Forest school only for 'select' children

[Eyelashesrgreat]

Ds in Y3 and his school have recently 'selected' children from his class to go to forest school. The children do this weekly whilst the other children have to stay at school and do work. The children (selected) get to wear their own clothes that day and have treats.

The school did the same thing last year and ds wasn't chosen then. Ds has had a really difficult time recently at school and would have loved to have been selected for this activity. I asked his teacher if all the children will eventually get their turn at the forest school but she has said only certain children can go. AIBU to think this is a bit unfair?

Schools in affluent areas have less funding. Children with PP ‘come with money’. Affluent children don’t.

Oh Op, you just don't know. SEN children, deprived children, children who have whatever extra needs might not look obvious. You might not be told about it. In fact, why on earth SHOULD you be told about it? They are not walking around with a little label on their foreheads saying ; 'ADHD, ASD, Cognitively delayed, traumatic family background, chronically ill, whatever'.

You are simply kidding yourself if you think you know the ins and outs of a duck's bum as my DFather would say.

And you seem to be persisting in the defensive ; 'Why is that child getting something MY child isn't?'.

When the reason is most likely because that child is not getting what your child already is as part of their normal daily life.

You can not know this though. The school have access to information from other services that you just don't have. Much of which the other parents are very unlikely to share with you. You can ask all you want but the school aren't going to say Oh Billy has been picked because his father is a functioning alcoholic and ss/the school councillor/ school nurse have some concerns. They'll make up some vague criteria instead that probably makes it sound a bit unfair

I give up! Yes I do know, it's a very small school. I know the parents well, I know the children well. If someone farts everyone knows about it.

So what are the specific learning difficulties of the two SEN children? Exactly what support to they get? Exactly what is their family set up? What’s their emotional support? What’s their CEHP plan?

Then you will know the criteria too, as they tell everything...

There are no problems like that, you could be on to something though. Maybe the village really is a hidden den of iniquity and I'm missing something.

Maybe these children have less tiresome parents?

Yes there are, you said the SENCO told you. What’s their CEHP plan?

You don’t know that though. You’re reading too much into the gossipy oddballs that sneak information out of the school.

Perhaps OP does know that as she’s managed to work through every suggestion and discount it.

OP, it seems that how ever much you explain, many posters seem to think they know these children better than you do.

Never a thought that you might know all these families socially as you tend to do living in a village.

I'd like to know where this utopia is where no one has any issues going on apart from those that are so minor that they are happy to share all intimate details with the entire community. Must be a very happy place. Sounds too good to be true ....

@Pumperthepumper I think you mean EHCP, which, by the way, not all children who have SEN have

You could ask the parents of the chosen children. In such a sharing place they are bound to share the details.

If the OP knows every little personal detail about every kid in the school, how come they don’t know the criteria for forest school?

No, I don’t. I mean CEHP.

But nobody knows the Forest school criteria

@Pumperthepumper Which is an abbreviation of....?

Continuous enhanced provision. I’m a teacher, I use this every day.

😆

Don't take this the wrong way, but why do you think you know better than the class teacher? They have their criteria and your child doesn't meet it. Maybe look at it another way and be glad your child isn't considered "bad" enough to need the forest school.

In addition to my post because I pressed the button too soon…..

It would be worth asking who has funded it. If it’s pupil premium than it’s PP children who need to use it, likewise if it’s on EHCPs.

However if it’s from the school or another organisation then in this instance I feel it’s one every child can benefit from.

I want to reiterate I’m not against any kind of extra funding, groups or trips for those who benefit from it. My point is more that actually there’s always children who would also benefit who just never quite qualify because they don’t have a disability, they don’t have a learning disorder and on paper seem to have nothing wrong and come from an ok income and traditional family, and actually would also benefit greatly from the life skills listed from a poster above.

A lot of children slip through the cracks and just float under everyone’s radar. As a teacher, my planning is always first planned around the needs of my children with obvious additional needs, what are they doing, who’s going to support them, can they access this lesson? Trips are the same. Then the equal pressure load shifts to my most able, because they need to be pushed, so who have I got supporting them, how can I take them to the next level so they don’t get bored, this one’s got the head-smarts but can’t write well so they need the TA too and so forth.
Then there’s the middle. I can’t give them the TA. I can’t send them to intervention even though they’re plodding along at the bottom of average. I can’t give them anywhere near the level of 1:1 even though they’re also in wrap around till 6:30pm each night and don’t have time to read at home or go to the park or go on outings to learn life skills or social skills because they’re always in the care of someone else. They don’t qualify for state funded help for anything because they’re too well off on paper but in reality they also can’t go on trips out etc because everything pays for the bills.They’re communication skills aren’t good because they’ve had speech issues but these weren’t bad enough to get speech therapy on the NHS and as a result communication skills are poor but again because they aren’t violent or aggressive or such, it’s side lined as low priority. Or they're just plain average at everything and have a good enough balance in life and are left to it..

This is what I’m badly trying to explain with something like a forest School. If it happens every week across the year and it’s not attached to PP etc, why can’t it be split so everyone gets a turn? There would also be befits to that smaller class when some are out for the varying needs.I don’t believe Op is saying “her son deserves it more” in this instance.

Enquire as to the funding OP and go from there.

Wouldn't that be CEP plan? ^

Misses point of thread.^

@Pumperthepumper Gah, forgot to tag!

Probably, I’m not in charge of the abbreviations.