The article “SENtenced to failure?” says that some 600 English primary schools have between 35 and 50 per cent of pupils registered as SEN and that there are 57 schools where more than half the pupils fit the SEN category. Your report suggests that schools are over-using the SEN label to explain away learning difficulties that are related, in the most part, to a pupil’s socially deprived home context.

However, I note that Sarah Teather’s SEN and Disability Green Paper is largely framed around the discourse of parental autonomy and control, one section stating: “families are made to put up with a culture of low expectations about what their child can achieve at school”. I couldn’t help but wonder how Ms Teather expects such an apparent contradiction to be resolved.

Tony Fort, FEHE lecturer.