Why would teacher need phase leader to be present at a meeting to discuss progress?

[reup]

My sons class teachers asked for a meeting to discuss his progress but needs phase leader to be there too. Is this just normal practice or would it mean something more like putting him on sen register?

I can't ask teacher as we do not see her before or after school so this has all been done by letter.

I know that noone can actually know but I wonder if at some schools phase leaders always have to be present?

I have a week to go mad wondering!

what's a phase leader?

It's a sort of middle manager. Usually manages 2yr groups. Eg middle phase is y3 and y4. They are instead of key stage leaders.

a teacher then? Is she/he also SENCO? Is class teacher NQT?

No she is not the senco and his teacher is not an nqt. He was on the sen register 2yrs ago.

maybe for support, maybe to answer questions you have,maybe to monitor her

A meeting to discuss progress (not at normal parents evening time) isn't normal though, is it.

It just makes it seem so much more serious now. She asked for the meeting last week and even though I replied the next day it's not till next week so I have 2 wks of stressing.

Don't be stressed. Are you happy with the progress he is making? If he is falling behind at school, and they are asking to meet with you about it, it will be as a way of alerting you and to discuss what they hope to do next. The only bad thing about asking you for a meeting that I can see is that maybe you felt he was doing well? The phase leader is prob a head of year type for the key stage he is at.

Thanks for the replies. He has problems with writing. They have been pretty wafflly about how they are helping him. Maybe they have got something new they are going to do. I can only wait.

I would ask what his current levels are, and if he is on target to make his targetted progress this year.

Ask them what handwriting intervention they are going to be doing with him. The 3 most popular ones are Write From The Start, Speed Up and Handwriting Without Tears. It is totally reasonable to expect them to do one of those interventions with him if they (and you) have concerns about his hand writing.

(Although when you say writing, do you mean content and punctuation etc or do you mean physical handwriting?)

Both. We did write from the start at home He got very very bored by the end and we didn't finish the 2nd book. A group of boys did a writing intervention thing last term. Not sure if it's had an effect.

There is a parents eve in march so wonder what has happened to change since oct parents eve. Maybe his levels have stagnated. Or gone down!

I want to do more at home but he hates writing so much it's painful. We do 5 mins a day cursive practise and that's hard enough!

His levels can't have gone down. You can't forget what you know how to do. (despite teachers downgrading students every sep. )

and if he hasn't gone up a sublevel since oct that's not significant either. They're only meant to go up 2 sublevels a year. But certainly only going up 1 sublevel a year won't be ringing alarm bells.

What year is he in and what were his levels in Oct?

We don't get given his levels except in end of yr reports. He is in y3 and got 2c for writing and 2b for Reading and numeracy. He had only made one sublevel progress in the first 2 in y2. I queried that when his teacher said he had made great progress in reading! He had virtually nothing written in his Reading record by a teacher or a ta for the whole of y1 and 2. I foolishly assumed it was because he was doing fine.

You mean at the end of Y2 he was a 2c and a 2b?

A 2b is fine, and a 2c is only a tad below where he should be.

So not brilliant, but nor is it exceptionally bad. He 'passed' Y2. Nationally at least 10% of children don't.

If your school is taking serious action when a child is a 2c - then it's a very good school.

Have just found out that they are doing mid year reports so maybe it's linked to that. I think they will get levels then so maybe he has not mAde enough progress. Oh well only 7 days to go!

His numeracy level had gone down! Well according to the teacher assessment. He had stayed the same in the tests they did. Also his writing had not improved since sats. The set for numeracy and the numeracy teacher was not there. He seemed to be getting much better in his homwork so it's all a bit odd. The say he is v easily distracted and want him to sit on his own.

I started a thread about those sit and move cushions to see if the helped anyone but no one has responded.

Didn't see your thread about moveNsit cushions, but can confirm that my DS has one and it helps him a lot.

Very sorry to hear that his numeracy level had gone down. Since I posted that levels can't go down I too have been told that my DD has gone down by 2 sub levels between July and Sep

But by and by it doesn't seem like the meeting was too bad. So well done. Hope you feel better now.

Yes thanks. My imagination was running riot. Sorry to hear about yr dd. It's so frustrating when you want to help but aren't even with them for 6 hours a day.

I think I will buy one and see how it is for homework. I can always resell it on eBay if no good.