The Story of Different Minds  ·  The Warnock Report

Special Educational Needs

How the SEN language changed UK education thinking.

The question shifted towards need.

Simple version

The Warnock Report helped popularise the idea of special educational needs rather than only fixed categories of handicap.

Why it matters

This changed how education policy thought about support, assessment and provision.

Awareverse lens

Awareverse sees this as progress, but not the end of the story.

Question to ask

When looking at special educational needs, ask: who had power, who was being labelled, and what would have changed if the human being had been seen first?

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