Am I right to be furious with school?

[Anomaly]

DS1 is currently in Year 3. He appears bright, articulate, etc. He just doesn't concentrate for very long and has issues writing anything down. So ask him to spell lots of words and he can but ask him to write a sentence including the word and he won't. If you were to read his written work you would assume he couldn't spell.

He did very well in spelling tests last year and moved from group 1 to group 4. At the start of year 3 all the spellings in his spelling book were ones he'd covered in Year 3- he called them baby spellings. So we asked for him to be moved up a group so he does't feel too put off - keeping him motivated while we support him is our number one priority at the moment.

We were supposed to be given his new spelling book last week and it never materialised - I collect him on a Friday and like every Friday had to send him back in for his homework / book bag / coat / water bottle because he cannot organise himself. I forgot to ask about the spelling book so we didn't practice spellings this weekend. I now feel dreadful because his spelling test was today and he got 0. The words were things like high and sigh and he spelt them with the wrong 'i' sound so he wrote hie and fie. According to DS his literacy teacher then wrote his score on a sticker and had him stick it to his jumper! Lots of the kids laughed at him. DS was really distressed and cried a lot at school so much his class teacher actually phoned DH to let us know and to check there wasn't a problem at home causing him to cry! He's come home telling us he's stupid and an idiot! Apparently to build his confidence up he's being moved back down a group.

I am so cross with the school. I feel like they're just thinking 'see we're right he can't do those spellings'. I know if we'd gone over them just once at the weekend he would have managed all of them. I'm so cross about the idea that they made him wear a sticker with his score that I almost don't believe him but he doesn't tend to lie. I want to scream at his literacy teacher she's a parent too can she not see the damage doing what she did could cause?

I don't know where to start. I have to speak to school or write a letter but the mood I'm in I will either scream at someone or cry.

I feel your pain. I would probably phone or email the teacher and say you are sorry but having forgotten his book, you didn't practise the spellings so it isn't your ds fault that he did badly. I would also say that you are wondering whether you have got the wrong info but ds seems to think he has been moved down a group and also was upset that he had his low score on his jumper. I would mention this in a kind of he must have misunderstood kind of way!

Also talk to them maybe about helping with his organisation and making sure he has his homework with him at the end of the day?

I agree about organisation ... I think this might be a bigger problem tbh
I would definitely ask them for support with that
Spellings ... I can see both sides re groups tbh ( apart from them giving him a 0 sticker obviously -That is horrible what was the teacher thinking !)
If he just revises for test but doesn't apply the right spellings elsewhere then I would say a lower group might be better tbh..they need to explain that too... That he needs to consistently spell a word correctly.
I say this a mother of a lazy speller who could spell for revised tests at primary ( parroted back)...but hated writing and couldn't transfer skills.
He is now 17 and at college .The lack of ability to transfer skills and his poor organisational skills were much more of an issue in the long run. I wish these had been tacked earlier.
He is still apalling at spelling when writing.. But he uses a laptop and spell check.

Hmm, my DS is Y2 and I have this concern at the moment. He can remember his spellings but his written work is not so good.

I suppose really that it's going to be down to us to get that up to scratch and to encourage them to give it a try. My DS writes lots and lots down and totally ignores "correct" spellings and insists that his words say what he wants them to.

I find that the biggest problem that I have is finding time to fit everything in.

At the moment, for spellings, I copy his spellings onto a piece of paper and keep it in my coat pocket - then, whenever we're out (on the way to and from school, walking around the park etc) I can say, "hey, DS, how do you spell "merry"?" and he can tell me the letters to use.

Last week he got 6/6 after his 0/0 the previous week when I'd forgotten to test him at home. I'm hoping for another 6/6 this Friday.

His reading and speaking is great - lots of lovely words and his vocabulary is brilliant - it's just his sentence writing.

Well I wrote a letter and the head phoned. They will stop putting stickers on children who get less than 4 correct - so the teacher was following the schools usual practice!

I'm a little reassured by the heads comments but i will not forget his literacy teacher's inability to deal with him sensitively especially as it's not the first time she's been like this with him.

I thought I'd update this again. DS got 8 out of 8 this week on his spellings! I'm not surprised as they were a doddle but so pleased for him given last weeks debacle.

Brilliant, well done Anomaly's ds!

The more i think about it, the more astonished I am that any school ever thought the sticker thing could be appropriate. It's absolutely blatant discrimination against children with dyslexia and other learning difficulties and they risked ending up in front of the tribunal and having an adverse disability discrimination finding on their record.

Putting stickers on children who don't attain a certain level is blatant discrimination. That your school ever did that is a disgrace and I would actually recommend bringing it up with the governors. It indicates a basic lack of understanding in what motivates and assists children's learning and happiness, and potentially shows some sort of desire to punish or show up underachievers, which is just not appropriate.

Putting stickers on children with low scores is the equivalent to the long gone dunce hat! What an awful thing to do.