What do you want from teachers?

[CuckooCuckooClock]

I'm a secondary teacher and after reading some of the recent threads about autism in mainstream I have been thinking more about some of my students and wondering how I can improve my support for them.

My school is a regular comp and I'm a regular classroom teacher so I have very little proper training in any SEN but have plenty of kids who need extra help for a variety of reasons, not just ASD, but I don't know how best to help them most of the time.

Would you appreciate a teacher who contacted you directly to ask for advice with your dc with SEN? Or would that just be another annoyance for you to deal with?

For instance, say a student has ASD and suffers from anxiety, is perfectly capable academically of getting a good GCSEs grade but is very distracted and difficult to engage. I don't know whether to push the student to get the best grade they can or to just help them with the social side, knowing that they probably won't get a very good grade but will at least have a better experience of school. I'd like to ask the parents what they would prefer me to focus on. No grade is worth suffering mental health problems for (for anyone IMO) but I also don't want to let them down if they need to be pushed and can handle it.

I hope this makes sense. Most of my colleagues are not very inclusive so I won't get anything useful from them. Thanks for reading.

As a parent of an autistic girl who has just started secondary school, I would be absolutely delighted if any teacher approached me about how best to support my child. DD's level's of anxiety fluctuate depending on life in general, the subject, how she is managing socially etc. Whether or not she should be 'pushed' to get a good grade would very much depend on her current mental health, how the pushing was done, and by who - getting it wrong could be disastrous! It would be amazing to actually have a conversation with a teacher about the approach to take, and much appreciated, whatever the outcome.

I'd love a teacher to contact me directly & dream of someone taking an interest in my able, but challenging child, I resisted getting a Dx because I worried my HFA child would be labelled/written off academically, but I think where we live he'd be written off with or without a dx. The authority we live in, the location, HFA and logistics, means I have no choice this is the card we've been dealt. I'm waiting for my son to finish academy & hope he'll have better success at college. So we're in limbo at the moment.

Communication! Please engage me as a parent. I know there is no magic wand and I understand my child's difficulties. I want you to believe what I tell you and not pass me off as neurotic. I want to trust you. If you say you'll do something it won't be a lie to fob me off! I want us to be a team and if you have a bad day then tell me, I'm not going to blame you, but if I don't know I can't help you. Communication. Communication. Communication.