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?

What a ridiculous comment, my Son does not lie and I've also spoken with other mums whose children have confirmed this is the case in class.

Just to point out, letting it go is actually the worst way to help the child with the iPad. He's clearly being failed and might actually get more help if people complain about it.

We don’t anything about it other than that a 6 yo has reported to his mum that another child was on iPad. When, for how long etc. i don’t think we can decide we know more than the teacher based on this info.

No. Parental complaints do not act as supporting evidence that a child needs specialist provision.

Evidence must come from professionals reports.

Almost exactly the same situation for my Son.

Support staff are literally there to support children with SEND, usually their salaries are partially paid for by using SEND funding. In our school three children with SEND left to go to the next stage of their education, one left to go to a special school, one left to go to a different mainstream school. The five children had four Learning Support Assistants between them, three of them were 1:1 and the other two shared an LSA. All four got laid off when the children left because there wasn't the money to keep them and no justification to pay for them using money from elsewhere in the budget. If children with SEND leave, your child doesn't magically get a learning support assistant for their classroom, it's far more likely that resource will vanish entirely.

It isn't just support staff though. Teachers still have to plan often bespoke curriculums/activities for these children. Often the SENCO role is given to a teacher who also has the responsibility of a class.

There's also a lot of paperwork involved documenting incidents, learning plans, parent meetings etc.

A huge amount of time and resources are given to children with SEND, and there isn't enough funding for full 1:1 support, which is draining school and LA budgets substantially.

So my point still stands that attention is indeed being taken away from the other majority of children (however many) in the class.

Speak to the teacher, gently, focussing on your DS. It is always ok to say that your child finds something difficult, distracting, annoying etc and to ask for the teacher to help change that situation.

You have ZERO idea whether the statements "Child X shouldn't be allowed to watch Paw Patrol in the classroom" or "It's ridiculous that child X is allowed to watch PP in the classroom" are true or not so you should not say them at all.

However "my child finds it very distracting to have Paw Patrol playing in the classroom while he is trying to work at XYZ, so I hope you will be able to help him by not having Paw Patrol playing audibly for those lessons" is something you do know is true and have every right to ask.

But it is ridiculous that child X is allowed to watch PP in the classroom. That statement is obviously true

Children with SEND aren't the reason that schools have inadequate budgets and they're not a drain. What a horrible way to talk about children.

You remind me of the parents who bitched about how unfair it was that my DC had a funded 1:1 as part of their EHCP.

Were you in the classroom? No, and neither were your mum friends. Children do embellished and exaggerate. If you don't think your child does, you are That parent. I suspect if the cartoon was audible it was only for a few minutes. Sometimes autistic kids need an activity like watching a favourite show for a few minutes to regulate themselves. Maybe 5 minutes of audible cartoons is preferable to a full on 60 minute meltdown. Ideally the 1 to 1 would take the child out, but with so many send children in a school sometimes that just isn't possible, or the isn't anywhere that isn't being used by someone else. Primary classrooms are never quiet places. Tell your son to stay in his lane and focus on his work. No reason for him to be turning round!
Bear in mind class teachers are constrained by policies, and schools are legally required to follow the child's EHCP however ridiculously impractical some of the measures in it may be.

So potentially you might in a part of the country where Sen provision is really bad and this enables the child to attend school. It's not great for the class but the teacher might. It have much other option if there isn't any funding for a teaching assistant to help the child.

Raise with the school but get angry with our system whereby this child is being failed

Not only this 1 child but 29 other children failed.

Come on, let's engage brain a little here.
The child will NOT be watching Paw Patrol all day. It will be used as an incentive for him to do work. So finish this worksheet, and you'll get 5 minutes of PP. And repeat.
Some children have such high levels of need, that this is the only way. At least initially. And this child's stress levels will be through the roof at being reintroduced to class.

OP, it would be absolutely fair enough to question the headphones thing. But please do not go straight to the Head as another poster suggested

I have realised that yes some kids sit with an ipad all day at school. I don't think anymore it's uncommon.

No I disagree. It's unfair on the other children if it's affecting their concentration and learning.

OP you need to speak to the head of year or headteacher.

And it is not just a question of planning activities for the day and that's it, job done. You don't know how the child is going to be on that day. They may be too dysregulsted to do anything!
.Most of the of the costs of what a child needs is not fully funded. It is difficult to recruit and worse to retain decent, suitable people to be1 to 1s for children with severe sen. It is an incredibly stressful, draining job. You are on your mettle the whole time watching them to protect them and others, you may be at risk of being, and actually be assaulted regularly. You may have to make split second decisions on whether to restrain a child- you may face legal proceedings if it is deemed unnecessary, or if you don't restrain you could be seriously hurt, or the cause of someone else being seriously hurt. At other times it can be very tedious just interacting with one child all day. Someone described it to me as feeling as though you are in an abusive relationship! It is very difficult to get special school places, often they say they can't meet the child's needs, but then an ordinary primary school is supposed to just be able to cope!

Ask the teacher if this is indeed the case, and if so, complain.

This is really not on.

Spoken like someone who has no idea what teaching is like. We do not have a choice but to reintegrate all children into the classroom!

I disagree with this a lot, and yes if my child was the one doing the distracting I would expect them to be removed for everyone elses sake

one child should not be allowed to distract others not matter how people dress it up

Your Son can’t miss out on an education because of another kid. At least get your son moved.

Wow, my DS won't even listen to simple instructions at home if the TV is on let alone trying to do any work. It's a massive distraction and shouldn't be allowed.

Surely you know that that doesn’t mean it’s right? You can’t be that indoctrinated?!

Working in classrooms, I would suggest that this child has a disability which makes him become easily overwhelmed by the demands of the classroom. I guess watching Paw Patrol, is something which lowers those demands, prevents overloading and therefore enables him to focus once again on his learning. So no there is nothing inherently ridiculous about preventing a child having a total breakdown in the classroom and helping them focus on their learning.

Letting them do it in a way that disrupts other children's learning, could be described as "ridiculous", but calling things "ridiculous" just because they aren't helpful to your child, when the teacher is trying to deal with the different needs of 30 kids isn't helpful.

It doesn't make any difference. No child should be allowed to sit and watch PP in the middle of the classroom, for any amount of time.