parents of primary chn whose child goes out of class for support lesson.

[purpleplanet]

Could you please let me know what happens regarding class work when your child goes out of class for their support lesson. Is your child expected to cover the class work that they have missed while out of the lesson in their own time?
(I don't mean homework missed BTW - just class work)

I'm not too sure yet really purpleplanet. DS has just started this this year - is pulled out twice a week for OT work. We have parent's evening in 2 weeks so I will be asking then.

Thanks for answering buda

Hi, my ds is pulled out of class for specific support twice a week aswell. He generally does not have to cover the work hte other children are doing. Because he will probably get the same stuff on another day anyway. It is not a problem at the moment. He has just started this, in year 1. I am not happy about it though, and think that he should be kept with the other children. He already feels a bit anxious about being different. I am seeing how it goes for this term.

My ds was pulled out of class twice a week for handwriting exercises in Y2. (he is lefthanded and was inflexible through his wrist so they did lots of loops adn curls etc) This was generally done during art/free time etc.
In Y3 adn Y4 he was pulled out of class for literacy support. This would take place during the normal literacy lesson. He did not have to make up the class work. Afaik the literacy support was similar to the class work just in more detail.
As far as I can tell this missing of class time has not held him back as now in Y5 he has moved into middle literacy adn is predicted a 5 in his Y6 SATS. So I think the teacher/TA pick the time for extra help well adn ensure they don't miss anything vital

Thanks for answering. I had originally posted this on the education board and got replies like 'Do you want him to learn or not?' from the mumsnet teaching community.

We have just found out DS needs special help for Literacy. But the teacher did not tell us at parents evening ,yesterday after school she called a group of 5 parents together and told us 'Your children are not meeting the targets, and need extra help'. I am so upset at how she has handled this and am having a meeting with head Monday. Surely this should have been handled on a one to one basis??? I knew he is struggling but was told he had improved. I don't think she knows what she is doing and I want to complain about the way she has handled this.
And I suspect this will eat into his free play time as well when these sessions begin. And I am dreading the extra homework ; hard enough getting him to do the current stuff.

freckly - of course it should have been dealt with on an individual basis. I really dont think this should eat into your son's "free time", if he and certain other children need additional literacy help, it should be within the class's literacy time. You also shouldn't get extra homework, there are government set amounts for homework at any particular age.
In general, I would say it depends on the school how noticeable if a child is pulled out of class. At my daughter's primary, there were different children taken out for all sorts of reasons. Also, bear in mind that many children of this age have weekly music lessons, so leaving the classroom for a while is less noticeable than you might think.

Purple planet - when children in my class receive additional support, it tends to happen during the related lesson.

Ie. if they need additional support with literacy, and it's something that needs to be done in a quiet place, free from distrations, then it will happen during the literacy lesson. I never expect a child to then cover the work being done in class. What they are doing is a replacement.

How often is your dc receiving support?

I'm not sure what your angle on this is. Are you saying that you would expect your dc to have a chance to catch up with the missed work, or that your dc's school is expecting your dc to cover the work either at home, or during another lesson.

I can't see either of those working to be honest. If your dc has missed something in the lesson, then it would be unreasonable to expect an adult to spend more time one to one out of the classroom re-teaching it. Most things in the curriculum are re-visted several times over the course of a year, if not term. If it was that important, then your dc should not have been taken out during that session.

If you are being asked to cover it at home, then that is unreasonable too. As I said, almost everything in the curriculum is re-visted.

Frecklyspeckly - that sounds very badly handled by the teacher. I would be very surprised if any additional support ate into his free time (I presume you mean playtimes or lunchtimes). There may also not be any extra homework.

Additional literacy interventions should be closely targetted and assessed over a limited timeframe in order to assess their effect on the child's progress and skills. Therefore, unless your dc has a statement, you may find that the additional support happens for only half a term, for a maximum of half an hour a day (very often much less), so the impact in terms of literacy development should be greater than the impact of missing parts of other lessons due to the small group/individual support and tasks specifically targetted at your child's needs.

Sorry, I waffled on. No idea if any of it helps!

Just asked DS2 who used to get pulled out for SALT sessions, and he just missed the class work ( that I never really considered this at the time)

I know that children who are being pulled out for other reasons (either because they need additional help/one on one or for G&T)are taken out of the relevant lessons - so literacy for literacy etc

Gosh it's a while since I started this thread! I posted in SEN as I had originally posted in education and got mainly shirty replies along the lines of 'Do you want him to learn or not?' His teacher has stopped sending the missed classwork home with him anyway, so all's well that ends well!

Glad it was all sorted purpleplanet.

I didn't notice the date at the start of the thread!