Ms Pauline Dempsey:

I thank the Chairman. I feel very privileged to be allowed to talk today. We always feel very marginalised being a special school. People do not know what to do with us. I am the principal of St. Anne's special school in the Curragh, County Kildare. We currently have 80 pupils enrolled. We have 14 teachers and 30 special needs assistants. I have had the privilege of having worked in special education for 39 years, 20 as a principal. I have witnessed many positive innovations, instigated by the Department of Education and Skills over the years, up to and including inclusivity and this wondrous thing, the new junior cycle programme. It is so innovative it is wonderful.

I have also witnessed the evolution of the special school model over this period. It occurred without any definition or statement by the Department regarding what a special school is and should be, what it should offer, what its pupils should or could achieve by the time they leave at 18 years of age. There is actually no written description of a special school except a vague reference in the special education review committee, SERC, report of 1993. This only outlines a staffing ratio, which exists to this very day. This lack of definition created a vacuum that was rapidly filled by the patrons of special schools, which were typically voluntary bodies that had provided to their schools funding and, in many cases, additional staff. It was logical, therefore, that the vision created for special schools would be determined by their patrons. With increases in capitation and funding, particularly for building projects and visionary aspects of the curriculum and organisational matters, this support of the patrons has been much diminished. Aspects of this legacy remain, however.

If I were to describe our school, I would say it is successful but struggling. Resources and supports have not increased in line with the complex needs or the numbers of children enrolled. My concerns are representative of special schools all over Ireland but for the purpose of this meeting, I am reflecting the views of my school. My submission was quite lengthy and I was trying to reduce it to five minutes. I hope members will give it a good read-through.

Special schools are under tremendous pressure to enrol any child who applies as there seems to be a shortage of places. This is regardless of the fact that the school might be full, whether the class is suitable or whether the child's needs can be met. This is particularly relevant if the child develops behaviours that pose a challenge. The more challenging the child, the more quickly he or she is filtered down through the system to us. Our school, I am told, is considered the last resort. If not here, then where? It can be quite offensive to hear this as a school.

Segregation exists and discriminates against children with different needs from those who were discriminated against 20 or 30 years ago. It seems that certain children are not suitable for inclusion, regardless of their academic ability. It appears that, in many instances, the only suitable place is a special school, without a statement or even knowledge of why that is the case.

We have to ask what it is about the special school teacher that makes him or her suitable and competent to teach children with these needs, yet somehow mainstream teachers are not. Why is it more acceptable for staff in special schools to sustain injuries and for children to miss out on their educational experience than in a mainstream setting? Let me give statistics on injuries reported since the start of this year. There were 189 incidents against staff and 59 against other pupils.

It is important to consider some facts on this. Autism units in mainstream schools have access to the same grants to set the class up, the same staffing ratio, the same capitation, the same access to training and the same support, in Kildare at least, from the network disability teams as our school. We, however, are obliged to take the most challenging from these classes without additional supports or resources and, often, to place them with several others who display challenging behaviours in the same class. This is unrealistic and is not working. It is also the worst model of education provision and can result in an appalling learning environment.

What does a special school offer that others cannot? Dr. Jean Ware, in her report on the role of the special schools and classes in Ireland, examined this briefly but it still was not definitive. The reality is quite persuasive: there is nothing that a special school teacher or, indeed, a special school can do that cannot be done anywhere else. We are finding that psychologists are making the decisions as to who enrols in our schools through section 29 appeals. Many of these professionals have never visited our school. We are full and we will continue to be full for the next few years. Already pressure is mounting for September 2018. On one hand, our own clinical team is condemning our old buildings as being unsuitable for children with sensory processing difficulties but on the other, another psychologist is supporting a section 29 appeal that ensured we had to put an extra child into an already overcrowded room, simply because it was perceived that the child had no other choice. We know from listening to our colleagues here that this is not the case.

We are finding it impossible to attract teachers to our school. We do not have access to qualified substitute teachers like most schools in the area but splitting classes in our school is extremely problematic. Let me give a few more statistics. This year, we lost 172 days to teacher absence without any substitute cover. There were 46 days within that where we had two teachers absent. There were 22 days within that period on which there were three teachers absent, 12 on which there were four absent, seven on which there were five absent, one on which there were six absent, and one on which there were seven absent.

That is 50% of our staff. We had between one and three substitutes, two of whom were not even qualified.

In my professional opinion, if the current model of special educational needs, SEN, provision is not reviewed with particular emphasis on the role of the special school within the system, this will not succeed. It cannot be sustained. We cannot sustain what we are doing in St. Anne's Special School. What must be addressed as a matter of urgency? If inclusion does not work, and I would be a supporter of it in spite of being a principal of a special school, then a definition as to what a special school must be has to be described. It has to be described in conjunction with the relevant people who are in a position to do that. We must be resourced appropriately within that description. There is a move away from moderate general learning disabilities or assessments of severe or profound general learning disabilities to more of a needs assessment. If that is the case, then the school has to be resourced appropriately according to those needs. I am not sure how that will be done. The staffing ratio will have to be increased if there is a role for special schools in the future. Class sizes will have to be reduced. Behaviours that challenge must be investigated.

Interestingly enough, continuing professional development, CPD, which is the model that is put forward, rather than initial teacher training, is not compulsory, but we have 60 staff, including nurses, who have to have management of actual or potential aggression, MAPA, training and training in person moving and handling. That is very expensive and it is unsustainable. On teacher training involving SEN, we get many teachers interested in placement in our school and it is a really positive experience. However, we still find it difficult to attract teachers. They are not flooding to our doors because we have a reputation of being the challenging school.

Nursing cover has already been mentioned. At the moment, we are lucky. We have two nurses on site, but that depends very much on the vagaries of our patron body. We had three nurses with 50% fewer pupils eight years ago. We now have two nurses. On children with complex needs, there has to be some acknowledgement that, within the special schools system, there are children for whom, for whatever reason, whether medical or mental health issues, the school may not be suitable. There is a distinct need to look at some sort of alternative provision for these children.

I would like to see a common approach to resourcing. We in special schools throughout the country get frustrated when we meet, because depending on where a school is located in the country, one might be able to get more staffing and resources. That is very frustrating. Health and education need to negotiate and work together, particularly on the role of the therapists who support our schools. The therapists see themselves as consultants, and the role of the teacher in that is very much compromised because the teacher ends up doing the assessments, the graphs and the charts, and these are assessed off site. It is not a good model.