Minerva's Virtual Academy on meeting SEN needs with online education

Minerva Virtual Academy Principal Suzanne Lindley on why online education could help alleviate the high number of children with SEN who are missing from state schools

The plight of children with special education needs (SEN) has been thrust into the spotlight recently – and not before time. This is largely down to a report from Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza (Children Missing Education, September 2024), which revealed that many SEN children are completely missing from the education system. In England alone, children with special needs make up 22% of the 2,900 children not enrolled in school or being suitably educated somewhere else. This, the report says, is disproportionately high because 16% of children in state education have SEN.

It is a conversation that is long overdue. But talk is one thing – what we need now is tangible actions. Dame Rachel de Souza’s report notes that provision for children with SEN is ‘the number one thing that needs sorting out, alongside attendance to make sure our kids can go to school’. But, in 2024, what does going to school look like?

We believe online schooling could provide a solution for oversubscribed state-funded schools struggling to accommodate children with additional needs. Earlier this year, research by the BBC revealed that half of state-funded schools in England for children with SEN and disabilities were oversubscribed. The report also detailed how some pupils were being taught in converted cabins and cupboards due to lack of appropriate teaching space – clearly something that is neither acceptable nor sustainable.

“Online schooling is well placed to plug this gap – a more bespoke, flexible approach may be what these children need to be able to thrive”

We know from our own conversations with parents of children with additional needs that the lack of school places, and spiralling waiting lists, are preventing children from accessing the education that they need and causing undue distress for families. Online schooling is well placed to plug this gap. Not only does it require no physical facilities, but a more bespoke, flexible approach may be what these children need to be able to thrive.

At Minerva’s Virtual Academy, we are already teaching pupils with a broad range of needs and have seen first-hand what a transformational effect online schooling can have. We know that we have a formula that works, but to be able to help more children, providers such as MVA need to work together with government, local education authorities and schools to find a solution that works for everyone.

Every week we have enquiries from parents who are trying to wade through the red tape and barriers that are put in their place as they try to find a school place for their child, or those who have seen their child struggle in a school system that is under too much pressure to properly support them. Every child should be given the opportunity to learn in an environment that is suited to them, and the wider education community needs to get on board with alternative options, such as online learning, to stop more children being failed by our education provision.

Minverva’s Virtual Academy minervavirtual.com

Further reading: Wendover Education on taking education to gifted students