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teachers help please! Do schools have to teach art ?

7 replies

trixo · 09/03/2008 22:28

Do schools have a legal obligation to teach art? Can they teach something else in that time such as maths or literacy if a child needs extra help? How much art and d/t is a child meant to get a week? Thanks!

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robinpud · 09/03/2008 22:36

A school is expected to provide a broad and balanced curriculum; it would not be good practice to provide the support that a child needs for maths and literacy by withdrawing them from art/dt. Ideally that suport should be on hand for the child during maths and literacy.
However as we all know we live in a world which is far from ideal and sometimes compromises have to be made.

Why do you ask?

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trixo · 09/03/2008 23:06

My child is withdrawn from art for literacy support. It is his favourite lesson.

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HonoriaGlossop · 09/03/2008 23:28

oh trixo that is really sad.

i think the school need to be able to spell out to you why they can't provide this literacy support DURING literacy...and I'd certainly be stating to them that it must surely be counterproductive to try to bring along his literacy by taking him out of his favourite subject. A real wish in him to learn and progress in literacy will NEVER be gained that way, clearly. If they want him to learn rather than to just tick a box on the SATS stats, then they will hopefully be open to this reasoning; though I guess it's possible they are constrained by the hours the 'helper' has available.

But it's well worth challenging, IMO

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cornsilk · 09/03/2008 23:31

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robinpud · 10/03/2008 09:51

AS HG says, this is worth talking to the school about. It might be possible to rearrange the timetable in some way, perhaps even moving art if neede be. Another solution would be for it to change on a half termly basis so that your child only misses art temporarily.
Is it ELS that you are referring to ?

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cornsilk · 10/03/2008 09:53

No support for SpLD as on school action plus.

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WriggleJiggle · 10/03/2008 23:22

A schools only legal obligation is to teach RS and have an act of collective worship.

Getting the balance of lessons missed for extra support is difficult. It makes sense for a child to miss a subject that they are good at or one which is not 'academic'. However, it is often the case that a child who needs extra help is taken out of the very lessons they have the chance to excel in or to relax in.

You may have to put up with it for a term, but you should be able to ask that next term he misses a different subject.