Missing core subjects for extra curricula stuff?

[longdiling]

Is this normal? Dd in year 7 has missed maths and English for choir practice. Maths in particular she says she has missed 'lots' of but this could be hyperbole. I'm particularly worried about the maths as I've told them I'm concerned she seems to struggle with it and they've agreed to give her extra help. Instead she's actually missing lessons. Allegedly she was told to just 'copy' anything missed from her friends?

Oh gosh, I'm sorry I just realised I've posted this in SEN instead of secondary education, I very no idea how! I'll report my post now and get it moved.

We'll move this for you now Longdiling.

I wouldn't be happy. Ask her to clarify how practices are organised and go from there. If she really does keep missing maths, she might need to drop choir.

DD, also y7, has missed some English for 'social skills' intervention. I'm not overly pleased with that, but it will only be 3 lessons missed + 3 of something else.

Ones of the reasons my DDs haven't done an instrument at school is that neither of them are academic enough to cope with missing lessons and catching them up regularly.

Depends how often . It seems unlikely to be every week, possibly if there is a concert coming up. Occasionally maybe. Music lessons are normally rotaed to vary what lesson or break is missed. Yes she would be expected to copy up the lesson and find out any homework set.

Thanks for moving it so quickly Kate! Clarity isn't my dd's strong point I have to say. I have tried to get her to specify how many lessons she's missed but she can't tell me. Normal practice is apparently just lunch time but they've had a couple of concerts so they've had extra practice. Fine if they miss one lesson a term or something I guess but not if it's excessive.

See, the copy up the lesson thing. Rightly or wrongly, I don't think she would be able to do that and work on the maths independently. She really struggles with it. Think I'll just ask the school for some clarification. Thanks both

oh, dc miss lots of lessons. Sports events (including whole day events), music lessons twice a week, choir practice for Xmas. But I don't mind. Makes school more interesting. I do tell them to check with friends, or teachers if necessary. Teachers are generally quite approachable.

Dc1 however now in GCSE year so have advised him to reduce the extracurricular activities, especially the whole day events.

But surely if she misses the choir practises, she will be at a disadvantage for the choir concert which I would image to be imminent. There is more to school life than maths and english.

What do you do if she is ill and misses a maths lesson?

At this time of year lots of kids miss lessons for music rehearsals for various concerts. The deal is that they are allowed to miss the lesson on the understanding that they will catch up the work they miss by copying from a friend etc. TBH I don't think many kids bother, but if you were to ask for the teacher to help her catch up work missed because of choir, the response would be to put her back in lessons and for her to miss the concert instead.

Yes ... its a pita. My dd misses at least 30 lessons in the next two weeks for Christmas concert rehersals. Including most her end of term assessments. They are told that they can't miss rehersals and teachers aren't allowed to keep them in class. It's an outstanding state comp.

I am a maths teacher in a secondary school and constantly have pupils missing lessons for choir practice and various music lessons. They are supposed to catch up the work but never do. We are not allowed to keep them out of rehearsals as good concerts are important for prospective parents as it gives them a positive view of the school! It drives me crazy as we are then expected to get decent maths grades.

i'm sure there's more benefit to pupils and the school than just to impress prospective parents!

if it's the odd day / lesson for rehearsals for a specific concert at the end of term i would let it go. if it's a regular thing i'd be pulling her out of it.

My DD's school always stresses about being a well rounded pupil, so if that's what they want they need to allow them to explore things. Over the years who'll find they'll be taken out of lessons for trips abroad, geography/history day trips which are relevant to their GCSEs, music things which are compulsory because if taking GCSE music they need to be able to play an instrument/sing which requires lessons.

One thing DD's school do insist on is doing all homework, otherwise, detention and catching up/checking up what they've missed in lessons. DD has always asked her friends and got them to copy anything new to try and get an understanding before the next lesson. She has done the same for her friends. Maybe others don't, but that on them - the child gets as much or little out of school as they want themselves.

Yes it's completely normal. Whether it's ok for your DD is an individual call.

It's been our school musical this week. DD (orchestra) is in sixth form, so could choose some lessons to miss, apart from the three compulsory matinees. KS3 participants have missed an entire week.

My DC do get notes and make sure they catch up. DS2 has had quite a lot of authorised absence for music related activities and he knows what the deal is.