How best to support DS (8) in failing class?

[codandchipstwice]

Hello

We have had a nightmare with DS1's school right from the word go - with a catalogue of disasters culminating in their teacher last year being pulled form the class by Ofsted during an inspection and removed from teaching (she has since left and is not teaching).

THere are several challenging children in his class, DS included - who are intelligent but have issues with behaviour - not helped by the fact that they have had over 14 teachers since Reception and he's in year 4.

His teachers have told the class that they are slipping behind all other year 4s in the country and that if they don't pull their fingers out now they will not be as clever as children in other schools - and this has had a serious impact on him.

The class is I believe officially considered failing now as 7 children out of a cohort of 30 have left due to quality of education to either home ed or go to another school - sadly there is not really an alternative for us as we can't afford to pay and can't get him into a decent state primary - so we're kind of stuck.

This has been escalated to the Governing Body who are taking it seriously.

He sees tutoring as a punishment, but not only does he have serious gaps in Maths (he is not at the level of DD who is in year 2 - at the same school but fantastic teaching and support) he also has zero confidence in his abilities.

I want to make him see he is intelligent and that learning is fun - but how best to do this? Online programs? Tutuoring? Moving schools?

Or being told to snap out of it and be thankful that he gets an education at all?

Honestly - I don't know what to think or where to begin so would be grateful for any feedback/advice you can give.

Thanks

I would get together a group of parents from this class and take it to the head teacher. Basically if it only this class that is failing, then it needs to be tackled.

Also I would question the teacher's attitude to the class in regards to telling them they are the worse class in the country. I find that appalling to be honest!!

The school does not seem to taking the issues seriously and I would be worried.

I would like to see what the school is planning to do about this.
The school has failed those children and there should be strategic planning by governors in conjunction with Head to put in place interventions to sort this mess out.
Parents should not have to get in private tutors. Children should not be told they are responsible for this mess when so thoroughly let down by the school.
I would be furious unless the school proved they were making positive steps to sort this out for this year group.

Ask to look at the school development plan. May be on website or ask at office.
Ask to look at GB meeting minutes. Again maybe on school website.
Inform yourself. Knowledge is power and all that!

Thanks all - we are doing this, and sadly there is a group of us that know the head all too well from our representations over the years, I just don't think the extent of the problem had been realised.

Whilst we are most forcibly taking it up with the school, including getting DS assessed privately as evidence of his lack of progress I would be really grateful for how we can encourage him in himself and try and get back some of his love of learning - the thing we are learning from all of this is that if we expect the school to do all the fixing we may be left wanting - and I don't want to look back and feel there was more I personally could have done to help him.

Thanks for the validation though, means a lot as I am often prone to histrionics so it is most reassuring to know that I am not unreasonable in my concerns.

cod

Have they recently been ofsteded?
Don't normally encourage shopping a school to ofsted but in this case.....

Yes they have - as their previous Ofsted was Satisfactory - but they were done again last year and got Good - which for the rest of the school I believe is a fair reflection, it's just his particular year group which is up the swanny (DD in year 2 and DS2 in R receive an education which I believe is outstanding - which is what makes this all the harder to take!)

cod

while you are sorting out the situation at school, can you start doing a bit of work with him at home? Just 20/30 minutes of focused work makes a surprising amount of difference. We are doing this with my y4 DS, who is in a good school, but is not receiving adequate support for his handwriting problems. After 3 months of 10-20 minutes daily practice, we are starting to see some results.

If you decide to do this, maybe start with something not too challenging to build his confidence and fill any gaps, and then progress a bit at a time. Maybe start with age 6-7 bond books, perhaps photocopying the pages so he doesn't see the target age (I did this for DS).

At least you and your DS would all feel like you are doing something, while you sort out the school. Good luck!

You say he's part of the problem. What have you done about that? If you and the parents of the other disruptive pupils supported the school through sanctions at home and high expectations, that would go a long way towards fixing this. Classes have a kind of critical mass of disruptive children. Beyond a certain number, all that can be done really is manage behaviour - very little learning goes on.

That is the point, critical mass has been reached. We have sanctions at home, he earnsthe right to go to his youth club on a friday, and watch tv and other privileges. sadly though one of the problems is that things aren't communicated to us to follow through at home, and we have been asking for years for this as we can't support the school if we are not told what the school are dealing with.

Whilst I accept that his behaviour is a shared responsibility I do believe that if they had any sort of positive reinforcement at school and raised expectations it would be far more effective than being made to stand facing a wall at lunch times, which is currently what the school does (along with being sent to the head which is always a treat for my DS as he gets one on one attention and is listened to - something that often doesn't happen in the classroom). To be fair his disruption at school is pretty low level, and he is normally the target for the bullies rather than the other way round, the teacher did a whole of class session a few weeks back saying it is not fair that DS is always bears the brunt of the other kids aggression :(

Sorry for typos

Reading all of your posts and in particular the one about the bullying, it strikes me that the priority focus should be on your DS's self-esteem which I would imagine has taken a real knocking. I am sure you are on the case with this, but I think it bears stating that if he feels like a failure then it will be twice as hard for him to engage with his education whether at school or in private tutoring.

I am amazed the school got good from ofsted unless school spelt out what was happening in this year group to improve it.
The school must have positive plans? Does ofsted refer to let down year?
Did they not notice?
If class been victim of series of crap or inexperienced unsupportive teachers I am not surprised that there are behaviour issues. Oh so easy for the school to blame the children rather than reflect on poor teaching. Probably wobbling on to governors about it being a poor cohort to disguise their own flaws.

I meant unsupported teachers rather than unsupportive though both may be true in this case...

I think Ofsted saw the year group - their SATs aren't bad, they should be much better as they are an intelligent bunch - I think the term is coasting, but they are not too bad. Ofsted did actually remove their last year 3 teacher mid lesson they were so concerned for the class, who was placed in the class due to concerns over her fitness to teach - and the class were her make or break (which broke spectacularly and backfired over the poor kids). I think the school were able to shift the attention to the poor teaching at that particular moment, and whilst they have put a good teacher in now (who is also the parent of a child in the class) she is horrified as both parent and teacher how bad things have got.

The self-esteem is precisely the point, I am hoping that by encouraging him outside of school his esteem is raised so he can engage in some academic activities outside of school, to then inspire him to reingage at school (when his teacher is back, currently having long term supply as year teacher off sick). It's the what and how to encourage that is the problem . . .

Let me get this straight. The school went up a rating even though a teacher was so bad Osted actually pulled them out of class on the spot!!!

Bloody hell.

Keep up the pressure on the school. Get a CAHMs referral for your son, just so he had someone he can talk to and who can explain to him that it isn't him.

Do the tutoring. He might not understand right now that it isn't a punishment but he will. Program's like Explore include rewards like games at the end that make it fun for them.

See if there are any Saturday schools in your area. These often are like a fun version of school - they get to wear their own clothes and learning is presented through games etc.

There isn't a quick fix but with your support he will get there.

Hello

I think if you find the right tutor your DC will not find it a punishment. My DD has had a private tutor since Year 2 as she I had concerns about her maths which the school didn't share as she had other ways of working things out. I got a private tutor in who assessed her and what her weak points were. She is now in year 4 and those weakness have been address but she still see the tutor as she loves seeing her. Today she actually asked me when she was next due as she missed her over the Christmas break. The point I am trying to make - tutors make things fun for the kids (developed a maths game for DD), they encourage them in ways they might not be getting at school, they get one to one support.

Hope this helps

I really, really feel for you and your DS.
My DD is in one of 'those' year groups, there are too many disruptive children and it has been obvious since Year 1 (they are now Year 6). Until Yr4 they had a huge variety of teachers (and head teachers!), just adding to the disruption but finally the new head took them in hand at Easter in Yr 4. It's a 2 form entry and every other class works in 2 classes for English and maths, DD's year works in 3 groups, allowing those who had fallen so far behind to catch up and those who weren't being challenged to be stretched. She has benefitted enormously and now loves school again even with SATS looming (she likes tests - strange girl :))
We got within a whisker of taking her out as although she had a stable group of friends she wasn't enjoying school, wasn't progressing and seemed to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders :( If she had been a boy in that year we would definitely have moved her as the expected default for the boys in her year was bad behaviour.
DS, who is 3 years lower (so now Yr3) has had a brilliant school experience so far and has thrived so we wouldn't have moved him.

I think you need to tackle this on two levels - firstly building up your DS's self-esteem in whatever way you can - outside activities, sports, museum trips, star-gazing stuff (guess what we have been doing recently? :)), anything that interests him, that he can spend some time with you doing and learn stuff without realising it.
Secondly - what are school doing about your son in particular and the year group as a whole? If there are lots of parents who have concerns then get together, meet the head, governors, etc, and ask them. They have a responsibility towards ALL of the children in the school.

Finally - I would look at the possibility of moving school, just to see what your options are. It can't hurt and may help clarify your thoughts.

Good luck with it all, it's a horrible situation to be in.

Hi codsandchips:

My DDs (Y4 & Y6) are definitely having very different experiences at the school. DD1 has had the same teacher 2x and long spells of substitutes when this teacher has been on sick leave. Her class as a whole is struggling to achieve NC L4 and the school has resorted to splitting it in half and the lower half have the Y6 teacher full-time and her half have substitutes/ part-time teachers but basically are endlessly reviewing for SATs.

We saw this coming way back at end Y2 when DD1 couldn't take 1 from 10. I've posted a lot here about maths because basically we've had to support maths learning at home - homework is erratic from the school and always ridiculously easy (5-10 minutes usually a breeze to do).

So our solution was to realise DD1 adores video games and find an on-line maths tutorial she likes.

we plumped for mathsfactor: www.themathsfactor.com/

but others here on Mumsnet have sung the praises of:

Komodo Maths: komodomath.com/

mathletics: www.mathletics.co.uk/

Maths Whizz: www.whizz.com/

From 3rd Grade in the US/ Year 4 in UK - you can also fallow US maths curriculum work for free on Khan Academy: www.khanacademy.org/ - click 'learn' and 'math' and then 3rd grade.

Basically there is a ton out there. Maths APPS are also on the increase:

for example: www.apps4primaryschools.co.uk/apps/ks2/

From Year 3/4 - learning times tables is particularly crucial - as so much further math stems for ensuring sound knowledge of multiplication facts. We found the free version (there are more elaborate versions you can purchase) of Timez Attack offers brilliant multiplication tables practice: info here: www.bigbrainz.com/

Finally my all time favourite website for extra practice is the Woodlands Junior School Maths Zone - there are all sorts of links to computer games that give practice in whatever area of maths you might need. Link here: resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/

DD1 finished Y2 as NC L1 in Reading/ Maths - way behind many in her year (single form). From late Y2 we joined mathsfactor and systematically worked on encouraging reading out loud to us (at that point she was still struggling to sound out many words >2 syllables). We ensured there were plenty of books to chose from at home, visited local library & swapped with friends. We instituted a rule of no movie until you've read the book - which has also helped. I can't say anything was instantly fixed - but gradually week by week - doing a bit more (maybe 1 hour of maths over the week and 10 - 20 minutes of reading each day) has cumulatively made a huge difference. In fact at some point in Y4 DD1 twigged that she liked adventure stories and she's ploughed through Narnia series, Lemony Snicket and Harry Potter books. She now reads voraciously.

So - it is possible but the reality is that you have to encourage it at home and whether there are grumps/ tantrums when you're asking them to do 'way more' than other parents do - stick to your guns that this is important to know and will make life at school easier. Eventually they'll see it's helping in class and after that, if you're lucky, they'll see it's worth it.

HTH

Thank you so much, especially those with suggestions for maths and other ways to support him. School have promised host of measures, but have heard it all before.

I am truly grateful for all your replies though, really grateful

cod

Honestly, if he's just following the lead of the others, then you really, really need to move him. They won't change. You can change his school life, his motivation and his achievement, by finding him a class in which he can be happy, and where the other children expect everyone to behave well. Is there nowhere at all he could go?

Hello OP.

I'm not sure if this is a possibility, but have you considered H.ed?
It would alleviate the problem with immediate effect and it is amazing how much you can cover in a relatively short space of time. You don't need to be able to teach and also if you wanted to follow the N.C it is easy enough to find free resources. Then if you found you wanted to re register with school you could do this when the time was right.
Apologies if this isn't on your radar, but thought it worth a mention.

whilst the hippy party if me would live to home ed Sally we both work full time abd are struggling to keep our heads above water as it is, no way we could afford to quit our jobs. sadly I think could help reset ds somewhat too as to moving schools it's all done by the la who would expect us to apply fir in year transfer before any new school would let us visit. our childminder also couldn't collect from another school so childcare around school would be hard.

Oh my, sorry,I can't see my comments on my phone until I post them, so sorry for awful reply