Frustrated with school mistake

[holidayseeker]

School advised me ds was gifted and talented last year and have an individual learning plan however now I've been told they forgot to put him on the list so no-one knows about it as old teacher has left.

This has affected what groups ds is in during class and has been left hanging on same level reading book for 6 months even though ready to move up.

I am so annoyed as plan I was given stated they would provide extra work and learning but none of this done. He had a target set to reach by end of year and this was met but now they tell me that he was never on the list and they don't think he is classed as gifted but if he met his target they set why would this be?

Argh I am so annoyed, I think I am going to have to go and complain to head but I don't like looking like I'm making a fuss but I feel they have let ds down and didn't even say sorry for mistake.

Should I complain or do I just accept that he is no longer g&t?

[ReallyTired]

Gifted and talented is a bit of a joke in state schools as its the top 10% in every state school in the land. In some schools it just means that your child can speak English, has a pulse and is reasonably well behaved!

All children should be given work of the right level. It is not right that a child is left on the same level of the reading scheme for six months. Either a child is failing to make any progress or they are not being challenged.

I would not mention the gifted and talented thing as 90% of parents are convinced their child is gifted. Focussing on your child getting the right level of challenge is likely to be more productive.

[holidayseeker]

Thanks for the replies.

Really tired thanks for the advice, I don't want it to sound like I am demanding the g&t and looking back really instead if keeping on going to teacher last year I probably should have also spoken to head then about her reading standstill.

[holidayseeker]

Also you are right everyone does think their child is gifted however I have my ds come home telling me he's upset he's not doing the extra work like the other children who are g&t when he says he is on same level. But it's hard as children are not always right about what they think happens in class but I just don't want him being left behind because of the mistake.

[DeWe]

It depends on whether he was forgotten off the list, or whether he has been reassessed as not on the list.

If it was a forgetting-the take in your copy of the IEP, you would have been given one.

It could be he was last year, and met his target but, as it is just the top 10% others have overtaken him and he is no longer in the top 10% (which is why G&T isn't worth the paper it's written on)

But him getting upset because he's not getting the extra work when he says he's the same level, I wouldn't say that. Because it is very hard to assess yourself, and what level you are on even as an adult.

I would start off by asking the teacher about the lack of improvement in reading.
It may be that they're concentrating on something other than the basic reading-comprehension etc.
Then you can ask about the extra work. Do they think he would cope/benefit from it? If he would both cope and benefit, why aren't they giving it to him. If he would cope, but they don't think he would benefit, why not?

[holidayseeker]

He was forgotten they have told me as teacher left after giving us the contract she had made then for some reason didn't put on list with head teacher.

I spoke to teacher last night and there are readers ahead of him so fair enough re the g&t. My ds was assessed last week and put up one level but these books are still far too easy however teacher said that they should be easy but my ds just reads them fluently with no mistakes and can answer q's and use inference.