29/04/2026
Why are we forcing children through all of this? Creating unnecessary trauma before they have even the slightest chance of receiving the support they need. It's a simple truth that the alternative is actually quite straightforward if anyone bothers to look at the evidence.
Yesterday I visited an independent special school where the young people spend all their time outside. It is pretty well as different from a mainstream school as it’s possible to get. It’s on a beautiful green piece of land, with cows next door. The buildings are open-sided cabins, and the only ‘uniform’ is the right clothing for the weather. Since this is Devon, that means wellies and waterproofs. All the children there have EHCPs, and most of them have had very difficult experiences in the mainstream system. They come with their histories on their backs.
We were meeting in order to record a podcast about SEND and trauma, but what we really ended up talking about is how the present system isn’t sustainable. We have an increasingly inflexible and rigid school system where exam results are everything – and it’s only when things go horribly and irrevocably wrong that there’s a recognition that something better is required.
That means that some schools end up managing the casualties of the system. Those who have already learnt that they are the ‘failures’, that they don’t measure up. Those who have been alienated by education and who think they aren’t capable of learning. Those who have learnt not to trust adults, and to defend themselves against other children. Those who are on high alert, because the world of education doesn’t feel like a place they belong. They have to spend months and years helping them recover from a system which has hurt them.
Because we pretend our education system is about learning, but really it’s about conformity. It’s about doing what you’re told, and sitting on your bottom. It’s about keeping quiet and letting the teacher talk. It’s about following the leader, and not making a fuss. It’s about raising your hand and waiting to speak, and suppressing your own interests and curiosity. It’s about learning the answers, and reproducing them under exam conditions.
When children don’t conform to this regime, then we say the problem is them. We say they ‘have SEND’ or they show ‘challenging behaviour’. We assess them and write reports, and try to work out exactly what the problem really is – but we miss the most obvious thing our children are telling us. Our education system needs to be changed. It has the wrong priorities at heart.
What needs to be different? Education needs to start with what we know children need to thrive. Autonomy, a sense of being competent and belonging. Our aim should be that they leave education knowing that they are valuable, that we believe in them and that they have choices. There are schools and teachers doing this, but they are swimming against the tide. Government targets push them in the opposite direction.
Focusing on exam results will never improve our education system. It sorts children into the successes and the failures – and that is never going to be a good way for them to start adult life.
We all need something better.
