Ladies & Gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts ...

Alisonpennypincher

BB, sorry to hear that, A couple of thoughts that came to mind (My DS is a bit younger than yours) Do you think he is capable of the level of work (are they not pushing him enough, or even pushing him too much)? Is he comfortable with his teacher?

Please forgive me if i'm overstepping the mark at all, i just didn't want to read and run! The reason i ask the above, is that this year after my son moving into year one, i have realised that his teacher last year although very capable, didn't "get" my son, and as such his work suffered to a degree. This year he is flying, his confidence is soaring and he is really a different boy.

I'm sure he knows you are proud of him really, maybe half term will give you more chance to chat to him about it again.

Hugs

dangers

I think I would be questioning the teacher as to why I hadn't been notified before about his attitude to work (sorry if I offend you Benben, don't mean to). I went in at the very beginning of term and raised my concerns about my ds and said that if there were any issues then I would rather be told at the time so that I could deal with it. As your ds has a reward chart at school, surely they should have said something to you before now?

benbenandme

No offence taken! Thank you for your comments, I have been aware of ongoing issues with his behaviour and motivation at school ever since he started in reception, but sine September I've seen huge improvements in his writing at home and therefore was expecting to hear similar from school :cool: He didn't mention it at all, and when I said about it he didn't really comment, I got the impression that ds rarely writes anything at school and therefore he didn't have much to judge him on

Don't get me wrong, he's a great teacher and I'm really happy that ds has him, he's the one teacher in the school that all parents want their kids to get, but I guess I was hoping that for once they'd discuss his work rather than behaviour ... maybe next time

Ds often tells me he doesn't want to go to school, he finds it boring, he doesn't want to learn etc. I don't think he's bored per se, just its not really his thing He has struggled for so long with his writing and I think it has turned him off of school. We talked about it tonight and have agreed that we will now introduce a 10 minute task time into our evenings; we already do a 10 minute special time each day, where ds can choose whatever he wants us to do (play trains, play schools etc), and we do it uninterrupted (if the phone rings it gets ignored), for 10 minutes. Now we're adding a 10 minute task time where I will suddenly give him a task to do (eg. a wordsearch or ask him to write a story about cats etc), and give him 10 minutes to complete it. Its basically to encourage him to settle to a task straight away (but with a bit of handwriting practice thrown in ). We'll see how it goes.

I think I was just disappointed as ds loves this teacher to bits and I hoped he would be trying to please him in class, but no :cool: I also thought it would have been nice if he could have found something nice to say about him ... Ds has an IEP (Individual Learning Plan) and one of his targets is to "have fewer than 5 aggressive incidents at playtime in a week" :eek: :eek: I said I wasn;t aware he was having 5 aggressive incidents at playtime in a week!! Since September I have only been made aware of 2 incidents, one was when he dragged a kids coat on the floor in the playground, the other was when he and two other boys stuck their finger through the zip of their trousers pretending it was their willies .... hardly aggressive stuff!

Aagh, think I need a drink ....

benbenandme

Just been downstairs to speak to the guys drilling and they reckon they'll be doing it til at least 11.30 pm :eek: I've phoned Wessex Water to complain and they said they weren't aware of any works they wee doing but had had two other complaints so will look into it and call me back :mad: Just want to get to sleep but theres absolutely no chance of that happening before midnight, pants, pants, pants! :cool:

benbenandme

Evening all, half-term is here at last :j I'm still quite upset about parents evening last night, I think I will arrange another appointment after half-term when I've calmed down about it all and see him again then. Ds is at mums tonight but I've spoken to him and it sounds as if he had a much better day today.

He's staying there for a sleepover tonight and I'm getting all the housework up to date and packing for our trip to Devon in the morning. I'm really looking forward to it, although not so much looking forward to the driving :cool:

I am looking forward to a chilled evening tonight, I want a bath (preferably not too cold), pack our stuff, tidy and clean through, write down the route etc, and have an early (pneumatic drill free) night

benbenandme

Bags are packed, bath is done (and it was fairly hot!!), the place is tidy although I haven't hoovered as its a bit late now (people downstairs), but at least thats all that needs doing when we get home. Ds is charging, route is written down, just need to get the washing out the machine, put the dishwasher on, then get into bed

dangers

Had the IEP already been written? Why were you not involved in it? Or was it a case that they had written it and just wanted you to sign it? (Sorry for so many questions)

Hope you have a great time in Devon. If you can get there, and I know it's a little way away from where you are staying, then your ds may be interested in the funicular railway between Lynton & Lynmouth. Ok it's not a train, but it's interesting nevertheless.

benbenandme

The IEP had already been typed up, all the previous ones always have been too, they just present you with them at parents evening and then they're never mentioned again, you just get given a new one at the next parents evening, they never seem to review them, they just tend to rollover the same targets, although this time they are all completely different to ones we've had before. His two aims on it are behaviour and fine motor skills, and all 3 targets are for behaviour. I am going to ask for a meeting with the senco after half-term and see whats going on as I'm not very happy about it.

dangers

I don't blame you for wanting to speak to the Senco. Are the school aware that you work within education and that you know a lot more than some parents when it comes to these things? I am so cross for you, I had some similar issues with an IEP being written for my son a couple of years ago; the IEP I had to sign was all to do with literacy issues though.

benbenandme

Yep, they know whereI work, tbh, the IEP's always seem a waste of time to me, but I do want a meeting and more regular reviews of ds progress, I see too many kids who've just sauntered through the system and their needs have never really been addressed and I don't want that to happen to my ds

I'm going to have a blitz on writing this week with him too, we'll get the Christmas cards done and write to santa etc, anything to help him keep practising