cursive handwriting, lack of support from school and 11+ prep

[potatochipsandcheese]

My child is in a rural primary school. its small for the area with only one form per year, but it has large classes (30)

He has recently had some issues with bullying in the school, which is something we have been unable to deal with by going into the school personally. The head states that 'there have been no cases of bullying in 35 years' and refuses to do anything about it.

Anyway, as a result of this, my son has decided to go for his 11+ and try to get into the grammar. I am happy to coach him through this as is his dad, what we are finding is that he is totally behind in literacy due to his school insisting on him writing in cursive handwriting. I can see his frustration, he spends a third of the day bored in mathematics as his grasp on this far exceeds his classmates (though he struggles to show his working out for the same issues as the cursive) and then he spends a third of the day feeling not good enough because he cant seem to get his litracy work marked (they wont mark if its not in cursive and if its in cursive its illegible) then they do a mix of science/re and sport for the rest of the week. He says he spends more time learning about God, than he does supported to be better in maths, science and English.

So we are desperately trying to bring him up to speed in english (most importantly) get him writing legibly (not in cursive) and accelerating his love for mathematics in a way that challenges him and inspires him.

The issue we are having, is with his attitude. I suppose 5 years of school have taught him that hes not good enough and even when he 'understands something' he is not able to qualify to them exactly what he needs to do, so he is immediately marked down.

Because of this hes given up on trying and if you correct him, he gets stupidly upset, throws things, overreacts and just generally makes everything a complete nightmare and a chore.

I am frustrated with the school, they have (in the past and recently) made it quite clear that safety, consent and respect arent important to them. They are not teaching my child to excel in his chosen fields and allowing him to flounder in those he isn't naturally getting (despite being immensely bright) because of (what I consider to be quite draconian) targets, like cursive handwriting.

I find it difficult because if he asks me why he is spending 6 hours a week learning about religion, I can't answer him and if he asks me why he needs cursive, I cant answer him either. It just makes absolutely not difference to adult life from what I can tell.

The school are not allowing him to even write in a pen because he cant write in cursive (which all his friends are allowed to do) he is just utterly disillusioned by schooling and education, despite being really bright and engaged in subjects that interest him.

Im preparing to go into battle with the school. For the last week I have removed him from the school at 15 mins past the afternoon bell, in order to school him at home as its the only time he seems to get anything relevant done.

Nothing more frustrating than seeing a bright child unable to form the letter 'e' or feel he has to join everything up so his writing is not readable.

Has anyone else found this with primary education? Any advice?

Home schooling is going well, he is really learning beautifully and his rages are getting less and less (though he hates being wrong and argues with us a lot)

I am just worried about the ensuing conversation with the school where they question his absence in the afternoons.

Btw I don’t think flexi schooling is in anyway damaging for children. I think the opposite is true. Some kids learn much quicker and better 1-2-1.

Especially if they have complex needs

Well do not know where you live to get tutors specialising in dyslexia. What you need to do now is roll up your sleeves and start fighting. You can get help free to get him tested but you will have a battle on your hands coz it costs money. First go to school and ask them how you can achieve this, then education authority. Ask on your local facebook pages. Google dyslexia association, find your nearest one and get advice from them.

You may be able to get the school to carry out a dyslexia screening to see where his weaknesses lie.
In the meantime I recommend a resource called Toe by Toe which is very good for dyslexic children.

To be clear, cursive handwriting is on the national curriculum in England.

@soon I will look into that thank you.

Not sure I have time for ‘a fight’ what with the hours of time I now spend tutoring my children

@user

No, it isn’t.

www.dyslexia.com/about-dyslexia/signs-of-dyslexia/test-for-dyslexia-37-signs/

Check memory and organisation

@greentulips has a point. Working memory in particular although not a definitive sign of dyslexia can cause children to struggle to write fluently as they have to remember so many skills.
Google Patoss assessment for working memory.

The head states that 'there have been no cases of bullying in 35 years' Then the head is an idiot with no right to be running a school as he is clueless

Yes, it categorically is.I'm the national curriculum, and a Y6 judgement of 'expected' in the writing teacher assessment depends on neat, joined handwriting.

Is IN the national curriculum

a Y6 judgement of 'expected' in the writing teacher assessment depends on neat, joined handwriting.

This is not the case. It can be discounted as a variation.

No, it can be used as a specific weakness if certain criteria are met for very specific reasons.

But that is by no stretch of the imagination 'not in the national curriculum '.

Memory seems to be pretty good, we've been doing daily 'thoughts' so yesterday we learned 'Dug his own grave' and what an idiom is. He remembered it this morning and put it into a (different) context.

We did some literacy earlier and one of the tests was to cover the word and write it again and he got each one perfectly right.

He did, however, do a maths 11+ page and he wrote almost every number backwards (the strokes, not the actual number) and moved at a rate of knots (I could barely type into my calculator to catch up)

So theres definitely something going on there that needs looking at but I dont trust this school (or this head) to actually do that, it would be a serious battle and mean I have to spend lots of time with people who I really, really have grown to dislike.

I think the reality is any help that getting assess will give him, is help I can give him in our sessions right now and, if in Year 7 he needs assessement it will be much easier to get.

Hes come on leaps and bounds though and he loves our afternoon sessions.

@potatochipsandcheese There is literally a section called Handwriting under the English Programme of Study for each year group in the NC 2014. In y2, they learn the first joins and it continues from there.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-english-programmes-of-study

Dont stress about the handwriting...DS is in Yr8 at a large secondary and he was held back at primary just because he cant write.
At secondary they give him an ipad and he types and he also is able to take a photograph of the board rather than be expected to write it all out.
He has High functioning autism and Hypermobility syndrome so writing causes him pain too.
Things change the second they walk out of primary!
Funnily enough our head teacher said the was no bullying at our primary too!

...meant to say too....luckily our DS broke his arm before SATS and had a scribe ...he got nearly full marks across the board ! He wouldn't have if hed have to write it!

Not for his writing assessment, he wouldn't - it's teacher assessed over a number of pieces over weeks and weeks.