kiwik Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 It is probably silly. I got a note today asking for feedback on changes to my son's writing/reading/language since being part of the writing focus group. Not unreasonable except, 1/ I didn't know he was in a writing focus group. 2/ He didn't know he was in a writing focus group. 3/ He had good vocabulary and reading - writing is his only week point. 4/ Any change I may have noticed is more likely to be due to afterschooling EiW. 5/ A lot of the problems are caused by stupid expectations. At the moment they are writing a reasearch report completed with tables, graphs, pictures and internet links. He is 7 years and 3 months old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Wow. No, getting irritated at that note is not silly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted August 22, 2014 Author Share Posted August 22, 2014 Been thinking. Last term i went to a meeting with other parents of kids who were struggling with writing. I do know they were going to do some extra work at some point but that was the last i heard of it. I was given the impression we would be kept informed and invited to writing workshops at school. I assumed it hadn't yet. I guess it has finished and ds didn't notice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsabelC Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Well I have no idea about other schools in other locations, but from my limited experience with school it appears that: (1) You will probably not be told as much as you want to know unless you jump up and down and insist on being kept up to date. (When my most 'challenging' child was at school, we had to formally request regular meetings with his teacher and the assistant principal.) (2) Your child will probably be subjected to an assembly line style procedure according to some arbitrary policy that reads "If child does x, then do y to her/him" unless you insist that your child's individual requirements be met. (My daughter was made to color in about 100 sheets informing her that C is for cat etc, even though the school was well aware that she could read novels.) In summary, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. If you don't take the initiative and demand (nicely, of course) whatever you and your child need, you might be lucky, but there's no guarantee it's going to happen. In your situation, I would consider writing a letter back outlining all your points from your original post and requesting a meeting to discuss your son's progress and their expectations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted August 22, 2014 Author Share Posted August 22, 2014 I will talk to his teacher on Monday (it is Friday evening here). He has a long term reliever this term and she seems a bit vague not to mention very hard to find. I would not be that surprised if they did most of the stuff on the day is at a gifted programme at another school - they do all the extension classes and most of the field trips that day. It is starting to be a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 I got a survey for my kids' remedial assistance. I threw it in the garbage. It was kinder than saying "possibly things are worse since you got involved." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted August 22, 2014 Author Share Posted August 22, 2014 I filled it in and then threw it in the rubbish. I just want to be provided with information about what is happening while my child is at school. They are going a show at the moment. They never ran the songs past us and a lot of them are quite frankly not appropriate. Some of them have been changed because parents complained but not until after the kids were taught the songs and went home and sang them to their parents. OK vent over. Thanks for listening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneStepAtATime Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 I filled it in and then threw it in the rubbish. I just want to be provided with information about what is happening while my child is at school. They are going a show at the moment. They never ran the songs past us and a lot of them are quite frankly not appropriate. Some of them have been changed because parents complained but not until after the kids were taught the songs and went home and sang them to their parents. OK vent over. Thanks for listening. :grouphug: My children attended a private school in the early years. It was loosely associated with a church but the school itself was supposed to use neutral materials. My daughter had attended and all the material had been neutral and the teachers had respected the intent of the school. Then my son started kindergarten. My son came home from his kindergarten class and I asked him how it had gone. He started talking in graphic detail about animal sacrifices, sacrificing first born children, and Original Sin. Turns out his new music teacher felt that besides music it was her job to secretly save the souls of her students by teaching the Old Testament (while also teaching music). I just really wonder what my face looked like as he prattled on talking about how music class was a bit scarier than he thought it would be. :ohmy: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Library Momma Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Is this a group within the classroom or a pull out? If this is just his level reading group within the class, one out of say 5, then normally schools wouldn't notify you. In that case all the students are in various groups and it would be part of the daily work associated with the class. If a child needs to be pulled out of a class to work with a specialist however, an IEP is usually needed and the parents would most definitely be notified and would have to sign off on the IEP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 It is probably silly. I got a note today asking for feedback on changes to my son's writing/reading/language since being part of the writing focus group. Not unreasonable except, 1/ I didn't know he was in a writing focus group. 2/ He didn't know he was in a writing focus group. 3/ He had good vocabulary and reading - writing is his only week point. 4/ Any change I may have noticed is more likely to be due to afterschooling EiW. 5/ A lot of the problems are caused by stupid expectations. At the moment they are writing a reasearch report completed with tables, graphs, pictures and internet links. He is 7 years and 3 months old. My son is 7yrs and 3 weeks old and his big struggle is writing too! He doesn't start school until Monday and I'm hoping in 2nd grade he'll show improvement. I tried to help him over the summer but I'm afraid there wasn't enough consistency to make a big impact. They did a research report last year (1st grade) though not as involved as that. And he was really struggling even then so his teacher had me help at home. I ended up having him narrate his report to me. I wrote what he said and then he copied it. He couldn't both come up with what he wanted to say and write it down at the same time. That was last November. I'm not sure it's improved a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Is this a group within the classroom or a pull out? If this is just his level reading group within the class, one out of say 5, then normally schools wouldn't notify you. In that case all the students are in various groups and it would be part of the daily work associated with the class. If a child needs to be pulled out of a class to work with a specialist however, an IEP is usually needed and the parents would most definitely be notified and would have to sign off on the IEP. They never told me my kid was in the reading pull-out as well as the math pull-out. I would not have agreed with the reading pull-out. Even with the math pull-out, the level of communication was very poor. This year I will decline if they offer a pull-out for Miss A. (I don't think they will since she did well on the 2nd grade tests, but who knows.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 Writing is an area that scares me as my kids get older. One of them simply loathes it, the other keeps forgetting the basics or misses the point of the assignment. Both have immature handwriting. But they will not work on it at home without me being Hag Mommy, which I don't want to be in summer. So we'll see how that goes this year. I loved grammar and writing as a kid, so it's strange to me that a kid would not, but whatever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted August 23, 2014 Author Share Posted August 23, 2014 He is half way through second grade. I don't have any problem with him being in a writing focus group as he needs it but I think if they had sent something home with a list of what they were focusing on it may have been more effective. It is not a hill to die on just one in a list of petty annoyances that are building up. Part of my problem is I am fairly confident he will learn to write when he is older and has something to say. I also don't get the approach - I was shown his final, typed copy of his last report. It wasn't good but it wouldn't have taken that much work to get it to reasonable. The teacher said she suggested he proof read and edit some more but he didn't think he needed to! What! Isn't it part of the teachers job to correct errors and insist on correction? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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