Daughter has told me that her reading writing group takes place everyday in the clockroom sat on cushions??

[chocolatespiders]

DD has been moved down a group and this group has their teaching in a small clockroom where all the children sit on cushions. This is the lowest reading writing group and to me they are being given a rough part of the deal being educated surrounded by coats, pe bags and outdoor shoes. With no chairs to sit on with no desks to sit at and no natural daylight coming into the tiny area.
She told me this last week and to be honest I am shocked and I have been trying to get my head around this as I dont want to talk to school if I am being unreasonable.. I know schools are over subscribed but has it really come to this? I really dont think any one should be taught like this. I also worry about her back

Many of the teachers/TAs/parent helpers on this thread have pointed out several times that this is almost certainly not a specific writing session where, yes of course, tables and chairs would be required.

Those of you who say "complain," I mean, come on! Really???

Well when I say complain I mean "Go in and see what's what." why not? I would. If my child was doing a writing group on the floor then I would want to know why she had no table! ANd yes...they CAN geet back strain...they're very flexible at this age of course but repeatedly sitting in bad positions will affect them. They're not made of wood!

At our school most guided reading is done in the corridors. Even the external music teachers have to teach in the corridor (outside the toilets - but that's another thread )

The only problem with sitting on the floor with white board and pens is they tend to get pen all over their clothes. Which is a real bind in the Summer with their lightly coloured dresses :D

I don't think it's a 'reading writing' group you're talking about - I think it's a 'Read, Write, Inc' group . (Say it out loud - it would sound the same to a 5 year old!) This is a Ruth Miskin phonics scheme (for infants) as someone has already mentioned.
If you follow this scheme, children are split into 10-12 groups, and, as you can imagine this leads to groups taking place in all sorts of places! One of ours uses an ex-changing room; another uses the sports cupboard.
As long as they have all the appropriate resources, however, it doesn't matter where you do it - it really does get results!

The alternative might be that all the class are taught together in one large group-which would not allow the differentiation that means children make the most progress. Ideally a school would have spare classrooms just for intervention groups but we usually run 3/4 different groups at the same time ( and we are a 4 class school!) There simply isn't the space for this.

We do whole class teaching and achieve high standards

We do Read Write Inc and occasionally do a reasonable amount of writing, although more typically it's just a few spellings. One of the groups I work with could do it in a corridor, the other group could not.

Sounds like they're doing the best they can to accommodate the children's needs.

I echo what Hula and others have said. Nowadays, with all the intervention schemes in place schools simply do not have the space required.

I am a TA in a 4-form entry junior school. Today I have done guided reading on the stairs, a phonics interventions group sitting on the hard wooden stage in the main hall, a maths support group on a spare table and some (uncomfortable) wooden stools squashed in a cloakroom and finally an English-as-an-additional-language one to one session on the bench in the (empty) boys changing room.

It is either that or the children do not get the intervention they need.

As for sitting on the floor and writing on whiteboards - that is very common in primary school and will happen during whole class teaching sessions too so this is not unusual. Your dd will not be required to write a story in her literacy book like this but probably individual phonics and only infrequently.

You could go in and complain yes. But what would it achieve. Schools do not have the funding to build more classrooms. All available space will already be used. Your dd will be taken out of the group and be put back into a class-based group where she will struggle to keep up and not get the input she needs.

At least they have cushions

Lots of useful thoughts on thread- Thankyou

DD is 8 and in year 4.

She has parents evening soon so i can find out more about this group then

For reading, fine. For writing not so great. But they will be using all the available space to create quiet areas for targeted studying, to help them progress as much as poss.

Also, if I'm being pc, I'd be inclined to say stout DD has been reassessed rather than "moved down"!

My DD 7 (year 2) sitting on carpet for one hour for her maths session this week. With whiteboards.

choclatespiders:

I can understand your surprise (or even shock) at hearing your daughter is being taught in a cloak room, but there may be method to this.

I'm not sure what year your DD is in, but usually cloak rooms are for reception. Certainly most KS1 classes at reading time can be very noisy and chaotic places, this can be very hard on children who are struggling.

It may be that what is happening here is the teacher or teaching assistant(s) are taking this group out of the hub bub into a relatively quiet place so that everyone can hear clearly, there are less distractions and as a group they can settle down to focus on reading or writing.

I suspect in an ideal world they would be taken to the library or a learning support room - but many schools just simply don't have that kind of space (or if they have the space it might be heavily in use - i.e. library for class library times/ music lessons & hall for PE/ lunch/ etc...). I rather suspect they're trying to create a quiet learning space with the limited resources available to them.

Talk to the teacher - but also give it some time. You may find once the weather is better in the Spring, they take this group outside. I also think if your daughter is being moved down a group it would be worthwhile finding out what the teacher thinks the problem is, and how you can help at home.

Learning in a cloakroom may not be ideal - but if the result is that your child is getting patient, uninterupted support to help her at this early stage, and whilst she appears to be struggling a bit, perhaps it isn't such an issue.

My sons classroom doesn't have enough chairs for each child as the emphasis is on learning through play and they are encouraged to work in groups on the floor. It seems to be working!

When I was supply teaching I found that schools had to utilise all spaces. I spent a lot of time on the floor. I bet they love cushions in the cloakroom and it is nice and quiet.

In the lower groups, it may well be that some of the group are very distractible and a small room without windows is actually best for them.

Also happened at my dd's school. I didn't find it particularly odd.

The bottom group should be sitting at tables for writing tasks, they need all the help they can get.
If it were reading it wouldn't bother me.

I would go into school and have a chat. I can't believe they are being taught and are writing in the cloakroom but I can believe that as a group they go out there to read for a short time. You won't know unless you ask.

dd's phonics group sometimes sits in the classroom, sometimes in the lobby on the floor, sometimes in a small room off the cloakroom: they are NOT writing though, that would bother me. Reading/phonics, fine - in corridors, wherever you can. Its not ideal, but space is impossible to find at times, especially in our school at the moment (building works).

I do like the fact that groups rotate, so each group gets a turn in each location.

talk to your dd's teacher

This happens at my school. There is really nothing else that we can do about it, there simply isn't enough space for classes to be split into groups and then still have a classroom.

It's better that they sit like that then be squashed and distracted by squeezing to different groups into one room.