Children with severe learning delays and being made to learn a foreign language.

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DS is nearly 12. He is autistic snd has severe learning delays - around 4 years behind. Currently in mainstream but probably going to start the process to move him to a specialist school.

he is in year 7. The school aren't overly supportive in general.

he has French every day this week and it's causing him so much anxiety. He has it every day one week and not at all the next. We see a massive increase un his anxiety and challenging behaviour this week.

should a child so far behind academically he made to learn a foreign language?

I have suggested that he drops French. Ever if he just went to the library or a computer room.

senco said she'd look into it but didn't do anything.

when I was at school children with learning needs did not learn a language!

There shouldn’t be a blanket rule either way. For some it will be appropriate, for others it won’t be.

If you haven’t heard back from the SENCO chase them up. I’d the need to be withdrawn in DS’s EHCP?

Oh yeah absolutely. If he wanted to do it and enjoyed it then fine. I meant in DS's situation it's not appropriate when it's causing his anxiety to rocket.

I've asked her before and she said she'd look into it but never got back to me. She is pants!

You need to chase the SENCO up.

she appears to me avoiding me countless emails and phone calls. Even in the school recently she blanked me! She seems to be a 'my way or no way' type of person. After a month of ds being in the school she came across like she knew our son better than us when in a meeting about him.

this is new and surreal to me because I couldn't fault my sons primary at all. We had a good relationship and communication with them working together for the best of DS.

this one is totally different.

Escalate to the SLT then - either the member of SLT is responsible for SEN or the HT. You have keep chasing, unfortunately.

Is it studying French that is the problem or is it something else about the lesson? E.g. the teacher has poor behaviour management so the class is loud and chaotic or is it not wanting to have to speak French but would be ok learning some vocabulary if it was written down.

if you can pin point an issue it can make it easier to solve.

students wouldn’t be allowed unsupervised in library or computer room. But I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a support base for SEN in school.