To think this head teacher is off her rocker

[Atlantisen]

This was the newsletter. Inspiring? Or utter bollocks??

*"...All too often schools accept a gap between some students and other students. We can fall into a trap that comes to accept or simply gets used to some children dressing differently, missing more days of school, speaking to adults or one another incorrectly, being a few minutes late to everything, carelessly presenting their work, not completing homework, not giving 100% in their lessons, not reading any books for pleasure, not joining clubs at school, never seeking to play for a school team, never appearing in a school performance or never attending a revision booster.

Labelling such behaviours or choices is pointless or indeed stigmatising those students who display some or all of these characteristics. At CNS we have to regard these as symptoms of an underlying lack of ambition, expectation or aspiration. Whilst we have to be unrelenting in our demand for all students to be their best self, we also need to get to the very heart of why some students are more engaged than others – seeking to rekindle the fire within and not beneath.

Creating a school that expects and demands high expectations in all things of all students is a continuous quest and one that we shall be emphasising at all times. ..."*

It's Wank she learnt on a Course - to fulfill other Wanky things. I think it goes under the category of SLT Wank that is the main reason that Teachers leave their jobs.

It's true - we think it's Parents, we blame the Govt, even the societal circumstance that having DC curtails a Teacher's ability to work (just like other working mothers (majority% over working fathers) - but the real reason is the wanky-led, power-crazed, deluded SLT BS described by the OP.

I was that shy kid whose clothes didn’t match, whose parents didn’t have money for extra curricular clubs, I was introverted and hated sports so teams or drama productions would have been my idea of hell. It doesn’t mean I had no ambition ffs.

@Atlantisen Of course kids with SEN can have ambition and aspirations - but the problem is when you’re told what they should be, AND that those things are mostly inaccessible.

What adjustments can be made for the child that wants to do an after school club for example? Another poster upthread said about their secondary aged child wanting to do an after school activity but not having the school support to do it (and parent help not desirable as it's not cool - understandable). I would absolutely raise that with the school as a bar to stopping that child joining in and being inclusive.

I can see how the wording has got peoples back’s up and that’s fair enough but from a school perspective I think ‘dressing differently’ means stuff like - always wearing a hoodie even though a blazer is in bag, wearing jewellery all the time, doing something stupid with tie etc. Similarly ‘speaking incorrectly to adults’ sounds like headteacher speak for ‘calling a teacher a fat piece of shit’. None of which is really a SEN issue, could well be a home issue and that is obviously a much more intractable problem than this message could address but you can’t just start accepting some of the really poor behaviour cos that won’t equip students for life very well.

@sputnikbear - you might have read for pleasure though and been punctual? In which case you were doing ok by her standards!

If that's an exact quote it's shocking.
Punctuation isn't good, and the last para should read "off all students" not of.
Not to mention being really hard to understand because of all the words.

She's saying the opposite - "we also need to get to the very heart of why some students are more engaged than others". Wouldn't this apply to all pupils - SN or not?

She is making the assumption that lack of motivation/ambition is at the heart of why those children are not engaged. It is a sweeping judgement which sets her up beautifully to justify denying disability and refusing to make adjustments.

The message isn't just pointing this out to parents - it's also saying schools need to do more. Look at that first sentence.

I find it heartbreaking to work with some kids in primary and hear them say "what's the point?" like they've already written themselves off. At such a young age - that's just awful for that kid.

As long as adjustments are made for those with SEN (and I have no reason to suppose they aren’t) then it sounds pretty good to me. We live in a culture where ambition and intellectual enquiry are not celebrated and I do not believe that is good for any of us.

Shawshanks ok well regarding after school stuff, and based on my own SEN kids, their slow processing and learning difficulties make just getting through the day is exhausting. That’s why they have to have extra breaks throughout the day, and have nothing left by the end of it. We are unable to attempt most homework because it’s just too much for her.

One of my kids would LOVE to play tennis but the tennis club is after school and she is knackered to the point of tears. Her dyslexia is very severe and reading is a chore for her. She struggles with dyspraxia and can’t manage team games because she can’t work our Space very well or here she is in it. She can only tolerate soft joggers so isn’t in the full uniform and without support, loses things and gets lost.

She is fiercely witty, has a super lateral way of seeing things, and is creative in amazing ways. I have no doubt she will be a success on her own terms. But on the face of it, the description this head lays down as undesirable, is her. And the behaviours that the head wants to encourage, she simply can’t do. And that somewhat boils my piss.

What a load of impenetrable wank!
Creating a school that expects and demands high expectations FFS.
Really could have done with a proof read.

Ah, I was thinking of the kids who do ALL of those things (there are some) would not be acceptable / which is obv agree with- and not reading it as just a couple of those things would be a problem. I see better now why it’s annoyed you. On a practical note OP I’d say not doing homework can really put SEN kids at a further disadvantage BUT obv it should be differentiated so if your dd can’t cope with the hw she’s getting defo contact the school about it.

if she wrote that as an essay at uni they would have marked her down for waffling - so what she means if a student is disinterested or not participating we don't write them off we try to find the reason they are like this and help them to re engage them in their education. One of my tutors did a talk on academic language & stated that verbose language is a first year mistake & if you were going further you needed to use simple unambiguous language. So no comment

She’s showing a commitment to providing more opportunities - for all children- of course if pottery class clashes with little Jimmy’s scour group, that cant be helped... but you can’t please everyone.

To whoever tagged me earlier:
Why wouldn’t an SEND child benefit from a holistic approach to nurturing children opposed to attending a school entirely English and maths results focussed?? Of course some children’s conditions mean that -as some have pointed out- they can’t attend due to appointments or tiredness after a full day at school.... but that’s hardly a reason not to offer it just in case?? It’s hardly a valid criticism of this head’s ambition for her school??

I honestly think that some people are only happy when they are finding fault. I think this schools ambition should be applauded. I’m sure in reality it’s far from perfect- staffing levels, lack of money for some resources etc etc but that is an issue that lays at the feet of the government, not individual schools and why put this school down just for trying to address the imbalance/inequalities of an exam results driven culture bread by league tables and s**t funding policies?

Op you have so outed yourself!

@Atlantisan, Has the head on the first newsletter of the term quashed rumors of a purple bazer with yellow stripes?

If so I know the school you mean and the Sen department is bad.

My son has Sen and I don’t have an issue with what’s written. I read it as the school always expects kids to do the best they can and they don’t have low expectations for kids with any kind of difficulty - disability, home life etc.
I certainly wouldn’t want a school to assume my child can’t do something due to their disability rather than look for a way they can. There is obviously going to be things all children genuinely can’t do even with the best will in the world but expecting everyone to work to the best of their capability isn’t particularly ‘out there’ imo.

I think that's a rather waffly version of a current trend with heads, I heard similar versions of this when we were looking at secondary schools and I recognise the laser focus my own DD's school has on some of those items. A briefer version I heard was about not having different rules/expectations for different people. I did wonder how that matched up with each pupil's best being different.

I am all for each pupil trying their hardest to achieve the best result for them. I recognise that it will be a different outcome for each as well, though.

Don't even get me started on the 'charismatic' heads you meet. I think there must be some course or book that is responsible for the 'unrelenting' message which also recommended telling prospective parents about your own children, including photos in power point presentations in a couple of schools.

I work in an inner city primary and we have a number of families where the kids never have a costume

God, British schools' obsession with costumes is so weird to outsiders. Every British parent I know is fed up with being expected to produce costumes based on some extremely dubious pretext that often has very little to do with actual education.

Labelling such behaviours or choices is pointless or indeed stigmatising those students who display some or all of these characteristics.

This sentence needs rewriting as it does not seem to make grammatical sense.

I do agree with some of what she is saying though.

I would think she doesn't have a lot of experience, and doesn't really have much of an idea.

She would hate my kids.

Thankfully, they're both at schools that strive to understand them and make the silk purse out of the available materials.

She sounds like a plonker. There will always be parents who love this sort of guff though.

Wanky nonsense. And I agree with the PP who also despises British schools' obsession with 'costumes' which I have always considered a way of wasting parents' time (and a real problem for very skint families who have neither the time nor the money to fuck about trying to pull together a Roman Centurion outfit or whatever). Mercifully DS didn't particularly care about costume days.

At CNS we have to regard these as symptoms of an underlying lack of ambition, expectation or aspiration.

This is what comes across as blaming the children, and denying the impact of special needs and of home situation.

YWNBU to ask if that's really what the head means. Although actions speak louder than words anyway.