DS underacheiving wrt NC levels in SS - grrrrr

[StarlightMcKenzie]

But his language and deficit areas in social interaction have improved hugely as has is engagement and ability to learn in a group.

What to do.........

[Badvoc]

Star...sorry to hear this.
What area exactly is he behind in?
Or is it all areas?
In year 3 my ds was 2 years behind but now in year 6 is actually exceeding expected govt nc levels.
I have used many interventions for my ds - some with more success than others! :) - PM me if you want a chat x

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Thanks all.

Badvoc, thank you. I may PM. The thing is, I do know how to teach him. I do know how I could help him catch up. But what I don't know how to do, is magic up the time to do it.

He needs a LOT of work if his scores are accurate and the explanation reasonable. He leaves in his taxi at 7:30 every morning and returns at 4:10 and he is shattered. 2 days a week he does mainstream activities after school and at least one day his sister has a high maintenance play-date (she's the high maintenance when she has a visitor, not the visitor).

[StarlightMcKenzie]

But he's behind in all subjects. Literacy and numeracy being relative strengths but when I say relative I mean just scraping NC rather than P Levels.

[lougle]

Requirements for numeracy have also been uprated, Star. At DD1's last AR, she was just about a 1c for numeracy, but her teacher warned me that she is likely to 'slip back' to P levels this year. Not because she has regressed, but because to get a 1c the child will have to be able to do more.

[Badvoc]

Yes, that happened to my ds too. They shifted the goalposts in numeracy.
remind me, what year is he star? Year 2?
Wrt to the time thing...that's tricky. I home schooled ds for a year but I understand it's not what you or indeed he wants ATM (And tbh he didn't make much progress in that year)

[shoppingbagsundereyes]

Star, how many children are in his class? How many members of teaching staff are in there full time? I teach mainstream year 5. In my maths class most of the children are on or above expected levels. There are only 15 in the class. In theory I should be able to properly differentiate my lessons so that all 15 children are supported/ challenged to achieve their best. In practice I have so much marking, assessment and planning to do in my working week that I can only manage to group the 15 into 3 sub groups and differentiate that way. This certainly means that a number of children are not getting the best from my lessons.
In a special school presumably the ability range is massive. Not making excuses because I know in an ideal world teachers should be able to do their best for all children, it's just in practice when you are teaching a number of children with a range of ability it's really hard to get it right for everyone.
I would start by checking how they group children for lessons. Has he been put on a table for children with lower P or NC grades than you think he is capable of? Are there many children who are achieving higher levels? Is he top of the class and they are not sure how to push him?

[lougle]

I'm wondering if our concepts of special schools are wildly different here.

DD1 is taught in a class of 11 (the largest class in her school. The Head doesn't like classes of more than 10). There is the class teacher plus 3 LSAs (plus any volunteers sporadically in the week).

They do whole class activities such as art, but much of the time the class is split down. For instance, 5 children will go swimming (once per fortnight) with 3 children using the ICT suite and 2 children doing numeracy.

The range in the class in ability may be from P4-NC1A, but each child is set individual work for their next step. For instance,DD1 is still working on 1:1 correspondence with larger numbers, so a TA took her around the whole school, counting how many coats she could see. Another child may have numeracy as a skill spike and so their individual work would be tailored to their stage.

[shoppingbagsundereyes]

That sounds to me exactly now it should be Lougle. I don't know if that's the reality of all special schools just as it isn't the reality in all mainstream schools.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

shopping There are 7 in his class. He is 'streamed' for numeracy and literacy with an above year, so in those there are 5.

It appears the 5, are grouped into two, with him in the lower 'set' of 3.
Wrt to whether he is more capable than the two he is with, I don't know, but now that I think about it I would have assumed they are capable of more than they are achieving also.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Lougle Truly. I can see why you are so defensive or special schools. Yours sounds wonderful, and I'm almost tempted to move next door to you as it sounds like ds would be well catered for there even if he were capable of a university course.

[shoppingbagsundereyes]

Ok then there really is no excuse for him not being challenged academically. I think you could do with a meeting to discuss what their expectations are for him.
As a teacher and a parent of a child with some SEN I often find myself torn. I know how difficult it is to teach children individually when you are trying to teach a larger number. I know how back breaking the work load is for teachers. But I feel my son should be treated as an individual and support and challenged whenever needed. The two can't always run concurrently.
But with a class of 7 and presumably TA's too, your ds' teacher should be able to get him to work to his potential.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Yes. There is always a teacher and a TA in the classroom minimum, though the TA is new to the role this year.

[Badvoc]

I have issues with the whole idea of giving 1-1 attention to any child in a classroom setting, ms or ss.
I mean...feasibly, it's just not possible is it!?
I gave up tbh.
I "used" school for socialisation, peer group interaction etc.
The teaching I did myself.
My ds is proof it can work, star, so don't despair! :)

[lougle]

I think it's possible, and normal, Badvoc. Not for all the teaching hours of the day though. DD1's teacher timetables (I use the word loosely -I don't know how structured it is) 1:1 'focused activities' with each of the children in her class in the week. There are plenty of times where she doesn't get 1:1 and plenty of times where the activity she is doing hasn't be specifically tailored for her, though, I'm sure.

I think when the ratios are high (not 1:1 support, but high teacher:pupil ratio) and all the support staff are made aware of the next steps for each child (and contribute to the identification of them), then every activity can be optimised for each child.

Using DD1 as an example: They use Rainbow Road with her for her fine motor and gross motor skills. However, they can be making a collage of a tiger and the LSAs will be aware of what grip she needs to develop and will encourage her to use that skill in ripping the paper, etc.

It's such a fine balance with 'spikey' children. If you have a child (like DD1) whose innate mathematical ability is a relative strong point, but they struggle hugely to record their numerical processes, what do you focus on? Is there much point in trying to add high numbers if you can't consistently record your findings? When I say record, I mean write the number sentence in a logical format, rather than the physical skill of handwriting.

[lougle]

Then, of course, writing a number sentence in a logical format requires hugely sophisticated speech and language skills, which our children tend to lack, which is why children at special schools can sometimes score into level 3 in a subject such as science (knowledge based) while remaining on P Levels in other subjects.

[Badvoc]

I dont know...I have never seem any evidence of any of that at my sons school (Ms)
Your Dds SS sounds very good. How it should be.

[bochead]

lougle's school sounds like the holy grail tbh.

The time factor is why I'm home edding right now tbh.

DS is year 5, secondary is looming and we NEED to address some of those deficits that are holding him back. I found when he was at school that I could totally sympathise with star's time deficit issues.

The time factor to do everything yourself is a major one. I decided unilaterally that it is more important at this stage of the game to his whole life chances, that he can read fluently than endure assembly sitting cross legged in the middle of a row of peers (he hit this "target" by the end of last year/snark).

DS is deffo spikey. Maths whizz puts him at age 4.5 for one area, yet at 9.5 for other bits of his maths. Being at home means we can work at the areas where he is over 4 years behind without insulting his intelligence by allowing him to spend a bit of time on the areas where his brain does not stop play.

However I wouldn't have dared do this until his social skills had hit a certain point. He can and does make same age friends, can join in those mainstream leisure activities that interest him without needing a glue-on adult there etc. He's 9.

Our new LA is saying he won't get into a HFA unit as he doesn't have a "full" diagnosis (clinically borderline on one aspect of the triad). I now have to decide whether it'll be worth the battle for secondary (tribunal yada, yada) or to stay as we are. Getting to VIEW the unit is a bit like asking to see the Virgin Mary's ankles, so it's a tough one.

[Badvoc]

There is SO much you can do at home - as I am sure you are finding bochead - I really wish I had found some of the stuff I did earlier, but hey ho.
Ds came home with his assessment levels and targets for end of year 6...half of them are level 5s :)
Seemed utterly impossible just 18 months ago.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

You know what we did today?

We talked about the gunpowder plot. DS read a simply 4 paragraph 'story' to dd and then read out some questions for her to answer. Then we went on a train to Westminster and talked about why The Houses or Parliament were in London, and talked about other capitals.

We walked all around the outside looking at the architecture and considering where might be a good place to put a secret stash of gunpowder (yes I know), though I explained that most of the outside building was newer than the days of the plot and we looked at the bridges and spoke about whey there are so many across the Thames.

Then we went INTO the Houses of Parliament, going through loads of security where the children had their pictures taken and were given passes to wear, and we talked about why there might need to be so much security and they thought it was in case we had gunpowder in our pockets. We talked about how it was where the Politicians worked and some of the things they did.

We then had lunch in the Houses of Parliament Café and while we did so we watched Gove's debate on qualified teachers and I explained to the children that this is the politician who makes all of the rules about schools.

Then we went into the Great Hall and talked about how long ago 1000 years was and why and how the statues at the top had eroded.

Then we went to the Central Lobby and counted the sides of the walls, chandelier, windows etc. and spoke about how this is where you see the politicians on the news being interviewed often.

We then came home, got a takeaway Kebab, watched a couple of interviews in the Central Lobby on Youtube, and the kids wrote a list of 'rules' about schools that they would make if they were the politician in charge of them.

Tomorrow we are going to make a Big Ben clock and a Guy Fawkes hat, make Velcro timeline along the wall up the stairs to put all our births, the gunpowder plot and after some work on remembrance Sunday, WW2 and subsequent things we talk about, and then do some measuring of ingredients for Halloween biscuits as well as back to 10mins of handwriting practice, 10mins HFW fluency and 15mins reading.

We've been doing things like this all week and I'm loving it. No idea if I can keep it up. If I HEd I'd probably do a trip like that once a week/fortnight

The kids are upstairs now 'playing' being Prime Minister.

[Badvoc]

:)
Can I come next time star?

[Badvoc]

All of your post is why I loved HE btw.
Ds got to join a wildlife group, attend a falconry display, track deer, hold owls, went on a forest school, attended a nasa day at RAF cosford...all stuff he would never have experienced at school.
And I live in the middle of nowhere! London would have a much busier HE scene...

[Inclusionist]

I really think you should HE star because no school is ever going to be able to educate your DS like you can.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

We did this at half term, but had to chose a place with no kids because museums etc. would have been unbearable in the holidays and ds would not have taken anything in being too busy coping with the crowds and noise.

It was great. They have just worked together to make the Houses of Parliament out of building bricks though they were supposed to be putting on their pjs.

It's an interesting and colourful version but that isn't the point. Marbles represented people all around it. I'm very satisfied with my work and unbothered by the dire state of my house right now.

[Badvoc]

Oh! The being bale to go to places when they aren't crowded!
Book holidays whenever you want!

[StarlightMcKenzie]

'I really think you should HE star because no school is ever going to be able to educate your DS like you can'

Thanks Inclusionist, but isn't that really the case for all kids/parents? I mean however good a teacher is they just can't cater to that level for each child. But I don't think I'm being unrealistic in just not expecting my ds to fall behind simply because he isn't being HE.

Honestly. I can't get the kids to go to bed. DS is writing another list of rules he'd make if he ran the country (3 weeks ago he was a complete writing avoider) and dd has just made an improved version of her identity badge as she didn't think the picture of her was clear enough, so a self-portrait with a discussion of dates and barcodes followed.

Who knew Gove could be so inspirational?