Oxford pupils miss school amid special needs staff shortage

Damian Haywood (top) said his son, Matias, was upset when he could not go to school

Children with additional needs are not getting the education "they rightly deserve" due to national recruitment shortages, a parent has said.

Pupils at a special needs school in Oxfordshire have been asked to stay at home on certain days due to staff shortages.

The Mabel Prichard School in Oxford wrote to parents in May about partial closures which have continued.

It said fully opening would result in a "high health and safety risk".

Pupil Matias Haywood, 18, who has profound and multiple learning difficulties, has been asked to stay at home for three days in the last few weeks.

The school told parents it had "devised a rota of closure" to ensure "no one class is affected more than the others".

Cost of living

Matias's father, Damian Haywood, who is also a parent governor at the school and a county councillor, said: "It's not just about caring for him, it's about actually properly educating him appropriately for his needs and his development."

He said Matias became upset when he realised he was not able to go to school.

Mr Haywood said he was been told there were eight teaching assistant vacancies and said the staffing situation was the worst he had known in 15 years.

He does not "blame" the school, but believes there are recruitment issues across the country with the cost of living and affordability of housing in Oxford playing a part.

As a councillor, Mr Haywood had to take Matias to a council meeting on Friday as he was unable to attend school.

In a statement Kay Willett, chief executive of The Gallery Trust which runs the school, said recruitment challenges were "felt particularly acutely by SEND schools like ours who need higher staff-to-student ratios".

She added: "Factors beyond our control - particularly the current cost of living and the shortages in the labour market - mean that recruitment is currently very challenging."