Teacher using the B - word.

[Cabanabar]

My sons Geography teacher has upset him by calling his handwriting ‘bad.’ Son is very dyslexic, has an EHCP and is in Year 7 of a mainstream boys school. Truth be told his handwriting is pretty illegible due to his difficulties with spelling and punctuation, but I feel he needs encouragement from teachers not this kind of negative language. The school has an intake of over 40% EHCP kids, if you’re wondering why I sent him there. I thought they would be more sensitive to issues surrounding dyslexia. I am thinking of making a complaint to the Head. AIBU?

Ask to speak to the SENCo. If it's seriously bad, then either it needs to improve or he needs to be allowed to use a laptop for exams. The sooner that is tackled, the better, because they are not allowed to use a laptop unless that is their established way of working.

The teacher saying his handwriting is bad may be the trigger you need to do something about it. If all teachers just politely ignored it, you could end up halfway up the school before someone realises that it could cost him serious marks in GCSE.

I think I disagree with the person who says that decent handwriting is needed for adult life. The majority of us do little more than sign our name, and fill in the odd form (although those are increasingly online). Some of us write ourselves lists, but others use phones/computers for that too. Most people need to write very little, and can take enough time over writing a birthday card to make it legible, even if they can't write legibly at speed. I teach adults, and their biggest fear with exams is sometimes that they are not used to handwriting things!

You can't think of a single reason for saying it?

How about the child put no effort in that day and the teacher knows they can do better when they try?

This why the disappearing OP needs to speak to the teacher instead of running to the Head, telling them all about the awful teacher and the 'b word'.

My sons handwriting is bad and I don’t see the point in sugarcoating it. You need to find a strategy to make it legible to examiners by the time he does his GCSEs

How would you feel if he had been told that his handwriting is “good”.

YANBU to be upset

Don't talk to the Head yet. Find out for yourself what appropriate assessments/ solutions are available. DD had a Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting assessment along with the Ed Psych Assessment for dyslexia. The result was extra time in exams, a laptop/computer for lessons /exams and also the choice of a scribe or a reader. Messy handwriting and dyslexia is not unheard of. I had to literally fight everyone to get the assessments but once they were in place it was significantly better ( I still had to work around 80% of the teachers but that's another story). Then communicate what your expectations are to the teacher and the SENCo. The minimum help should be to use a laptop.

And you need to work on stamina. Some gcse exams are 2-230 hours long. Lots of kids give up because their hand hurts, or their writing turns to utter shit.

I had a writer's lump on my finger for pretty much my whole life and it's recently started to go. I feel quite sad about it, but it shows how little I write now- and I probably write with actual pens more than most.

Would it be better to approach the teacher first before potentially complaining to the head?

If your child's handwriting is bad - and let's not be coy about this - and therefore illegible, s/he may have dysgraphia. If so, s/he should be entitled to a school laptop. Check it out.

As a teacher I would use the word bad.
I would explain that because his writing was bas I would be trying to either get them on a course to improve their presentation/writing skills and so that if the didn't work they could get access to a laptop for lessons.

I can't get them that help unless I am truthful with the pupil and the SENCO.

I had hoped it was "This work is a load of old bollocks"

Meh, I had a teacher who used the word 'appalling'. Not constructive, and not a word I would use in my classroom, but education can't be all nicey nicey and sugar coated inclusive all the time. The kids need to write legibly to pass their GCSEs and yes, for some that is going to be much more difficult, but that is how it is, unless they are allowed to take the exams on computers.

YABU for calling it the 'B' word

I am sure that in the future, we won't have to have students handwriting long essays in exams.

I know how hard that was when I had to do exams many years ago.

As a point of fact - the national average us that 4% of pupils have EHCPs.

40% - ten times the national average - in a mainstream setting seems extremely unlikely.

40% on the SEN register at some level seems much more likely, which is above the national average (IIRC that is around 28%) but not stratospherically high.

Honestly thought this was going to say bastard…

Catch a grip OP.

imagine being a teacher and having to deal with people like you 😂

If, when you've clarified with the teacher that that is what they said, then you make a request via the appropriate channels for him to be assessed for dysgraphia in order to possibly have a computer. I have several dyslexic students but only one who has dysgraphia and whose writing is "bad" to the point of being completely unintelligible. She knows it, her mum knows it, we know it. She now has a school laptop for her work.

His handwriting is objectively bad though?

The teacher has just pointed out that it's the opposite of good, which is true and factual information.

We can't all be good at everything, just like someone in a wheelchair is probably going to be really bad at a 100m hurdle race. And that's really how you need to approach this with your son. We can't all be perfect and good at everything, sometimes we are bad at things and if we want to get better we have to practice, and for some people it takes longer to get to grips with things.

I don't think the teacher is in the wrong here. I think your son just needs to realise his strengths lie elsewhere and needs to advocate for himself and his needs, as well as needs to be given tools to improve which don't really necessarily need to come from school.

My tolerance for poor handwriting is relatively high as my handwriting is not great. Provided a pupil's handwriting is legible I am.quite relaxed about it. Once I.told a pupil I ciukd not read his hand writing . He said he. could read it. I explained he woukd not be marking his own exam papers. He did not have any additional needs. It sometimes like walking eggshells. I would see if he is eligible for a laptop

Oops. I the queen of typos 🙄

With respect, you've added a fuckton of nuance there to things the OP never said.
She said the teacher said his handwriting was bad.
She didn't say the teacher said his work was bad.
She said his handwriting is illegible.
And you have no idea if he was trying hard enough or not.

So go back to the teacher and ask what they are going to do, as a professional, to help your ds improve it. It's was a discouraging moment, but bad isn't an awful word that needs obfuscation.

Does DS not use a laptop and assistive technology?

I’m not sure there is a mainstream secondary with 40% of pupils with an EHCP. The most up to date figures available give an average of 2.15% in state funded mainstream secondary schools. So it would be exceptional.

Honesty is the best policy, if the child knows it is bad they can work to correct it.

Same