So very angry

This is a HUGE venting post, so please forgive me....

I am incredibly angry with Miss R's teachers. We go through this sh*t every year....year starts well as Teacher gets to know Miss R and her problems and quirks, then by Term 3 the cracks are starting to show and things very rapidly go downhill until we get to Term 4 and we're all just praying for the year to be over.

At the beginning of this year, I met with Teacher M (in the classroom Mon & Thurs) and Teacher L (in the classroom the remaining 3 days but fresh out of teacher's college) and explained that I wasn't going to be harassing Miss R about completing homework. Basically I wasn't going to be making MY life a misery (as per the years preceding), that Miss R has other commitments after school 4 days/week + dance on weekends and I felt these were incredibly important and would be maintained, so homework wasn't going to be our priority. However, if they emailed me the details of the homework that needed to be completed, I would ensure that this happened but the rest.....if it got done, then it got done. Both teachers seemed ok with this. I've been emailed ONCE by Teacher M, back in March.

Since this term started, I've been getting weekly notes from Teacher M that Miss R hasn't been completing her spelling/grammar homework. I gather she wants me to write a note each and every time. I emailed her after the first note but am yet to receive a reply.

Today I see an evaluation from Teacher L for a presentation that Miss R had to give on Ancient Greece. She had to work with another girl, the topic was Discoveries & Inventions. I gather Teacher L allocated the partners and the topics. The evaluation was appalling and the written notes at the end were scathing.....basically saying that Miss R did not do her share, the presentation was poorly prepared and presented and it was clear that the girls had not worked as a team. So I asked Miss R about it and her version of events goes something along these lines.....

• the other girl decided that she was doing Inventions and Miss R had to do Discoveries
• Miss R asked me for help (I had no idea of the details; I assumed it was for a project) and it was really difficult to find any Discoveries that Miss R could put into her own words. Most of them were far too complicated for her to explain.
• Miss R approached Teacher L for assistance but was ignored
• the other girl offered no assistance so Miss R was basically left to her own devices.

All of this I could be ok with except for one thing. Miss R has a learning disability. Miss R has a language disorder. Miss R has Asperger's Syndrome. Miss R could have achieved something if she had been given just the tiniest amount of support!!

I showed Mr G the report and he just about had steam coming out of his ears.The bit we find so very offensive is that Miss R was marked particularly poorly in 2 areas.....language and eye contact. FFS! This child has a language disorder and Asperger's. This child finds it incredibly difficult to articulate in a concise and coherent manner and the classic signs of Aspie's is that THEY CANNOT MAINTAIN EYE CONTACT. If this teacher had done even an ounce of research, she would know that.

I am very, very close to sending yet another email addressed to Teacher M & Teacher L and cc'd to the ILP Co-ordinator, the Middle School Co-ordinator and the Principal. The email will read something along the lines of  "Dear Teacher M & Teacher L, Miss R will not be completing ANY homework until she is given the classroom support that she needs and that the school is funded for."  Wonder what kind of response that will get?

Guess I will be scheduling a meeting with the teachers sometime soon. Might wait until I am a bit calmer though.

PS The saving grace of all this? Miss R is actually very happy and doesn't seem to be bothered by the poor grades. Each day when I collect her from school and ask how the day went, the response is always "Good". This is the first year I've been getting a consistently positive response to that question....