your views/thoughts on this.

[hoxtonbabe]

Does your DC's school have such a policy as below? I'm not going to highlight the obvious concerns with the wording of this, but would be interested to know if others with children with SEN have had to deal with such "interesting" policies:

Any pupil who finds it difficult, for whatever reason, to conform to the School’s homework expectations,
in terms of either organisation or content, will be placed on an Individual Work Plan. This entails the
assignation of a Learning Mentor with whom there will be meetings twice per week for the pupil in
question, as well as compulsory attendance at Homework
Support in the Learning Support Unit for an
hour after school from Mondays to Thursdays.
If a pupil is placed in detention (excluding Friday and
Saturday detentions) during the period of his Individual Work Plan, the detention will take place at
lunchtime in order to ensure attendance at Homework Support; should a pupil fail to attend either
Homework Support or a meeting with his Learning Mentor without good reason, a Saturday detention will
be issued.

OMG !! They are clearly bonkers and havent got anything better to do on a Saturday!

Is this an independent school ??

Nope mainstream, sadly.

Has this school just become an Academy, by any chance?

You know what, i am very obsessive about homework (I'm one of those parents that think there should be plenty), and even I think this is ludicrous. I know a number of children with SNs who simply would be in detention every single week. The school had better be putting some truly exceptional classroom support into place to support every child with SNs, or there is no way my child would be attending Saturday detentions.

Oh dear

The worst thing is that if it has become "School Policy" you have very little chance of getting it changed, IME.

Absolute madness

What specialist expertise does the school have available on Saturdays that is unable to help Mon-Fri?

ps What good is a learning mentor for ASD/dyspraxia etc, etc? Wouldn't the time be better spent with a face to face 1:1 session with a qualified teacher/SALT/OT for kids who are struggling?

That's madness!

All of that 'for whatever reason'?

However, I do see a way out for children with SEN (not by design though I don't think) and that is the 'homework expectations'. The 'expectations' should be according to individual need.

Wow. Actually I would quite like that for ds (although not 4 days a week! and only if transport could be organised - ds attends a sn secondary school) He often has HW that is frankly too hard for him (not differentiated from his more able peers) and it might be the best way for schools to get the feedback on this if they had to support their struggling pupils. However I doubt a learning mentor would have the patience a parent has to find to support their sn dc. I can see that it might be a good idea for some students who need the routine and support - but there will be many for whom this is over the top.

Any pupil who finds it difficult, for whatever reason, to conform

That's ok then. Your dc finds it impossible (not 'difficult') to 'conform' because of his disabilities. 'Expectations' about 'organisation or content' will need to be modified. And failure to do so would be a 'good reason' for not going to any mentor / homework club sessions that are unhelpful.

Equalities act, reasonable adjustments, yadda yadda

Act sweet. Tell them you're really concerned they're seriously at risk of being in breach of human rights legislation and you'd like to help them rewrite their policy so it's compliant.

Though if HW club was good, it might be a nice way of ensuring any homework arguments are between him & school, on their premises, and nothing to do with you. Plus, the bright side of lunchtime detentions is that they are one way of making sure school supervise a more fragile dc during the dreadful hour-long scrum of unstructured hungry rowdiness

DS's school, which is a state grammar school, has a similar policy of issuing detentions (known as "supervised homeworks") after school during the week or on a Saturday if homework is handed in late or is completed unsatisfactorily.

DS got loads of these detentions in Y7 because he couldn't remember to hand the homework in or he had misunderstood the instructions. Now his IEP basically says the homework policy doesn't apply to him. No teacher can put him in a supervised homework without checking with his Head of Year first. The Head of Year understands his problems with organisation; difficulty following instructions; very literal interpretation of things etc and does not put him in supervised homeworks if he has tried his best.

DS does not have an official dx yet, but behaves like he has Aspergers & the school is treating him as such.

Somewhat irrelevant, I know, but I'm not too impressed by the school's English standards. Shouldn't that be "assignment" of a learning mentor, not "assignation"?

The words reasonable and adjustment spring to mind
If a child is finding it difficult to conform what assistance are they receiving to enable them to access and complete this homework?

It may depend on disability i.e ds (ASD) was given some homework where he had to pretend he was a woman and write from her perspective . He simply could not do this so a detention would have been considered unreasonable. School did have the cheek to attempt to punish him before I politely put them straight.

If a child cannot comply because of a disability then they should not be punished - some schools do have unfair policies though which may be considered discriminatory if challenged.

Ok...now this is where the problem starts which a few have picked up on. I already have this in hand and gone way beyond complaint with school now...

This can fly with a child that doesn't have an additional needs, but if a child has a disability and can't " conform" to the schools expectations then forcing the child ( remember this is compulsory) to attend this is unreasonable. Giving the child the option is better.

As far as I am aware a school can not keep children behind after school ( compulsory) unless it is for punitive measures this lot are claiming it is help but how can it be helpful when it is being put across as a punishment/detention? Children are not stupid, when they hear detention how is this helpful to then or allow them to grow confidence when no matter how hard they try they will essentially be punished?!?

As it has already been picked up, if this is for specific support then that would be better, but when it's just simply a means to an end so the schools scores are not dented then that child could be going to said sessions and still be just as clueless.

Who is to say the parent can't do just as good or even better than the teacher/ mentor, remember we understand our children so our methods may be more effective in the long term for the child

Alwaysnamechanging hit the nail on the head, ultimately what are you doing for the child first to address their difficulties in the first place.

Lol@ nenny and the grammar comment.

Pencil: they have another policy for that too and that is under their behaviour rules.

Bochead: the Saturday is for if the pupil does not show up midweek, so failure to attend results in the Saturday.

Just because it's in their policy does not make it legal. the Dept for education, say nothing about being able to keep children after school because they do not understand the work...not doing the work maybe as that would be a rule break in most schools and that's depending on the child and their needs, but for not understanding, there is no such legal right the school has as that is not a rule break or behaviour issue.