Just been hauled into HT office !!!!!! I'm so mad !

[alisonmc]

Hi all,
I hate my DS school! At my DS school I am probably the only parent that actively tries to help DS with his work. We read every night, he likes doing sums and other spelling activities...........so what is the problem - here goes:
a) We as parents "we are working against the school" by showing DS different methods of addition and subtraction, etc (see previous posts);
b) HT is worried about DS socially "does he do any activities outside school, has he got any friends, etc, are we putting too much pressure on him" - felt like saying FO!
c) HT is "very cross that I have obtained past SATs papers and DS has done them - well I might add!"
d) HT had DS in office on Monday for an incident "but was sorted out at the time, so no need to tell you about it" - until today that is !!!!
e) HT wants a meeting with DH & myself "to put us back on the right track!"

How ludicrous can this be ? There are thousands of children that get no help or support with their work, have severe home lives, etc - but a child who has loving and caring parents, great social life and home life is getting all this........

I am absolutely livid !

Beautifully put scummymummy...

but in maths if the school teaches a method of long division then it is confusing to teach a different method at home even more so if the child is having difficulty

why not do number puzzles, codes, games, story writing, poetry, etc etc rather than extension work which conflicts with lessons

i think there is a bakc story to this anyway which probably shows there is a disagreement at all levels with the school

if you don't share the ethos with a school then very likely for the childs sake there are two options either bury the hatchet or move the child

Soapbox - Thanks for the support. I felt all alone in the wilderness for a while there ! I think my issues with HT are as follows:

1. DS has been doing the same thing for 3 years now and there have been no comments until now - when DS takes in some work that he is very proud of - we have not changed a thing since reception?
2. His teacher at parents evening last week said that he was a "very well liked child whose behaviour was exemplary" - how has that changed in two days ?
3. The school encourage reading and other homework - why now are we "working against the school?"
4. Why as a more able pupil, is DS being prevented from learning other strategies to aid his learning?
5. I feel this country is turning into a police state where nobody can do what they want even in the confines of their own homes without being criticised or questioned.
6. I am not going to let the school dictate what I do in my own time with my own child - afterall he leaves this school in July and goes to a junior school - I cannot wait !

As for throwing my toys out of my pram - yes possibly so - I get p'd off with holier than thou people who don't know me, or my child or our circumstances that want to hang at the first instance.

I think a good look at the overall picture in education today should be taken. Why have the levels of numeracy and literacy dropped in education over the past 10 years - nothing to do with the co-incidental introduction of the numeracy and literacy framework I'd suggest !

It's possible to support your child's learning without undermining the school. Isn't this what the head means by "back on the right track"?

Well, so, he gets a higher mark. What is the problem? It's not a blooming national disaster.
And if he is being taught a way of adding up that makes no sense to him, but a different method makes it all fall into place, then hooray! The method is supposed to suit the child, not the child made to fit the method.

Just hang on there until July. Carry on with what you are doing if your son is happy and progressing. Enjoy your clever, motivated little boy.

Alison, are you teaching your DS different methods because he's a more able pupil or because he's struggling with method he's being taught?? You say both and they're kind of contradictory.

I used to get told off at junior school for being too quick and giving naswers in maths instead of going through and shwoing workings..arguments ensued about having the right answer but being unable to say how you got it

my dad also insisted on working with me at home with a slide rule for long multiplication and long division and various other maths oroblems

I was both able and confused

so I tend to think that there can be problems with doing school work with different methods

also one method is a precursor to another and it may not be obvious until the next stage is reached

getting on the right track is just a mealy mouthed expression I wouldn't say it was offensive or patronising just an attempt not to sound off putting

I keep thinking about all those poor children who struggled to learn to read for years because of briefly fashionable reading schemes and methods that have now been totally discredited. I bet the parents who were teaching c - a - t spells cat were being bollocked for that too, but they were right!

Alison, nobody is suggesting that you completely stop ALL clubs or stop reading with your son. What people have suggested is that you cut down a bit on activities and stop doing the SATs papers. You are the adult here and regardless of whether your son wants to do all these activities, you need to consider whether that REALLY is best for him. DS1 is also a very active child and would probably happily do after-school activities every day and his football at weekends. But as the grown-up here, I can see that he needs time just to veg (which in his case does not mean just TV or computer games but also writing stories, drawing, messing about with lego etc). I also don't want the boys to grow up thinking that everything revolves around them and that all family activities, days out etc are going to take second place to what THEY want to do.

There is no benefit to anyone in doing SATs papers at home. SATs are officially supposed to be testing the school, not your son. And to whom will it matter if he gets a 2 or 2a in something instead of 3?

I can't help thinking that unless you can work with a school to support your son's learning (rather than adding in new methods or extra work that's not particularly connected to what/how he's doing stuff at school) then you're going to run into similar problems with his junior school.

Soupdragon - The more able pupil tag has been given to DS since he joined the school. I all aspects he is top of his class, but he does struggle with this string method of addition and subtraction as he does not remember to pick up numbers and keeps getting the answers wrong which upsets and frustrates him as he is quite a competitive child. I therefore showed DS the partition method which we were all taught and he took to this straight off the bat - a light went on and he said "that's made more sense than the other way Mrs X showed us!"

Aloha - thanks for the support. I shall carry on supporting DS as I have always done - I wouldn't be that cruel.

Strangley, this is my first disagreement with the school and in a way it is of my own making. I shouldn't have encouraged DS to take in work that he had done at home and was very pleased with to show his teacher and should not have mentioned that we had done a couple of past SATs papers. Had we not been open and honest about this, DS teacher and HT would not have known and DS would not have been hauled infront of the HT on Monday.

I thought you had no idea what the incident on Monday had been? Do you mean that he got into trouble with the HT for doing sats at home?

Alisonmc

I feel for you all the way - if the HT called me in and something similar I would explode!!! Thankfully he is extremely unlilely to as the school know me and my children adn know what we are like.

My dd absolutley loves work, and gets very stressed if she cannot do her (weekly) homework on Friday nights. She is constantly asking for 'maths work' or literacy etc so i do stuff with her. She herslef demanded a set of test papers when in hte bookshop so again i saw no reason why she should not do them IF SHE WANTS TO.

We had parent's evening and the teacher was excellent. She knows I work with dd and gave mne lots of pointers on the things to do which would not interfere with schoolwork, but would give her the buzz she likes from doing things well.

We talked about her writing (she is Yr 1) as she is getting a little sloppy in letter formation and she gudied me away from joined up writing (which dd wants to do) until it gets better; she also mentioned that we could do maths problems (rather then just addition / number work) and non verbal reasoning work. We already do extension work for topics. None of this impacts on school work but does give dd the satsifaction she craves from increasing her knowledge.

I agree that the HT was bl**dy patronising but, if you go to the meeting at all (and i would not!), maybe you could have some strategies in mind as to what you could do that would keep you all happy?

Puddle - Yes, this incident with HT and DS happened on Monday and DS was asked why he was doing what he was doing, and who showed him how to do his work. I have not been told anything by DS about this on Monday but by the HT today.

As I said on the other thread, any teacher worth their salt will be exposing a junior class to the full range of strategies to cope with a calculation. It is only very early on (Y1) that teachers ask for parents to support the place value method as the only one to make sure that children understand that 64 is 60+4 not 6+4 so when it's 64-21, it's not 4-1 then 6-2.

There has been much rubbish in education reforms and initiatives over the years, the NNS is not in that catergory. Many, many children who struggled with numeracy before now display a good solid understanding of the basics. Those who pick it up quickly can move on to more formal method whenever ready.

One point about the SATS past papers. Y6 classes use these regularly in the spring term to practise. The teachers use them as a benchmark to identify which children need extra support in which areas of maths (shape, probability etc) The concern may be that if your DS has already done them and worked through them with you then school wont get an accurate reading of where best to support him. Just a thought. Go to the meeting with an open mind. Make sure the class teacher is there also. Make a note of what you want to say and be prepared to listen to what they say. They wouldn't go to all this trouble if they didn't feel it was important.

category, not catergory

all ill say is

adn

did he really dragyou?

I don't understand why the HT was involved though and why ds was in his office - am I being v slow? Did the teacher send ds to the HT because he had been doing sat papers at home? Because he was doing his maths in a different way? Or was there something else?

cs his mum is pushy and very very cross at nayoen criticisin her?

The reason why children are not taught standard written methods until they are in the juniors is to ensure that they can add and subtract mentally, without having to use a pencil and paper. How many adults do you know who have to write down sums to work them out because that's what they were taught? I know I do!

we wnt to a amths eveing at school formal ( carr one) kind of maths s kept lto later now sthe kdis KNOW whtthe one reperesnets
tehy alsodo lal orts of weird ways of adding and substracting

(carry one) i meat

Hmm, DS would have no idea what a test paper was, and certainly would be unaware that you could buy them in a book shop.