rant...head teachers...patronising poeple...and greed!

[annaespana1]

Today I had a heated discussion with the head of my school today- it's a private school in Spain and the kids are Spanish learning all their subjects (normal primary stuff) in English. One boy has a special need linked to language - he struggles to speak and understand Spanish even though it's his primary language- nevermind English . He has been at the school 2 years and has made no progress in English at all - he can't understand a word! Bless him- he is no trouble and is very sweet but I feel he shouldn't be put through struggling to make head-or tail of whats happening around him- when he'd be better off in a Spanish school. (also we don't have the facilities to give him extra help)
I said this to the head and suggested we be frank with parents at parents night next week- she said I can't tell them the 'frank' truth but suggest he is struggling- I said I feel they need to make an informed choice about his future and so need the whole hard truth- she said no- we batted this back and forth for a bit then she said, "Just you wait until your boy born, you'll see parents don't want to hear that sort of thing"
Is it just me or do parents not want to know the truth about THEIR child isn't our responsibilty to tell the truth- no matter how much the school will loose in fees!!!
SO SORRY FOR HUGE RANT

 

[missac]

I agree, just because a parent doesn't want to hear something doesn't mean it doesn't need to be said!!! I think it is important to do the best for the child not the parents!!!

 

[SarahH]

if it was my child I would want to know... poor little mite

 

[Squiglet]

Pssfff.. of course the parents do..

When we first moved to Spain, Tia was put in a private English school, but I found that with her speech problems, the school just didn't have the facilities to cope... and the Spanish government won't put that help into place if the school is "English" and private. So I moved her to the local Spanish school. The headmistress at the time, had a right go at me when I told her I told her I was taking Tia out, saying that Tia would never cope in the Spanish school system and would always fail.

Because of Tia's speech problems, she was struggling with Spanish and Valenciano, although she understood what was being said to her. Her first year teacher was a cow, said there was nothing wrong and it was because we spoke English at home, that was why she was struggling, but she wouldn't have said anything, IF I hadn't pestered her as to why Tia was having trouble at school.

Her second year teacher was fabulous though and was the one who said that the speech threapy in the school was obviously insufficient and she needed to see a specialist... He even wrote a letter for us. That was two years ago... Tia has just finished her speech therapy last week for good... and has improved more than I can say in English and Spanish and has started Valenciano this year.

At the end of the day, the head of your school does not want you to say anything because if this boy is taken out of the school, then the school will loose business. Sad thing is that the boys education goes to pot because of greed essentially.

There's not much I can say only you are totally right on this and something should be said, but unfortunately its more than your jobs worth...