Ofsted has highlighted widespread and systematic failings in provisions for children with special educational needs in Redbridge. Local neurodiversity consultant Jaya Narinesingh is not surprised
I live on the High Street, but to me, Wanstead is more than just a postcode, it’s more than just my home. It’s where Bamboo Elevate – my business teaching students with additional needs – was born over a year ago, with nothing but a business plan and a handful of students quietly slipping through the cracks.
Some of those students will sit GCSEs next May; brilliant, capable young people who still don’t have the access arrangements they qualify for because of waiting lists. Just more pressure on children to perform in a system that rarely pauses to ask if it’s fit for purpose.
When Ofsted’s damning report on Redbridge’s SEND provision was released a couple of months ago, I didn’t feel vindicated. I felt exhausted. Not because it wasn’t true but because it took this long for the truth to be acknowledged. Every parent I work with, every child I advocate for, could have written that report themselves. It’s not news to us.
I’m a single mother of two, one of whom is preverbal autistic. Through my own battles with Redbridge, I realised I would have to build something for my son, something better than the borough’s offering. I wasn’t trying to start a business but create a future. I shared what I was doing with a few local parents. Word spread, and Bamboo quietly became a lifeline for children who don’t ‘fit the mould’, and for families who’d spent years being gaslit, dismissed or passed around like paperwork.
I’ve been in meetings where Educational Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) were finalised without key assessment outcomes included. I’ve seen children placed in unsuitable schools, and I’ve read reports where needs were minimised to fit the budget; not the child, including my own. I now teach students whose families have removed them from school altogether because they were safer at home than in an unsupported classroom.
What’s happening in Redbridge isn’t just an oversight or another gap in provision. It’s a systemic devaluation of children. And while the council scrambles to respond, families are exhausted and left holding the line.
Wanstead raised me to become the educator I am. But Redbridge made me an advocate. And like so many parents here, I don’t want apologies. I want action and transparency. I want a borough that stops treating parents as adversaries and starts recognising us as experts on our children. My business exists because mainstream education isn’t always safe. And until it is, I will keep showing up.
Now that the borough’s failings have been shown, whatever we do next marks a new beginning. And it starts with inclusive practice at the foundation of all teaching.
To view the report, visit wnstd.com/send
To contact Jaya, call 07760 767 405 or visit bamboo-elevate.co.uk
