Beyond the classroom: Challenges for adopted children in school.

Ellie, 11 and her sister Lexi, 10, were adopted in 2018 by Victoria and Martin, who also have two sons.

While both girls started in mainstream schools, it became apparent Ellie needed a different approach to learning due to her additional educational needs; however, this wasn’t an easy process, and the family felt as they "didn’t have enough support".

Victoria said: “The first few years, it’s all very similar with the nurture side and what's required for all children but with the academic differences, it was the learning and processing issues that Ellie started to experience.

“As they get older the gap just becomes wider and not only did, we and the professionals see it, she starts to notice she’s doing different things to the other kids.”

Martin admitted: “It was quite early days it became apparent to us that a normal school setting wasn’t appropriate for a child with early trauma in their life.

“Ellie has a lack of feeling safe and lack of attachment and when you have the usual friendship problems, she finds it hard to deal with. As they got older, the more she got left behind.

“It bewilders her, it’s as much about the environment that the kids are in that makes it wrong for her. The school has certain things they do like nurture rooms but it’s more coping with the normality of the school that’s the problem, that’s where there’s a challenge.”

The main issue for Ellie was the one-to-one aspect in school. Victoria said: “In school as you go up in the year groups the teaching assistants would float around more. She needed that one-to-one adult attention, when she had that she was kind and settled but it’s the bit when she's on her own.”

Victoria spoke about the steps they took for Ellie: “Speaking to the SEN lead was the first step, as we’ve gone through the school, we’ve been putting in different interventions to try and help but when we realised, they’re not kind of cutting it anymore that’s when we started to go well what’s next?"

An EHCP is an Education Health and Care Plan setting out a child's or young person's special educational needs and the support that is required to meet those needs.

Victoria and Martin had to get Ellie's EHCP changed to reflect that mainstream school couldn’t meet her needs anymore.

The question of support seemed to strike a chord.

Victoria took a deep breath and laughed a little and said: “Just the primary school I had support from during the process. The social worker came on board towards the end. We needed more support.

“It could have all been picked up quicker, potentially by the school to be honest. It may be a bit of them not wanting to admit that they can’t cope, this is no way a reflection of the school but it is to say it's not the right setting for a child with these needs, therefore this should be looked at.

“With the council, it all went through smoothly with the initial change of the EHCP, the needs were so great it could not have been argued.”

The former teacher, now BCP Councillor Burton stated that once a child gets the EHCP, the local authority "have teams that advise on how the transitions go, pay the bills and transport."

Victoria admitted that: “The adoption services could have been better. From our perspective now we should've had professionals on a regular basis, it all needs monitoring much closer.”

The council has a list of establishments for parents with SEN children. Victoria said: “They're in a really difficult place to access, there’s no one that you can phone and tell them your child’s needs, it feels like you’re kept in the dark and it’s all on you. Councils say they can’t keep up with who offers what and who has what places, they put applications in, but they don’t really know what goes on.

“Our first application did not include the school that she is at now. It is a really messy system. I think there needs to be just more focus on the child.”

Ellie now attends the alternative provision at Luccombe Hub which aspires to "focus on learning, not teaching. Children who cannot access mainstream education due to trauma and lack of social skills are able to access an alternative form of education with one-to-one support".

Martin said: “Our child has ended up at a school that’s an hour away, it’s a brilliant place but you're telling me in a population conurbation like Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, that they couldn’t create a hub like that in a more practical environment.

Councillor Burton said: "Providing more specialist provision in the local authority is something we are trying to do to get a better outcome for children and young people.

"Private provision becomes incredibly expensive. It tends to not be in the area and children and young people have to travel to get there. It's not good to be put in a taxi every day to go to school."

As for Martin, well he feels very strongly: “If I was brutally honest, I’d say there's no support…you do not get anything unless you go kicking and screaming for it.

“For us as parents when we spotted it wasn’t the right place, there’s no clarity on what the options are, no defined route on what steps to take, it’s all very slow, you have to find it all out yourself.

“I have a pretty dismissive view of social services and adoption services, for many reasons. I had it at my wits end and I had to shout for an answer, and you shouldn’t have to do that, it’s an escalation point, no one seems to be able to give you a straight answer unless you get to that point.”

Both parents agreed that they have seen differences in Ellie's behaviour since attending Luccombe Hub, Martin said: “She actually wants to get up in the morning and go, we used to have massive resistance pretty much every morning in terms of getting up and going to school. Now when she comes home, she clearly has a sense of achievement, she does cooking and applies maths to it, there’s a big element of giving them life skills, there’s definitely a sense of pride in what she does.

“It’s hard to know who's responsible for creating schools like that and those environments, the person who set it up hasn’t done it because they found a gap in the market or wants to elevate money, it’s because they’re actually trying to make a difference and wants to help children in that position. Surely the education system should be structured that it provides environments that are fit for different groups.

“Ellie won’t be the only adopted child that has trauma issues. You don’t want to section them and say you should go to this school because you have this badge but just the natural unsuitability of that.”