Compulsory Intervention - is this really okay?

[EverySporkIsSacred]

Not sure if this should be in SN (or both topics) as DD is autistic (and suspect ADD), but here goes...
The short story is school have told her that after school intervention sessions are now mandatory and she will get a red card that will go "on her permanent record" (college will be told about it etc) if she doesn't attend. They run four days a week and another one day at lunchtime.
I feel this is going way over the top, putting immense pressure on the kids. Also DD is autistic and dyspraxic, she takes quite a bit longer than other kids to complete homework (which she's still being set and in one subject gets a red card if she doesn't complete), and comes home shattered from just the normal day.
There were 2 days in the last half term where I had to call into school and let them know she wouldn't be coming in as she basically had a breakdown and just hid in her room and cried. This seems to have been directly caused by the stress of having no time to herself as she'd been attending the after-school sessions, done homework and virtually nothing else for a week.
TLDR: can after school interventions really be mandatory (and should they)?

We run after school sessions and the year 11s are strongly encouraged to attend but not punished if they don't! I think 4 days a week is way over the top as well - the max one of ours would have is 2 depending on priority.

Plus with your DD's SEN- this should clearly be considered!

I work as a Secondary teacher and a lot of students in our school have intervention, however it's usually done during a lesson.

It isn't ideal that they're missing out on lesson time, but the intervention is more important than the content of the lesson usually. They need the intervention to access the lesson!

I don't know about making it mandatory, but I do agree 4 days after school is a little OTT. Poor thing is also missing out on a lunch time for something she doesn't want to do.

Can you speak to the school about rearranging the after school intervention so that it's during lesson time of a non-core subject? Or reduce the number of interventions a week?

What year is your DD in?

I’m a teacher and I left a school that tried to make this compulsory. I was appalled at the impact it had on children, particularly those with SEN. I’d recommend contacting the SENCO first and asking for their support, then potentially head of year just to say she’s not doing it.

Thank you all for your replies.

@jammmmm she's in year 11, and is finding some of the current lessons boring (revising things she remembers well) so targeted English during the school day would be great. I will ask them if they can do that (I suspect not though as the teacher will already be busy).
Possibly giving her homework that will help her improve her English rather than Maths and Sciences which she's already good at would good (I'm strategising before contacting the school now!).

They need to make a reasonable adjustment for her disability under the Equality Act 2010. My autistic child would not be attending.

Ah so her intervention is for English and it's being run by teachers themselves? Wow everyday for one subject is a lot. No wonder your DD is overwhelmed.

I was under the impression it was run by TAs or other staff like it is in our school, hence lesson times can be used.

Hope you and the school can figure something out that works for her!

@jammmmm sorry no, there are five different subjects. English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Geography. She got top (or close to) marks in the Sciences for her mocks and did okay in Geography, which is why I see English as the most important of the five. Also she wants to possibly continue with Science into college.
And yes, it's the regular teachers, the poor sods. I can't imagine they're any less stressed tbh.

So is it after school revision which is for all students or targeted intervention for your DD which is 1:1 with the teacher?

Definitely not 1:1, the students who they think would benefit are "invited", so probably small ish groups. She was pretty annoyed when she tried going to them all and apart from English they were going over things she already remembered, so were basically a waste of time.

So this is what happened:
When the relevant person eventually rang me back, they told me that DD shouldn't worry about the red card but could I please let them know which interventions she would be attending. I had explained about still having homework etc (which will still take longer than most) and that the revision was not addressing the issues she has (ie. Not tailored to what she doesn't know, just general "everyone does this topic"). It's like talking to a brick wall 😫
But at least she won't be actively punished for not going so that's a win, I think!?

It's good that she won't be punished for not going! Sounds like a win for sure.

Is there any chance that DD can find out about the topics that will be gone over beforehand?

We have a rota that shows the students which topics will be covered each half term, so students can plan ahead which sessions they will be attending.

DD can then prioritise the different subjects each week based on her needs.

@jammmmm I was going to ask that in the email tomorrow, also going to ask if she can either go to a different group's English revision or just be set some catch up targeted at just her. She thinks she did badly in her English Language mock this morning, and it's the only subject she's doing badly at that she really needs.