Paces

Physical contact between pupils and conductors

Physical contact between pupils and conductors is inevitable in conductive education settings. Equally inevitable are the difficulties likely to arise from the perceptions of 'safeguarding' vigilantes. If such persons are Ofsted Inspectors, then the consequences can potentially be severe. Such attitudes encourage schools to adopt, in practice, informally or formally, policies of no contact.

A moment or so ago, I came across by chance a debate on this very matter in the House of Lords on 11 July 2011 during the Committee Stage of the Education Bill currently before Parliament.

The contribution of Baroness Garden of Frognal (Liberal Democrat. Spokesperson for the Department of Education in the House of Lords) would seem apposite and sensible:

I am grateful to my noble friend for giving us the opportunity for this debate. We agree with much of his amendment. Of course a teacher should be able to comfort a small child who has fallen over or show them how to hold a violin bow or a tennis racket. The notion of no contact seems to me to go against our instincts as humans and, indeed, as teachers. There is nothing in law to prevent it. When pupils are on school premises, or off site but under the lawful charge of the school, teachers and school staff are acting in loco parentis. This means that they are, in the eyes of the common law, effectively stepping into the shoes of a parent unless there are statutory provisions which specify otherwise. No parent would think twice about sticking on a plaster or showing a child how to hold a rounders bat, and a teacher should feel equally able to do these things. I would strongly encourage any head teacher to make this clear to his or her staff. (Hansard 11 July 2011 : Column GC180)

She goes on to quote from recently issued DfE guidance (I do not have the link):

"It is not illegal to touch a pupil. There are occasions when physical contact ... with a pupil is proper and necessary.

Examples of where touching a pupil might be proper or necessary: holding the hand of the child at the front/back of the line when going to assembly or when walking together around the school; when comforting a distressed pupil; when a pupil is being congratulated or praised; to demonstrate how to use a musical instrument; to demonstrate exercises or techniques during PE lessons or sports coaching; and to give first aid".

Sarah said to her Mum, returning in our car from going shopping, "When we get home, you can give me a hug." Not getting much of a response from her Mum, she said, a little more emphatically, "You know what that means, don't you? It means you love me!"

What an odd world we live in that it should take a debate in Parliament and guidance from a Department of State, to set out what is entirely evident to a young woman with cerebral palsy?

Parent of a disabled child? Read this. Weep. Get angry. Cheer for Mom.

The sentence that gets me is "The teacher seems unconvinced of this notion."

Just read it. And I defy you not to be moved. Caleigh's Corner Days 2-3

Thanks to Glenda Watson Hyatt (@GlendaWH) for pointing it out.

Oh - and while I'm still angry after reading about Caleigh, don't ask me about Safeguarding

May I recommend ... edyourself.org

"Ed Yourself" is the website of Home Education consultant Fiona Nicholson (who, by the way, tweets as @edyourself).  She deals with all policy matters of concern, obviously, to home educators (in England) - but that often has a much wider relevance.

Just now I was alerted via twitter to Fiona's posting on the revisions to Ofsted's inspection of children's services - and to the questions that remain. There are other useful posts, too, on the same page, such as her summary of discussion of the Munro Review of Children Protection 2011.  Especially useful are the many links, for greater in-depth reading.

A site to bookmark; someone to follow on twitter.

 

Why Eton fives and Westminster School matter to Conductive Education

If I were to tell you that Giles Coren, the Sunday Times columnist and food critic, may no longer be able to play Eton fives at Westminster School, you might well wonder what the sporting pastime of a former pupil of one of the UK's top private schools has to do with conductive education.

If I suggested that you should be concerned, you might well suspect that I had, as has often been rumoured, finally flipped. But you would be wrong.

You see, the fives courts at Winchester School, which are behind the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, are accessed through the school. And there's the rub. Coren and his fellow players have now been told that they must undergo Criminal Record Bureau checks in line with safeguarding legislation because of the possibility that players going to the fives courts might "come into 'unsupervised contact' with the pupils". The school, Coren says, has done its best "but there appears to be no way round the problem." Coren's fives team is likely to cease playing.

Now, this post is not a rant about some of the idiocies of safeguarding.

When, in 1994, we first conceived of Paces Campus as an inclusive environment for the conductive education of children and adults with cerebral palsy and their families, we had no notion of 'safeguarding' and its eventual reach into our Vision and practice. Back then, as parents who were already beginning to experience the isolation that can come with having a severely disabled child, we did not wish to set up a segragated special school to isolate our children and ourselves further. However, we did recognise that the group-based model of conducive education did need children to come together. How did we attempt to square this circle of being separate but not separated? Our answer was to co-locate our services within an ordinary local community centre, where there would be a range of inclusive activities for our children and families.  Like a small village, as someone described it, our children would be able to go safely about their business, sharing many of the same spaces as other people, including the public spaces.  Ours is a collaborative and inclusive model. But the reality today is that we have been required (or, like self-censorship, we have required of ourselves), gradually to increase the barriers around our children and 'vulnerable adults'.

My interest just at the moment is not to debate the rights and wrongs of this but to search out what others do in similar mixed-use settings. The Government wants school buildings to be more available for community use; they and we want our facilities to be more available for others in the community. How are we to do this and comply with safeguarding regulation? I'd be glad to hear.

Perhaps an answer lies with Extended Schools and Children's Centres - both later developments under New Labour than Paces Campus. How do they manage the co-location of activities? How do they draft safeguarding and other policies whilst at the same time being an open and welcoming community? And what does that say about our Values?

The well-worn saying "It takes a whole village to raise a child" may be apocryphal but the grain of truth it contains resonates across the world - but not if we segregate our children behind numeric key pads, fences and locked doors.  Giles Coren and his team of fives players might be more important than we care to admit.