Please or to access all these features

Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

I feel my relationship with dd's school has broken down to the extent I can't contact them

26 replies

WhoTheFuckIsSimon · 27/04/2016 15:23

They fob me off and lie and im sick to the back teeth of it.

Dd is in Year 10. Ive posted before about how she is desperate to drop German as she is struggling so much with the subject. She is dyslexic and I think maybe a MFL wasn't the best choice but in year 9 they said she she was predicted a B, now she's predicted an E.

She has also been struggling with science....as have the whole year because her class certainly had no chemistry lessons for about ten weeks at the beginning of the year. Teacher went off sick, they got a supply teacher in who taught them biology....and apparantly he taught them the same biology lesson three weeks in a row. The school didn't know until I emailed them and told them. God knows why the kids didn't tell someone sooner but there you go. HoY thanked me for telling them and said the head of dept hadn't known and that if I hadn't told them they wouldn't know. They said they were going to try and find another supply teacher but they haven't been able to. Apparantly they now have a TA in the class to make sure he teaches chemistry but dd says he's useless. All the kids were meant to sit the first part of their science gcses this year so they had less to do in year ten. Got an email two weeks ago saying they're now not going to. So great notice a few weeks before your gcse to be to,d you're now not doing it. Dd says it's because most kids (inc dd) failed their mocks.

Anyway German......I rang the HOY and german teacher a few months ago asking if dd could drop german to concentrate on science. They said no. Hoy said dd was doing fine in science. Hmm. She also said that dd would pass german because they would give her the support she needs.

Well since this happened the german teacher hasn't spoken to dd, totally blanks her. I found out last weekend that all the other kids in dds class have done three tests which count towards their gcse and dd hasn't. The kids are taken out the class one at a time and do their test in the corridor. The teacher never calls dd. Each of these tests I believe are worth 15% of her gcse. The german teacher last spoke to dd to have a go at her about telling the HOY that she was struggling in german as she didn't think that her teacher was explaining stuff well to her. Maybe she should have taken that on board and tried a different approach with a struggling, dyslexic kid rather than ignore her for months? This has been going on since about xmas time.

School told dd when she was picking options and more recently that she couldn't do art as it clashed with graphics which she also wanted to do. She's since realised that a boy in her form does art when she does german so she could have done art. So she feels lied to. She's also upset that the HOY initially said she would have a meeting with SMT about dd dropping german but when dd asked her the next week about it shouted at dd saying she had more important things to do and dd shouldn't be so i,patient. Told her to grow up when dd cried. Called her back the next day and said she had now changed her mind about meeting with SMT and wasn't prepared to

It's parents evening next month and I feel like telling the HOY that dd won't be turning up for her german gcse exam due to having had no support for the subject. There's no way she will pass so why bother taking the exam?

OP posts:
WhoTheFuckIsSimon · 27/04/2016 16:03

Sorry, I know that's mega long.

Dd has just come home crying again.

Because she couldn't do art as an option she's been trying to do it after school. One of the art teachers stays behind and helps her once a week. The art teacher said they would still enter her for her gcse if she could keep up. Well dd is upset as she's ten weeks behind.

Ive just emailed the mum of the boy who dd thinks does art, graphics and photography and he does do those three options.

So why have they repeatedly lied to dd and to me and said it was impossible due to timetabling. They were the only three options she picked so it's not as if there was another option they clashed with.

Her HoY knows she wants to be an architect to she needs art more than german.

OP posts: