Page 14 - 1.News and Views Spring 2025 for Jim.

An O.A.P. almost back at school! Len Wigg

I attended a grammar school in the 1950’s. I had a brief period under the auspices of the Y.M.C.A
Education Department supporting some schools in and around Southampton at the period of the
Raising of the School Leaving Age in the early 1970’s. Then I was a member of Support Staff at
Comprehensive Schools in Plymouth and then at Twynham at Christchurch. Thanks to a neighbour’s
son I have encountered an Academy, but by proxy!

On the day before Spring term started our neighbour was sent an e-mail informing her that she was
not to send her 12 year old son to the Academy at all, but to keep him at home. In Primary and then
Junior School he was diagnosed as needing to have some assistance which worked reasonably well
until the covid shut-down. I know from our elder daughter, a Special Needs Teacher in Hertfordshire,
there are many thousands of young people now in a similar situation! We moved here in the summer
of 2020 and we got to know our neighbour a bit. I have now discovered that they bought a selection of
age appropriate booklets to help him continue to learn, but this was not easy for any of them.

When he did go back to school, the process started for a proper assessment which clearly indicated he
had Special Educational Needs. Specifically he has dyslexia – difficulty with reading – and Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Quite often these two aspects go together. The diagnosis, which
probably took 2 or 3 hours, produced a 32 page ‘Statement’ which guaranteed some funding for help.
With some staff assistance help he survived.

Then he transferred to a much larger Academy, where there were quite a lot of other ‘statemented’
students and there wasn’t necessarily help for him in the whole range of subjects. Understandably he
got further behind. For his second year in the Academy he was put onto a reduced timetable, so there
were times his mum had to go and collect him part way through the day.

Quite a while ago I had told her I had had some experience with supporting students at Twynham. So
that Monday she came and knocked on the door. I have started giving him some help at home. I am
delighted to be useful!

I am also relieved NOT to be working in an Academy. In the Knowledge Organiser I have discovered
that there are 2 hours of prescribed homework each night. It is set out in a Homework Grid 80 pages
long! I had homework decades ago, which was derived from what we had learned in the class-room or
laboratory that day, like writing up the details of a chemistry experiment. It made sense and followed
on from it.

This Grid covers the whole year and all the possible subjects. At the start of each subject there are
definitions of specialist words, - fair enough. The first topic is ‘Origins of Storytelling’ Key Vocabulary 6
in the list Pedagogical - Relating to teaching and item 18 in the section Language Techniques – Pathetic
Fallacy – Use of the weather to reflect the mood of the protagonist or set a specific atmosphere. Can
you keep up?

The Academy’s Expectations are ‘Students will follow the weekly homework grid for each unit. This
underpins the learning that takes place within each unit and it is expected that all tasks are completed
in full. Each task should take approximately 30 minutes to complete. Tutors will check each morning.
(Former teachers: How do you like that directive?’ )

The instructions go on. ‘Self Quizzing: Students should self-quiz for 30 minutes using the LOOK, COVER,
WRITE, CHECK method… Students should not move on to the next set of lines – some subjects 5 lines

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