Special people

6:00am Friday 11th April 2008

Three cheers for the parents of children with special needs who have won a four-year battle to get post-16 education in the county's special schools.

Until now, Oxfordshire had been the only county in England without post-16 special needs education.

What that meant was that after years in a caring environment, children faced either being sent to special schools in Reading, Milton Keynes or Newbury, or trying to integrate into the hurly-burly of a mainstream college.

Some children could cope with that step-change. Some could not, and, as a result, quite a few young people with moderate learning difficulties dropped out of college courses because they found it difficult to cope.

But from September, nine special schools will be allowed to continue educating children.

More than 200 parents joined the Oxfordshire 'Choice' group, which campaigned to get children with special needs a sixth form-style of post-16 education, enjoyed by children in mainstream schools. Well done to them.

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