one area, so more wiring than that area requires
(2) While another part is poorly served (3) The only normal areas are the visual cortex and the memory storage at the back of the brain.  As a result autistic people don't think in words but in PICTURES PATTERNS and/or SYMBOLS
It must be like seeing the world through a kaleidoscope and trying to listen to a radio station that is jammed with static all the time. Some report a broken volume control that causes sounds (anybody's voice) to jump erratically from a loud boom to inaudible, plus a nervous system in regular fear or panic.
Ordinary experience may be intolerable
They say they can hear the blood whooshing through their veins or every sound in a school building.
Fluorescent lighting can cause an entire room to pulsate on and off 50 times a second
Missing wiring can mean no flexibilty or common sense
Some suffer neuroloical firestorms,. A breathe of wind touching the cheek can feel like being brushed with a flame-thrower
This boy's father took him horseriding 2-up. It is thought the rocking motion and constant refinding of balance stimulate new brain connections. His dad uses chance discoveries as an educational tool
When he has run off enough energy and is calm he goes to the classroom
He is reading at the age of a 7 year old and his imaginative play, a very important stage of development, has arrived and it is rich.. He has begun to ask "why?" and "how?"

You may not agree with all of it, but a lot of it is generally accepted . Considering autistic children make a majority of the school we thought you might like to read this summary.