To think that teacher trying to name and shame DS

[krabbiepatty]

In a nutshell the school set targets for Y1s who are not conforming behaviourally (we are talking things like not holding up hand before speaking). The proposal is to stick these targets on the wall with the child's photograph. A small minority of children have these targets. I feel very very very angry about this. I cannot see any justification for doing it and it seems to me likely to do DS harm. Anyone encountered this system? Any thoughts?

Thanks Smileygirl - that is helpful (if surprising).

And Lummox of course!!! It's funny i think this brings back ugly memories of bad teachers from the past which is part of why it so upsetting (that and the mother lion thing).

I'm trying to think of a reason why they need to display a photo and the only thing I can come up with is if they have lots of different supply teachers who wouldn't know the children by sight. Otherwise agree, a bit unnecessary.

am now wondering what happens if he doesn't meet the targets?

• week 1 maybe a spread in the local paper?
• then week 2 the nationals?
• then if he hasn't met them by the end of term perhaps a ports and airports alert?

IEPs are for children on the SEN register at school action plus and above. This means that the child's needs require input moe than the school can provide - eg an ed psych may be involved.

If they are calling it an IEP you need to query it. It may just be a 'system' put in place. query the terminology as there are all sorts of additional things to do with IEPs

When my son was in Year 1 all the class had targets. they were written up under each child's name, and placed on the 'target train'. Some were obviously behavioural, and some were more 'academic'. Some were a mix if the two

Is he part of a gateway group within school am wondering as I work in a year 1 class and the kids who went all came back with gateway targets - no pics though.Lots of children went to gateway group their mates could go as a treat it was designed for children with confidence issues,behavioural issues,those that would benefit from being in a group situation.It was really successful.The ieps we have for the children are in files it soulds totally bizarre to thave those on the walls like this.

Sigh, no gateway group, no proper explanations from school. At what stage do you decide you have lost trust and confidence in the school? am finding this very hard.

KP, only you know how you feel.
I think if I were n your position and did eel as strongly as you why don't you arrange to go and view some other primary schools near you? That way you can get a feel of how they deal with things. You can ask questions etc.
You are not commiting yourself to anything BUT you are taking control of the situation and that will probably make you feel better.
( I am a control freak!!)

sounds crap kp, for you & ds1. come to our school .

Hi, krabbiepatty, sorry not to have replied earlier - I had gone to bed.
Yes, I am a teacher. The main reason (as I understand it) that we have them on the wall is for all support staff and teaching staff to be able to quickly see them and know which targets are for which child. There are myself and at least 8 others who teach my class at varying points. There are also 5 children who all have very specific targets which are supposed to be met daily. Many of these support staff deal with many different classes, and thus, many different targets, all of which are likely to change on a somewhat regular basis. It really isn't about humiliating the child, but trying to give them the support they need.
For what it is worth, the children never mention the targets, and also they do know anyway which children are getting different support.
I do think I will query the practice though, with my special educational needs coordinator, to find out more exactly why we do this.

Think this is a terrible idea. DD2 (who is also Year 1) told me that they have a Naughty Chair in their classroom, at the front of the class, by the whiteboard where teacher can keep a close eye on Naughty Child.

Our primary school used a system where they put the name of children on the whitebaord with 5 marks. Each time the child had to be asked to be quiet or stop doing something a mark was removed. At the end of the day if anyone had lost all their marks there missed 5 mins of play time or something.

This only happened to 5 children who's "offence" were things like shouting out in class, talking when shouldnt be etc.

the idea behind it being on view was that the other pupils would help the child to achieve.

Out of 5 parents only 1 complained and her reason "if someone came into the room they would assume her DC was naughty"

I have to say in this case it did work and it really was a class effort but then again this class has a really good team spirit.

IMHO If you are unhappy with it speak to the teacher and if possible go into class and see how it works in practice.

Jennifersofia, these children have one teacher and one or two suport teachers all day. No one has ever suggested explicitly to me that DW has SEN. He is a bright highly imaginative child with enormous intellectual curiosity who seems to require too much teacher time and not always put his hand up. If the school staff really believe he has SEN, shouldn't they be saying so? Their handling of this has hugely affected my opinion of their judgment generally.

Thank you by the way, hoxtonchick, I get tempted. I find myself thinking longingly about those sort of experimental schools of the 60s (I know they had issues) where they at least tried to fit the education to the child ...

And I should have said thank you, jennifersofia, I am very interested to get a teacher viewpoint on all of this.

Well you can tell this is getting to me because I am the only one posting on my thread! I would be very interested in any teacher views on the SEN aspect of this - if the school is trying to suggest SEN shouldn't they say so to us? If I think that is an absurd suggestion, what do I do? Maybe I need a new thread. I should do some work....

krabbie, as a teacher ( well taking a break to bring up kids) I can say that my experience is that if the child is being put onto any form of SEN register, whether it be having an IEP or an almost impossibly hard to get statement then the parents are informed.
They get should have a meeting with the SENCO and get a chance to discuss the IEP as well as having a copy of this at home.
Honestly what they are calling IEPs at your son's school are not IEPs, they are targets and have nothing to do with SEN as far as I can see from what you have said. Why don't you ask to speak to the SENCO?

at the school where IEPs are displayed on the wall! Whatever happened to confidentiality? If extra staff need to know who is who then why not put the photos in a folder?

The scheme mentioned in the OP doesn't sound like an IEP. IEPs not only have targets but they also include details of how those targets are to be achieved, a time-frame, and what needs to have happened in order for the target to be considered to have been reached. "X will sit quietly on the carpet" isn't enough. An IEP would go on to add something like "Mrs Y will ask X to sit down at carpet-time. X will be given praise and a sticker added to his reward chart. The target will have been achieved when X is able to sit quietly for 5 minutes at carpet-time." Not a great example but hopefully you get the general idea. HTH

Thank you both. Kitty, after I objected to the targets on the wall, I had a meeting with the head and she brought in the inclusion coordinator - would this be the same as an SEN coordinator? no one at any stage mentioned SEN and the inclusion coordinator was pretty unimpressive I thought - defensive, unhelpful etc etc and I was really bending over backwards to be reasonable and pleasant (and hey, it's my job to be able to negotiate). CT, there is some stuff about how to achieve targets but some of it makes no sense and when I queried it, the inclusion person just said that she was a teacher and not perfect (???)

No timescales at all either.

Bloody hell KP!!! What a lovely helpful bunch they sound
I've never heard the term 'inclusion co-ordinator'

Hey, why don't you just go and have a look at some other schools in your area, get a feel of how things can work differently?

Here's an overview of what IEPs are and how they should be written: IEPs If this is supposed to be an IEP then the teacher shouldn't be writing it if they don't know what they are doing.

Hmm, I see nothing there about sticking them on the wall!

Hi again, yes, that seems quite odd about it not being clear if he is on the SEN register or not. I agree with the other posters that it sounds like they have given him targets - it doesn't sound like a 'proper' IEP. Whenever we do IEP's it is always in discussion with the parent/carer involved, and we make it very clear to them that their child is on our register, what for, and what support we are giving him or her. We do have some children (who are very bright) on the register purely for behavioural support
I agree, it doesn't sound like the school is being terribly helpful.
You won't really like this, but can you go back to the teacher and say you just want to be absolutely clear, do they have your ds on the SEN register, and if so, perhaps have another look at his targets. It is important for them to be very clear to you (and to your ds!) so everyone is working together