Priority 2 of 5
Expanding support for students with special needs
Every child deserves to learn somewhere they are supported, respected, and given the tools they actually need.
Bobby will push for the staffing that makes inclusion real — classroom assistants and paraprofessionals — and will listen directly to the parents who know best what their children are up against.
A classroom assistant is not an extra. For a child with an individualised education programme, the assistant is often the difference between being included and being managed — and between a teacher teaching and a teacher coping.
Parents of children with disabilities spend an extraordinary amount of energy simply getting what their child is already entitled to. They learn the acronyms, they chase the assessments, they push for the hours. That energy should go into their child, not into the process.
The commitment here is deliberately unglamorous: staffing, training, and listening to the parents who know the most and are asked the least.
The goal: No child should have to fight for the support they need to learn.
What that means in practice
- Increased funding for classroom assistants and paraprofessionals
- Adequate support staff in classrooms
- Stronger resources for students with disabilities and exceptional learning needs
- Training and resources so teachers can serve diverse learners well
- Listen directly to parents of students with special needs
Why he sees it
After-school programmes take every child who turns up, whatever their needs, usually without the funding or the staffing to do it formally. You learn quickly what support actually costs — and what it costs a family when it is not there.
See the workThis is bigger than one seat
Parents who show up are the whole strategy.