to be a tad cross with DDs school

[NaughtyNigel]

at DD1s school. yr7. was a little pee'd off that the whole school gets a day off so each parent gets 10 minutes meeting each child's mentor - a teacher, sometimes yr group teacher, who is supposed to know how said child is at school.
DD gets her mentor for science so at least he does know who she is.
was presented with a printout of each subject with the levels she has attained in them 5c, 3b etc. there were loads of gaps where there were no levels available from the teacher and also out of context - without knowing what the rest of the class has got how am i supposed to know how she is doing comparibly?
Also - DD1 is dyslexic. not severely - she just can't spell. the school knows this - the junior school told them. i put it on some form we had to fill in and assumed that her teachers knew this.
Was then presented with a letter from DD1s french teacher - very blunt - suggesting that DD hasn't done homework (not true) and didn't revise for a vocab test (also not true). DD pointed out tha as she can't spell in english how was she supposed to get the hang of french in 3 months of studying it. My hackles rising. asked mentor teacher if other teachers know about her dyslexia. he was all vague and suggested she
a. writes down words she doesn't know in a 'spelling book' and practices them
b. carries around a dictionary.
so DD pointed out that she often doesn't know her words are spelled wrong.
I asked whether there was any additional support they can offer DD as this seems to be a stumbling issue. He reckons witout an individual Educational Plan they can't offer anything. She isn't dyslexic enough to get an IEP.
Chuffing bolloxy chuuffin school. DD is now sad that her teacher thinks she doesn't do her homework (she does) and isn't good enough.

So Am I Being Unreasonable to

a. expect DDs teachers to know about her dyslexia

b. expect the mentor to have results from more than a few of the subjects

c. to be pissed off with the school for having the whole day off so parents can see a mentor for 10 minutes.

re this bit 'without knowing what the rest of the class has got how am i supposed to know how she is doing comparibly?'

Why does this matter?

What matters is that you should now know where your child is, and should be able to track her progress through the school. She should make 2 levels of progress through her 3 years at ks3. What is the point of knowing she is at the top of the class if that doesn't tell you if she is making progress.

Re the 'School having a whole day off' you are being unreasonable.

When we ran this I was in school from 8 in the morning to 7 at night, with a tiny break for lunch and a pee.

30 kids at 10 minutes a pop is 300 minutes, or 5 hours of non stop taking for the teacher involved. And that is without waiting for people to leave the room, over running, being held up or late We actually gave 20 minute appointments. It just isn't possible to run this sort of day and also teach at the same time.

The teachers may not be teaching, but they are deffo not having a 'day off'

Re getting extra help etc, then an IEP is usually the best way to go about this, but getting an IEP isn't the same as being statemented. If your dd isn't having her educational needs met by 'normal classroom practice' you should push for her to be put on the SEN regester at the lowest level of School Action.

agree with Martian Bishop.

so do I!

jolly good. it is the no extra help bit that riled me really.
am just extra guilty about forgetting that sh didn't need to go in - am passing blame onto school to make myself feel slightly less rubbish.

I think it is reasonable to want to know how your dd is doing compared to the rest of the class. If everyone else is getting 90% in a test and she gets 60% she needs a lot of work to keep up; whereas if she gets 60% but most got around 50% that's a totally different scene.

It's not unusual for teachers not to know about issues like dyslexia especially if it's not too bad, in my experience. Maybe now that you've spoken to the teacher about it there will be more awareness, but if it was me I'd drop a note to the french teacher explaining the situation and asking for her suggestions as to how you can work with her to help your dd.

Also as parents we are not aware of the curriculum and it's technicalities. Also it changes so frequently. We need some guideline other that what is the 'set curriculum' - what the f..k that ever is at any one time?