DS is, like every other child in the country, due to move up a year at school. However we have been told he will remain in the same classroom for another year. The school is a small school with only 5 classes to accommodate the 7 year groups. Until recently each classroom except the Year 6 class had a maximum age range of 18 months in it as the class dividing line was based on age. All of the children would be at some point one of the older children in a class and then the following year one of the younger children in a class. Under a new headteacher the split of classes is now decided on ability. So a child who might previously have moved up a class based on age could now be held back in a classroom with children who would be mostly 1-2 years younger than them. This is what has happened to my child - he is the oldest in his year group and the rest of his friends will be moving classroom with only him left behind with a couple of the youngest ones and a couple who have very much greater individual support needs than DS has.
I cannot deny that he is slow to pick up reading and writing, but he had a couple of undiagnosed problems with his eyes which have now been resolved. As soon as we discovered he had these problems I asked the school to make sure he received support to ensure he did not trail behind, backed up with plenty of help with his reading and writing from us at home. But the teacher he has had this year has been unhelpful, refusing to offer him help when he asks for it if he is struggling with something, keeping him in over lunchtime and breaks because he is struggling, and telling him he is slow and stupid. His confidence has been knocked and he turned from a child who was keen to go to school and took pleasure in being there into one who would beg me to keep him at home and pretend to be ill. I've sent him in daily regardless of his pleas but have felt awful doing so.
The teacher in this classroom next year will be different to the one that was there this year, but I still feel extremely uncomfortable sending him back in there. She has said she is very keen to help him get back on track, but I feel he should not have been allowed to get so far off track to start with. I've been into school several times each term with my concerns, and have been brushed off each time. I believe that at primary level children should be taught within their age groups, not segregated at such an early age, and that DS is going to have little in common, either emotionally or physically, with children who are up to 2 years younger than him. He has been removed from his friendship groups and it will not go unnoticed that he is still with the younger kids.
I've had it suggested to me that I would not be unreasonable to remove him from this school and send him elsewhere where he will be taught with kids of his own age. But I've also been told by the school that I will be doing him a disservice by putting him in a class of his peers, as in their opinion he needs extra support (but when I point out I've been asking for the extra support for over a year they have no answers, and nor do they have any suggestions as to what support he will get in one classroom that the other is unable to provide.)
I'm burbling now, but I don't want my child to be the big kid in the little kid class. He is otherwise very bright, but his lateness to start reading has been used by the teacher as an excuse to beat him with at every step and he does not want to spend another year in the same class. Every part of me is telling me he should not be there. DC1 is thriving further up in the school, but DS needs to be either with his peers or somewhere else. I don't think the head is going to agree with me when I go in to speak to them next week, so how do I go about finding somewhere else to send him at such short notice? We only found this out this week, and it's the end of term next week. In spite of me going into school regularly with concerns, the school assured me they thought everything was going swimmingly and this is the first inkling we had that there was such a problem.
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Being held back a year
25 replies
WestWithTheSun · 16/07/2017 00:31
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