DS had disruptive child sat behind him

[CocoBean22]

There is a child in DS class year 3 who has spent the majority of his time of primary in the sensory hub but this term seems to be spending more time in the classroom with the other children and his teaching assistant sat next to him.

DS has been coming home saying that child X is sat behind him in class, and he sits and watches Paw patrol on a laptop with no ear phones and the volume on whilst my DS and the rest of the class try and concentrate and learn their maths.

He shouts out swear words and is very disruptive.

DS said he was told off by the teacher today for 'turning around' to see what child x was watching as the volume was quite loud and it was distracting him.

Shall I let it go?
Should I speak with the teacher?
And if so what would you say?

I would ask that the child wears headphones if watching something on the iPad.

I’d talk to the teacher and raise concerns. This isn’t a positive learning environment at all.

Let it go. You have no idea how much work it has taken to get this child into classroom. I'm sure the long term plan will be to use paw patrol etc less and less and he begins to cope.

This.

There are lots of different types of headphones/earphones the child can try.

Yes you should speak to the teacher.

It’s not fair that the whole class is distracted by one child’s laptop.

I wouldn’t say anything about the child shouting out as that’s not something that can be helped easily.

I would bypass the teacher and go straight to the head to tell them the impact of this on your child’s education and experience in the classroom.

This is absolute rubbish.

If the child cannot cope in the classroom allowing them to distract everyone else isn’t the answer.

I would talk to the teacher. Hopefully the child will wear headphones although if he has sensory issues he may not. At the very least he should be sitting further away from children who are trying to concentrate and the volume should be turned down.

If he can only sit in the classroom while watching Paw Patrol I would argue that he isn't ready for the main classroom during quieter lessons yet.

Agree 100%

Watching Paw Patrol in class?? What's the point in being at school...

But why should her son's education be affected?? She should definitely speak with the teacher.

I would absolutely raise this. Children can’t learn like this.

If the child won't wear headphones (some children with SEN don't like the way they feel), then the child shouldn't be in the classroom. If the child is happy to wear headphones, then headphones should be worn. Allowing a child to distract the entire class isn't something that should be tolerated.

So how would you suggest they go about acclimatising the child to a classroom environment? Alot of kids use ipad and music etc as a comfort tool.My son cannot currently tolerate headphones of any kind. He hasnt started school yet but I'm glad he will likely go to a very specialist setting. I'd hate him to subjected to parents being so harsh.

I also have an older child with no additional needs but who has gone through school with others who do so i have seen both sides.

Doing it while the other children aren't doing Maths or any other subject that requires lots of concentration.

The needs of 1 shouldn't disrupt the learning of 20-29 others.

Why is parents seeking an appropriate learning environment for their dc 'harsh?

Yes, speak to the teacher and escalate if necessary. Be your child’s advocate. The child clearly can’t cope in a mainstream class.

Speak to the teacher. It's ridiculous. If the kid can only be in class if they are watching paw patrol, they shouldn't be in class.

Yes speak to the teacher, he should be using headphones and if he’s not capable of that he’s not ready to be back in the classroom while the other children are trying to learn.

Of course you go in, absolutely ridiculous.
Follow up with an email noting your concern that your child cannot hear the teacher because of the noise.

Definitely speak to the teacher. Reasonable adjustments should always be made for kids who struggle with school, for whatever reason, but for goodness sake, this is definitely not reasonable!

And the child who is deaf or can't cope with loud or lots of different noises?

Oh silly me, no one cares about people like them

As a parent of children with sen, I disagree that the we op should let it go. Why should her son’s education be disrupted because the school can’t meet the needs of another pupil.

And in the meantime it’s ok for everyone else to suffer? I couldn’t do my work well with Paw Patrol on in the background, let alone something appropriate for me. You can’t damage 29 pupils learning for the sake of getting 1 child into the classroom (even though they’re not learning).

If by year 3 they still aren’t accessing the curriculum, then they should have a specialist placement.

OP - I would be complaining for sure, that’s crazy and I would rather move my child to a different school than accept they have to learn with paw patrol blaring within 2m of them

Exactly. However the school decides to acclimatise him, it shouldn’t be at a cost to the rest of the class’ education.

It’s also for the school to solve, not OP.

The child may be having ‘reward time’ for completing his learning etc. Even then he needs to be wearing earphones/headphones or be in a different place for his reward.

Other children in the class need to accept each child has different needs but they should be able to concentrate on their learning as well.

If the child is only able to watch the iPad with the sound up or unable to go somewhere else for it, then he needs to have a different ‘reward’.