Exclusions at schools

We often still tend to talk about children ‘getting expelled’ although for a long while now the term has changed to ‘excluded’. There has been a huge drive by local and national Government to reduce the numbers of these exclusions but, of course, they are still an option open to schools.

There is, however, a fairly clear and transparent approach to exclusions these days. A Headteacher cannot simply and out of the blue, exclude a child for a one-off misdemeanour unless it is incredibly serious.

Usually, there will be a number of steps that would come before it ever got to the stage of permanent exclusion. These would be a number of ‘fixed term exclusions’ – ranging usually from between 1 and 5 days in the first instance. Each of these would be accompanied by a letter from the school clearly setting out the rationale for this course of action, defining its length and – crucially – notifying you as a parent about your right to have the case heard by an appeals tribunal which may even overturn the school’s decision. So, if you do not feel that the process is just, you should definitely take this as an option.

It will vary from school to school, authority to authority, but it is increasingly prevalent to have several of these fixed term exclusions before a permanent exclusion is considered.

My Child is not being stretched. What should I do?

This is not an uncommon suggestion for a teacher or a Headteacher to hear. Schools are in the business of challenging young people to achieve their best and all schools will have a set of aims, usually published in their prospectus or brochure. 9 times out of 10 there will something in there along the lines of ‘to challenge our pupils to achieve their full potential in a safe, secure environment characterised by mutual respect and fostering a love of lifelong learning’

Most teachers are wrestling with the challenge that comes from teaching to a range of abilities but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t expect that your child will receive the education that their abilities and talents merits.

Here are some simple steps to consider:

1. Be clear on what you mean by ‘not being stretched’. Make sure that you are aware of the standard of work your child is producing so that you can state your case with evidence. This might include independent work that your child is able to complete at home (great though parental support is, it’s no use turning up at school with a whole batch of stuff that essentially is your work!).
2. If it isn’t happening for your child, talk to someone at the school about it. This will vary from school to school but the usual policy is to encourage a first port of call to be the class or form tutor. If you go straight to the Headteacher you will almost certainly be redirected via this first route, in all but the smaller Primary schools. The class teacher is the day to day expert and, in most schools, they will always be willing to meet with you by prior arrangement. So, no need to wait for a parents’ evening. Your child’s class teacher should be able to talk to you about how your child is doing (their attainment) as well as how well they are achieving (their relative progress). They should also be able to tell you what your child’s immediate targets are and what the aspirations are in terms of their end of year attainments (although many schools are reluctant to make this last point candidly).
3. If the matter remains unresolved, speak to the Headteacher and expect some or all of the following to happen:
• A promise of his / her investigation
• A promise that you will be communicated with once this investigation has taken place
• An outline of the school’s approach to learning and teaching as well as gifted and talented provision (ask for a copy of the relevant policies if you wish; it is your entitlement to see them)
• An outline of any specific strategies the school (and you) deem to be appropriate in connection with your child’s progress

Usually, the matter can be resolved by this course of action. It is worth remembering that, usually, a school will know your child’s abilities very well indeed. We all love our children and sometimes our own view of their exceptional abilities might not in reality match the truth.

Tutoring Primary School Kids - a worthwhile option?

At this time of year this is something many parents consider. I think that the answer to this one depends upon your reasons for believing it necessary.

Also, factors will come into play such as:

The age of the child

The ability of the child

The motivation of the child

I think it is important to consider ability and motivation. Bottom line – if your child is not likely to be able to respond to extra tuition because they find school work unappealing, boring or just too difficult then you will probably be wasting your money. You may feel better but if the results are not going to be forthcoming, it probably isn’t worth it.

When a child is young, 4 – 8 years old I think that there are very few, if any, circumstances where tutoring is the best thing to do. Usually, this sort of approach is in response to a feeling that “my child is behind at school”. Therefore, if they are given some additional 1:1 support, then it has to be a good thing, right? Not necessarily. I often tell parents at my school, if you want to prevent the need for coming to see me in year 2 or year 3 with this sort of a concern, get reading with and talking to your child, or helping them to write fun stories, play at spellings, learn addition and multiplication facts from the beginning of formal schooling at age 4. With reading and sharing stories, right from the first weeks of life works best!

Time is the most precious commodity we can give our children. It is also perhaps the most difficult. If we give a little, and often, right from the word ‘go’ it is likely to be a) more effective and b) considerably cheaper than paying out for expensive tutoring further down the line.

Liaising with the school in terms of how you can best support your child at home is likely to be an effective way of devising the right sort of program or strategies for the needs of your child.

Remember – tutors are in it to make money. Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas and tutors are almost bound to promote their services in terms of usefulness for your child. That doesn’t mean that there are never circumstances where additional tutoring is useful, there are. It does though mean that you need to be realistic about your expectations and wary of ‘throwing money at the problem’.

So when can tutoring be a good idea then?

I think that there are circumstances where 1:1 tuition can be beneficial to a child. Top of my list for these would be preparation for entrance examinations or other sorts of tests.

I say this because often the sorts of skills required for these are not really taught as part of the national curriculum. Non verbal and verbal reasoning tests would spring to mind as two examples of just such tests. They require a specific approach to a particular sort of problem solving and practice at the technique itself can be of come use in terms of giving a child the best chance.

So, if you are in area where your child has the chance to sit 11+ tests to gain admission into a Grammar school, or if you are considering sending them to an independent school, then 1:1 or even small group tuition could be of some use.

Even here though, most of the independent schools are able to provide you with past papers and there is a multiplicity of materials available to buy at places such as W.H.Smiths. So, if you have the time and the confidence to tutor your child yourself, it can be done easily enough. There is nothing guaranteed by paying for it.

School Dinners anyone?

How can you be sure that school dinners are of a decent standard?

We are all familiar with the Jamie Oliver effect, I guess! One thing that happened after the outcry surrounding his TV programmes was that the national food standards agency imposed new strict standards on school kitchens, limiting the amount of saturated fats offered to children as well as eradicating processed foods. So, in terms of choices available to kids nowadays, it has never been better.

What will vary is the quality of the individual catering consortia and, more pertinently, the individual cooks. All of the standards in the world will not improve things for children if the cook can’t actually ‘do what it says on the tin’! (i.e. – cook)

Of course another by-product of the Jamie Oliver factor has been the tendency for a lot of kids to go over to packed lunches which are, of course, entirely unregulated!