Separate is Never Equal

22 April 2026

For Disabled students, mainstream secondary school is often far from as inclusive as you might imagine. In pursuit of a secondary school that would meet my son’s needs, I accidentally did some research.

My son is a fun, friendly, easily distracted 12-year-old with Down syndrome. He loves writing stories, playing football, fish and chips, dancing, and girls. He has just finished his first term in a mainstream secondary school in Sheffield. He does get some individual support for maths and PSHE (personal, social and health education) in a small group, but otherwise is in mainstream classes. He is very happy and it’s going better than we had even dared to hope.

But finding a mainstream school where this is possible was very challenging. We visited or contacted twelve mainstream secondary schools, starting to despair before visiting school number eleven, the only one that seemed to understand inclusion.

Many mainstream schools segregate Disabled pupils, particularly those who learn differently, develop at a different pace, or challenge inflexible systems. We were shocked to find that, in half of the schools we visited, Disabled pupils were segregated into SEN (Special Educational Needs) classes for much or all of the school day. I get the impression that Disabled pupils are often viewed as an inconvenience to school life, best kept out of the way.

Only one of these was an official “SEN Unit for learning difficulties” on the local authority list, called an Integrated Resource or IR in Sheffield. The rest existed in a less official capacity and often the segregated arrangements weren’t described on school websites, which leads to a lack of transparency about what is going on.

In one school, the four pupils identified as lowest attaining in all year groups were removed from their year groups and placed together in a single classroom, taught by the same teacher every day, potentially for their entire time in the school. This arrangement would result in extreme social isolation with few options for friends, who might be of very different ages. This class wasn’t being taught the full range of subjects.

In two schools what would be offered was very unclear, with no clarity on how much time our son might spend in mainstream classes or even which subjects he would be taught. In one school, whether the “resource room class was taught Spanish depended on the preferences of that year’s pupils.

Three schools had a clearer timetable for Disabled pupils, with children moving around the school and being taught by subject specialists. But the amount of classroom time spent with mainstream peers was as low as 6%. In one school the “SEN group” didn’t get any subject choices at age 13/14.

In theory, Disabled pupils might be allowed to mix with their non-disabled peers during breaktimes, but often they remain within a segregated area. As they rarely meet the “mainstream” pupils in lessons, striking up friendships during breaks will be very challenging.

There is evidence showing better educational and communication outcomes for children with Down syndrome who are included within mainstream settings. Researchers believe that this is due to being around children with good command of spoken language, fewer behaviour difficulties, and higher expectations from staff. In Devon in 2009, half of the children with Down syndrome were included at mainstream secondary schools, so it is possible.

Our son had been included in a mainstream primary school and made good progress, so mainstream secondary seemed like the obvious choice for him. Also, I think Disabled children need to be included in mainstream schools, so their peers have experience of the vastly diverse range of people in our society. Perhaps if that happens, when these children become adults, Disabled people will have a better chance of working, being treated well in healthcare systems and included in wider society.

My son isn’t generally overwhelmed by a busy classroom, but he is easily distracted and curious about everything. When he doesn’t have the right support, his behaviour might seem disruptive. So, he might be perceived as overwhelming by the teacher. Excluding him from the mainstream classroom might be an easy, quick fix if that option was available and, if there had been a SEN Unit at my son’s primary school, I believe they would have wanted him to spend time there. But without a SEN Unit, they had to be more creative and learn about how you can make inclusion work.

Segregation doesn’t sit well with me, it mirrors total segregation in an asylum, which less than a hundred years ago was the standard path for a child with Down syndrome. I fear that segregating Disabled children most or all of the day within a mainstream setting is becoming increasingly common, reducing the options for full inclusion. And while it is clear legally that in most circumstances you have the right to opt for a mainstream setting for your Disabled child, I am not sure whether it is possible for parents of Disabled children to veto segregation within a mainstream school.

To complete our story, what about the other five schools without a SEN Unit or class? When I emailed one school to request a visit, they replied saying our son would struggle there, based on his diagnosis and EHCP. They suggested an IR (Integrated Resource) would be better and offer life skills, neither of which were suggested by or recommended in the EHCP. One school, which seemed focused on attracting high achievers, had a SENCO (special educational needs co-ordinator) who was unwelcoming and told me I was asking too many questions. Another SENCO made quite prejudiced comments such as “We don’t have runners in this school” when our son tried to go in a different direction from her. One school had an exceedingly strict and inflexible behavioural policy, which would probably alienate many children. The final school described having a system where one teaching assistant would support about five children. We asked what would happen if it turned out a child needed more support than this and the answer was an annual review with a view to moving to a special school. It seems unlikely that attending any of these secondary schools would have had a positive outcome for our son. And we visited one special school too, because others thought this was a good idea. The school wasn’t a good match for our son, as our instincts had told us initially.

The UK government is carrying out a review and reform of the SEND system and seems to see SEN Units within mainstream schools as a positive solution. From my perspective these Units segregate Disabled pupils in mainstream schools, so offer little if any advantage over going to a completely segregated school, and if we want an Inclusive Education system the government needs to think again.

I wonder why as a society we seem to gravitate back to segregation. Less than a hundred years ago, the standard option for a child with Down syndrome would have been total segregation in an asylum. And we have segregated children based on race, religion and academic achievement too. The USA civil rights movement used the phrase “separate is never equal”, and I wonder if this applies to Disabled children’s education too.