Statements and Reviews

I had 2 reviews of statement today. I went along, armed with my detailed knowledge of the child. For the first time in a long time in a statement review meeting, aside from the fact that there were more people than chairs, those views were listened to.

Not only that, in the first of the two, the parents thanked us for the support we had given their child, and the allowances that were made, and the fact that we cared about that child. They liked that he had paint on him when he came home - it meant he'd been allowed to paint. They liked that it wasn't just him that used the sand in my room - every child does in my numeracy and literacy set. They liked that he wasn't shut away in some SEN room, allegedly in mainstream education but actually isolated and doing work that has little to do with what he needs and everything to do with what boxes the teacher needs ticking.

I was nervous - I have taken the decision to take him away from the established targets for his year group and instate him onto a Foundation Stage Profile. I did this because every week I can write something that he achieved that week. I'm not listing his failiures day after day. Instead of putting blue lines through his page because he hasn't made all of his verbs agree, I can green line his page and tick that he has made relevant marks on the page, that he has joined in with a class activity and so on.

Every one, but especially him, is a winner.

And my favourite bit of today? His daddy, telling us that part of the reason that he has made so much progress is because we care. How great is that?

*sigh* *swoon* *my face hurts*

And all of the above a thousand times.

I am utterly a star struck child.

Michael Rosen came to our school.

My face *still* hurts from laughing!

Proper blog later.


*swoon*

And we're back!

Well, we went, and we came back.

The actual exhibition itself was good. The walk up and back was fine. We had a couple of children on wrist reins, which were needed in a couple of instances, but the whole thorny issue of inclusivity raised it's head for me today.

We went for an exhibition which was basically a piece of Christian outreach. Fine, whatever floats your boat. I'm a card carrying Methodist myself, so I actually agreed with a lot of what was said. However, was it fair of us to include children who had no understanding of that which was being discussed? Was it fair of us to take them all the way to town, then have to tell them that they weren't going shopping in anywhere interesting? Was it fair of us to expose them to lights, music, noise, in a place they weren't used to, with adults they weren't used to to think about things that they had no concept of?

But that's inclusion. I can't choose to not take them, even if that is the best thing for them. Even if their time could have been used more constructively back at school. Even if their time could have been spent in a familiar environment, doing familiar things.

Inclusion is not just about the child, it also seems to be about being seen to be inclusive. This school has many issues with inclusivity, and they are being forced to overcome them. Many of the issues have just never come up before. Some of the issues have come up before, but as solo children, never in the combinations that we have right now. 8/40 children in our Y4 are ASD children. That's not a statistic that every school has, and there is no reason why our school should have had it previously. We have it now, and we are dealing with, coping, and loving it now. (Well I'm loving it now.)

But back to the subject.

What do you think?

School trip

Tomorrow we walk into town for an exhibition. So far I have 11 adults for my 29 children. I am still not convinced that that is enough with the children I am taking! If I need to send anyone back to school for whatever reason (overstimulation, stress, whatever) I need to have a spare adult to send as well. I have wrist reins for anyone who needs them, and have been advised to use them by two sets of parents, and to have them in reserve for another couple of children.

It will probably all go well. I have the Risk Assessments done (we have to cross a road and walk beside the other roads) I have the wrist reins, the first aid kits, the plans are done, it will be ok.

I just don't know where we are going.

Literally.

I know the name of the place and why and so forth, but it's ok because one of the many joys of T.A's is that they tend to be local, and at least 3 of them know where they are going - so I shall maintain order at the back.

Laters - if we ever return.

So tell me again why I do this?

It's Sunday night (again) and I am trying to watch "Long Way Down" with the rather lovely Ewan and the rather less lovely but still quite sweet Charley, and doing my homework in front of the TV. (To be techincally accurate, it's alongside the TV, but lets not split hairs) I am attempting to force my mind away from Mr McGreagor and his leather outfit and enormous bike and onto the Literacy Strategy/Framework/Renewed Framework/Whatever it is called now.

Exhibit A : The Phase One Objective. :

Children can identify the main text features of a quest myth, including the introduction of the characters, the problem to be overcome, the journey undertaken and the resolution of the problem.

Ha.

The Learning Objectives, which are different to the Phase Objective (I think) and are somehow stuck into the planning in order for me to achieve the Phase Objective are these tomorrow. (I chose these. Don't rely on these being right!)

Use talk to organise roles and actions. Use beginning, middle and end to write narratives in which events are sequenced logically and conflicts resolved.

So now I have to find a way of applying this to my beloved children. I've found a nice "Choose your own adventure" type site, we're going to watch Zzapp and the WordMaster (BBC Look and Read) and then we'll see what's happening with the children after that. What they *need* is to spend more time on sentence structure, word patterns and so on, and I have to wedge that in somewhere.

And this is just the literacy. I still have the numeracy, the other subjects, the IEP's and so on to do.

But in other, less moaning news, a lovely and wonderful thing has happened! I belong to the local Freecycle group, and I've just applied for and been given (and she's going to deliver!) 5-6 lava lamps. I'm hoping that they will be suitable for the Little Room we are trying to set up in school to allow a more chilled out atmosphere. The only trouble with lava lamps is that they get hot. However, I am in talks with the other half about creating some kind of plastic fronted box which will allow the light ect to come out and the glass to be away from fingers and stroking hands. The OH is an inventive chap, I'm sure he'll think of something. It's a sign of the times that I'm scouring Freecycle and eBay for things that should be given to us for these children. But who do we ask? Where does the money come from? The SENCO would love to give it to us - she's not got it. The Head would love to give it to us - the budget is laughable. And once it gets out of school then it all becomes an almighty blame game where the buck gets passed backwards and forwards until the child gets into Secondary School where it all has to start again, and then it takes so long that the child becomes someone elses problem as they progress and in the end the right things doesn't happen.

Whatever that is.

I am such a cheerful child tonight! I'm going to write a pair of IEP's based on the Frog Prince. It's the best I can do.

Laters

It's the weekend

It's been a hard, long, very peculiar week this week. One of the regular issues in my classroom has come up, and it's a tough one.

I have always thought that the ASD label is a label. It is not the summation of the entire child, nor yet is does it show all they will become. It is a pointer to the fact that I need to make certain changes in the environment, in teaching style, in attitude, in awareness for that or those children. It is a diagnosis, not an excuse.

So why do so many parents of children with ASD almost refuse to believe that their child could simply have been a bit naughty? As a teacher, the eyes are the window to the reasoning and conscience, and when a child looks to see if you are looking, and then does something deliberately, and then looks to see if you are looking again, then that is one of two things.

Either they are having a stressed moment and need some attention but don't know how to ask, or don't have the strength to ask, or it's plain mischief.

For the record, I don't mind a bit of mischief. The rules are that it can only be something that they would like done to them, and that everyone has to find it funny, but a certain amount of joke playing is allowed in the classroom. They are only 7, 8 and 9, they are only children. Outside the classroom they are to behave properly and they are not to let me or the class down. Inside the classroom we are just the same as any other pack of small animals. We argue, we play tricks, (we don't playfight!) we laugh, we learn, we support each other, and we grow.
I am the Alpha female, it's my pack and my rules, but they are good children because they have such strong, reasonable and reasoned out together boundaries.

And I digress.


One of my ASD children had some behaviour issues last week, and so I asked his mother in, just as I would any other parent for the same behaviour issue. We discussed it as reasonable adults. Later in the week, from various quarters, apparently the muck hit the turbine because of this. So do I not inform parents when their child's behaviour is beyond acceptable?

As it happens, this child had finally reached the top of some list or other, and was being seen by the AST in the week after (last week) so we're going to be able to address it straight away. It'll be through the usual route of social stories (which I must look into) and talking and so on, but it'll be ok in the end. The child will work with another child who has similar friendship issues, but doesn't seem to mind so much.

In fact he is another child giving much cause for concern this week! I know that the majority of ASD children have a focus. Some of my children change focii on a regular basis, every 4-6 weeks. One of my aspie children has had a PDA for a visual timetable (I must blog on that later - very sucessful!) and it has to be surgically removed from his hand for him to go to bed. The last two days he has 'forgotten' it. Yesterday I had to remove scissors from him twice (in his mouth once!) and he managed to cut a hole in his jumper and his t-shirt. I really, really don't want him to have a scissor focus coupled with a complete misinterpretation of dangerous situations and an utter disregard for personal safety. It just doesn't look good to me!

We've also sorted out a lot of the Christmas stuff this week, and my children are doing most of the singing. Which is excellent. We can sing. No props to make, do drama to do and explain why we're being other people, just singing. And percussion. None of my ASD children have a noise issue, so percussion is something we can all take part in and achieve at.

I didn't mention the percussion to the other teachers, but hey, surprises are good!


Laters. I have 17 things on my 'SCHOOL list of stuff to do' and 12 on the 'HOME list of things to do' But I am a modern woman, I can bake my cake and eat it!

Short post, 'cos it's late.

Yeah, it's late.

Check out how late it is.

2314, or almost quarter past eleven for those of us in Numeracy Unit C1 Reading the time to the quarter hour.

It's late and I've just finished 3 (count 'em! 3!) IEP's for the week. I do two each week anyway for 2 children in my class who have ASD and GDD in combination. Loving that combination. I was asked this week if I would do a third one for a child who I only teach for numeracy and literacy but who can't even access the curriculum in my class. So I am.

Tell me again how great it is to teach and finish at 3.30?

I dares ye!