Horsham woman's son missed learning due to 'discrimination'
A spokesperson from the trust said: "Our school's priority is and has always been the education and wellbeing of our pupils."We work with our pupils and their families to ensure necessary accommodations are provided in line with a pupil's Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP)."The latest Ofsted inspection of Hilltop Primary School found that pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (Send) achieve "extremely well as a consequence of staff's expert approach to meeting their needs."
'Stress, discrimination, neglect'
Ms Pilgrim says Matt was issued with an EHCP at primary school in 2011. An EHCP is a legal document setting out the support a child needs.Speaking via a qualified BSL interpreter, she said the plan was unchanged for nine years with no annual review."It's had a huge impact on my mental health. The stress, the discrimination, the neglect, to me and to Matt, because there was just no help, no support for us," she said.
Matt, who's now 18, said he missed out on four years of secondary education, which was very stressful.He said: "I never thought, during that time, that I would get my education and GCSEs again, which was really sad."Matt is now studying happily for GCSEs at Brighton College under an Education Other than At School (EOTAS) support plan, after Ms Pilgrim paid for a private consultant to engage with West Sussex County Council.Ms Pilgrim said she was considering making a formal complaint to the council, and was speaking out to warn other families facing similar difficulties.In a statement West Sussex County Council said it had implemented a Send improvement plan."We acknowledge the frustrations felt by some families trying to access Send support and express our sympathies to those who are dealing with especially complex circumstances."We, along with local authorities across the country are facing significant pressures in meeting the increasing demand for Send provision."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
5 days ago
- BBC News
Wiltshire mum praises SEN provision as £6.5m school planned
A mother has praised the special educational needs (Send) provision provided for her son, following the announcement Wiltshire Council is going to invest £6.5 million in a new Send Reed's son Sid, 15, has a rare genetic disorder which affects his learning development and has praised the difference that dedicated special needs education had made after the local village primary school was unable to meet his John Hubbard, cabinet member for children's services said the new Exeter House School in Ludgershall would make it possible for all children to " have the choice to be educated in Wiltshire". The new school will be located on the grounds of Wellington Academy in Ludgershall, and is intended to serve 120 children with special educational Reed, who lives near Devizes, said that having started in a regular infant school, it became clear from an early age that Sid needed a different kind of support."Sid started off in mainstream education until he was about four or five," she said."We didn't know that Sid has special needs, but it gradually dawned on us. "His little village primary school tried very hard to accommodate those needs, but it just got too much for all of us and that's when he went to a specialist setting," she added. 'We are delighted' She praised the "confidence of the teachers" at his new school, saying the move "was a huge weight off her shoulders"."Times were very hard before he went to specialist school. He seems very happy now," she said."Amazingly, we were told he might never read or write. He didn't start talking until he was eight."He's now reading at the age of a 12 year old, and we're delighted with that."Sid is also helping his aunt at her restaurant and has taken up guitar lessons.
Spectator
31-07-2025
- Spectator
The objects we take for granted that were designed by disabled people
Back in the 1990s, if you were disabled in the UK or US, and you believed that being disabled was more about self-determination and less about being left in care homes, you might have protested with banners declaring 'Nihil de Nobis, sine Nobis' ('Nothing about us without us'). The call – allegedly first used by a 15th-century Polish political party – was taken up by disability activists who wanted the non-disabled world to consider how the material world was rarely designed or included disabled people. This fact itself was 'disabling'. Thus, they asked, why not build a ramp, instead of a staircase, so we can all use it? Or make print readable for everyone, as we all will need glasses at some point? And why did we not listen to the very people, who had their own experiences and expertise? A new exhibition at the V&A in South Kensington, simply described as Design and Disability, considers these questions, and aims to show the 'radical contributions' disabled people have made over the past 100 years to the worlds of design, photography, fashion, art and architecture. Rather than approaching the subject through an objectifying lens (pity; charity; medical) it looks at disability as its own identity and rethinks it through the very people who use and often create the designs for themselves. Displaying 172 objects that we all now take for granted (Xboxes, iPhones, etc) but that few of us know were designed by disabled people or included disabled people in their manufacture from inception. I particularly liked the gaming consoles designed for disabled users which Xbox – among others – then rolled out in the mainstream. Much thought has gone into this exhibition and it is timely and long overdue. Conceptually, too, it has been carefully considered; dividing the rooms into three sections – 'Visibility', 'Tools' and 'Living' – showing us a lot of information within a short space of time. What is also appealing about it is how it is accessible to all; from the integrated tactile signs for blind and visually impaired people, (like shag-pile carpet but smoother) to the BSL videos, and the deliberately wide-open spaces for wheelchair users to roam the low-laid exhibits. There are even seating places for those of us who simply get knackered simply wandering around. And yet after I left, tapping my white cane down to the Tube, I felt swamped with information and objects. But I didn't feel like I had learnt enough about the disabled people who had designed the objects themselves. I also didn't understand why there were not more touchable models. While some things were tactile, much was under Perspex or hung on walls. Yes, there was a superb audio guide, but none of it explained how or why these objects are 'radical' rather than simply part of life? As a disabled friend murmured to me after seeing the show, it seemed the exhibitions was made by the disabled intellectual elite for the intellectual elite. It felt vague, the subject too big, the themes too ambiguous. Much had gone unexplained. A bike was hung on the wall and while I was told this was to show the had designed for the Paralympics, there was nothing to indicate how these were different from other bikes. Perhaps I missed something. Disabilty is a complex subject. I can only imagine how hard it must have been hard for the curator to make her choices. How far back do you go to explore a subject that touches us all? Nonetheless, there is not enough of a guide here. Perhaps this was done on purpose – to grant the visitor the freedom decide for themselves what to take or leave. But I felt a bit lost. ENDS
BBC News
30-07-2025
- BBC News
Work begins on £3m refurbishment of Hilltop school
Work has begun on a £3m project to transform a school for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).Cramped and outdated classrooms at Hilltop School in Maltby, Rotherham, will be replaced with spacious and accessible facilities as part of the project, with more than 50 contractors working for free on the school, which provides specialist education for children with complex needs aged between two and 19, will remain open throughout the refurbishment work. Charlotte Farrington, founder of Yorkshire Children's Charity, which is co-ordinating the work, said it was "a life-changing project for the children and families" at the school. Half of state-funded schools in England for children with special educational needs and disabilities are oversubscribed, BBC research found in 2011, Hilltop School had just over 80 children enrolled, but that number is now more than 180, according to the Nexus Multi Academy Trust that runs it said the 1970s building did not have the space or features to properly accommodate their needs and that the school could not previously afford to update its facilities. Yorkshire Children's Charity works with SEND schools across the region, but Ms Farrington said Hilltop School was "without question, the worst I've ever been into"."I remember coming in to visit the first time, I cried all the way home from Rotherham to Leeds out of frustration - our most vulnerable children were having to make do with such poor facilities," she called it a "pressure cooker" for staff and students. As part of its transformation, new classrooms and a centre for trampoline therapy will be Sam MacDonald said he was excited to have a designated space for the school's trampolines, as using them led to "higher engagement, higher interaction, and more alertness" amongst added they also gave "massive access to the wider world" to children with physical school's ventilation system will also be Farrington said: "Outside of home and hospital, school for many of these children is all that they know, and we really have to question what kind of society we live in if we are not putting their needs first and foremost." Lee Powell, managing director of Henry Boot Construction, one of the contractors working on the project, said: "We're quite a competitive bunch in the construction and property industry."We're competing against each other for works and contracts, but for us all to join forces and do this here, it's quite rewarding."He said he was impressed by how "upbeat" the school's students and staff were despite the "run down" work is expected to be complete by September 2026. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds or catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
