Government call for shorter school holidays

[espadrille]

I think all already said that the curriculum is not good for everyone

 

As for alternative learning techniques, teachers already implement them, the problem is physically having the time to implement all the different learning techniques for each learner. For example in one class you could have:

-one child that has visual disability; so everything has to be enlarged and read out, one has AS so you have to have written instructions as well as verbal and check on them at the start of every task, one has ADHD so short 'moving and doing' tasks are better, another will have dyslexia so the board has to be coloured a specific colour and any written work coloured and adapted. Then there is the other 26 to sort out, two of which speak a different language

 

I bet most classes have approximately 3 children in with SEN with one support assistant and one teacher. I don't agree that it is the way we teach that needs changing radically as most teachers are taught strategies to help with SEN and good teachers follow the student’s IEP advice so they use the techniques advised to help them learn. It is a very old fashioned view to think a teacher stands at the front and talks all lesson, they use loads of different ways to teach and vary it across a topic in the hope of hitting as many preferred learning styles as possible.

 

However smaller class sizes and time to prepare and liaise with support staff to further the learning would be great, but that costs money as it means time and more teachers and support staff.

 

EDIT: I did work it out one day and if I taught 120 children in one day and divided the time I could only physically spend a tiny amount of time individually with each student, it was something like 2 minutes per student each week!

 

I am making assumptions here, but are you by any chance a primary school teacher?

 

I find that the teaching styles work well when in primary school situations but have sat in many classes in secondary and gone to many lectures in uni and the style can be still the very old fashioned way where the teacher does literally stand in front of the class and talk and expect the kids to follow and understand. Besides which many kids with AS dont have statements and as such dont get a teaching assistant. Yes they have IEPs but getting extra support is something that we all as parents have probably had to fight for. I know parents who have had to go to court to get more hours attached to a statement. They have fought and they have won but surely this is not the way forward. My son didn't get a statement despite having AS, epilepsy and dyspraxia. He did get offered a lap top and in the end we did get him a support assistant but he failed to get the level of qualifications that we knew he was capable of.

[Evei]

I am making assumptions here, but are you by any change a primary school teacher?

No, I do not think I could cope with the little ones, though I do get a chance to go and teach them a couple of times a year, I work with the older ones

 

I find that the teaching styles work well when in primary school situations but have sat in many classes in secondary and gone to many lectures in uni and the style can be still the very old fashioned way where the teacher does literally stand in front of the class and talk and expect the kids to follow and understand. Besides which many kids with AS dont have statements and as such dont get a teaching assistant. Yes they have IEPs but getting extra support is something that we all as parents have probably had to fight for. I know parents who have had to go to court to get more hours attached to a statement. They have fought and they have won but surely this is not the way forward. My son didn't get a statement despite having AS, epilepsy and dyspraxia. He did get offered a lap top and in the end we did get him a support assistant but he failed to get the level of qualifications that we knew he was capable of.

 

Not many do have statements, Sheffield do seem to be very tight on the statement front I think teaching styles do tend to filter up from primary and it's changing. Though by the time you get to sixth form and uni it is very lecture based, I know it bored the hell out of me I think I lost the will to live in some lectures

 

This was a debate about extending the school year and I think we actually have got to the agreement that underacheiving children will not achieve more by sticking them in an environment that they can't acheive in for a longer period of time, it just leads to demotivation, a feeling of failure and then behaviour problems. They need support, small classes and then they would be able to progress.

[birdsandbees]

Schools already do this. A fiend of mine is a teacher at King Ecberts in Dore...he spends 2 weeks in the summer doing this.

 

I like the sound of this, I guess the little one will be the 3rd generation to go to King Teds when she's older