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This disparity is alarming to see, although not a surprise. Having worked in both social work and education in Scotland, my gut tells me that the figures up here will be of a similar nature. How we deal with poor behaviour remains a central question however. We can't allow it to continue, with all the accompanying disruption to school life for everyone else. Treating children as competent individuals seems unfair despite the egalitarian form of the discourse on these matters. Similarly, projecting teachers as vulnerable would seems to just be a flip side of the same approach. At the Scottish Union for Education ( https://scottishunionforeducation.substack.com ) we hope to make this an area of productive discussion.

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Thanks Simon. What you say is true. The language of inclusion trips off the tongue but few schools make it work. But while - as I say in the article - there’s a wider problem of authority in and out of the classroom, I wouldn’t describe kids with SENs struggling to cope with school as exhibiting ‘poor behaviour’. Sometimes they are but more often it’s a consequence of their being in an environment they can’t cope with or not getting the support they need to flourish. Good luck with the Substack and I look forward - as a new subscriber - to you tackling this tricky topic north of the border.

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I completely agree. The problem is perhaps one of terminology. When everyone is ‘special’ the range of pupils with issues gets subsumed into one lump. This helps no one.

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