SEN and sensibility
Sir: As a former teacher and long-standing chair of governors in a local school, I share Rosie Lewis’s frustration at the parlous situation regarding special educational needs (‘Fare play’, 18 October).
I also sit on a weekly area admissions committee and many schools in our area are full, often with long waiting lists. The main reason given why children are denied a place is the number of SEN pupils already in a year group, normally, incredibly, in excess of 30 per cent – sometimes 50 per cent. To admit another pupil with special needs or behavioural issues would be detrimental to the education of children already there. This causes appeals, further discussions and headaches for parents, heads and local education authorities. Most importantly, of course, it means the children with the highest needs are often missing out.
This situation is exacerbated by some parents, perhaps understandably, gaming the system by achieving a dubious diagnosis for their child in order to obtain special dispensation in public exams, making it easier to gain good grades. The system needs an urgent and radical overhaul before it breaks down completely.
Name and address supplied
Forgotten man
Sir: In Freddy Gray’s recent speculation (‘Heir apparently’, 18 October) on who might succeed Donald Trump as president, somehow Ron DeSantis was omitted. That’s rather like discussing great military strategists and leaving out Napoleon.
DeSantis remains the only major Republican with serious executive experience and a clear philosophy rooted in competent, small-government conservatism. He has managed to keep Florida prosperous and free, while avoiding the circus politics that have consumed much of the Republican party. That alone should earn him at the very least a mention.
N.S. Fortune
Belfast
Burning issue
Sir: Matt Ridley’s piece about moorland burning makes many factually correct points (‘Fire alarm’, 18 October). In his final statement he asks why not undertake experiments at a local level, and so dispute or support stated facts? This has been done on the Buccleuch estate in Dumfriesshire, where on a good grouse moor, keeper activity – including predator control and burning – was ceased and the outcomes studied over some years. Within a year or two, the grouse had almost gone, along with many other birds. Even the heather was disadvantaged. Countryside knowledge of management is ignored at wildlife’s peril.
Bob Heddle
Ickham, Kent
Field study
Sir: Charles Moore issues a lament (Notes, 4 October) for all the lost field and wood names from his youth. There is one way they could be perpetuated. Around us in East Anglia, as elsewhere, fields are being subsumed by orange boxes as builders roll out identikit homes. They invariably give their developments anodyne, generic names such as Orchard View or Meadow Rise.
If they could only commission a local historian to spend a few hours researching the agricultural history of their plot and name it in recognition of some now-forgotten farmer, local history would be perpetuated, not erased. The cost would be nugatory in comparison with the (one-off) harvest they are now reaping from that land.
F.P. Smiddy
Woodbridge, Suffolk
Breaking glass
Sir: I much appreciated Emma Park’s article noting the demise of the appreciation of arts and crafts and human beings in favour of all things digital (‘Glass ceiling’, 18 October). As a resident of Sunderland, I am appalled at the prospective closure of the National Glass Centre in July next year. This demonstrates the shortsightedness of the university and the Labour council which are reluctant to keep it open. The loss of the NGC represents a loss of heritage, culture, skills, jobs, art, education and community involvement in Sunderland. It is a great shame these decision-makers cannot understand this.
Apropos of the plans to demolish the apparently failing structure of the NGC (less than 30 years old), St Peter’s church, five minutes away, dates from ad 700 and remains standing.
Emer Crangle
Sunderland
Jilly sauce
Sir: Rachel Johnson’s tribute to Jilly Cooper (‘Unrivalled’, 11 October) reminded me of when, as a housemaster at the Dragon School in the late 1980s, I showed an inspector around a dormitory to find a boy on his bed reading the ‘juicy’ Riders. The inspector asked the boy – whose parents lived near Cheltenham – what the book was about. ‘Life in Gloucestershire,’ he replied. ‘Oh,’ I asked mischievously, ‘does it feature your father?’ ‘No sir… though come to think of it, I think I recognise the hand on the front cover.’
Rhidian Llewellyn
London SW14
Don’t laud Laud
Sir: I found it curious that in your editorial (‘Laud’s prayer’, 11 October), calling for unity in the Church of England, you posit the example of William Laud, an Archbishop of Canterbury who perhaps did more to divide the Church than any other. Through his introduction of medieval rites, persecution of English Calvinists, antipathy toward Reformed communities in Europe and botched enforcement of the Prayer Book in (Presbyterian) Scotland in 1637, Laud managed to isolate England in the Protestant world and set her on course for civil war. Hardly an ‘illustrious predecessor’ of Ms Mullally.
Adyan Sharda
St Andrews, Fife
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