“One exhausted mother described her daughter’s secondary school to me as being like The Hunger Games. She, like thousands of other parents, had eventually removed her miserable child from school.”

England’s children’s commissioner, Anne Longfield, discusses the shocking number of children being withdrawn from school

“An alarming number of teachers feel unprepared or unsupported to teach pupils with SEND, which raises urgent questions about the suitability and accessibility of existing training and CPD.”

Emma Hollis, executive director of the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers, says that the need for thorough, sustainable SEND training is greater than ever

“The idea that the next generation will have a better future than the current one is not prevalent now. I’m sure the secretary of state would like this to be true but he’s simply being naive.”

Joint-general secretary of the NEU teaching union Mary Bousted responds to education secretary Damian Hinds’ comment that 2019 is the best time “to be young”

“Most of all, I wish someone had told me it was OK to openly cry. That I needed to, even. I held it together. I promised to stay in close touch, gave them my mobile number and walked back across the road to school. I shook. Then sobbed. Uncontrollably.”

Headteacher Gwennan Harrison-Jones shares her experience of how a school can cope when a student passes away suddenly