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Sooze2

DS came home with spellings for test spelt wrong - AGAIN!

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I would like your opinions on this before I go into school.

 

My son is in year 4 and has come home 2 weeks running with spellings spelt wrong for his spelling homework! It has happened before but I didn't really think it was a problem and changed them myself. Last week the teacher obviously hadn't checked them at all, he had the word Frendly - spot the obvoius mistake and noisilly - again pretty easy to spot.

 

This week they had been checked by the teacher - there was a tick on the page but he had the word Looser - one too many "o's" I fear and Revent which isn't even in the dictionary!!!!! This had been checked by the teacher!

 

First point how many other children in her class are going home with wrongly spelt words. I can't always remember how to spell them correctly and need to look them up :unsure:

 

Second point, he is supposed to have help especially in literacy because this is where he struggles most!

 

I am a tad cross but I'm not sure why it has got to me today. He has just got a Proposed Statement (which the LEA are changing for me so things are clearer for the school to understand that he has his own TA not a shared one with the rest of the class!) so things will be officially in place next term for his help but they have told me he is being helped by someone in the meantime. He is supposed to go to homework club to do these sentences because of the stress it causes at home, last week I questioned this and the words spelt wrong in his book and she said she would make sure he went to homework club from now on - did he go - NO but instead brought home wrongly spelt words!!!!!!!

 

What would you do, leave it and correct them yourself or go in to see the teacher? I am just finding fault or would this worry you too?

 

Thanks a lot for reading

 

Yours Grumpily

Edited by Sooze2

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Hi Grumpily,

This has happened to us and we have systematically told the teacher and so have other parents. It is unacceptable. My son had a teacher who could not spell monkeys (monkies). Also some maths wrong... Say it politely with a smile though. No need to create a massive crisis.

 

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I think that whatever is agreed is what has to happen. Otherwise it makes everything pointless. That is especially true of a Statement. The LEA are legall bound to carry out what is specified in the Statement. That is why it is crucial to get it specified in terms of hours of support and staffing provision. It specifically says that in the Code of Practice. And if the school/LEA do not do it you can do something about it. As you are at the Proposed Statement stage I would recommend that you have either the National Autistic Society or IPSEA run their eyes over it to ensure it is as tight as it should be.

LEAs do try to make them very open ended so that it is hard for a parent to identify what their child should actually be receiving. For example it should not contain any words such as 'significant, frequent, regular, as appropriate' etc in it. If he is to receive a certain support it should be very specific ie. XXX will receive weekly therapy from a suitably qualified SALT who will carry out XXX hours of direct therapy per term in school. The SALT will also set aside a further XXX hours per term to train his TA, observe XXX in the class and playground and make notes, liaise with school and staff, give advice and guidance to the Social Skills Club.

 

In my son's statement it also lists his needs in this area ie. 'The SALT needs to work on the following areas: understanding of receptive speech, giving narratives, social communication, articulation' etc. That is how specific it should be.

 

My opinion is that when anything is agreed and then not carried through, it gives the school and LEA the opportunity to say that 'although it was decided that XXX needed XXX he has managed without it'. So it weakens your case.

When my son was younger he did not do any spelling tests at all. He still is struggling with basic reading and writing. He does get some spellings now and I try to practice them at home.

So what you need to sort out is whether he is going to take part in this weekly spelling test. Is it useful to him to do it there. If he is consistently struggling with this then they can use something called Precision Teaching which means that any new words are practised on a daily basis for a couple of minutes and only when they are learnt do they introduce new words. This system is used for children with dyslexia as it attempts to ensure that words are fully embedded and remembered before new ones are introduced. It is also helpful because it demonstrates how long it takes your child to learn something new. It will also identify if he learns things and then loses that skill again - which can be typical for children with an ASD.

If your child has difficulties with the 'meaning' of words, then again the SALT can teach his TA about networking. This is where any new words are introduced in terms of linking them to other words they already know. This can help with memory retrieval and expressive speech and understanding receptive speech. So a word like 'knight' might be introduced as a new word and will be surrounded by other words the child already knows which are related to the new word. They will also be explicitly taught what that word means and how to categorise it.

 

If he is supposed to be doing these spellings in a different environment then that needs to be done as agreed.

I think if a child does have these types of difficulties then he may always be poor at spelling. However it sounds like presently you are not sure of what they are doing. Everyone, you and school, should know exactly what is happening and how it is being done. As all SEN is supposed to have a 'graduated' approach. You need the current agreed approach to be carried out. Then if that is not working you can say that we have tried this approach for 6 months and there is no improvement therefore we need to increase the support with XXX. If you are not consistent you don't know if the child failed because of the inconsistency or because they need more support.

 

There is also no point putting him through the weekly stress of sitting in class doing a spelling test if there is not additional attempt to help him actually learn them. So I would say mention 'Precision Teaching' and 'networking' to them as well. As he is supposed to be getting his own TA, this will give her something to be doing with him. :whistle:

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Teachers should be able to perform their duties. No ifs, buts or maybes about it. This is your child's education the teacher is messing with.

 

I happily pull up my son's teacher for her errors in spelling, grammar and even punctuation. She is in a responsible position and should therefore be consistent and accurate.

 

I am tired of receiving letters from her that are grammatically incorrect, misspelled or even missing words. It has got to the stage where I read the letters sent as soon as they are handed to me, mark the mistakes and inform her and the headteacher.

 

People don't like to be corrected but luckily for me I have little empathy for people that won't (rather than can't) do their jobs properly.

 

The simplest thing for the teacher to do is type the homework in a computer - the nice red line in word processing software shows spelling errors and can also have a good attempt at spotting grammatical errors too.

 

Other than that the teacher needs all her work peer reviewing before sending it out. By someone that can actually spell.

 

"But I have done 6 months of teacher training!" is nothing special.

 

"I have taught for 30 years" is more likely to get my respect - at least back then schools taught you to spell and use grammar the way it was intended.

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Is the teacher actually spelling these words wrong, or is your son copying them down wrong and she is checking them in a hurry? If it's the latter then there needs to be some awareness that your son finds it hard to copy accurately from the board, with checks in place to make sure he takes things down correctly.

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I agree with Tally. It doesn't seem, from the examples you give, that these are the teacher's spelling mistakes. Wherever the problem is occurring, it needs to be sorted out with the teacher. The last thing your son needs is to expend a lot of effort in learning inaccurate spellings.

 

K x

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He's writing them down wrong, she is putting a tick next to what he has spelt. I am assuming she is ticking without looking at them. The point is that he's supposed to have someone checking him because he has a major problem with literacy and they know it.

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I would write a little note in the jotter politely expressing your concern that your son seems to be struggling copying the words down. Explain that you were confused by the fact that she has marked them correctly - was she expressing approval at his neat handwriting as the spelling was certainly inaccurate? ;)

 

You are quite right to be cross, but you don't want to alienate the teacher - your son needs her to be onside!

 

It sounds like she has been busy and perhaps tired when completing her corrections. Not an excuse, but a frequent problem. She will undoubtedly be mortified when she realises.

 

We have had the same problem with my son's SEN assistant - she simply can't spell and Sam gets so incredibly upset if he gets things wrong. I now habitually write the correct spelling in the margin in order to draw it to the attention of the class teacher. I feel it needs pointed out but I don't want to cause friction as he has a fantastic relationship with his SEN assistant.

 

It's never easy - school can be so frought with problems!!

 

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Mosey, youre right about the teacher she is lovely as are the TA's who seem to really like DS and he likes them which is why I don't really want to mention it to be honest. All his teachers have been lovely, theyre really approachable and with a large class - over worked.

 

Sally - the LEA were great, I had a meeting with them last Thrusday to discuss his proposed statement because the wording is vague and although everything that should be done is written down it says nothing on there about him needing 1 to 1.

 

She is going to re-word it, she teaches ASD children and agreed with all the points I made like him needing someone sitting with him to explain everything and make sure he is understanding and paying attention, ensuring all staff with him realise that eye contact is very difficult for him - he can't listen and look at the same time (she discussed this at length with us and said how common it is and how teachers just don't seem to get it!). I told her his problems with PE and trasitions to swimming and how he has no help there and she said he needed a TA with him for those too!

 

There were a lot of points made and she said oviousely the SENCO has had a meeting with you about this - when I said no she hasn't discussed any of it with me she was shocked! The main point I wanted to raise was whether his TA would also be the class TA and she said no, the money has already been given to the school for him to have his own TA and if she does help another child and DS needs her she has to go straight to him. She was very insitant that his TA is for him and that is that.

 

His funding covers 18.5 hours a week and she said that if he needs more which she thinks he will then the Head Master needs to fill in a form and ask for it and he will get it, its as simple as that. She said the he and the ASD boy shouldn't be sharing a TA because the school are getting money for 2 TA's now and their needs are different, I happened to mention that up to and including year 3 the ASD boys TA was also the TA for the whole class and she wasn't impressed. I have a feeling I have opened up a can of worms and once the school find out all this my name is going to be mud. I haven't mentioned it the the others boys parents yet (not sure I will or it could cause ructions!)

 

I am so glad I went to the meeting, I was shaking before I went in because I was so nervous but she was just a normal person and ASD is her speciality so I am very very lucky!

 

Got to go into school tomorrow and tell them that they need to have a meeting with me to draw up a detailed IEP and a timetable for DS for next term by 13th July - next Monday! I'm dreading it - its not like me to be nervous these days but I have to tell them what I want and if they don't agree I have to tell the LEA - I'm scared!!! :unsure:

 

Like I say, the teachers are all lovely but when it comes to anything that involves formal dissusions with the SENCO etc things get a bit harder with is a shame.

Edited by Sooze2

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I think you should ask to have a word with his teacher after school to have a chat about it. It might well be that he has problems looking at the board then down to his writing paper. My son has problems even trying to copy words on the same line. These difficulties can be assessed and can be helped eg. by giving him a print out rather than expecting him to copy off the board. If he has problems tracking they can use a ruler with a slit down the middle that means they can read only one line at a time.

When you've had a chat about it follow it up with a letter confirming what was discussed. You may need to be referred to an Optomotrist (not sure if i've spelt that right - they test your eyes). Your GP can do that. We've been seeing one at our childrens hospital for a while because my son does not have binocular vision.

As already stated, the idea is to be 'learning' correctly in school and not putting in alot of effort to be learning incorrectly.

Another thing to consider is an auditory processing disorder. My son has this. He hears letters and words differently and this has had a huge impact on him learning words incorrectly. Does your son say words incorrectly eg. globes for gloves, cimema for cinema, reposed for supposed etc. If so that is another thing to get checked out.

And I think just by mentioning it to the teacher they are going to pay a bit more attention to what they are ticking.

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Have you tried your local Parent Partnership? They can come to meetings like this. It helps because it is two people thinking instead of one and they will ask questions and raise issues because they do know the procedures.

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So is it sorted out?

If youre not happy, think on this ....... Schools are run as a business, so divorce the sociable feelings and empathy with teachers. Every business has an Ombudsman and they are reqired by law to give you the name and contact information. Often ,the thought of someone wanting to contact a businesses ombudsman (Last word, ruling body of business) will have them scurrying round to tick thier boxes.

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