H is for Harry

[hibbledibble]

I highly recommend watching this documentary film which is available currently on Netflix.

It's about a boy with SEN, including illiteracy, and his experience in a mainstream school over two years.

It brought tears to my eyes. It was great to see how much progress he made in small group teaching, but sad that his difficulties in class meant him eventually being excluded from the school, and there was not much information given as to what happened to him following this.

It's heartbreaking that this boy could have done really well with ongoing intense intervention, but that the barrier to this is funding. It seemed at the end that the school gave up on him, as he just spent time in the nursery.

I would be curious to hear others views.

I've just watched it.
It's very sad he couldn't be allowed to stay in a small class and learn at his own pace.
He was obviously making fantastic progress but he was put back in the main class too soon.
It was clearly a huge emotional strain on him to sit in an environment where he couldn't do what was asked of him, day in and day out.
They failed him really badly and all that aspirational flim flam was just salt in the wounds.
When I watch that film I see what the future might have been for my DS if I hadn't pulled him out to home Ed him.

It's difficult as I understand there likely wasn't the funding for indefinite small classroom learning, however the documentary made the decision seem very abrupt. Perhaps that was just the editing though.

It's sad as I don't think it's likely that he got a school placement which suited him following the exclusion.

When I watched the film I doubted Harry actually had learning difficulties because of the very quick progress he seemed to make in the small class.

I thought it was more likely that he had failed to understand the fundamentals early on and, perhaps because his primary school wasn't great, noone had gone back back and revised it with him.

But then I found fascinating review on youtube.
The lady seems to be able to diagnose him with all sorts based on what we see in the film. I've no idea whether theres anything in it or not. But interesting non the less.

It's difficult as I understand there likely wasn't the funding for indefinite small classroom learning

So tragic the funding wasn't there. It seems so little to ask.

I also thought it was a shame how focused the entire school was on getting Harry through his GCSE's. They were behaving as though anything short of GCSE level work was worthless. I think both Harry and his Dad would have been happy with basic functional literacy.

As it was Harry had stopped using what literacy he had aquired because he was so demoralised at being asked to do work he wasn't capable of.

dashoflime thank you, that was really interesting. I was wondering about what evidence backs up his claims though.

The programme and the discussions it provokes are very interesting. It's sad that so many poor children and those with SEN are failed by the education system.