If you could change one thing at your child's school (money no object) what would it be? Teachers views welcomed too.

[bummer]

Imagine you have a fairy wand that actually works if it helps!

I wish you taught mine stitch. You sound like a great teacher to me!.

very interesting post Christie, and agree 100%

We had a child in our MS school who had downs syndrome. He wasn't doing too well, even with masses of support.

He was placed in a special school for a two week trial. Parents were worried at first but within a week were overjoyed at the progress he had already started to make. By being with specialist teachers, who had higher expectations of him than the teachers in MS (since they lacked expertise in children with Downs), he came on in leaps and bounds.

Placement became permanent.

all children need to have their needs met. Sometimes that can be done in MS, other kids need special schools.

Rather lke some illnesses can be sorted by the GP and other need specialist care from a consultant IYSWIM.

I have a similar experience with a boy in my dd's class Having fought for the right for mainstream schooling, the boy's parents spent many hours taking him to spech therapy, occupational therapy etc. which was not provided on campus. It was these factors which led them to take him to a specialist school - and there they discovered teachers who had higher expectations!

I agree with stitch on many points. SN children come in many forms and guises, some just need a little extra support and some need a lot. It's the disruptive child (who actually may or may not be SN) which take up a teachers time and resources, at the expense of the other 29 children.

It simply isn't down to laziness (which for someone to suggest that, is just downright rude and ignorant) maybe that poster should observe a lesson and then see if her opinions are the same. I'd be interested to know on what wire bases her opinions on. Is she a teacher/ta/governor/lea worker? Or just simply a parent who is (quite rightly) protective of her children, but without seeing the whole picture.

He he he ! Just been reading some of the comments in this thread and have decided life's not so bad after all. I have

1. 7 ch in my English group and 10 ch for maths
2. In fact, 12 is my largest class size
3. I only teach the subjects I want to - Eng, Maths, CDT, Geog & ICT
4. I teach Y4's & Y5's 5)Part of my week involves spending one afternoon teaching sailing and one afternoon playing golf with 6 ch. Oh I have such a perfect job!

Forgot to add - I get 4-5 months holiday a year!

WJ !

Got any jobs where you teach?

wj, can i have a job there too please?

some excellent posts, mb, christie, moon66. and thank you wj for bringing this thread back to a light hearted tone.

As an RE and PSE teacher in a non religious school who thinks she does a worthwhile and valuable job I could post at lengtgh on here but I will wait until I am sober!

As no one seeems to understand what I am saying I will explain. I recognise the need for special schools and also the need for more funding/help to have successful inclusion but what annoyed me about Stitch's post was the fact she said 'no children with sn in mainstream school' . As a parent with a child with sn this was very offensive to read . In my view you would not be allowed to post 'no black/asian people in our schools' so why should you be allowed to post the same about another group of people?

If any of you were reading the same about your child I cannot believe you wouldn't react in the same way and I make no apologies for what I posted as it made me very angry and disappointed to hear such views.

There are always jobs coming up but I wouldn't recommend them, its no fun having to work 6 days a week . Still, only there for another 3 weeks, then I become Mummy again and house husband goes out to work .

Agree with the comments by Twinset and pearls. It seems odd to me that everyone wants their children to go to school and for their children not to be bullied, be socially aware etc etc, and yet do not want the school to invest in teaching the children the social skills to actually achieve this. PSE should not be taught less, but actually more in my opinion. In my last school, PSE was highly valued and it was a school that had virtually no bullying, when it did occur it was dealt with very effectively by the students and the staff, and the students were socially very mature and responsible. Not surprising that the school was just given an 'outstanding' (Grade 1 of the new 1 -4 system) for its pastoral care etc. I think more schools need to listen and it would sure help to make schools a much better place for a lot of students!

Also, as an RE teacher, I would like to see more philosophy brought into the curriculum (I would happily see it replace RS, which certainly at KS4, and to some extent KS3, it is heading towards). Perhaps do the philosophy for children (P4C) to give the children a real chance to think for themselves and to become critical thinkers. Too many subjects are just about cramming knowledge down student's throats. More philosophy would allow the childrent to really think and question and to improve their performance in other subjects.

just found this thread but havent read it yet.....
should i walk away immediately???

I agree completely rarrie. My boys' primary school use P4C a lot in every classroom. It's superb. Love it. I cannot praise it highly enough.

I'm trying to persuade my school (secondary) to let me do the training.

Wire and Stitch I really understand where you're both coming from and why you're speaking so passionately. The principle of inclusion is really fantastic and important but in practice it doesn't always benefit the 'included' child or the school. Often SEN children don't get the respect or attention they deserve and where they do this usually means their teacher(s) is having to work incredibly hard and this can possibly be at the expense of others in the class/school or their own personal life. A colleague of mine teaches a blind student. Every thing the class is studying has to be brailed in advance (usually a week) which means my colleague has to be incredibly well organised. She spends hours preparing material for one student each week. I know I would find this incredibly difficult to do because I have young children and there's just a limit to how much time I can devote to work outside working hours. Tellingly, my colleague doesn't have a family, is at work by 8 am and rarely leaves before 5 pm, does over an hours work every evening and works most of Sunday every week. Should every student have access to the curriculum and the time and attention from teachers they need (if they want to be included in ms education)? Of course. But are teachers entitled to a life? Erm, I really hope so. Which is a v. long way of saying that if SEN students are to be included in ms education then their teachers should be given extra planning time.

Rarrie - I find the philosophy comments interesting as my son is just in his last term of Year 10 and has said he would really like to study philosophy at A-level and/or up to degree level. I have no idea where to go for information about this subject and when I try and contact school, they say they will ring me back, but never do.

themoon66 - unfortunately, your son is unlikely to be able to study philosophy at A level unless it is a big/private school. It is offered by one exam board (AQA) and it is horrendously difficult to do - lots of students drop out, but it is a very interesting course if you can get him on it.

A lot of students do AS Religious Studies (philosophy of religion and ethics) instead. This contains virtually no Bible work and covers exactly the same topics as in the AQA philosophy, but where they then go on to do other subjects such as Epistemology, RS only studies these topics and goes into a lot more depth. This will lead perfectly well to doing a degree in philosophy. Indeed I have 4 'A' level students leaving this year to study either theology or philosophy at university!

However, I wouldn't bother with GCSE RS, it bears very little relation to the A level course, and is so easy that it is a bit of a waste of a qualification I am afraid to say!
HTH

Black and white cat, what an enlightening post. Exactly.

Thanks Panicpants. Parents of children with SEN, parents of children without SEN and teachers often seem to have different agendas when it comes to education but I like to think that at heart they all actually want the same thing which is the best education for all our kids. And to get this it's the same old story: more time, more money, more teachers, smaller class sizes, more admin support.

Again, exactly!

well said black and white

THanks Rarrie you took the words right out of my mouth.

I think many people who diss RE are basing there judgements on their own school experiences and it is very different today. Sadly there is a lack of RE teachers meaning the subject is taught by non specialists and can become dull and irrelevant but when taught by a specialist RE has such a vital role to play in the eduaction system. Whenever I invite someone ion to see me teach who previously thought RE should be removed from the curriculum they gcae al changed their minds after seeing the reactions of my students to our lessons and the topics we cover. (Unless I scare them into submission)

I teach a lot of phiosophy to all my students and it benefits their educatio across the board, i too would have no qualms with RE becoming philosophy.

We live in a world where on a daily basis we mix with people with different beliefs from fundamental Christians or Muslims through to Atheists.Whether we like it or not religion is still a powerful influence in our world for both good and bad, therefore it is important that we understand this force. To get the most out of people whether that be in a business or public environment we need to understand what makes people tick, what motivates them, what offends them and why they act in the way they do. My own knowledge of Islamic beliefs and culture has helped me in a previous business related career, as well as a later social services linked job as I had an understanding of people and an ablity to hold a converstion with people different from myself. Everyone is flattered when we show an interest in them or know someting of their beliefs and values and want to know more, by religiously educating our future workforce we are enabling them to become successful communicators in a diverse shrinking world.

RE also gives young people the chance to explore there values and beliefs in a non threatening environment, tpp often in this busy target obsessed world we have no space to just sit and think and as a result we are dumbing ourselves down.

AS for PSE being useless, I teach in a town where chlldren face decisions and dilmenas that mnay parents are unaware of either through naivety or because they don;t care. If these kids did not have the quality PSE teaching they do have many of the would be facing these decisions alone.

Twinset, I accept some of your points about RS BUT there are different types of RS specs aren't there? To my horror I discovered some students who I teach at 6th form level went to a Catholic school and did RS GCSE only about Catholicism. Likewise some Muslim students I teach who went to a school which is about 98% Islamic though both schools are state schools. Therefore the RS these students did only confirms their beliefs and doesn't challenge them or ask them to consider others'. I also have a colleague teaching RS at AS level to a largely Islamic class. She finds it almost impossible to teach some of the philosophy e.g the ontological argument because the students just will not even consider the idea of arguing about whether God exists or even other religions. It's against thieir religion!