What can the school actually do? Class behaviour

[mrsjackbauer87]

My Y5 has just come home so down because of the behaviour in his class.

25 in the class, 5 with obvious, high needs SEN, possibly another couple with SEN or just challenging behaviour. 2 of these children spend most classroom time screaming/singing/making noise. Obviously this is disruptive and the majority of the class seem to have leapt onto this and are low level misbehaving.

My DS is on a table with 4 other children who are all trying to work among the chaos. Almost everyday DS either has a headache or is just low from spending the day surrounded by noise. He's not the most academic but he is also complaining that the work is too easy and that he and his table complete their work quickly and spend the rest of the time bored.

Just the one teacher and one TA. I need to speak with the teacher because its really affecting DS, but I don't know what they can actually do. I don't just want to complain at them, I know they are doing their best but I owe it to DS not to ignore how much it's affecting him.

Has anyone got any ideas on how to approach this in a positive way with the school? I don't want to move him as I have 2 other children in the school, both are happy.

@Littlegreene82 there can be a lot of movement in yr4/ yr5 where there are grammar schools, tight secondary catchment areas or poor feeder secondary schools so parents start relying on the private sector so "state until 8 then private".

Small schools can be popular with children with some types of SEN as they tend to have smaller class sizes which feel less busy and chaotic. The school could also be the best locally for supporting children with SEN or have a half decent SENCO. Sadly you don't have to do a lot nowadays to be considered the best at supporting SEN.

If they have a weak or inexperienced teacher then behaviour in any type of class can escalate quickly.

I would have a chat to the teacher. It could be the case that the teacher needs parents to raise issues in order for a case of more in class support to be put in place.

Ds will be 9 throughout yr 5, just for info . He'll turn 10 in the summer holidays.

It sounds like the school have taken on more than they can cope with. Our small school did the same and it was a year of hell for sone children, until 2 left.

I absolutely think they've taken on too much. The school prides itself on being a welcoming, close knit and diverse environment but at the end of the day the SEN provision isn't great so to have such a high proportion of children who need extra support in one year is not doing anyone any favours. To be clear, I'm not moaning about the SEN children themselves and I know there is a huge shortage in SEN school places in our area but I don't know how they can expect one teacher and one TA to cope.

It's not an answer but I was an HLTA and covered classes from YrR to Yr6.

One of the main reasons that I left for was because of classroom behaviour which got progressively worse even before the pandemic.

The school's behaviour policy was completely out of touch with what was being presented in a classroom on any given day. Appeals to SLT went unheard but only ever acted upon if they were directly impacted. Even then it was piecemeal.

Too many heads in the sand and I've heard this from many other colleagues in other schools.

There needs to be a sea change, and fast.

Problem is that when you have children in your class with SEND, there isn’t a lot you can do without sufficient funding. That’s what we were striking about for all the good it did.

I’m on the other end of the situation. I am the teacher who is doing their utter best to teach when there are disruptive children in the classroom. It’s primary and I have no send support. There is no one to work 1:1 with the children because they can’t get an EHCP because the local authority don’t have enough staff and the children desperately, desperately need support.

So even with all my years of experience and excellent behaviour management I am struggling. I have cried since the end of school. I cried driving home and now I am waiting for the emails to arrive, for the parents to catch me on the door. And quite rightly so. I don’t blame them I’m the slightest.

But I am asking for help ALL the time and just being told “yes, they are a tough class, aren’t they.” I said today that I am not coping. I can’t do my job and all I got in return was “they’ve always been a tough class.”

Seriously considered crashing the car on the way home and now considering leaving at Christmas. I can not cope anymore so yes, please raise the issues - shout from the rooftops that it is not good enough because no one is listening to the teachers. The parents need to be heard. But please do it nicely!!!!

I sympathise with your child because I worked in a classroom (1:1 assistant) for a few months and the noise level really affected me and gave me a headache almost daily. In our classroom we had a tray of headphones, they were mainly for the SEN children but anyone could use them. I would also speak to the teacher to let them know how much it is effecting him.

@Noideawhatisgoingon absolutely, this is why I'm asking the question about what to say because I don't want DS' teacher to think I'm complaining about her and adding to her stress! So many teachers now just seem to be firefighting all day, I have the upmost respect for them but it's so unfair on everyone.

I will admit I'm nervous to move DS to another school because I'm not convinced it would be better...he does have good friends at the school and he wouldn't be happy to move.

Please raise it. Every time it happens. I've banged my head against brick walls about similar in previous years and it's often only when parents start complaining too that anything actually gets done.

I was that class teacher and spent days literally in tears and pleading with SLT to help only to be told I was doing a great job and to keep on doing what I was doing. When parents started complaining about the impact on their own child, we got the support we needed. Worst year of my 20 year career tbh.

@mrsjackbauer87 It’s really hard isn’t it. If he’s happy and has lovely friends then that’s a real positive and would somewhere else be better? I really feel for parents - hard decision to make.

I would appreciate it as a class teacher for the parents to speak to me - it’s more evidence that something needs to be done. And if a child isn’t happy at school, teachers really do need to know. We can’t help / change things if we don’t know there’s a problem.

My job means that I teach about 30 different classes a week. I'm now finding that on average in each state school class, there are 4,5,6 ish children who need extra help or the whole class is disrupted. Moving him to a diffferent school, unless private, will be more of the same. Re my private comment, wow the difference, I've just started teaching there this year, for the first time ever I get to actually teach rather than problem management. No idea what can be done. 6 teachers per 30 kids is never going to be viable.

In in N.I and year 5 is age 8/9 and year 7 is 10/11. Possible op is from here

The rise in children with SEN feels like it has been exponential in the last 10 years.

Add into that the funding for SEN has reduced.

Schools don't get a choice about which children they take. They can tell county they can't meet need, and county will direct the school to take the child anyway.

Schools are trying so hard to meet the need of every child, but the money isn't there to do it.

And the new agenda is to issue less EHCPs, as there isn't the funding for them. It's only going to get worse.

So if you move school, you'll likely find the same issue @mrsjackbauer87

If your child won't wear ear defenders OP, try Loops.

www.loopearplugs.com/collections/all