Think school is failing my Daughter.

Hi Guys.

I'm new here and need your views. My daughter's school merged with 2 others at the start of this school year. There has been a few things bothering me but thought I would give it a chance to settle down.
Anyway 6 months on it isn't getting any better. She is in Year 5 and has no reading record and hasn't been heard read since starting. There doesn't seem to have been any swimming lessons in the whole school. The children don't plan or do assemblys. At her last school there was assemblies every week rotating round the classes, I thought this was really good for the children as they were used to getting up in front of the other children and parents giving them confidence.
What do you guys think I should do confront the school or look into finding another?

Sorry for the long post.

If your daughter is in year 5 it may be abit of an upheaval for her to move now and then move again in another year to secondary school. However it does sound a little slack! I can only compare to my own kids school, but there every thursday one of the classes does assembly as you mentioned so they do it 2 or 3 times a year.
As for reading, well I myself go in every monday morning to hear the children read, as does another mum on a wednesday afternoon. Plus the children do guided reading once a week with the teacher or class room assistant in their reading level groups and once every half term they are each reviewed to see if they need to go up to the next reading level or stay as they are.

I understand that schools coming together must prove alot of extra admin etc, but that shouldn't change the general teaching in the school. Have you spoken to the other parents about this? Do they feel the same? Perhaps if there are many of you with the same issues you should approach the school together and ask for a meeting.

From a teacher's point of view.

Assembly does NOT have to child led. The school I am in now has assembly once a week and it is taken by the HEad/deputy Head or one of the school chaplins. Each class does 1 extra 20minute topic related assembly to their peers once a YEAR!!! The school I was in last year and other ones I have visited do NOT ask the children to do an assembly it is all Head Teacher led.


As for swimming, In Scotland anyway, Swimming is not a compulsary subject, many schools do not have any lessons. Again, the school I am in P4-7 (approx 8-11year olds) have 1 6week block per year because of the high costs parents have to make a contribution to the lessons, we are lucky the pool is a 5 minute walk up the hill so we can reduce costs by not having buses, many schools have bus costs aswell and it makes it too expensive to have.

as for the reading, I would expect there to be some kind of home reading scheme but some schools do reciprocal reading in upper stages and this is peer/teacher led and does not go home. Just because they are not doing reading at home does not mean they are doing no reading activities in class, I heard home readers twice a week with my primary 1's (5yr olds) last year but we did reading activities in class above that twice a week (so 4 times a week reading was done). If you are concerned about the reading and want to know what happens in your daughters class as to speak to the teacher or head.

So in my opinion the only thing that you have real concerns over is the reading. Different schools do things differently.

Thanks Ladies. I know that schools don't have to have children led assembly but I do firmly believe it helps a childs confidence. I think I will make an apointment to speak with the head. Thank you again.

WorriedMum said:
Thanks Ladies. I know that schools don't have to have children led assembly but I do firmly believe it helps a childs confidence. I think I will make an apointment to speak with the head.Thank you again.

A children led assembly is only 1 of many different ways to help a child's confidence.

I can understand where you are coming from, when our son changed schools it was hard to accept a different way of doing things as his last school was really good, so we had the mentality of, if it isn't their way, it isn't the best way. But then Mikey loves it and he is still being taught the same things, just in different ways.

What does your daughter think of the change?

She likes it most days, some days she hates it. I just don't want to not do anything I would feel like I'm letting her down. My son is in the Nursery there too and I worry about him being stuck there if it isn't going to change. she has also always done the Year above work at her previous school now she is doing Maths she did last year.

WorriedMum said:
She likes it most days, some days she hates it. I just don't want to not do anything I would feel like I'm letting her down. My son is in the Nursery there too and I worry about him being stuck there if it isn't going to change. she has also always done the Year above work at her previous school now she is doing Maths she did last year.

Unless she leaves school a year early she would have to repeat a years work anyway.

I would be a bit upset if things that were the norm - ie assemblies, swimming, reading changed because some government department thought it would be a good idea to merge schools.
I would talk to the headteacher - they may be getting more orders from higher up