My daughter is a happy-go-lucky year 7. Socially, she is wonderful and has lots of friends. She is not strictly SEN as she has not been diagnosed with anything but is under the SENCO radar for being very far behind. In her primary school, she was assessed but discharged from the Educational Psychologist. At Infant School, the same happened. In both cases, attention was a strong feature. She also had Speech Therapy at 3 and was discharged after 6 sessions. At 5, she had a tentative diagnosis of Sensory Difficulty, which would resolve itself and so she was discharged. She was also not properly toilet trained for number 2s til 6.
So, back to the point, she is finding the demands of Secondary School very difficult. The school has a very good reputation (ex grammar school with good results) and is being as supportive as it can. She is on a special programme called Achievement for All, which basically helps disadvantaged pupils (including those with low attainment). We have a special coach, who organises termly meetings and is free to talk any time and very approachable.
She seems to manage to hold everything in at school but the stress comes out at home. The main problem we have is that she just cannot do her homework independently. I literally have to stand over her and coach her for every answer. With a younger brother, a part time job and a house to run, I am finding this very difficult. If I don't do this, she has massive, disruptive tantrums and has been known to break things in frustration, too.
The other night, the homework took 3-4 hours and I was exhausted. Last night was fine but I never know what I am going to get. I am constantly on tenterhooks over it. The coach said it was OK to just spend 20 minutes on the homework and write a note in the planner but, when I tried to do this, she scrubbed it out and had a massive paddy and carried on but I simply could not sit with her any longer and had to leave her to it. She was calling out to us while we were trying to get her brother in bed.
I don't know what it is. Whether she can't do it, lack of confidence, poor attention span or just dependent on the TA support she has had.
Has anyone got any tips on how to resolve this? If it's like this now, I am dreading GCSEs. I have thought about a different school but this one is one of the best ones and she doesn't really want to move anyway at this stage.
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
Here you'll find advice from parents and teachers on special needs education.
SEN
Year 7 Homework Struggles and adapting to Secondary Life
6 replies
gandalf456 · 21/01/2016 14:47
OP posts:
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.