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you are right to be angry about it yes, he wasn't doing 'what he liked' but he was showing that she was expecting him to be doing what he couldn't do.children should not be left in classrooms on their own as from what i remember the teacher is responsible for anything that happens did she really expect your son to be able to tell her he couldn't do it??some people have no idea talk to the head but take someone for support with you. do you have a parent partnership in your area? if you talk to your lea they would know.can you take some literature in with you for the teacher to read? take the IEP in too and ask for it to reflect his difficulties with creative tasks as if he struggles with language how can he be expected to complete this on his own?i'm a teacher and i use storyboards with prompts for this kind of task so the pupils know what needs to be in each bit, they can draw it and we can work forward from there (it only needs to be about 6 boxes to break a story down)hope you get some support from others soon who'll be along toosuze x

When talking to the headteacher focus on the fact that your child was left in the class on his own as this is definitely not allowed. Focus on this and the head will have to be on your side, as it's a health and safety issue, even if you are 'difficult' parents!! xx

I have a dd who also finds writing difficult and I am a primary teacher too. The class teacher needs to provide support for a child to do a task - if he's not doing it, it means he can't for some reason, as what child would willingly do nothing, knowing they'd miss break? (Sometimes some children do think they can get away with not working or not putting an effort in, of course, but keeping them back at playtime soon cures that if they don't have other problems!)There are many ways of supporting a child with writing - breaking up the task in the first place, giving sentences starters or key words to use, helping the class or individual child produce a plan etc - it doesn't necessarily mean one to one support is required or it could be he could get started if the teacher spent a couple of minutes at the beginning checking he knows how to start.(In year 4 we asked dd's hopeless teacher to send home incomplete work, as she was doing nothing at school - I soon discovered the tasks were way too open ended and unstructured for her e.g. 'write a poem')You ARE right to be angry, though I would advise changing that to 'conerned that he is struggling' and talk to the school about how he can be better supported to succeed with his writing.I have also found it helpful to explain to school about 'executive fuctioning difficulties' which have helped them understand why dd can't do things the way other children can. We gave them the leaflet 'Can't do, Won't do' from Family Futures. I am also reading 'Smart but scattered' and have found this helpful too.BTW there is no way he should have been left alone to work - unless an adult was supervising from just outside the room maybe? It is not acceptable for a child to be left alone like this and teachers are advised THEY could be at risk of prosecution if something goes wrong in such a situation. (They don't necessarily need to actually be helping a child with work if they're kept in at breaktime, but it would be more helpful in your ds's case if this had happened)I'd set up a meeting asap - with head and probably senco.

Thanks for all your replies.According to DS the task was very open ended and he didnt get any help with it. He was previously screened for dyslexia and got a 0.7 "at risk" score - it was mentioned that he had "difficulties generating ideas".DS said the teacher was in the staff room with the door closed - no popping in to check on him.This was for a 15 minute break and a half hour break.