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Secondary education

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Not allocated a class for English in Y9??

60 replies

CardyMow · 17/10/2011 20:47

Tonight I asked DD why she hasn't had ANY English homework at all this school year. She has told me that her and one other boy have been sitting in the library for their english lessons, unsupervised, just given websites to 'play maths and English games on, or doing wordsearch worksheets'. DD and this other boy both have SN's, and would normally be with Learning Support for this lesson, but when DD spoke to them today, she has been told that they "Haven't been allocated a class yet". We are almost half a term into Y9, why have two children not been given a class to bloody LEARN in?

Who do I e-mail? Her Form tutor is notoriously crap at sorting anything like this out, her HoY has left for maternity leave this week - no replacement yet. She doesn't HAVE an english teacher yet (which is what I want to complain about) and I can't seem to find on the school website who the Head of English is - and I'm not sure if it's a problem from the English Dept or the Learning Support Dept - who I also can't find an e-mail facility for.

I'm so Angry that the school has basically left two SN dc, one of whom is my own DD, with just some wordsearches and a couple of websites as the sum total of their learning in English for an entire half term. What the hell do I do???

OP posts:
piprabbit · 21/10/2011 23:37

Well if the HT is responsible for running a school that is incapable of allocating children to classes or noticing if they are missing, I would question his ability to manage an academy with 3 times the numbers of children and staff.

I really hope you manage to have a good half term before having to re-gird your loins for battle.

CardyMow · 22/10/2011 01:19

The thing that is getting me is that there are only 7 Secondaries in my town. Three are already an Academy Consortium, One is a single Academy, if the remaining 3 also become an Academy Consortium - the ONLY choice in our town will be between one Academy and another. What does that mean for SN dc, especially ones like my DD who aren't expected to get 5 A-C grade GCSE's? What will happen to their education then?

And will they change the bloody uniform - I hope not, I like the fact that they wear a blazer and tie, most school's in the town don't, and I don't want to be buying a full new uniform. Probably will though - they did when the sole Academy changed, and they changed the uniform at all 3 of the other Academy Consortium schools so that they were all wearing the same. Grrr.

OP posts:
maree1 · 28/10/2011 22:22

Write to your MP. (The effect will be immediate and positive.) Leave the school no hiding place. This is your child's one chance at life.

sevenoften · 28/10/2011 23:04

Hmmm... I see this is a week old, so maybe you don't need any more comments. But it's actually very easy for this kind of thing to happen, I think - mainly because you have a child is doing something which is anomalous, and not in the 'proper' timetable. If you have nearly 2000 pupils, each of whom has a slightly different set of subjects, and each of whom needs a particular pattern of setting (eg high in MFL but low in Maths), then it's only a false click of the mouse in the timetabling software to get them accidentally in the wrong set, or attending at the wrong time. Remember that in a school that size, you'd probably have something like 1000 different sets in 15-30 different subjects over 5-7 yeargroups.

Usually schools get this right, and in a way I'm surprised how well it works, when you consider the amount of information that has to be processed in a short period of time. But when there are mistakes, you rely on a teacher or pupil spotting it - like the boy who said his maths was too easy. That particular example you give doesn't worry me at all - obviously, it's not great that he was put initially in the wrong set but in itself it doesn't indicate a systemic problem. Tbh, I don't think it sheds any light on your dd's situation.

As for your dd, I am appalled that it has taken 6 weeks of teaching for this to be properly addressed, but I can see how this might happen as a series of small, compounding errors rather than any single enormous failure. She is on an unusual programme of activities - from what you say, one that the school hasn't implemented before. Therefore they probably don't have the systems in place that would be able to process her activities easily (the software for this stuff is extremely complex, and often is not well adapted for one-off, individual activities, and she obviously wouldn't fit into any pre-existing paper system either). You seem to suggest (did I get it right?) that she turned up to some things and was told she was in the wrong place. The individual teacher would have no way of knowing where she should go - they would no doubt have expected a Year 9 pupil to ask someone about this (form tutor? HoY? Head of relevant department? Director of Studies?), as they would not be in a position to know where she should actually be.

If she were not turning up to something she was officially timetabled for, then that really is a big problem - huge duty of care issues. That's worth a great big complaint. However, if her activity was off the standard timetable this is less surprising. Almost inevitably, the school's usual system of producing registers etc would not work for this activity (unless they are really unusually well organised - this stuff is a real headache to manage in most cases), so it would only need one more administrative slip on an ad hoc arrangement for this not to be noticed. Of course, it shouldn't happen. You are absolutely right to be upset about what was (at the very least) a series of small errors with very big educational consequences. But in a huge, complex system, a unique arrangement for a single pupil can go missing without revealing a systemic problem.

The thing is that in any school, the fail-safe for this kind of error is that the pupil will notice something is wrong, and will ask why they have no scheduled English lessons or whatever. It's not clear to me whether your dd did this and was fobbed off (v v bad) or whether she just went to the library and there was some sort of miscommunication and she stayed under the radar because no-one properly understood there was a problem. By saying that, I don't want to excuse the school - your dd shouldn't have been in that position. But to me the unusual thing about this is not the nature of the mistake, but the failure to pick up on it.

To my mind the issue this raises is one to do with Learning Support and pastoral care. Clearly the mistakes were in academic administration, and they need a rap on the knuckles; but the mistakes might have been relatively small, and regardless of size would have been picked up very quickly if the pastoral care (eg communication between your dd and form tutor) had been working properly; or perhaps if Learning Support had been doing a better job of overseeing her (from what you say she would be well known to them, and they would have some responsibility for general oversight of her progress). In your letter, I would be focussing on this aspect, rather than the timetable one.

Ilovegeorgeclooney · 29/10/2011 19:54

Nooo this is an academic and pastoral matter. I am an Assistant Head and HOD for English and feel this is one of the biggest problems with the results driven culture of schools today. I allocated myself the lowest Year 9 set this year, 8 pupils working between L 2 and 4, and I love teaching them. I am concentrating on building their confidence with Speaking and Listening tasks to develop their Reading and Writing skills.Already they have all made huge progress. However we have a new HT who has asked me why I am 'wasting' my time with this group and has suggested I fob them off on a TA and use the time to coach idle children who have a chance of a C at GCSE. I have refused and fortunately we are due an OFSTED and the new criteria focuses on SA+. These pupils are as entitled to good teaching as any other and all to often miss out.

sevenoften · 29/10/2011 20:33

Yes, fair point, George. I was assuming from the post that there had been appropriate teaching allocated in theory, but there was a procedural cock up which meant they were not actually given the teaching that was organised. But if the intended teaching provision is inadequate, that's another matter entirely.

RedHelenB · 30/10/2011 09:12

If they become an academy then yes, the uniform will change.

Themumsnot · 30/10/2011 11:09

If they become an academy then yes, the uniform will change.

Why are you so sure of this? Not all schools who become academies change their uniform.

Hunty - how have things been going over half-term. Have you got a meeting set up with the HT yet? I think you need the school to be very specific with you about what programme your DD is going to be following and how it will meet her needs.

Kez100 · 30/10/2011 13:06

Our uniform didn't change. The name didn't change either. Apparently these are choices a school can make and some do, some don't.

academyblues · 30/10/2011 20:31

Hunty, the 'managed moves to PRUs' for pupils with SN that you describe has happened with the move to academies in your area is something that concerns me very much, in conjunction with the raising of the floor targets for GCSE.

I hope that your dd doesn't come a cropper of all the unnecessary shenanigans happening in education over the next bit.

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