to be furious with teacher for keeping son in at lunch time

[23balloons]

Hi I have posted in SEN education but haven't had a reply.

I am feeling furious right now & plan to approach his teacher tomorrow. Briefly, I have always suspected he was dyslexic, cannot read fluently, very slow, very messy writing bad spelling etc. I recently paid for a diagnostic assessment and the assessor verbally confirmed dyslexia, said he had slow processing and trouble with long term recall, he had a vision test last year and this showed his tracking and processing problems. I have told the school and written a letter and asked for a meeting before his SATS (in a couple of weeks, he is in y6).

At parents' evening recently his teacher was implying he was lazy and would struggle to keep up at secondary school which was one of the reasons I finally went ahead with the diagnosis. She said she had been keeping him in at lunch to catch up on his work. Afterwards I felt I should have protested at this but I didn't at the time. Since I told her he was dyslexic and I would have a report soon I assumed she would realise why he wasn't keeping up. Today he has told me he has been kept in at lunch this week and will have to spend tomorrow lunch break doing work in the Heads office. I am toatlly furious as he is a very energetic boy who loves sport and I feel he needs to run around at lunch time to burn off energy.

Sould I go in all guns blazing tomorrow or wait for the report and complain?

Mrbojangles, your son's school will more than likely use Fisher Family Trust data in order to predict your son's GCSE grades. This data is based on KS2 SATs.

That may be the case with your school Bo, but even if a school decides to re-test (we did have to do that one year when one of our feeder schools boycotted the sats), the majority of schools will base y7 sets on sats scores and data generated on children from that point onwards includes the sats scores. I can even tell you what the pupils in my Year 13 French class got in each paper in their Yr 6 sats in maths because that data is STILL attached to them and their school records. I'm not saying it's right or wrong to do so, just that that's how it is and why it's important to get the support that the OP's son is entitled to, now that the OP has written confirmation of his needs.

Also, it is the school's responsibility to flag up problems pupils may be having; this may or may not result in a diagnosis.

It is not -or it should not be- down to the parent to make referrals.

Diagnosis is a bit of a red herring in this case, IMO. The OP's DS is having issues- for whatever reason- which are being dealt with inadequately by the school.

Yes tethers, fft data is exactly what I was referring to!

Yes agreed but you can't simply pitch up and state that xyz is wrong with your child when no were in the uk is their written confirmation of this

Whatever a educational physcoligost says off the recored it means shit unless it's on the recored.

But the OP isn't just turning up and saying that she thinks something is wrong...she's got a professional to give their opinion...probably the same person who would have been called in by the school anyway, had they actually decided to investigate things. All that happens from here is that once the school gets a copy of the report, they then put it onto the record unless they have good reason to dispute it (which they probably won't). Then...hey presto, the OP's son gets what he's entitled to - job done.

OP has the report now, MrBojangles; but that's not really the issue.

The school have noticed that the OP's DS is having difficulties and have not taken steps to address this.

As far as I know, whoever asked the ed psych to do the assessment (whether parent or school), an ed psych is always going to be believed and any evidence they provide will be considered. It's not like you can go to a 'backstreet' ed psych and just pay them to say what you want them to say.

Mrboj it doesn't appear to me that you have read the thread?

I have repeatedly mentioned to the school that I believe my son is dyslexic, since he was 6 years old. His writing is dreadful, misuses capitalisation, his grammar is incorrect, he cannot spell 'had' or 'went', he cannot read fluently. He is 11 and has never read a book! His had hurts when he writes due to poor pencil holding - "doesn't have a tripod holding grip" to quote the written report. His reading speed is on the 5th centile, his comprehension the 81st. Do you not think in 7 years at this school one of his teachers should have suspected there was something not quite right?

His secondary school do not do their own tests in year 7, they use the SATS to set, this was clearly stated at the Open Evening.

Anyway need to catch up on some other stuff now. I have just sent a measured email to the Head and attached the report asking her to share it with his teacher and the SENCO and requesting a meeting. I have also strongly objected to him being kept in at lunch.

Thank you so much to all those who have spent the time & energy responding to this thread, you gave me the patience to wait for the report and approach the school sensibly.

23 x

Furious? All guns blazing? Yes, v. unreasonable.

So he got the message for once that not everything is played by the rules. And it's not even like he was being punished- he was kept in to do work- for his own good. So he can catch up. I'd call that thoughtful and er, teacherly of the poor woman.
I had loads of detentions which weren't necessarily fair. In fact I think they're unfair much more now than at the time. When I thought at the time- oh never mind, whether it's fair or not, I know I haven't done it, the most I have to do is copy out the school rules for an hour, big deal. And yeah, a couple of those were due to difficulties stemming from AS, which lots of people see as a milder set of SN. I wouldn't have wanted my parents to go in spitting rage because they'd told me over and over that a lot of the time you just have to suck it up and get on with it. Successful indoctrination: what the teacher says has to go. I feel guilty now when I get a spate of things going my way. I don't think that's a particularly unhealthy mindset to have either.

You sound like you need a dose of John Rosemond OP. Why undermine the teacher, they have a tough enough job!

Teacherly? thoughtful?

Couldn't disagree more.

Regularly keeping a child in at lunchtime is poor practice and not in the best interests of the child, who is clearly struggling.

I say that as a teacher.

Me too. And as for having to face up to situations in life which are not fair, well I do get what you're saying but surely that has to be the exception and not the norm? Lots of the DfE standards for qualified teachers state that you have to treat pupils fairly in order to gain respect, and also to make provision for those who have special needs or even just different learning styles!

I had a teacher who did routinely kept me in for petty things, and made me write essays, which she didn't make anyone else do. Then she talked to me about them and my self esteem went up in leaps. Being kept in at break gives the teacher and child some time alone together. It's not a punishment.
I don't think that boosting a child's self esteem is necessarily the way to go either, but let's not overreact here. As long as the child isn't being treated like some naughty miscreant.

Sorry, I'm really not trying to be inflammatory or anything here! But why on earth would a teacher need to gain/earn respect? Why doesn't he get it automatically, the minute he graduates, the minute he walks through the door? Assuming he's not abusive or bizarre. Respect does not have to be a two way street.

The teacher isn't staying in at lunchtime with him, quirrel.

It's definitely a punishment- an ineffective one at that, as it has not produced an improvement.

I totally agree with 1:1 time being valuable but I would never keep pupils in at break/lunchtime unless it was necessary and also I wouldn't make them do extra work unless they specifically wanted to. Quirrel, if that kind of approach worked for you, that's great but I really think that it would be a vast minority of pupils who could get over the feeling of injustice about being kept in, in order to appreciate the extra work and help they got as a result. Pupils nowadays just don't seem to think in that way (in general). Lots of my pupils do stay after school for extra help and attention but I've never actually asked or forced them to.

And the respect thing- yes you have it upon entering a classroom on day 1 of a new job, but it can be lost very easily if you are unfair or inconsistent or just generally do not uphold your own standards.

quireel - have you read the thread?

Hmm yes I appreciate both your points, and I hadn't realised that the OP's son wasn't really getting 1:1 time.
But don't you think it would be so useful to turn the clock back on that way of thinking? How could it be achieved? This situation makes me want to bang my head against the wall or something. And on the other side, I always felt as though I were bothering teachers if I asked them stuff out of hours...some major changes are in order.

I think you ought to bring this up on the teacher's website if you haven't already done so

community.tes.co.uk/forums/59.aspx

The link should take you to the special needs forum.

(Apologies if this has already been sent)

The writing 'test' this year has changed though for Year 6 and now is similar to the way Yr 2 do their writing SATs. We are having to collate 4 or 5 examples of writing for each child that shows the level they are working at. There is a 'test' style writing task that schools can administer - at any time between Feb and June - to help inform their teacher assessment.