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Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant from 💙Rachael Maskell MP

This would help sort things Bridget Phillipson! Thank you all organisations involved for your letter Square Peg Special Needs Jungle British Psychological Society CSIE and others tinyurl.com/2j27phs6

From MP Richard Burgon MP at the start of the Westminster Hall debate in which 💙Rachael Maskell MP spoke. There's momentum, realisation and hope. Write to your MP (use this excellent letter) tinyurl.com/2j27phs6 and, please Diane Abbott can you reply to mine?

Well done Anne Fine @guardianedu Amelia Hill School is the best place for most children, but not all. Children have a right to an education, they are not subjects of schools. Wellbeing comes 1st then education, and school for those who can. Priorities. tinyurl.com/pebe7k8k

Tim Linehan 💙Rachael Maskell MP And stop doing this, too. It all adds up to creating huge pressure at an age where children need time and space just to be children.

We're always yold that days off school limit life chances. So why does a yr6 bright child who helps care for her mum get excluded? Because she dies her hair. Shameful.metro.co.uk/2024/09/05/gir…

So true. I have huge respect for teachers. But the SEND system is broken. Teachers feel it, parents and children feel it. It's the system. It's not binary. There are better ways to do things.

"A punitive approach is rarely helpful because what you really need is to work as a team: the school, the parents and the local authority. As soon as there’s a punitive element you are breaking down that partnership." Wonderful stuff from Professor Tamsin Ford 💙 tinyurl.com/3n8dmdaj

This. Because fixing SEND lifts everyone.

Square Peg Oliver Conway

You would think this story is exceptional. The tragedy is that it isn't.

Spot the difference here between the green part & the yellow part. And now explain it.

I find this worrying, esp for children transitioning to secondary schools. Some children are absent minded. They forget things. They are punished & feel hurt & rejected. Their first lesson is to learn not to trust. Their second is to be wary about relationships. Not a good start.

The response to this thread has been overwhelming. It should make us all stop and think. On the surface, it's an issue of how schools code pupil absences. But it's much deeper than that. It's about how a society perceives & responds to mental health. We can do so much better.