Wibu to pull my daughter from certain classes

It's a stupid idea and your daughter would be embarrassed by it. The school won't allow it, and nor should they. Move schools if you're that upset by negative comments. Your daughter will make new friends.

Another thing for you to consider is that to access additional services down the line, the school will need to provide evidence of their graduated response to your child’s needs. This might be through a support plan where they set small step targets for your child then review the targets and set new ones. Initially, this will be based on what the school can make provision for in house. Two review cycles at least would need to be completed before the school would be able to apply for any kind of inclusion funding including an EHCP. Your child needs to be in school and accessing the support offered so they can decide whether this meets the need of your child or they will need targeted and specialist support. A diagnosis does not guarantee targeted and specialist support as many children manage well in school with high quality teaching focussed on inclusion. So the only way to progress to the next stage would be through working with the school not against the school.

You can't pull your daughter out of English classes. Schools don't work that way. What are the negative comments?

How can she work so much better than ‘greater depth’? I mean, that’s generally the top 5% of pupils. If she’s not being supported then clearly her ADHD isn’t holding her back at all.

Are you projecting your own experience here? Has she actually said she’s worried about the comments or have you decided that’s the thing that is impacting her? Your response to this is incredibly impulsive- removing her from English isn’t going to help her. Thinking about strategies to support her to focus better on written work would be more constructive.

Also, if there are no corrections, she’ll never improve. I work in a sector where our written work is torn apart - the red pen is a normal, everyday thing which makes our work better. what are the comments that you are perceiving as mega negative? Can you include some here so others can give a perspective on whether they’re normal or unusually harsh?

From what you’ve said, she sounds like most Year 3 children!
Has she got a diagnosis or not? if not, then perhaps school doesn’t agree with your home diagnosis!
You will not be able to withdraw your child from English lessons - and if she’s achieving as well as you have been told, then she clearly is enjoying them. If she felt negative about them, she wouldn’t be doing so well.
When marking pupil’s work, it’s important to be factual, so you might say ‘please check for punctuation, you’ve missed out some full stops’, or ‘your handwriting is messy today, remember to keep between the lines’.
Writing bland comments such as ‘lovely story’, ‘well done’, ‘good work’ doesn’t tell the pupil enough about what was lovely, well or good. So they don’t know how to improve.

Second the short break idea - the school could send her to do an errand which allows her time to refocus.

I would go through the strategies of ADHD in class and ask them to put in thos3 strategies that take no resource now. You could also ask for the curriculums in advance and go through it with her.

The reality is that even with an EHCP there is little support unless High Needs/ Low incident which she does not appear to be. So any adjustments in class will be small adjustments eg more praise, memory aids, breaks.

If its comments like good story but you got distracted / went off tangent then thats pretty standard. If you suspected ADHD you start the assessment process yourself. At that age its normal for some distractions, so assessing what’s age related and what’s more than that takes time as children mature.

Sounds like you’re not happy with the school but its convenient as you live next door. How are you going to explain to your child why they are coming home when English is taught? They will not be happy i’m sure to be the only child taken out and questions will be asked, kids will tease etc. What benefit to your daughter will it bring? If you feel very strongly about this take it to the head who will speak to the teacher concerned. Surely its better for this to be sorted out quietly without your DD being singled out in class and cause upset for her.

But you do understand you can't pull her from a class and keep her at the school?

She can make new friends. At that age they are in and out of the friendship everyday anyway.

It's home educate. And she very likely could, if her situation would allow her to try.

It sounds like, you already have your own baggage related to English in school but one way of helping your daughter to succeed in school is to not pass this baggage on. Though it may be too late.

1. Speak to the teacher about the school marking policy. They will have one. Teachers aren't necessarily on board with it and are usually stuck with what the management team thing is suitable feedback and marking.

1. Suggest some positive strategies with less negative marking on paper/in book. Rewards for finishing work, opportunities to discreetly take something home to finish. Or another suggestion that you and the teacher decide on.

1. Is she not finishing because she's messing around? ADHD will obviously have a huge bearing on this. Does she need some brain breaks, is she able to facilitate a short break, with a 10 minute session with a TA or even a walk to the office, throw a beanbag in the hall, whatever.

1. Go to the GP and ask about an ADHD assessment. Or get one done privately.

And remember, just because you had a bad experience at school does NOT mean she will. Teachers aren't necessarily so much more supportive than they were back in the day.

I've also found secondary teachers have really brought the best out of my kids, and seem to know/like/understand my kids more than the primary ones.

Good luck.

It seems that some of the issue is caused by a lack of diagnosis of ADHD. Can you fund an Ed Psych to get this? Alternatively you could write direct to the LEA and ask for an EHCP assessment which would involve them getting an Ed Psych report. Most likely they will refuse as there is no diagnosis and no delay? (What’s her written work like?) Or ask your GP for a referral.

Also what do you do at home to support the suspected ADHD? So perhaps teach her to jot down lists of work immediately in her work planner. Teach her organisation skills. With writing teach her to use concept maps, key words, flow charts. Get her to write down all her ideas as a brain dump and then organise them into concept maps. You could buy various lap top programmes eg writing block that do this. Also teach her to cover the non important text and focus on the important text for comprehension .Can she use folders to keep her ongoing work in? Also if you work with her at home you can give her a lot of praise and ‘can do’ attitude. Also she might just need reenforcement to be able to manage pieces of work.

As others have said, what’s she like for everything else eg maths, PE etc.

How would that physically work? Are you not going to send her in until lunch time?

I can’t help but think this is your anxiety over your experience … Teachers litterally have a whole marking policy which always includes how the child can improve ..

You will be doing her no favours at all removing her from English.. it is a core subject so needed for all her other subjects too.

You are asking the wrong questions imo /the question should be how can Dd be supported to stay on task.

I have my own Dc with ADHD, so it isn’t about opting out it’s finding ways that work - put her at the front of the class, put her next to someone she isn’t interested in chatting all lesson with, give her prompts to get back on task .

The other thing is there no positives at all as again I would expect there to be some .

You say the school haven’t been supportive of anything you asked because if it’s like the Opt out of English it won’t happen.

If your Dd does have ADHD then she needs to find a way in the world with her ADHD bit it out.

You say that you find the comments demotivating but has she said that? You might be looking at the comments through your bad experience.

It is fine to tell the teacher your thoughts on the feedback and how it can be reframed as constructive feedback but I don’t think you have a chance with the school/governors/local authority at removing a Y3 from one specific class. I don’t think any professional would think it was beneficial to a student.

You need to work with school, not against them. Have you got their backs up by going in all guns blazing? If you have, it may be too late to repair your relationship with them.

It won't be helpful to remove your DD from English, with it being a core subject.

My dd's grammar school agreed to her dropping a subject. It was either that, or she school refused the days it was timetabled, such was the anxiety it caused her (ASD)
Obviously a bit different due to age, as she took herself off to the library and worked on her other subjects.

If you're struggling to get your point across verbally, email them.
I don't know why, but I gave visions of you being aggressive and immovable 😳

No child will get expelled simply for not finishing their work. You obviously don't like or have faith in the school and that will affect your daughter. You need to keep going with a diagnosis and find a better school for her needs

What are the actual comments?

I asked why the comments were so demotivating and was told that when she's writing stories etc she gets too distracted, gets up to go and do other things, or goes 'off on a tangent' instead of following her story maps, so she finds it hard to sit and write what's required in English as a subject as compared to other subjects

What does your daughter say when you talk to her about getting distracted?

Have you made suggestions to your daughter about how she can sit with her story maps for longer before getting up and wandering

Why don't you ask if you can help your daughter in the English lessons (i.e., sit with her to gently stop her being distracted and help her to NOT go off on a tangent)

The teacher surely is obliged to point out what your daughter is doing, which stops her achieving the excellence that the teacher can see that your daughter is capable of ?

Your daughter obviously needs a diagnosis of adhd or autism, but until then, why don't you work WITH the school to help your daughter achieve all she can?

It must be very challenging for the remainder of the class and the teacher, if your daughter is wandering around and not fulfilling the task

A quick google told me you can get a private adhd assessment for less than £1000. Surely you do this. And look for a new school. I can’t see that a school will facilitate you pulling her from lessons or that this will help anything. In meantime until you can a new school Id suggest raising concerns again with teacher and point out your concerns re their comments, what you’d like them to do differently.

It is a stupid idea but is moot, because You won't be allowed to pull her out of English.You can insist all you want, but it won't happen.
Also, there is no way you got expelled from a school for not finishing your English work

Can you give us an example of one of these comments?

it only being in English really doesn’t make much sense!