Member

Mainstream schools can and do move mountains, but they cannot perform miracles. Children whose needs exceed mainstream capacity, budgets and systems cannot thrive in a mainstream environment any more than a surgical patient can obtain the treatment they need in a GP surgery. Non-mainstream environments such as pupil referral units are vital support mechanisms to help children turn their lives around in a specialist setting. It is not a failure of mainstream that these children need the PRU or AP environment any more than it is a failure of an optician to cure cataracts. It is a positive movement, not a negative one. Again, we see the innocent but dangerous unfamiliarity with the reality of these children’s lives in the words of those who seek to mainstream every child, regardless of how extreme their behaviours are.