Can I withdraw my child from a certain subject

[allofthelove]

My child is 12, with ASD and Learning difficulties, slow processing Has always struggled in primary school. Does not have an EHCP.

Has the reading age of a 7 year old struggles massively with English and maths

Seems to have settled well in secondary school . School are doing interventions with literacy and numeracy .

Also been allocated Spanish as a subject. However , is really struggling with this subject . Has had a huge meltdown over the homework . Can I ask that she's withdrawn from the Spanish lesson as I don't see the point of teaching a language to a student that all struggles with reading and writing in English.

I know i need to contact the SENCO department , but I would like to know if anyone else has a similar request and if so how they went about it.

Children can be withdrawn from lessons but it has to be okayed by the school as there has to be a place they can go and enough supervision for them. So you can ask, but it will depend on the school. I know of a few children I work with who are exempt from certain lessons but all these children have a one to one so the cover is in place

I totally see your point though of how unhelpful the Spanish lessons are to your child

My DC was taken out of French and did their intervention activities during that lesson instead. Speak to the SENCo as your first port of call. I'd also recommend applying for an EHCP, you can start the process yourself (IPSEA has a good guide).

Not ADHD but school were very receptive to son with dyslexia being withdrawn from French and he attended Learning Support for those periods for extra help with English.

It sounds like you definitely need an ehcp, are they applying?. DS' school used to schedule a lot of his intervention work during Spanish... purely coincidentally of course😁😁😁😁

Where would she go if she’s not in the lesson? That’s going to be the biggest issue.
what about an arrangement where she goes to lessons but doesn’t have to do the work outside of that?

You should talk to the school. I'd also advise getting an EHCP in place. If your DC needs support I'd think it would be helpful to have that in black and white and be binding to the school rather than on a whim. Budgets are so tight right now that extra support that isn't in an EHCP may disappear.

I know this wasn't the point of your post but I think your DD should be entitled to an EHCP and I think it would be worth getting one for college even if you think the school are supporting her well. If they say no to stopping Spanish it may be a staffing issue so an EHCP could help with that too.

Theoretically, yes, but it will depend on whether the Learning Support department, or whatever it’s named, can accommodate her and what she will do whilst there. There would need to be a proper structure for her time there, rather than just not going to Spanish.

It sounds as though she would have benefited from additional support prior to this, through the provision of an EHCP, so I’d certainly be speaking to the school about starting that process, which can take quite a while.

My autistic son didn't do PE, french or any textile type lessons. By year 8/9 he was still attending school but mostly studied separately as he couldn't tolerate the teachers and students. Being gay didn't help.

We moved areas at the end of year 10 and he didn't get a school place until Dec of year 11 and they also didn't offer some of his subjects (philosophy etc) so he studied those separately and took exams externally but did core subjects in class.

If it's causing distress and they don't need to do the subject then drop it. If it's a core subject then find a way to work around it.

You can ask. School may be prepared to let them work in SEN room or library doing homework or whatever. If there are English interventions, they may be able to join - these are often timetabled in language lessons. This will depend on whether there's supervision. If the school has a sixth form, some sixth formers work with younger pupils as something to put on their UCAs form.

You may have to be a bit of a nuisance to get this in place. Schools (quite rightly) are often reluctant to make these arrangements lest it prompts more from other parents.

This

start the hall rolling with an EHCP

Thank you for all your replies .

Primary school said she didn't need an ECHP I asked multiple times . I'm going to bring this up again when I have a SENCO meeting .

She only started in September , so i think at the minute they are assessing her needs, she's already been withdrawn from PE (which she hates so is pleased about ) and 1 Spanish less (they have 3 a week) for the numeracy and literacy .

This is why I thought I'd ask here, because my first thought is where would she go instead of Spanish. There is a support centre not sure how that is supervised .

Where dc1 went to secondary school they had to do a language in year 7 and then were removed from y8 to do extra English/maths if it was deemed a better pathway. Y7 was difficult, but we were told the school couldn't accommodate being removed in y7 because there was no one to supervise. I'd ask the school what is available and what the options are. Dc1 focused on getting through y7 and knowing he wouldn't need to do it afterwards (light at the end of the tunnel situation). I also only encouraged minimal engagement in homework for languages choosing instead to concentrate on English and maths in order to reduce stress at home.

Hi @allofthelove, what was the outcome of this?

My academic high flier (ASD) is having the same issue with dropping French. Attendance last year was 65%. Is up hyperventilating the night before a French lesson. Only attended 7 French lessons in Year 7 so a long way behind. I'm being told it's a curriculum subject so it's basically illegal for it to be dropped. I would happily bring her home during the lessons (reduced timetable in the past).

Quite a few ASD children in my DC’s cohort didn’t take a language at GCSE. We knew one child that stopped earlier than that.