Fw: [senco-forum] is disapplication still needed?

From: "David Wilson" <davidritchiewilson at btinternet.com>

My son who is in yr 8 has been disapplied from DT for over a year now. He 
has a statement of SEN as he has Aspergers, but the reason he is disapplied 
from this subject is his severe dyspraxia, which made it almost impossible 
for him, no matter how much differentation the teacher did! This 
disapplication will carry on into yr 9 as well. I have to agree with David 
that it is a real shame that MFL is usually the subject targetted when is 
comes to removing pupils from lessons for additional help. Sometimes 
surprise suprise children with SEN can do really well at MFL! If the 
children concerned are being withdrawn for literacy, then the simplest 
solution would be to withdraw them from their English lessons. I have a 10 
year old daughter with SEN as well. She has only (after private tuition) 
learnt to read in the last 10 months. Her reading age has gone up by over 3 
years now in that space of time. She of course still has trouble with 
comprehension and other aspects of the subject, but now attends an SEN group 
with similar children at school. They follow the same curriculum as their 
peers but at a different level, which seems to be the sensible route to 
take.

>From: "David Wilson" <davidritchiewilson at btinternet.com>
>To: "Richard Cook" <richard_cook at blueyonder.co.uk>,"Senco Forum" 
><senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk>
>Subject: Fw: [senco-forum] is disapplication still needed?
>Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2007 15:20:25 +0100
>
>Richard:
>The current regulations on disapplication are here:
>
>http://www.dfes.gov.uk/disapply/disapp.shtml
>
>I'm disappointed that in this day and age and in this multilingual world 
>any
>school SLT should be constemplating the route of MFL disapplication when
>planning how to raise English literacy standards amongst the lowest
>attainers. It violates the principle that every child is entitled to a 
>broad
>and balanced curriculum. I hope your Head of MFL will resist this move and
>suggest alternative ways of freeing up time for literacy work, e.g. 
>sessions
>before the start of formal lessons, withdrawals spread out over several
>subjects so none istoo adversely affected, intensive sessions spread over a
>limited number of weeks, not lasting the full year. Supposing the move goes
>ahead, what is going to happen to the withdrawees from MFL when they reach
>Year 8? Are they going to be offered MFL then? If not, does the SLT plan
>more of the same literacy interventions, whether they then need them or 
>not?
>
>MFL teachers, like their history, geography, art, RE etc colleagues, are
>expected nowadays to differentiate for pupils with SEN. MFL reinforces the
>literacy input made by English: "What do they know of English who only
>English know?" There are plenty of examples of good practice in teaching 
>MFL
>to those with SEN here:
>
>http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com/mfl/biblio.doc
>
>and an excellent recent European Commission document full of inspiring
>accounts of what MFL and SEN teachers are doing to prepare our most
>vulnerable children for a world where being a monoglot is the exception
>rather than the rule:
>
>http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/doc/special_en.pdf
>
>Try and get your SLT to think again and come up with more imaginative and
>less damaging ways of improving literacy for all.
>
>David Wilson
>
>Harton Technology College, South Shields
>http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com/
>
>
>

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