To be angry at my son's school

[diaryofadyslexic]

My son is at primary school (year 5).

He is severely dyslexic and, at this stage, is embarrassed about it because he feels stupid in comparison with his peers.

His class teacher is one of the more mature teachers there and is very "old school".

I know the teacher gives weekly spelling tests, but I've just discovered that afterwards she makes all the children stand up and tell the rest of the class how many they got right.

He said he always gets the least. This is so humiliating and really isn't helping his (already low) self esteem.

Am I right in thinking this is an antiquated way of doing things?

I'm feeling pretty upset and angry on his behalf and will be speaking to her!

I was trying to be kind and give her the benefit of the doubt. Her teaching style is very traditional!

Not ok. At all.

I agree with Saraclara.
Very surprising that you would do this just to save yourself some work.

Teachers have to cut workload where they can, I'm not willing to enter times table test scores for 3 classes a week by searching through their book each time. Just no.
I'm secondary and handle it sensitively.

Its horrendous. My son struggled so much with spelling and this would have really been detrimental to his progress/confidence. I would also say something to the teacher.

Good Lord. Your poor DS. The mind boggles.

But no doubt the weather picture lightened the teacher’s workload and made it easier for them to write up their data so that was ok.

I’ve seen this happen, in a way. All start standing, then as the teacher says your score, you sit down. The teacher writes down the scores as pupils sit. The OP’s son would be the last standing. It’s a terrible way to record the scores imo.

I would remove him from the school. They are clearly out of touch and the teacher’s behaviour is humiliating and belittling. The head should be leading by example, not letting this kind of abuse slide. Once I’d found a better school, I’d be reporting them to the LEA.

So many posters saying that DCs should be spared any distress arising from public acknowledgement of their abilities and performance. Does that last indefinitely? Should no-one, ever, have to disclose their position in any rank order of merit, lest it hurt their feelings? Or is there a magic age at which it suddenly becomes OK? And what strategies should schools and teachers deploy as children approach that magic age, to prepare them for such ordeals?

There's another thread about the attitudes of Yr 10s and 11s towards their GCSEs, with a fairly widespread view that many of them simply don't care and lack grit. Where does grit and determination come from, I wonder? Can it be nurtured without ever being exposed to any risk of falling behind?

I'm not saying this teacher is right in her approach - there's clearly some nuance which appears to be missing in this situation. But if her intention is to motivate children to work harder and improve, who she feels (rightly or wrongly) might otherwise coast along in their comfort zone and not put the work in ... what more effective strategies should she be adopting? It's all well and good PPs stomping their feet about threatening to move to another school, but what exactly would those schools do differently and what better outcomes would that achieve?

Absolutely appalling!!!!

I suggest your child's teacher does some CPD around "Shame" and trauma.., pisses me right off!

Are you aware that this is a learning difficulty. You shouldn't feel ashamed because of that!

@Mark19735 where in later or adult life do you have no choice about having your exact score and rank in something you're terrible at disclosed in front of all your peers? The few I can think of are in situations where a person has chosen that field, subject, occupation or hobby because it's something they want to do or something they're good at, knowing that their scores or rank will be public.

And as I posted above, these kinds of public recitals of scores and grades can also be harmful for those who do well on these kinds of tests.

Does your child have a diagnosis and is the class teacher aware of it?

Firstly, I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of learning differences - a bad score in a spelling test doesn't mean a dyslexic child has not put in the effort. They could have spent hours and hours learning those words and still get them wrong. It also isn't about all round ability - if you look at an EP report on a dyslexic child they generally have above average ability - its the difference between ability and something like phonetics, reading speed, processing speed etc that is the learning difference.

Secondly - how would this be solved in the real world? Typing and a spell checker, like every other adult everywhere. The school system is not set up for children with learning differences. Once they get control of their own learning and their own ways of working its a lot easier.

To the OP - my son was diagnosed with Dyslexia and Dyspraxia and so both spelling and handwriting are a nightmare for him and things that, sadly, he is still regularly pulled up on. However he has had full assessments and his school has just had to accept he needs regular use of a laptop. If your child hasn't had a full assessment its well worth spending the money as its much harder for the school to dismiss their needs once they have the recommendations from the report.

Yes they do

@diaryofadyslexic

Where is the diagnosis from? I'm asking because I'm wondering why the teacher is not making adjustments.

I'm not going to share too many details on here, but believe me he has an official diagnosis!

I don't understand. I'm not asking anything that would identify him or you. Was the school or local authority involved in his diagnosis? If they were, your complaint could be framed in a certain way.

My child’s school used to do this and I think it was done in purpose, I raised it with the school. The other thing they do it the whole stand in height order which is excruciating for those a who are very tall or small. I don’t understand why some teachers don’t pick up on this sort of thing?

Why do they do that?

The only times I have ever been at school and children had to line up in height order was because the photographer wanted this done for whole school photos in order to position people in the correct place.

It’s a very inappropriate thing for the teacher to do & very demoralising for your son. Quite likely to be counter-productive, too, if the object is to help him learn (and if that’s not the object, why do it?)

Good luck raising it with the school.

Yes - those situations.

I had really hoped that these Victorian teaching methods had had their day and been replaced with more humane ones by now.

It seems maybe not entirely.