Concerned about how my sons class are managed

[bluedabadeedabadoo]

So my son is 6 and Y2. He is summer born and very young and immature for his age. He struggles to concentrate, struggles to follow instructions and needs a very high level of support to complete work. He often messes about because he finds work hard. I have 2 issues with school. 1 is that every couple of months they complain to me about his behaviour, promise strategies but then don't put anything in consistently. I don't think my son is particularly bad behaved but I do think he has additional needs and needs extra support in his learning. School just focus on the bad behaviour. This is the message I received today:

Morning. I have been very concerned about L's behaviour since the holidays and despite punishments and warnings it has not improved. I will have to look at our behaviour policy - I think it is on our website too if you want to look - to see what steps are next as I have tried everything in the classroom that I can think of. If you want to talk I am wavailable at the end of today to call or if you want to meet it would have to be next week. Thank you

How would you respond to this? I just think the tone is terrible and very negative. I think they need to be changing their teaching styles and putting in additional support for him.

The other issue is the message she sent home about the class in general. Again very negative and focusing on consequences. Should I be suggesting that perhaps try need to be a bit more creative given the heat and that we are coming towards the end of the term? Surely constant criticism and consequences for a class of 6 and 7 year olds isn't going to be helpful? She has send Home a think sheet that she wants children to complete when they have done something wrong. On the sheet they have to 'think' about their behaviours and make a 'promise' as to how they will respond in future. I think this is wholly inappropriate as how can a 6/7 year old male a promise of this effect and be expected to keep it!! Any thoughts would be highly appreciated as I'm really struggling with what to say to school.

Thanks Dune. No think the comment was to tell me how unacceptable it is as she also mentioned this to the child minder when collecting whilst having discussions about his poor behaviour and lack of completion of work. He hates writing... but sometimes if interested he will get on with it a bit better.

Tbh I’d go see your gp and get a diagnosis through them as it could be faster than through school. Also look at dcd

I read the teacher's message slightly differently.
I would read the "having to look at the behaviour policy" more along the lines of not the teacher doesn't know it, but please can you look at it, so you know what the situation is. She doesn't want to say "if he does this again then that will happen" she wants you to read it and join the dots.

I also think the "think" sheet is quite a good idea. I don't think she'll expect them to keep the "promises" absolutely, but it's a good thing to be able to say "remember your promise". It would have worked well with my ds, who sounds similar to yours, when he was year 2.

Should I be suggesting that perhaps try need to be a bit more creative given the heat and that we are coming towards the end of the term I assume you're joking here, but if your ds is struggling with behaviour then it's important to be consistent. I used to hate it when ds was allowed to get away with things because it was end of term/he had been ill/some other reason as he then struggled with knowing why it wasn't acceptable in other contexts.

That interpretation doesn't really fit with the context of the rest of the sentence though, Witchend. She's basically saying she's going to look at the policy to see what steps are next because what she's tried isn't working.

If she meant she was going to move to the next stage of the policy and wanted the OP to look at it, she could have just said that. Or just outlined what that next step is.

If a child has an IEP then, according to the SEN Code of Practice, they are on SEN Support and they are only put on SEN support if they are receiving support in some form from an outside agency.

That's not correct. You can receive SEN Support within school, and it should be documented (It might not be called an IEP, and the paperwork is no longer statutory under the 2014 Code of Practice - some schools continued with IEPs, others devised different support plans). 'SEN Support' replace both 'School Action' and School Action Plus' from the 2001 CoP.

Re the things she has sent home, I wouldn't expect a Yr2 child who wasn't struggling to be willing to 're-do' a piece of writing they'd already had to sit and look at for hours, however broken up that time was, let alone a child who is struggling. She should be breaking down what she wants him to achieve into smaller steps.
You really do need a serious conversation with somene else from the school there - the SENCo would seem to be the obvious person, but it may be, in a bigger shool there is a Head of Year or Head of Key Stage or even a B.Co who might sit in, and keep emphasising the point that you need to work together to support your ds. It is human instinct to be defensive when criticised, but that isn't going to make things better for him, so try not to be defensive yourself, and try not to sound to 'accusing' of the teacher although I am not at all impressed by the way the teacher is both communicating with you nor responding to your ds. You need to say "OK, we're here now, what changes can we all make to help him".

I am not sure I would have much faith in the school doing very much though. They have seen poor behaviour escalate and an inability to cope with work but do not seem to be remotely proactive in dealing with his needs. They are just referring the OP to the Behaviour Policy and making unhelpful comments about his work. That is simply not good enough.

I do think, OP, that you need to ween yourself off the sole idea that being an August baby means he is behind. I know what the statistics show, but SEN children can be born at any time of year. Some children patently never catch up. You could be waiting a long time for accelerated progress. As others have said, there are other aspects to his ability in class that need to be looked at. I do not think it is helpful that work is sent home which has hours written beside it. I have seen Y6 children struggle to get a few sentances down on paper. Not every child is average. However, the work clearly is not suitable for him and re drafting it is really boring. They do need a different approach and I would ask about TA support in class. It is the obvious next step to help improve concentration and behaviour by ensuring work is suitable for him. The SENCo is your best channel of communication.

All schools must track progress of all children. What does his progress profile look like? What about Maths and reading for example? The school must surely concerned if there is lack of progress. Ofsted will look closely at the progress of SEN children in the school so it is in their interests to take more notice of his needs.