[SENco-forum] FW: Media: Real Story: The Teacher Squad (BBC1, 7pm, 13 Dec)

I missed the start of this programme. What hit me in the eyes watching  last 
half hour however, was the attitude of the teacher who, as Mary said, set  
Daniel up to fail. She knew he had organisational problems from the start and it  
doesn't take much to keep some paper and a spare set of equipment on her desk 
or  have a copy of his work in a file in her classroom. Many of the good 
teachers I  worked with do this as the norm, as there is often someone without any 
 additonal needs who will forget or lose something, no matter how organised 
they  are. Organisational skills are not for the want of trying and short term 
memory  is unavoidable.I could have cried for that child, as I have worked 
with many  like him and have one of my own. The teacher showed him no respect so 
he  had none for her and the relationship and nominal trial in her  class was 
never going to work. I have sadly worked with many teachers like  this who 
feel that even a classroom assistant is an intrusion and a threat but  given time 
realised the worth of an extra pair of hands who was not just there  to make 
the tea.  One to one intensive multi-sensory or sensory-based  teaching is 
always going to be the best mode of intervention and I was  delighted to see so 
much visual reinfoircement, vital for those with auditory  processing issues.

The teacher above also taught while speaking into the  whiteboard instead of 
facing the children - a big no-no if a child has  auditory processing 
problems, which I suspect a fair few of the children with  suspected dyslexia had. The 
thing that struck me most though was the venom she  had for the woman who had 
come to the school, simply because she was a  parent not a teacher... a 
feeling probably heightened because she knew what she  was doing was working If she 
could have been a little less precious about  her qualifications and 
acknowledged that what the parent was doing had improved  literacy, there might have 
been genuine progress. She said that the methods they  had told her, she 
already knew, "grandmothers sucking eggs" etc. - if that  is the case then the 
children in her class should have attained a higher level  of literacy. Knowing it 
is far different from implementing it.

On the occasion when post-its were used in the maths lesson, a great  idea, 
the teacher was left to sort out the ensuing chaos while the 2  who had 
promised to support him in the lesson sat there in amazement, it  wouldn't have taken 
much to stop that behaviour and save the lesson with  the 3 of them working 
with a small group each. I suspect they felt unable  to take charge for fear of 
treading on his toes as the teacher is  the disciplinarian in the class. Or 
maybe they had been warned not to do  anything like that within the boundaries 
of behaviour set in the section of the  programme I missed. And also he is I 
assume used to teaching just in a  whole class way as he has only one pair of 
hands! It could all have worked well  with better planning. 

More bodies, more money, more time. That's what education needs and we  
didn't need a programme like this to tell us that, but it would have been an eye  
opener to people who have never encountered such bigotry to see what goes on in 
 some classrooms. If parents knew how their children with learning  
difficulties were treated by some teachers, there wold be a public outcry. I  have seen 
it with my own eyes and that programme came as a sickening reminder of  why I 
home educate.  

Best wishes,
Aly

Chair Auditory  Processing Disorder in the UK/APDUK
www.lacewingmultimedia.com/APD.htm 
www.apduk.org