As the Rio Paralympics drew to a close this weekend, Great Britain celebrated finishing second in the medal table after winning 64 gold medals. It was pretty inspiring stuff.

But as I watched the coverage, I began to question some of our priorities.

Olympic success requires a large financial input. We are good at providing this for successful sports and high-performing athletes, but for everyone else, funding and support seems to be withdrawn far too easily.

In schools, services have often been removed from pupils with no mention of replacement. Daniel, a student at my school recently lost his physical therapy sessions simply because occupational therapy no longer had the capacity to support his needs.

My fear is that schools have become too ruthless when it comes to allowing support to be cut. The reason for this is obvious: schools are not ranked on backing SEND pupils, but on backing high educational achievement.

For me, inclusion is not two separate events held every four years, but trying to celebrate achievement and great success at one joined-up, well-planned event.

I question why there wasn’t more outcry at the pulling of funding and the empty stadiums at this year’s Paralympics. We need to address this by integrating SEND more effectively at the earliest stages in our society. We need to start by removing boundaries in our schools.

Helping children to reach their potential

Figures vary for the cost of each British Olympic Gold medal in Rio, but some pitch the cost as high as £5.5m. With that in mind, I think that we have to question our financial priorities. Can pillow choices for cyclists really be as important to society as a well thought-out inclusion strategy for our children?

Medal winners have nutritionists and physiologists that care about every aspect of their being. At what point will research and development be equally valued to support every child in every school? We need to stop progressive education being a niche topic and make it part of a normal mindset.

The reality is that having SEND pupils present in the building doesn’t necessarily encourage ordinary schools to behave differently, provide truly enhanced provision or deepen research understanding.

However, I hope that the very visible success of Paralympics GB will make more people question what we prioritise and that we can soon move SEND provision away from the side-lines to become a national success story.

Jeremy Thompson is a headteacher of an urban primary school in South Wales.

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