to think this teacher is rubbish?

[Barcla]

DS1 has profound dyslexia. He attends a small school, there are only ten kids in his class. Being dyslexic, English is a real struggle for him. He has been saying this last term how much he’s hating it and the teacher is “always on his case”. I emailed said teacher before half term asking in an upbeat way if she was able to give me a bit of a progress report when she has a second. Heard nothing back. Emailed again two weeks ago, apologising for bothering her, would there be any chance of a quick update? Got a one line reply saying there will be a report at the end of term. Fine. The report was emailed today for all subjects. Generally the report is ok and teachers wrote encouraging comments along with some constructive criticism and where improvements could be made etc, what you’d expect really. The English teacher has written “DS has been reluctant and negative this term, which is a shame, as his attitude affects his progress”, along with a C for effort and behaviour. That’s all she has to say! AIBU to think that this is less than helpful? No suggested strategies or any positives to work towards at all. AIBU to be pissed off?

I think the feedback you've been given is extremely telling although of course, if you'd like more, you should ask for it.

As a single subject, this sounds adequate to me - assuming it's fair.

Off topic but in every school I've worked in, reports are peer-checked before every single one is read through on a projector / whiteboard by the key stage / faculty and then finally checked by head or deputy head.

I used to return comments with incorrectly used en / em / hyphens.

You child hates the subject because it’s incredibly difficult for him. He needs specialist help.

It’s not being “that parent” to strongly advocate for your child. It’s what you are meant to do.

She should give more detail such as

George has learned to spell the first 100 most common words and rarely makes mistakes on these. His avoidance of reading is impeding progress and he must engage with his one to one reading support. Progress with Toe by Toe is erratic but when he is on task, he can achieve. I know writing is a struggle for him but he wrote some brilliant sentences without support. When using a scribe, he has a sound command of vocabulary but needs to work on telling the scribe where to put in full stops.

That do?

It is tricky dealing with an avoidant child, especially when they are bright but so behind. Unfortunately, if someone has SpLD, it does mean harder work but then it is up to the teacher to enthuse and make it interesting enough to keep engagement going. That is hard to do and on some days it isn’t going to happen even if they were doing backflips but generally this should be better and not getting in contact with you is piss poor.

In DS’s school (indie) we have a subject report and a LS report. Both should feed into each other and reflect the interventions and recommendations from his diagnostic report. This should be across all subjects.

I would be asking if the recommendations are being followed and how.

Push back. Kids with SpLDs are in need of more than a couple of lines from a progress report.

Also, re attitude. It is very important that a child, especially with SEN does not become a subject/school refuser. It is very important to keep their confidence and interest up.

SpLDs are not an indication of ability. Poor attainment could be due to poor interventions.

I would buy Dragon yourself. Touch typing does not work for every child. How are DS’s organisational and recall skills?

There’s definitely an attitude problem - not sure it’s you DS’s though.

It sounds like your ds is an absolute nightmare to get that written on the report. There may be good reason for this but don't ignore any poor behaviour. Next step I think is to find out what is going on by contacting the school and having an appointment with the Learning support leader. There must be someone with an overview of your son. Has the teacher been given the right info about his needs, strategies to support him? Doesn't sound like it. I get much better support for my dyslexic son than this, but I am accepting that I may have to be "that parent" to ensure he isn't overlooked.

Posts all seem to be about blaming teachers and the school.

I'm a teacher. This teacher should be doing more. Communicating properly for starters.

you should definitely meet with this teacher and get further details, the report should not be so vague, it should consist of the topics covered, work in class and homework feedback and advice on how to achieve better results next term. And any teacher should definitely get back to you about the current progress of your child, especially if she thinks your ds is so reluctant
Maybe it's a good idea to have a group meeting with the teacher, DoS and LS?

BossWitch you are a teacher of the entitled

He needs more support. This teacher isn't doing enough to meet his needs - or yours.

The bad attitude thing (sometime laziness) is often a way of identifying dyslexia. It is all part of seeming able to cope and then not doing so being interpreted wrongly!

Touch typing is really helpful. We found it better than dragon-software.

Touch-typing works by feel in a way that drawing letters with a pencil doesn't. Once up and running my son couldn't tell you where the letters were on the keyboard...but his fingers just hit the right ones.

Ok has twice asked for a progress report because her son is not doing well. Teacher has refused then written a one sentence formal report at the end of term. That's just shit.

If the kids behaviour is a problem the teacher should have taken the opportunity to raise it with the OP after the first email!

I definitely teach a lot of entitled kids with entitled parents, but I don't think the OP is one of them based on the thread!

Anyone with a dyslexic child will tell you they are very difficult to keep in track on task and paying attention

Imagine you are in a science lecture which is delivered in Spanish and a group behind you are talking

How much attention would you pay to the speaker? How would you even start a task they asked you to do at the beginning of the speech half an hour ago? It consisted of 15 parts and you only remember the last one! Now throw in someone standing over you demanding you 'get a move on'

That's how it feels - that's why they lose attention and don't even start a task and that's why they wonder round and play up!

It's not naughty - they are incredibly frustrated and bored

This is why they need special provision

So yes the teacher isn't teaching this child properly or engaging him in the right way for him to make progress - his behaviour is to be expected

Do bear in mind English is likely to be the class he will find hardest. Other teachers can "ignore" issues due to dyslexia more, to require so much writing for example.

Posts all seem to be about blaming teachers and the school.

Not sure why I'm biting, what with your username and all, but I'm a teacher and agree that this one is clearly not doing his/her job properly in this respect.