Detention - peed off with it

[grants1000]

I am on here to stop myself from pinging off an angry rant to school. DS came home tonight and he has a detention for non completion of homework. He's dyslexic and has been trialing some new dication software that for the life of me would not print or email over the weekend, so I wrote as much in HD and was able to email the homework to his teacher just before end of play at school.

DS comes in through the door furious and upset, shouting blue murder at everyone about it. He finds written work incredibly frustrating and we have been actively encouraged by school to investigate alternative methods of recording his written work. DS is even more mad at his dyslexia and has just spen he last 20 mins crying, now in front of the TV chilling with food and drink.

School have always said they are happy to work with us to make it work, but one teacher seems not to have got the memo. This is a crucial time for him and he loves school, if he'd got a detention for rudeness, no equipment, bad behavior I'd have no issue with it, but to pick on written work, it's like 2 steps forward 20 steps back.

Shall I ping off a considered email about it all?

[grants1000]

PS: the speach to written word software was brilliant and he was able to get all his thoughts out, then adjust them on the page. Surely the point of HW is to understand the task at hand fully not pages of neatly written work?

[meditrina]

Yes, but state it in terms of the disproportionate effect this is having on him (so school is aware of the impact) making it a wider pastoral and learning support issue, detailing impact of new software and possibility of future glitches. This is more likely to provoke a helpful response than a straight complaint about the detention (by avoiding any suggestion that you're trying to undermine usual sanctions policy).

[MostWicked]

Yes definitely email them about it.
Very unhelpful action by the teacher. Might be worth a chat with the SENCO too, to ensure that all teachers understand what they need to do to support him.
What dictation software are you using by the way? Everything I have tried makes too many mistakes.

[grants1000]

Thanks, I am going to do a calm, more rounded email, as suggested by Meditrina later tonight (he's outside booting the crap out of a football as we speak, breaks my heart to see him so upset/angry) I will CC the SENCO MostWicked, we used the Dragon Dictation software on an ipad mini, he still had to sit, look through it all and make changes/additions and there were some wierd words that needed correcting, but I'd say 85% was spot on.

[motown3000]

Grants. If you Ds has to do the Detention, why cant the teacher involved with issuing the Detention use the time to help your Ds with his work or homework.

[grants1000]

As far as I now they just sit in silence!

There is no way on earth he is doing it.

[MothershipG]

Calm email is the way to go, but they definitely need to cancel the detention.

My DS is only mildly dyslexic but there always seem to be 1 or 2 teachers that need reminding, every year. A while back at target setting day he had a completely ridiculous target from one of his teachers which basically said he needs to stop being dyslexic! Along the lines of he needed to get faster and more accurate in recording his work, d'oh, of course he just needs to try harder! Why has no one realised that before??? Nothing to do with his SLD then?

I raised it with the SENCO who agreed it was a trifle unrealistic.

[motown3000]

Why issue a Detention , if they just make kids sit in "Silence" . If they give a Detention why would they not use it to help the Pupil with the missed work . Ask the pupil if they understood the homework our improve their work if not to a satisfactory level . Why use Detention as Retribution rather than potential learning time.

What is there to be gained by the Pupil just sitting in "silence" Wasting Potential time that could be used for learning.

[SconeRhymesWithGone]

I would definitley insist that he not do the detention. My son has dyslexia and other learning disabilities, so I understand and sympathize. He is now an adult and we did not have that technology when he was in school, so I am unfamiliar with it.

I am American and do not know laws in the UK, but there were (and still are) federal laws in the US that would allow a parent in this situation to challenge not only the detention, but the amount or nature of the homework if it were too much or too difficult for his levels and the nature of his disabilities. In one example I remember, I made them change his number of spelling words per week from the state-mandated 10 to five. They fussed, but complied. Are there any similar laws or you can invoke?

This type of thing really makes me angry. No child with disabilities who tries in good faith to meet his homework obligations should be punished.

Good luck, OP.

[woodlands01]

The reason students do not give in homework (in the majority) is because they are lazy, they do not listen in class or they can not be bothered to think for themselves. Therefore the teacher issues a punishment and makes them sit in silence. 'Potential learning time' in 90% of cases would evolve into telling the students what to do. This does not promote independent learning. If a students truly does not understand they will seek out the teacher. This case sounds different - just communicate with the teacher and I am sure they have overlooked something.

[fourcorneredcircle]

Is it possible that the teacher didnt receive the email until the end if the day? I often don't get a chance to look at my emails between 9 and 4! Even them I sometimes don't answer an email until the following day especially if I have a heavy work load that evening or a prior commitment such as inset, or hey, a life! Perhaps once they have had a chance to see its been done this will be a non-issue. Perhaps not but at least give them time to seek your son out tomorrow (or your son to seek them) to clarify? It's likely that the teacher was/is faced with many student who didn't/don't do their hwk and has a standard response.