Teachers, would you send your child to this school?

[StarlightMcKingsThree]

Child falling way behind in subjects. Reason given that he is working at capacity.

Request for science target gets you a response of:To Explore Light and Dark.

Request for more detail (i.e how measured, what to achieve to get level 2 etc) is refused based on the fact that it is a part of the BSquared Curriculum which is too unwieldy to share with parents.

Is this a special school placement? The only schools in our authority who use BSquared are. Ime you have to really stand your ground, make an appointment to go in specifically to discuss targets and assessment.

I did that. It took a whole term to get THAt target.

Yes. Independent special school.

In that case, no I wouldn't be happy sending my child to a school who was unwilling to talk to me about the progress (or lack of) that my child making. There should be no reason why they can't talk to you about assessment - unless they don't really know what they're doing themselves.

Hi Starlight.

You are having such a time of it, I have read your other threads and wish I had words of wisdom for you.
I just wanted to say I am so sorry it is so difficult, wish you well and hope somebody can give you the specific help you need.

Ahh, thanks.

This is nothing compared to how things have been though. Hopefully we'll never go back there.

Have a look at
www.tes.co.uk/ResourceDetail.aspx?storyCode=3010530 which gives you sub levelled statements for every science area. ( You will have to join tes to download it but it's free!!)

Star, not a teacher and not going to comment on schools but can tell you ds's experience. Ds went to a mainstream primary with ft 1 to 1 support . At end of yr2 he was still on p scales between 5 and 8 if my memory is right.
In y3 he acquired pretty good speech and the learning took off and in y6 his SATS levels were 5,5,4.
He then attended an ASD unit attached to an outstanding secondary along with 1 to 1 support. He left with 8 GCSE's grades A to C, unable to speak, suicidal and on the verge of a breakdown.
He now attends an independent special school which has a holistic approach and for ds especially the academics are way down the list of priorities.
All of his classmates have attended the school for a lot longer than he has, some have attended since primary, a couple have one or two GCSE's, they all have ASDAN and entry level qualifications. They are all, without exception, more able than ds in real life skills, they have better communication (even if ds has "normal" speech), more resilience, more confidence etc etc.
If I had my time again I wouldn't have allowed the academics to have the priority that they have had. Being able to manipulate figures/balance chemical equations or analyse a piece of prose is pretty useless if you don't have the skills to be in an environment where you can use them IME.
Next year ds will attend a mainstream college to do a level 3 course, his classmate will attend the same college to do a level 2 course (he's a year younger than ds) Without the independent special school's input it would have been impossible for ds, without the GCSE's he'd have done a level 2 course first.

at 'explore light and dark'

Bloody hell.

Have you tried contacting bsquared to see if they can provide you with a 'sample' of the science level 2 science assessment sheet? They have some sample assessment sheets online here, but not the ones you need.

Thank you tethersend. I'm gradually getting some clarity on the matter.

When I asked for the targets one of the reasons I was given for not sharing them was that I might work with Ds on them at home and that would mean he had isolated skills learnt in a home 1:1 environment but not functional or generalised.

The BSquared people told me I'd have to pay full whole school price for the assessment sheets which include the data-analysis package which cannot be separated. The guy I spoke to was an arrogant arse.

Thanks insanity,

I do understand exactly what you are saying. I suppose I am counting on the teenage years being a write-off and so want to express-teach ds as many skills whilst I still can iyswim.

As an ex teacher I'd say insanity has it right. For some children there are far more important things to be concentrating on than academics. It used to be so depressing to see kids being pushed to hit academic targets, being coached to meet them knowing that there were far more important skills they ought to be learning that would truely be helping them deal & cope with real life. There is always time for some sort of academia once they have mastered the skills that will allow them to be as independent as they possibly can be.

Spider, Does not being able to read and write facilitate independence?

Does not asking questions about the world, advocating, reasoning, discussing?

Does not being allowed to hold a pencil incorrectly for years and years mean that it becomes impossible to change pencil grip?

Actually, I think I have realised that I'm not actually talking about ds' academic achievement necessarily, just the PACE of learning.

I guess I am concerned that he has so much to learn in ALL areas and he isn't progressing as fast as he needs to and is able.