Parents of Melrose Primary School students are venting their anger and concern. They are outraged at the arbitrary cut-off for support to children with special educational needs. Karen Blackport and Alastair Cameron, both parents at the school, expressed their dissatisfaction after discovering that their sons would no longer receive the same level of classroom assistance.
Melrose Primary School has slightly more than 300 pupils enrolled. Unfortunately, it is set to lose the equivalent of two-and-a-half full-time pupil support workers. This revision has raised the hackles of innumerable parents, especially since they found out about the cuts just after summer recess. Karen Blackport couldn’t believe that her son would receive no support on his first day back to school. When she got this news, it really left her feeling on edge and scared.
In fact, Blackport’s frustration is a common sentiment among parents right now as they seek to make sense of what these changes represent. Alastair Cameron, whose son also goes to Melrose Primary, backed up her fears, saying, “It’s a very scary time for parents.
Of the teachers at Melrose Primary School, few were prepared for this. They found out about the cut in support on the Monday morning after the holiday, with many parents getting the news by Wednesday. The way these announcements have been rolled out has left families scrambling and uncertain about how their child’s educational needs would be met.
Scottish Borders Council has rejected any suggestion that it has cut the number of additional needs assistants in its schools. By making this claim, many clusters in the council’s jurisdiction have saw the largest lost. The Peebles cluster has lost an incredible 99 hours of pupil support assistants. In contrast, the Eyemouth cluster has seen a much larger drop of 65 hours. Additional cuts have since impacted Berwickshire and Jedburgh school clusters.
Places like Hawick have been given additional help to support children with added needs. This support adds up to no less than 148 hours. Kelso and Selkirk, too, have reaped the rewards of boosted support. Many teachers returning to schools in these affected areas have expressed concern that historical allocations of resources may no longer meet current needs.
A spokesperson for the education department stated, “We allocate resources recognising that the needs of children in our schools change as they move through the stages of their education.” In doing so, they highlighted how the bases of historic allocations must be re-assessed to ensure they continue to be fair and don’t breach equalities duties.
As parents work their way through these developments, their first, last and only concern is still getting the best possible level of support for their children. The crisis at Melrose Primary School illustrates the mounting challenges families and teachers must endure. They need to constantly be shifting with the landscape of new, open education resources.
