Rant Rant Rant ...WTF have the school been doing?

[discoverlife]

As part od Ds's de-schooling we have been 'testing' him to see where his basic skills are. His school has told us repeatedly that his Maths is within his age group. But on 'testing' him , he doesn't even know his 2 times tables properly. He can rattle of 2,4,6,8,10.12,14 etc. But when you ask him what 2 X 7 = he doesn't know, he has to add it up on his fingers. He can get up to 3 X 3=9 but after that it's pie in the sky. What the hell do schools teach these days. They were trying to teach him fractions when he can't even do 2 times tables. RANT RANT RANT.

[Runnerbean]

Hi again,

I spent two years helping out volutarily in my dds class ( I wanted to do a PGCE ).
Scarily it was from what i saw first hand going on in the classroom that really convinced me that HE had to be a beeter way.
Very little 'learning' seemed to go on, but a few baffled, confused, disinterested and disheartened children.
Bad behaviour seemed to be rewarded, the bright ones (mine included) ignored.
My dd on one occision was even told not to 'show off' because she 'knew all the answers' !!
I saw an autistic boy regularly grappled to the floor or pulled kicking and screaming from the classroom.
He also was quite aggresive and violent towards other children and adults pulling out clumps of hair etc.
( I have no issue with autistic children i know loads in the HE community and they are delightful kids, this enviroment just wasn't good for him personally).

The last straw was when I found my dds workbooks from when she was at Montessori nursery aged 4. The work she had been doing then was more advanced than what they were giving them to do at aged 7 in school!
I actually sat down and cried because I felt so bad that I had been letting her down for so long.
Being at home she has come on leaps and bounds and has transformed as a person; she is confident, articulate, and at aged 8 is easily managing KS3 maths and is readig Great Expectations!

It terrifies me that had I had never been into the classroom my dd might still be in school and I would be oblivious.

We have blind faith in schools because it's all we've ever known.
Thankfully a lot more of us are 'seeing the light'.

[Runnerbean]

My god how many spelling mistakes!!

.>>SLAP!

[discoverlife]

Don't worry about the spelling mistakes, I blame a constant debilitating condition, called 'fat finger syndrome'. It means you are constantly pressing 2 keys at once.

But concerning the schooling, what is really upsetting is that DS had 15 hours per week paid 1-2-1 and it is obvious that he was not getting it. What was the school assistant doing? 15 hours, as has been stated over and over again by HE parents, is plenty enough time to sit with a child and bring them on leaps and bounds. I really do hope that HE'ing does what it say's on the tin. The school system, and I admit we, had written him off already at age 11. I was telling myself I would be proud if he got a job, even flipping burgers (tiny squeeky voice) or shelf stacking in Tesco's. But taking GCSE's no way! God I was such a fool, I trusted them all, and they let me and mine down.

[Julienoshoes]

LOL!
I remember that the school told us that DS "might achieve grade Ds at GCSE if he worked really really hard".

He spent 5 years home educating in a totally autonomous interest led way, with lots of Warhammer, fantasy role play games, Magic cards, lots of camping and travelling, PC games and TV and lots and lots of talking-and no formal work to speak off, he went back to college post 16 on one day a week.
He did two GCSEs and got Grade B's! the following year he did GCSE English and three AS levels-and got grade B's. Ditto A levels the year after.
AND on reassessment the dyslexia assessor wrote that his parents must have worked very very hard with 'home schooling' him as his dyslexia symptoms had improved so much!!

[discoverlife]

The school had told us that they were actually going to put DS in for his SAT, and |I thought that was really good of them, eg willing to reduce there overall score etc. But I found out later that it was only because DS was the only SEN they were willing to risk, they had 'suggested' to the other parent that she not put her son in.

On another point, where do I go to now to have any problems diagnosed. I would like to know if he is dyslexic or dispraxic or whatever else so I can deal with the problems as they arise.

[emmaagain]

I wouldn't bother tbh.

I'd just follow the interests of your child.

chances are any "learning difficulties" were specific to the school environment IMNSHO

[discoverlife]

He was diagnosed as having problems at 18 months when he still wasn't speaking. He had about 10 nonsense words that we knew the meaning of but obviously nobody else did. Then the tests showed that he had fine motor skill problems as well. Further tests when he was 6 or so with an ECG showed that the electrical impulses were being sent out nice and strong but were dissapating on the way. So there is a medical problem but apart from that and a maybe diagnosis of Mild Cerebral Palsy, we don't know whats wrong with him.