If there’s one thing about teaching that no one ever tells you before you have done it yourself, it is the disproportionately large number of opportunities that there are for making a prize chump of yourself.
That time when you congratulated the mother of one of your charges on their forthcoming new arrival and were met by a sour look and a pained explanation? These moments are the subject of much hilarity in staffrooms across the land, and part and parcel of the daily lives of teachers.
We are adept at getting out of these situations. Teachers have a special blend of confidence and bluster that comes from working with those who know so little and who ask so many questions. It’s a special skill. It means that we can embarrass ourselves with great regularity, and return to teach - and face parents - another day.
And, most of the time, a little bit of bullshit doesn’t do anyone any harm.
The problem is that we can let it go to our heads. We get so used to it that we can’t help but give our opinions as if they were facts - especially so where SEND is concerned.
When it comes to some of the most vulnerable children in society, we need to watch what we say, and examine what we think. Because every time we explain to someone that all children with autism have a special skill or talent, like counting cards in casinos, or we ask whether it’s true that people with Down’s syndrome don’t feel sadness, we are perpetuating damaging stereotypes.
We are propping up dangerous myths that, while not having an immediate effect, limit the life choices of the adults our pupils will become. We betray our ignorance while doing nothing to change it.
So, while I personally wouldn’t recommend putting a teacher in a class and not telling them whether any of the children have a diagnosis of, say, ADHD or ASD, for fear of prejudicing them, I do think that we should do our homework where SEND is concerned.
While the Sendco may have the award, there is no reason why they should be the only expert in your school. There’s no reason why the class teacher, the one who does the actual teaching with the actual children, who plans the day-to-day activities, marks the work and shares the jokes at the end of the day, shouldn’t know just as much about autism, dyslexia, cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome, or any other learning difficulty in the book.
Because, let’s face it, classroom teachers, the ones who work with pupils every single day, are the ones who make the real difference. Not the leaders in the offices, the ones snowed under with demands: you. The teacher.
It says it there, in the law. Every teacher is a teacher of SEND. We should not let ourselves be caught out; we should not think that we can just bluster our way out of it.
Nancy Gedge is a teacher at Widden Primary School in Gloucester
@nancygedge
This is an article from the 13 May edition of TES. This week’s TES magazine is available in all good newsagents. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here
Want to keep up with the latest education news and opinion? Follow TES on Twitter and like TES on Facebook
