Pick your Battles

In bottom set year 9, there are quite a few characters. Some of them have little to no understanding of number, and cannot count to 20, some have developmental delays or behaviour problems which mean they've missed too much school to keep up. There's only 7 of them, but keeping everybody on task is near-to impossible. The first 2 turn up early, quiet and eager to go, too divorced from reality to realise their dismal situation. I go outside to find my 3 chatty girls, who try every possible distraction from mathematics, and haul them inside, removing one boy from his game with the light switches on the way. They all get seated and we're just starting when I hear Moany Girl outside, moaning with Trouser Boy. I open the door and they think about running away before submitting to the Teacher Look and coming inside. Hurrah.

I turn back to the class. One girl is painting her nails, another is highlighting her planner in great detail. The lad at the back is trying to get underneath the radiator and the two who were there first have finished the starter and are getting restless. Trouser Boy starts an argument with the TA about where he should sit, and Moany Girl sits and moans. All lesson she cannot be persuaded, cajoled or coaxed into putting pen to paper. She will give answers verbally, unless I start to write them down for her. Everything is awful, the room, her coat (which I asked her to remove), the pen I lent her, the work, maths. Eventually the others leave, and we're still sat there. We have a date, a learning objective and 3 answers in her book. We have stalled. I push once more. 'Come on, lets get that question number down, we don't want to spend all break here' and her grumbling finds words 'Fuck off!'

She leaves, I send it up the chain, she is suspended, with a letter about a detention. She returns, with the dreaded note from Mum. Mum is not prepared for her to do an after school detention, and I am rude for writing in red. There are capitals and underlining. Eventually she does the detention, after much wrangling with Mum. She returns to class and things are worse than before. She sits and moans, and every minute is another battle. Coat off, pen out, date down, starter done. Each of these battles take 5 minutes. I'd need a day for her to do this lesson. She plays for time, scores points, cheers when she feels she's got one over me. Notes from Mum continue. I am accused of bullying Moany Girl, taking advantage of her learning difficulty, threatening her, not helping her. I offer help from a child-protection safe distance, praise her whenever I can, am scrupulously fair, back off when she gets cross. The battles continue. Are they getting shorter?

I think they are.