Let’s unite to protect the children of our future. They need us now more than ever!

What kind of message does this send to these vulnerable children? Will it improve their self esteem? Will it make them less anxious? Will they feel included? All of these things will effect their mental well-being. Adults who are meant to educate ALL children, will be instead part of a system that segregates and penalises them.

• Alex Kenny spoke about Prevent and said “You are creating sense of otherness and making it harder for us to keep our young people safe”
• Prevent is a witch hunt of Muslim children who have been labelled as terrorists before they can speak!!! One child was under suspicion because be pronounced ‘cucumber’ wrongly. He was 2 years old! They thought he said ‘cooker bomb‘
• As we know, children often spell words incorrectly. One member spoke about a child writing a story and referring to an uncle hitting him. Most teachers would raise that as a safeguarding issue. However, what was picked up, was the child’s spelling error for the word ‘terraced!’ It resulted in the child being interviewed by police, because he wrote ‘terrorist’ instead of ‘terraced.’
• Teachers are being encouraged to label first and think later!
• Sir Michael Wilshaw has said that he will downgrade a school if face veils are a barrier to learning. Why has he chosen to focus on this specific barrier, IF it is one? What about other more urgent barriers, such as, poverty, fear, housing, bullying, lack of support.
• I have tweet about this using the hashtag #TooYoungToBeLabelledATerrorist

How can any of this not effect the mental health of staff, parents and children?

I can imagine Muslim children being too scared to write about anything in case they spell it wrong. I would also understand ig they wanted to avoid speaking in case they pronounced a word in a way that made others label them a terrorist. If they didn’t have the maturity to work that out themselves, I’m sure their parents would tell them to be quiet in school, and write as little as possible, for the same reasons! Unfortunately, this is not just a scenario that I have foreseen, but it’s actually become a reality! Members reported that children are being silenced to avoid suspicion!

• The Welsh Government wants to improve funding for children in Wales BUT the Barnett Formula keeps them the POOREST in Europe!
• The government expects children to learn and perform well even though they’re working on moving them out of the richer areas and rehousing them in poorer ones.
• Members spoke about children disappearing without notice as families are forcibly rehoused overnight.
• Some children have moved BUT not been lucky enough to get a school place! Is their right to education not important because they’re poor?
• In terms of emotional well-being, these families don’t get a chance to say bye to any of the friends they’ve made or speak with staff whom they may have formed a relationship with.
• On a different note, how can teachers meet performance related targets when children disappear without notice?
• Jeremy Corbyn spoke about the fact that 1/2 million children live in poverty and 1 million families are dependent on food banks.

It is clear that poverty has a negative impact on physical and emotional well-being.

How would you function if you were in this situation? Would you live with your bags packed in case you had to suddenly leave your home and be rehoused somewhere far away? Would you fear that if you didn’t, you’d lose some of the few belongings you had?

How would feel about the Government placing poor families together, so they’re out of sight in richer areas?

Would you feel as if you didn’t matter to anyone? To the friends made at school and to the staff who cared?

• Bullying this has been proven to effect mental health but cuts means that needed resources aren’t available.
• Cahms only deals with emergency cases but even then, a child who was self-harming was told to wait 2 weeks for an appointment. She had taken an overdose prior to being referred.
• On average three children in each class, have mental health issues.
• In some schools, staff are being trained as learning mentors to support children with mental health issues, to help them transition, to deal with grief and so on. However, they’re unable to deliver this needed mentoring because they’re re-timetabled to support the increasing amount of the children whose support is being reduced or cut completely! Schools can’t afford to meet the increasing needs being placed on them, whilst their funding keeps being cut!
• A member spoke about the families where the children are given breakfast and lunch at school. The adults in these families dread the holidays, because they don’t have the ability to feed their children during that time!
• If all schools become academies, they will HAVE to go to the private sector for educational psychologists, SEN support etc. Will they have the money for it? Will they have the desire to use their funds on these types of services? Will they choose to stop supporting those who are in desperate need of these services?