Open day - teachers' comments on books

[debs40]

Last day of term we had an open after noon in school.

This means that parents can go into classs and see their children's books and work.

I have had my concerns this year that the teachers my son (in Y2)has have little individual contact with the children and don't appear to know what level they are at and if they are improving etc. The groups they enter the year in are those they live the year in.

They never read with the children themselves but teachers here have reassured me that they will be assessing as the year goes through etc.

Two things happened at the open afternoon:

1. I looked at my son's books. All comments were written in the same pen, in the same handwriting. Unusual . On one page DS had tyo write a list of things he liked about himself. One point he had made was that he liked to kick his younger brother's butt. No, I wasn't pleased to see that. He doesn't talk like that at home. Worse still the work had been marked with some inane comment about capitals or some rubbish

1. I asked about DS's reading grade for his report. He had been given a 2c but reads really well despite being on much lower level books. I was told he has trouble with inferences (perhaps because he has been undergoing ASD assessment). I was about to leave it at that when the teacher said how she was going to assess him in a particular way for SATS but this meant he wouldn't be able to get a 3 although he is capable of that.

Right, now I'm thinking, what are these teachers talking about? There appears to be little in the way of continuous assessment, abdicate responsibility to SATS. Lots of the work was unfinished and friends noticed similar things too - half coloured in writing, pieces where the child had just about managed to write down the WALT and done nothing else.

Oh and unlined books so writing is all over the place.

Tell me this isn't normal practice and that there are better schools out there??

I don't know any teachers with a God complex, and I am an RE teacher so I should know!

Surely you realise that not all teachers are lazy and defensive. Why would you need this pointing out to you unless you genuinely dont realise this.

You've had several explanations on this thread for your concerns but seem to be ignoring them.

rainbow.... who is stereoptyping??? Seriously. WHO? I am talking about my experience of my son's teachers based on reality - a horrible reality of this hellish last year.

Why are you all so bloody defensive?

I work in law - people challlenge me and my judgments/practices every day. Why are teachers so precious?

I don't think it is precious to not want to be called lazy when I am anything but.

My books are marked at least once a fortnight.

Frankly, I don't believe you all mark as you go on (strange how marking with the same pen seems to be a standard technique)and that you all know the children in your class really well and know what reading book they're on and really care about whether a child with SEN gets the help he needs.

None of you have done anything to demonstrate that you could ever admit to having any fault.

Do you all know your limitations?

Do you ask for help from SENCO or the head when you need it?

Anwyay, I've got to get back to work now. Some of us do.

You sound lovely, debs.

I wasn't calling you lazy.... God, read tghe post.... but these teachers are.... and as for God complexes....what other profession never seems to acknowledge poor professionals exist or they might have limits on their knowledge?

I see no evidence of either of those two things from any of your posts.

debs did you say your son is being tested for possible ASD?

Who exactly is involved?
I personally would ask to speak to the SENCO (Ed Psych if involved) and the class teacher.

There are a number of simple things that can be put in place to support your son even without the support of a LSA/TA which he is unlikely to get for prolonged periods without a statement.
As SENCO I have 2 children with a diagnosis of ASD neither have a statement and neither have TA support in class although one gets daily support 15mins before school begins for reading. Your situation isn't unusual I'm afraid schools do try to do their best within the confines of budgets and unfortunately teacher training barely touches on SEN.

So because on my couple of posts on here I didnt jump in and say that your child's teachers are lazy then I must therefore not believe that any teachers can be lazy...

Rainbow.... Lovely, thanks for that.

I was asking a very straight forward question as a parent who has just been completely pissed off with teachers this year and who has a 7 year old has been profoundly let down.

But that couldn't ever be the teacher's fault could it? It must be me.

You've had perfectly reasonable explanations for the concerns in your first post.

Well I teach secondary.

I have a standard marking pen as my pupils have told me that my writing can be hard to read so I use a fountain pen which makes it clearer.

Of course I have done things wrong, we all have.

I don't have any work to do today because I am on yet another holiday

SENCO has lied to me throughout. I had to call a multidisciplinary meeting with the professionasl (community paed, ASD team, OT) because they were doing nothing.

He did not want to call in Ed Psych as DS does not cause them a problem and he didn't want to use up his allocated slots. DS is not disruptive so who cares if he's accessing the curriculum.

They lied about his provision and backdated his IEPs so they pretended he was getting help he wasnt't.

The community paed told them to bring in the outreach team as they din't know what they were doing.

I had a son who didn't want to go to school because he was getting so stressed but the teachers wouldn't talk to me.

My son couldn't started coming home for lunches because he gets sick at smells. The OT asked if we could arrange for him to sit somewhere else ... no. So I had to take time off work every day for this and gradually work out a plan to get him back in on my own.

They wouldn't give him even a basic visual timetable even though SALT told them to so his reading books were never changed as his homework stayed in his bag as he has workign memory problems and needs help with this. it used to get him really stressed.

He has a special pen they wouldn't use as 'it's his responsibility to remember it'

They have a trip the first week back after term and it's already been suggested he doesn't go as he won't eat the food.

Right, I am going now because I'm getting pathetically upset.

Given your final post I would suggest that this school isn't for your son and to look for somewhere that will meet his needs better.

I could send you some of the visual prompts and ideas I use if you are interested they are just to print and laminate

'Frankly, I don't believe you all mark as you go on (strange how marking with the same pen seems to be a standard technique)and that you all know the children in your class really well and know what reading book they're on and really care about whether a child with SEN gets the help he needs.

None of you have done anything to demonstrate that you could ever admit to having any fault.

Do you all know your limitations?

Do you ask for help from SENCO or the head when you need it?'

debs, you and I have met on the sn boards here. You know I'm a teacher with an Aspie son, and so you know the answer I'd give to your questions is yes in all cases. Whether you choose to believe me or not is up to you.
You need to save your passion and anger to fight those who are blocking your son's learning, not have a brawl with any passing individual who happens to be a teacher.

And I'm a teacher with an Aspie son too, and yes, I do mark my books every evening, except for the assessed writing the class completes on Friday's because I like to have Friday evening off so I leave that until Sunday. I also mark with the same ( green) pen because that is the school marking colour and so all the pens we use are the same as we buy them in bulk ( I also bring them home to mark with too, so it is impossible to tell where and when I have marked) and I don't read individually with the children in my class but do know how well they can read and understand inferrence and deduction because I carry out guided reading with all the children once a week, and yes I am bloody annoyed because basically you are calling both myself and the other teachers who have replied on here liars.
Of course I am not perfect, nor is any teacher I know, but then neither is anyone else.

I teach secondary. Of course we use the same pen for marking - the school bulk buys! And I don't randomly change my handwriting either!! I can see that you are having major problems but these 2 things should be the least of your worries. And I will be honest, no, I don't always keep on top of my marking but if it's been a bit longer than normal I always write some useful feedback to cover any major issues in the work I have looked at. I teach languages - if I picked up on all the mistakes some children make, I would write more than they do!!

Thanks for your posts. I am not perfect. I have been brooding about a lot of things since the start of term.

I didn't sit here thinking....let's drip post locket.

I'm human. I wake up. I'm tryign to work. I started worrying about one thing. Your responses led me to worry about something else

Bottom line I AM SICK TO DEATH OF MANAGING EVERY DECISION IN CONNECTION WITH MY SON's EDUCATION even in minor ones like where will he eat, can he be included on a school trip.

Nothing comes without prompting or battle with the school

Locket - I had to draft his IEP targets because they were crap with help from parent partnership.

So sorry. I'm not perfect. I jsut don't know what to do. I've moved him once. He has friends. I don't know if I should move him again. Will it be better but I am sick to death about the basics not even being done.

The SEN aside, they don't even know how well he reads.

Right now I've reduced myself to tears again, I'll bugger off back to the SN boards where I belong.

surely debs you have to acknowledge that you are going to get criticised when you write comments about 'teachers' rather than 'my ds's teacher/s'.

You are obviously upset about all this and very very frustrated. But you can't take your frustration out on posters who have replied by giving you their own expereiences as teachers; you clearly wanted them to reply "yes we are lazy shites who don't mark books reguarly, and thus prove all your worst fears". Their comments should highlight that your ds's teacher(s) does/do possibly sound lax, for whatever reason (the school or them personally).

I don't mean to have a go; you're clearly upset. I hope you get some joy with the school soon.

But you are arguing about the wrong things. Rather than pick on possible failings in marking books, what is the FIRST thing that you want the school to sort out, not a list, but the first one? Of course you have to manage every decision in connection with your son's education, he's YOUR son, you are the one who needs to make sure that this ONE thing is sorted out, then you move onto the next. Schools are by their very nature pretty homogenous places, everyone tries to fit in and become part of the whole, if you have a child that , for whatever reason, needs something different, you have to be the one to fight for it. Yes it is hard, yes it can be demoralising but you are the one who knows what your son needs, the school ( even if it was the most pro-active and supportive one-which yours obviously isn't)hasn't the experience and understanding you have. You must however try to see things from both points of view, my child was the first one the school had ever had with problems like his and they didn't know what to do ( Aspie children can vary so much that, what works for one doesn't work for another) so I had to tell them. But you can't be confrontational-even if you feel it, you have to work with the school rather than against them. And that won't come if you are ( quite frankly,) nit-picking over marking.

I have resorted to tears on numerous occasions, but he is MY son, MY responsibility and I have to work with his school to get MY way-not attack all and sundry.

Debs, you sound as if you're having a pretty tough time.

You're son's educational issues sound extreme. If they are as extreme as they sound then it is very strange indeed that he doesn't have a statement,an assistant in every lesson, during break times and extra curricular activities.

The class teacher will deal with the teaching of the whole class. She will know the children well because it's difficult not to when you spend all day, every day with 30 children. Perhaps there will be days when she doesn't mark every piece of work in detail. Perhaps she did miss the butt comment. That doesn't make a bad teacher.

From what I read on here it seems unusual for class teachers to hear children read frequently. Rubbish, but apparently unavoidable in many cases. If required, the TA provided as a result of your son's statement would differentiate work and help him at each stage.

You sound very defensive. You sound as if either your child is being seriously underprovided for in relation to his special needs or that you have unrealistic expectations of what the state will provide considering the special needs he has.

We taught a lovely girl with severe Downs Syndrome at Secondary level. She had all the help mentioned above. She had the most fantastic opportunities, as did every student in the school, and brilliant supervision. She was included in every school trip that was reasonably possible. For her parents, nothing was enough.

Sorry, what I write and what I am thinking are getting confused. When I talk about teachers, I am talking about the school.

Even though I am letting off steam, I have not been like this with school. I really have not been confrontational.The opposite. I have been encouraging and supportive and I do understand that they don't always have the training etc. But there hasn't been a willingness to access resources.

For example:

There is an IDP on ASD. They have refused to circulate it or to do training on it.

We had an Early Bird Plus meeting in school. No teachers showed up. The Inclusion officer from the LA had to ring the SENCO and ask that he attend the next meeting.

There is a SALT report. They only implemented the recommendations after months of arguing despite them being IEP targets.

They have refused to access Ed Psych.

They refused to access the Autism Outreach until the Community Paed told them.

They won't allow him breaks despite OT suggestions.

I had a meeting with the head and she was helpful but said we're doing all we can to access outside assistance. The problem is that she has no knowledge of how I have had to battle for this as her staff haven't told her. She also has no knowledge of the way the whole SA/SA+ and IEP business has been handled.

but I didn't confront her or engage in an argument. I just swallow hard and try and move on. I have been just trying to move this on.

But here's an example, DS for the first time lashed out in class two weeks ago because he'd been put in a mixed group where he didn't knwo other children. The head had commented to us that teachers said he was uncomfortable with this the week before. Still no plan for the next week was put in place so I wrote a friendly email about planning for changes. Ok says head , we will do this.

But by the end of the week, last day of term, I hear that they have removed the class TA out of the class (just as she finishes her Early Bird Plus course) and are introducing someone else (who is completely new to the school)to take over her role. I find out on the way home from DS and ran back to school to speak to the TA and teacher. Cue DS asking 'who is she', 'is she nice', 'I don't want to go back to school'.

Now, is this me being horrible and unreasonable or is this just bad practcice