How do I speak to teacher about this issue?

[trumpisaflump]

Please go easy on me as I know this post makes me sound like a horrible person!
My son is 9 and in p5 (Scotland). He goes to a smallish local primary school and we've never had any issues. Previously there were two classes of around 18 children in his year group but this year as a few kids have left they are all together so a class of 33 p5 children. A couple of issues have cropped up like not having enough reading books to go round the class so they have to share and no reading or maths homework has been sent home this year (he's had two projects to do at home but that's it)
My biggest issue at the moment is that his teacher has arranged the class in such a way that a 'clever' child is sitting next to a not so clever one. I know this as the classes were split last year into reading and maths ability. The child my son is sitting next to has a global developmental delay and struggles academically. He constantly interrupts my son and asks for help with reading and writing all day every day. The school has a policy along the lines of 'ask for three and then ask me' which I think means the pupils must ask for help from other pupils three times before interrupting the teacher.
So my issue is my son is being constantly distracted by the other child. He has asked me a few times how to deal with this as he doesn't want to hurt his feelings. He's tried to encourage him to try himself a bit more, then he progressed to saying he wasn't allowed to tell him the answer. He's still interrupting him lots and believe me my DS isn't the best at holding his concentration!
My DS is now saying they have to share a phonics card and as the other boy is on the lowest level, my DS has to use the lowest level too. My DS is a great reader and this is concerning me.
It's parents evening on Wed and I'm wondering if these are valid concerns to speak to the teacher about. Or is this just life and my DS should learn to deal with it?

Is a Support for Learning worker a teacher? In our authority, we have SfL teachers and auxiliaries, but not SfL workers

Is it like a TA in England?

@trumpisaflump my point was that you are right to worry about your DS and the education he received, and if that is impacted,you have absolutely every right to bring it up and ask for changes. Not just that,but you should actively do so if/when needed.

@WhiskeyLullaby thanks for that. I've never spoken to the school about a concern before so I just wanted other opinions on whether this was justified. Thanks everyone. Appreciate all the comments.

SfLW is the equivalent to a TA in England

I completely agree that the set up as it seems is not a best fit. But ask the teacher for more info. I'm trying to help by which questions to pose. A SFLW is a Scottish TA. The name was changed from Teaching Assistant to Support for Learning Worker to highlight that these professional are there to support learning and not to support the teacher by doing paperwork/wall displays/photocopying etc that in years gone by was an auxiliary role (as when I was a pupil) Truth is as these roles disappeared they land on the CT to pick up. So currently we have one SfLW with no additional support for the autistic, dyslexic, Dyspraxia, emotional support kids. So your kids CT may be trying to juggle the needs of 33 children single handedly bar 40 minutes a day.

That's why I highlighted grouping for CT to target support is so important. A LA should be sitting to a HA for every literacy and numeracy lesson. Social, Topic yes, children need to learn behavior from peers but N and L they should be grouped by tables for which they should physically move seats x

I don’t have to have taught to be an effective governor and it doesn’t mean I do not understand classroom practice either. I did learning walks and as PP Governor I certainly was aware of techniques to improve progress and attainment. I would be a crap governor if I hadn’t engaged with this.

Corn SfLW are not qualified teachers. They're criminally underpaid support staff

BubblesBuddy We shall respectfully disagree. Again, a highlight of the difference between the S Irish and English system. Again, I reiterate respectfully

• Scottish

I think a huge difference is that in Scotland eduction is still state and not a business. Whereas in England with different types of school and non teaching management employed to save money it's become a business

It is absolutely fine to raise any concerns you have with the teacher.
We have just had a parent's evening where we were advised that dc should be using peer support more and teacher support only after that. So it may be a current idea.

BubblesBuddy just out of interest have you ever had a walk round or a surgeons operating theatre, a builders yard or a road works drainage site and felt informed enough to stand in council and advise them about the best way forth in their profession?

Three before me shouldn’t really be used in this way, as a blanket ‘don’t ask me any questions, ask 3 others’.
My understanding is that it’s used to get students to be more self-sufficient, ie consulting a dictionary, checking back through their book, then asking someone else (not for the answer but for help in how to tackle whatever they’re doing).

Three before me was invented so the children become more self-sufficient and get on with their work. Then the teacher isn't constantly interrupted with daft questions and can help the children that need help.

Hmm. I would say if you're lucky enough to find acquiring knowledge and skills easy, that you should not hoard said knowledge and skills to yourself but seek to share them with others. As PP stated, collaborative learning does allow the more able to consolidate and deepen their abilities by articulating their understanding and reasoning/explaining it in new ways, while also being very effective for the lower-middle ability. Where I work, years 3 and above are seated in mixed ability pairs or threes for every lesson. Where the ability gap is too large for peer learning to be appropriate, children are educated in separate small groups for some subjects or withdrawn to a teacher table for part of the lesson, but they still sit mixed-ability some of the time.

I think you should clarify a few things and ask for the reasoning behind the practices, but if collaborative learning originated with the head and governors you'll be unlikely to get anywhere if you complain, provided the teacher is using collaborative learning effectively (and if not I expect they'll just be shown how to do it more effectively in future).

I would say if you're lucky enough to find acquiring knowledge and skills easy, that you should not hoard said knowledge and skills to yourself but seek to share them with others. As PP stated, collaborative learning does allow the more able to consolidate and deepen their abilities by articulating their understanding and reasoning/explaining it in new ways, while also being very effective for the lower-middle ability.

That's assuming that the more able children find everything easy, all the work quick to do and never struggle with a particular method,concept etc. Or that they are HA and work at the same speed across all areas. Or that the reason why they are HA is the fact that they are very focused, concentrate on their work, measure 5 times and cut once.

That assumption is unrealistic,unfair and can be detrimental to some children.

That's assuming that the more able children find everything easy, all the work quick to do and never struggle with a particular method,concept etc. Or that they are HA and work at the same speed across all areas. Or that the reason why they are HA is the fact that they are very focused, concentrate on their work, measure 5 times and cut once.

That's down to the teacher assessment though. If your highs haven't got it then you shouldn't be setting them off on independent work yet. Also, for collaborative learning to work well you'd want to give them pair or team activities earlier on in the learning sequence so that there's no conflict between supporting others and getting one's own work done. By the time you've gotten to individual work everyone should understand enough to not need a great deal of support.

My school very successfully uses a flexible grouping arrangement. In each class, seats and groups and partners change regularly.

Children will be placed in mixed ability pairings and groupings but this is done very thoughtfully and carefully, with sound reasoning behind it.

If one of the pair is a more ‘rapid grasper’ then the idea is they will secure their knowledge by teaching it to others. If we can teach something, then we must know it well, remember it well and be able to explain it well. In turn, those with lower prior attainment respond well to peer teaching.

This practice relies upon children being trained well and given excellent models to follow.

By changing pairings regularly, the majority of children will sometimes be ‘the teacher’ and sometimes they pupil’ depending upon the lesson. But it must be well planned and managed.

In my school it works wonderfully well because staff are skilled and know their classes intricately. Practices are backed by sound education research and peer support.

I wonder if this kind of flexible pairing/ flex differentiation concept is being half heartedly implemented here? It’s a bit of a buzz in teaching Facebook groups etc at the moment so I guess teachers could well be jumping on the bandwagon without adequately understanding the practice.

Sorry if this makes no sense at all!! It’s been a long week! 🍷

Nectarine thank you for expressing more than i can as I follow my anxiety £50 a month med £150 a month behavior rescue cross breed dog around the house to find his safe space, my point is we all have our worries. OP your kid is brilliant and fine x

Nectarines If you are a parent rather than an educator that has grasped and so openly understood and accepted this teaching method I drop and grovel at your feet. You are saying what I'd like my 24 sets of parents to understand x

I can see how and why it can work if applied well. We've used it ourselves for certain subjects or at some point in a lesson.

Until OP talks to the teacher and gets more clarification it seems though that this method is not working for her son and is not being implemented correctly or successfully, at least for him and possibly his peer too.

One needs extra input if he keeps asking for help, the other can't focus efficiently and keeps being distracted by the requests for help,enough that he mentioned it at home. He has made attempt to rebuff the requests. He has asked for help with how to manage the situation and not hurt the other's feelings.

It might be a brilliant method, but at the moment it's not working.

One needs extra input if he keeps asking for help, the other can't focus efficiently and keeps being distracted by the requests for help,enough that he mentioned it at home. He has made attempt to rebuff the requests. He has asked for help with how to manage the situation and not hurt the other's feelings.

@WhiskeyLullaby yes you've completely hit the nail on the head. I think I'll approach it this way with the teacher.

DD’s primary did this to her in y6. After three days, dd was getting told off for not completing work because she was subjected to continual interruptions from the child she was made to sit next to. I complained. It stopped.