Best Schools - Privately educated children get more special needs help

Privately educated children are far more likely than those at state schools to be registered as having learning difficulties.

Over the past decade the number of state secondary school pupils with special educational needs has fallen by nearly 40 per cent, but in the private sector the number who have had conditions such as dyslexia and dyspraxia diagnosed has increased by more than 30 per cent.

Overall, 15.2 per cent of children in the private sector have special educational needs, up from 10.5 per cent in 2008. In state secondary schools the proportion had fallen from 19.9 per cent to 12.3 per cent last year. Even when state special schools are included the figures still show a drop in diagnosis rates in the state sector of about 30 per cent.

The research found that one in five students at independent schools received extra time to complete GCSEs and A levels last year, compared with one in eight at state schools.

The Department for Education is consulting on the first stage of its post-16 review and critics say this could spell the end of post-16 IB qualifications in English state schools

The Department for Education review includes plans to withdraw public funding from qualifications that “overlap” with A-levels and the new T-levels, their technical equivalent, which it wants to “become the qualifications of choice”.

The IB offers a diploma programme, with subjects that include languages, sciences and arts, and a career-related programme, which combines academic and vocational qualifications and often includes BTECs, which are also facing the axe.

According to the IB website, 24 state schools offer the IB career-related programmes – all of them in Kent – while nine offer the IB diploma and a further ten provide both.

A spokesperson for the DfE said it wanted to make sure every qualification receiving public funding was “high-quality and gives students the skills they need”.

“We want this review to benefit all students and it’s important that we take the time to get this right.”

The first stage of the consultation will run until June 10. The second stage will follow later this year.