Low level disruption in classroom- any advice please

[4amOnATuesday]

Can anyone give me some advice please?

My DS(11) is in year 7. His school streams into pathways and my son is in the middle pathway. He is well behaved (always had excellent or good on reports for behaviour) but is very easily distracted and then takes a while to settle back down to a task if he is distracted from it. Since the beginning of the year he has been telling me that several of the children in his class shout out a lot in lessons and chat so disrupt the whole class and the class is frequently kept in for the start of each break. He also says that sometimes they don't seem to get much work done because of these children. This came to a head this week when they had an assessment which he prepared really hard for, but during the lesson the children either side of him kept trying to take things from his pencilcase so he did not even manage to complete half of it and he was really upset.

I had not called the school previously as I thought it may be just children adjusting to a new school etc but it has been 2 terms now with no improvement. So I have called the school and am waiting for a call back, but really I am not sure what they can do. He would not be able to cope with the pace in the higher stream and though there is another class in the middle stream I am not sure if it would be any better. Obviously I think the teachers should be disciplining the disruptive children more but then this also takes time out of the lesson.

Otherwise he is really happy at his school with lots of friends and on several sports teams, but I am considering that we may need to take him out and send him to private school as I do not want his education to be affected.

Has anyone been through anything similar and have any advice on how this was effectively managed?

Think about what you want from this and make it focused about your DS, some things possibly to ask.
If your DS is well behaved then he could be sitting next to some of the lesser motivated students, as teachers normally like to spread them out. Do you know who he gets very easily distracted by? If you do, then ask for him to be sat away from those pupils. Or ask for him to be moved to sit next to people who are a good influence.
Ask for a progress update, is your DS making progress? If he is then, you could tackle it from your DS being unhappy at staying in most breaks. If he isn't making progress, then discuss the issues in a meeting with head of year preferably with your DS present. He is the one in the classes.

In a school I taught at, a class after a parental complaint, (the staff had been asking for some time for some support) they were placed on monitoring report, and we had to write down those that worked well and those that disrupted. The pupils who were disruptive were then dealt with by the head of year, parents called in, and in one case taken out of some lessons. Class within a few weeks was a different class. But please note it took a parental complaint to get this done, teachers were told intially it was our fault for not making them want to learn! I'm no longer at that school!

Thank you. I have just spoken to Head of Year who said they have been aware of the problems with the class for a while and had been in to speak to the class as a whole several times before. The suggestion was to make my son a "secret spy" so he could feedback on who the naughty children were! I am a bit shocked at this response. Surely the teachers must know which are the children calling out in class and my son really would not be comfortable being the class snitch. I am not sure where to take this to now. I am thinking of a formal letter to the Head of Year and copying headteacher explaining that I am not happy with this solution.

I agree that this is totally unacceptable. It is not your ds's job to police the classroom.

I think you have to follow this up with a letter of some kind, as conversations either on the phone or in person can easily be denied or interpreted differently. As your ds likes this school I'd tread carefully and keep the letter friendly but firm. Perhaps you can say you were relieved to hear that senior staff were aware of the problem and then as Ionacat suggests concentrate on how this affects your son. Say that neither you nor he feel comfortable with the "secret spy" role and request that your ds be moved away from the children that distract him.

Sometimes teachers use keeping the whole class in, not because they don't know who is causing the trouble, but because they hope that peer pressure from the other children who are losing their break will get the disruptive children to conform. It sounds like this isn't working so I'd want to know what other strategies the teacher/school has planned to deal with this issue. Putting your already stressed ds in the firing line as class snitch should definitely not be on the agenda.

My DD1 is easily distracted but wants to work hard.

Our solution was for her to ask to change desks usually nearer the front and on the side seemed to help her a lot.

What OP describes was completely normal and usual when I was that age must have been crap schools I went to or much more normal at that age than people realise?.

At my DSs' school, they do LLD monitoring weeks when this is particularly focussed on (not that it shouldn't be all the time btw). What they do as part of these is a concentrated effort to identify and penalise the LLD behaviour that maybe wouldn't be enough to send someone from the class etc but is enough to catch the teachers eye. LLd slips are issued to each pupil and a note taken by the teacher, at the end of each day, any child with 2 or more LLD slips get a letter sent home and an invite to come into school. 3 or more over the week gets the same treatment - they usually do one of these weeks every term and seems to keep things down a bit.

Can you move him? Seriously it is likely to get worse in year 8 and 9 nit better.

not

Yes I have been looking at private schools. We are in a 11+ area so there are no other non grammar schools nearby except one that is in special measures. The problem is he is so happy socially at school and settled into school clubs etc that I would feel awful if I moved him to a school where he is not happy. I have written to HoY and will see what the say.

I think this teacher is not good enough. I would ask if the quality of teaching and classroom management is being monitored? If not, why not, given the complaints? Teachers can be mentored so they know what a good lesson looks like and if the teacher is ignoring disruption and children are not learning, the school should do something about it. That would not be telling your DS to be a spy! That is an inredibly lazy reaction and one that tells me the school is not really promoting the best teaching and learning.

Try and get an acknowledgment that there is a problem and what their proposals are for dealing with it. Try to get your DS moved to a different seat (although that might disrupt someone else -so tricky). The teacher could swap all the children around so it does not make it look like it is just your son who is complaining. It will be interesting to see what the H of Year says.

What is the academic outcome for the middle pathway (middle ability) dc at the school? Have you looked at the Gov. stats? They might show a trend of underachievement for middle ability dc (brought about by poor management of behaviour) in which case I would move him - or perhaps your ds is just unlucky in his year group in which case keep writing in until the school does something about it.

It does sound like the leadership team are not taking this seriously. I absolutely hate the idea that schools punish all children because of the behaviour of a few. Where, in any other walk of life, would that be acceptable? Should the whole of a football team be sent off just because one player has committed a foul? This style of behaviour management is lazy and useless. It builds up resentment amongst the well behaved children and creates even more problems.

OP - ask for the behaviour and sanctions policies at the school - it might even be on their web site. This will tell you how the school should be managing low level disruption and the school will, no doubt, intend that every child is given a fair opportunity to learn, so ask them how they intend to do this.

Unfortunately, there are a fair number of schools where the senior management does not support teachers appropriately when it comes to behaviour issues. They set up policies but then, if a teacher tries to use them, that teacher is targeted as not being sufficiently "engaging" enough to keep the children well behaved. They also insist that teachers carry out all detentions themselves, but teachers these days are already so overworked that it becomes too great a burden on them. Teachers end up giving up or taking easier but less effective options.

I agree Kesstrel, but all of what you say points to poor leadership. This is no doubt the problem in the OP's school. The option of keeping the whole class in does lead to resentment amongst the well behaved and will not help any teacher in the long run. I never understand why school leaders cannot see that???

Why do you think an independent school would be better OP? I've been to a couple and they're not always full of perfectly behaved children, they also have a fair number of kids mucking about, although the class sizes might help the teachers keep an eye out for trouble.

I definitely think the suggestion of putting your DS at the front would be worth a try before moving him altogether (unless he's really unhappy at his school of course).

Agree that they shouldn't be using him to 'spy' on his classmates though - that sends out all the wrong messages and he really shouldn't be put in that position.

I think this teacher is not good enough. I would ask if the quality of teaching and classroom management is being monitored? If not, why not, given the complaints? Teachers can be mentored so they know what a good lesson looks like and if the teacher is ignoring disruption and children are not learning, the school should do something about it

I bet that this teacher placed in front of well-behaved pupils would have no problem doing their job. I go to school primarily to teach. Unfortunately, I firstly have to deal with pupils making wrong behaviour choices and (very occasionally) poor parenting in order to get some classes settled and able to move on. It's very, very wearing.

I taught at a school like the one the op describes. Whole maths and science 'lessons' where the kids do no work at all. I doubt this happens in independent schools not because the children are perfect but because parents have the power of the pound.

Ingrained discipline problems, teachers always to blame . Well OFSTED didn't agree and that was years ago.