Compulsory after school classes

Can the school not do the DT intervention during lunchtime rather than after school? That’s what I’d ask them.

Also if it’s DT coursework, I.e the thing they need to make, this has to be done in school so no outside of school/tutoring option. If the child is now behind because they’ve not had enough hours to work on DT project because they’ve been pulled out of that lesson to do maths, the school have created this problem when they could have pulled the extra maths lesson from PE time. Another option is can they do this extra DT time when they would do compulsory PE?
id ask the school what other options are possible. School cannot insist on attendance outside of school hours. They can however come up with whatever prom entry rules they want to.

(our school is rural and 80% of the pupils are bussed to school. There is no public transport to these locations. There is no late bus. As a result school recognises the transport challenge and does intervention classes which are not compulsory at lunchtime)

It seems like none of the adults involved here are being terribly fair to your DD. She shouldn't be having to miss out on needed worktime for her GCSEs because everyone else in the family comes first, and she shouldn't be punished by the school because of a decision her parents make.

For me the most important question is the one I haven't seen you really address, OP. Does your daughter need and want to attend these sessions to help her achieve the grade she's capable of in her GCSE? If so then please focus on figuring out how to make that happen for her instead of battling with the school. DT (like other practical subjects), almost always requires a significant time investment outside of timetabled lessons to get a strong grade, so this doesn't seem like a shocking expectation from the school.

All the reasons that the need for extra tutoring might have been avoided are irrelevant. Your family barriers are irrelevant. Your DD needs help to meet her maximum potential. The school has offered help. Either take that help or find it independently, but your job is to help her succeed.

Your wife is a teacher but you think teachers decide the school's opening hours?

Please dont forget these classes will be done voluntarily by a member of staff giving up their own time because they care.

I found Y11 needed a lot of flexibility by students and their parents.

I did, especially during the GCSEs. The bus company that had the contract for bussing the children to school was struggling financially and buses were often late or cancelled with no notification or even caught fire with the pupils on them (yes they did!). When DD had a morning exam I had to take her to school to make sure she got there on time.

Your DD is struggling at least 2 subjects. I’d be doing everything I can to help in your shoes, and would be thrilled they’re offering this. Sounds like they were right to give a boost to English as ultimately that’s more important. It’s not uncommon for children struggling for them to do this.
If it’s a pickup issue, is there a school library (quite often they’re open until about 5 or 6!) or somewhere outside with a shelter in rain she can study/ re-read English books whilst waiting to be picked up?

I can understand why you are annoyed OP, given that you've previously been told that there were no issues with DT and that school hours have been previously reduced.
However, I think you need to be pragmatic and try to find a way to make it work. I completely agree that it seems ridiculous to have reduced core school hours and then be putting on extra classes after school and the school really need to review that decision, but realistically they probably won't do that in a timescale that would benefit your DD. None of my DC did DT but if I recall rightly the GCSEs with practical content that they did do had to be complete by February. It does sound like the school has made some unreasonable decisions but time is probably not on your side if you want to challenge them. You might need to put the practicalities of your DD's course ahead of principle here.
Presumably your DD is not the only one who is staying for the class? Is there anyone else who lives near you that could give her a lift or share a taxi with, even part of the way? We live 20 miles from our DC's school in a village with no public transport and my job isn't the type where there's a guaranteed finish time so when we've been in this kind of situation we've needed to rely on favours from other parents sometimes. I've found people to be generally helpful, especially if we repay the favours when we can, even if it can't be 50:50. I hope you can find a solution and that your DD gets great results.

This is the problem with a one size fits all education system that is so rigid it doesn’t take extenuating circumstances in to account. It’s also very clear, nobody here, or at the school understands what needs to happen to raise disabled children.

Threatening kids who otherwise have a great attendance, with non access to a social gathering is draconian and unnecessary. I suppose this is being done to deal with the kids who are serial non-attenders and failing everywhere. Those kids probably couldn’t give a crap about prom so it ends up coming down on children like your daughter.

Does she need D&T to get into whatever she is planning to do next? Does she care if she gets a low grade for it? If not, then everyone trying themselves in knots to try and get her attendance at this class is nothing more than box ticking. My daughter hated D&T, her disability made it quite difficult and the teacher was very unhelpful. She ditched it in 2nd year, the school were on board with that. I have a child who I’m mentoring who is on course to fail a subject, not one she wants, likes or needs. We’ve arranged for her to drop it so she can focus on her other classes. The school were pissy about it at the start but we stood our ground. They are there to educate our children in a way that benefits the individual. They can suggest a child does extra work but if the child can’t / won’t, that is up to the child and their family. There are all sorts of reasons a child can’t stay after school.

If your daughter isn’t bothered about it, I would be clear with the school that this can’t happen due to family circumstances, and your daughter will be attending prom. They already decided it wasn’t a top priority when they took her out of classes for Maths. If they need her to catch up, it shouldn’t be on her time in a way that makes things really difficult for the family. If your daughter does care and wants to do the classes, then of course her wants and needs shouldn’t come second to your disabled children, and I’m sure you’d find a way to make it work.

Schools really are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

I can’t quite get my head round the timetabling at the OP’s daughter’s school. Compulsory Period 6, but also early finish on 2 days? It sounds like they are struggling for staff. Although the resulting time tabling is unconventional, it is not unusual for prom attendance to be based on 100% school attendance.

How has your daughter got home from school until now?

ETA my eldest is now in Y12. I found Y11 needed a lot of flexibility by students and their parents.

This. I’d also be over the moon that teachers are giving their own time to help your DC who can’t manage her workload during the usual timetable. You’ll need to come up with another way for your DC to get home the days she stays late. I would also find this helpful to show your DC that hard work and perseverance can make a difference - great life lesson to learn now.

Actually @labrat1984 I think there are some very helpful suggestions made here.

The staff that offer the extra sessions will indeed not be those who decided on the shorter days at the end of the week. There may be many reasons for that having happened – for example school noticed attendance was poor on Fridays or engagement of those there on Fri pm was low. Did it add in extra hours on other days (shorter lunch for example)? Even if not, I think you need to park that as it is not related to the current question.

The staff offering the sessions will be giving their time for free.

Your situation sounds logistically challenging – but how does your DD get home currently? By bus? Is there a later bus she can catch? Does she not have a friend taking the same course who lives in their direction and whose parent could offer a lift? If not, then maybe a taxi is the answer? Might be worth it for the increased grade?

Does this dd have send too? If not is public transport available one day a week? It’s hard enough being a sibling to youngsters with send, being offered extra help at school is something they think she needs. I understand that you are probably struggling with logistics but her needs are central to this (if you think she can’t improve grades no matter how much extra time that’s different but they want her to succeed) I do sympathise but it’s worth trying to work out if it’s possible

Is there a reason your dd cannot make her own way home(not clear if she also has send) or to a library if she needs to wait to be collected? How far is school from home? It sounds as if school are trying to optimise her potential grades. Is there specific software or resources she can access at school rather than at home?

That post was fine, and helpful to your daughter because it prioritises her education.

Do you think the teachers that are trying to help her get the best possible grades are the same people in the management team that had the power to decide that school would be finishing early? They are not.

It sounds like your dd hasn’t kept up with all the work and revision she needs to do to achieve her best in these subjects, and that is why they are threatening her with prom. They are trying to encourage and incentivise her to work hard, they are not being difficult just for fun. These teachers will have moved on to caring about other students’ exams in a few months, whereas your daughters grades will be hers forever. You and she have to put some effort on for her to achieve her potential too, it is not all up to the school. They can provide the opportunity, but they can’t do the work for your daughter, no matter what your transport arrangements are or who is having surgery. The exam board doesn’t care about those things.

If your dc needs additional support at school and the school have offered this it seems important to try and make this happen. Can she get a taxi back from school once a week if there is no public transport?

I think it is a real positive that additional support is offered now in a way it wasn’t in the past.

There are three separate questions here:

1. Given your family's situation, is the prom threat appropriate?
2. is period 6 appropriate given the school has removed three lessons from timetable?
3. would you want your DD to get the extra teacher time she needs?

I'd suggest you do the following:

1. question the prom threat if there are good reasons why it is difficult for your family
2. question the pd6 need given it results from a timetable cut
3. try to get your DD there, unless she and school feel she needs to prioritise other subjects.

The teacher isn’t staying late for shits and giggles. They are staying unpaid eating into their planning and marking time, or family time, to help your child reach her potential. If she wasn’t staying for dt and had the extra lesson during the school day she would clearly be staying for maths instead. Up to you if you want her to get good grades and have a good future or want her to fail and then you can make excuse after excuse for why she’s long term unemployed in her twenties. It seems you’re prioritising your other kids and I wonder how much you do that with other stuff and whether this is how she fell behind. “What rights does she have?” Ffs she has the right to an education, stop interfering with that.

So are the extra DT sessions on a Thursday or Friday, or after school on one of the full length days? If the former, how was your DD getting home at the end of the day when there weren't two shorter days?

Well, maybe they did make a mistake (although, honestly, if she is now at a better standard in maths, that's far more key for almost all future plans than DT).

But if she is now behind in coursework, then this needs to be rectified - if not by this, what is your counter suggestion?

Is the transport thats the issue? Could you speak to the HoY (or equivalent) to see if there could he some support?

My DC's school provided a "late bus" - a minibus driven by a member of staff - for pupils doing any after school activity. We are rural-ish though, and over half of the pupils came on school transport.