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Secondary education

Appeals based on DS having Dyslexia

10 replies

Iamaworrywart · 20/05/2011 14:56

Has anyone had any experience of appealing for a place at secondary school on the social/medical grounds of dyslexia? If you have I'd love to hear from you.

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bubblecoral · 20/05/2011 18:50

I appealed and my ds's aspergers was a big part of that. The National Autistic society were excellent at providing me with relevant evidence to explain the condition and what provision is usually made. Maybe the equivalent organisation for dyslexia will be able to help you in a simelar way.

No idea if that will help you at all, but thought it was worth saying!

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admission · 20/05/2011 21:29

Most LAs will argue that any school can cope with a child with dyslexia, even though I accept that there are schools that are far better at handling dyslexia than others. As such panels tend not to admit solely on dsylexia grounds. You need to beef up the reasons why this school is the right school.

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Iamaworrywart · 21/05/2011 11:45

Bubblecore - Thanks I will contact the British Dyslexia Society and see what they say.

Admission - I think you may be right. Ed Psych has spoken to the school and they told her that they don't provide anything different for Dyslexic students to other schools. However they do have a separate SEN library, residential trips for borderline C/D grade GCSE students and maximum class sizes of 20 which can fall to as low as 12. Ed Psych said she was going to base her supporting statement around the last point as she feels that class sizes will be a big issue for DS and how he progresses as secondary school.

The school in question have also advised that their appeals will be held between the 20/6-22/7 their end date being way past the 6/7 deadline outlined in the Appeals Code. I've raised it with their Independent Clerk but haven't had any feedback as yet. Does this sound unusual to you?

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Jaspants · 21/05/2011 13:23

Just playing devil's advocate to the class size thing - if your DS' dyslexia is bad enough to require a statement, then any school will be able to facilitate small group work, therefore I would be cautious about putting the class size issue as part of the appeal.

DS is (statemented for ASD) in mainstream, and the school will have them working in small groups in the class with an LSA or take a small group to the SEN base to work, which could counteract your last point.

Sorry thats not mean to put a dampener on your case, merely to make you aware that the appeal panel could say that this is not sufficient reason to place your DS at your chosen school.

I'm unsure about the residential trips for borderline students? Surely trips should be open to all students if it is a part of the curriculum?

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GiddyPickle · 21/05/2011 15:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

bubblecoral · 21/05/2011 19:11

If you do get advice from the British Dyslexia Association, try to look at some of the things they reccommend for education and then see if the school you are appealing for sounds like it could fit some of those reccommendations. Look in the prospectus and OFSTED report for things the school does well that would benefit your dd and use it as evidence.

From my limited knowledge of appeals, which has only come from going through one in the same way as you, I think appeal panels do listen to things that aren't strictly relevant. For example, I stated during our hearing that I was concerned that my ds may be a target for bullying because of his social difficulties and a facial birthmark he has and that I was aware that the school we wanted has a strong bullying policy and a good reputation for dealing with it. In theory, all schools are supposed to have a good bullying policy, and deal with it equally well, so the appeal panel should possibly not have considered that as one of my many points. But on the letter we recieved today from the appeal clerk, it said that the panel had considered the fact that I was reassured by the school's good reputation for dealing with bullying. So the panel, while being proffessional, are human, and know that some schools are better than others at dealing with certain things.

So while I accept and agree with GiddyPickles point that schools deal with dyslexia daily (as they do bullying and aspergers - both very common) it can't hurt to raise your concerns. It's kind of obvious that some schools will be better at dealing with dyslexia than others.

In your situation I would also say that smaller class sizes for all pupils will benefit your dd because although smaller classes could be provided in a bigger school, that would mean segregating her and pointing her out to her peers as having a difficulty. Whereas if all students are automatically in small classes and recieve above average levels of attention, your dd would get the help she needs without making her appear 'different', which could damage her confidence and self esteem.

Again, I said something simelar to that, in that I said the high level of pastoral care and support was provided to all students in the school we were appealing for (and evidenced it from the prospectus and OFSTED report) which would mean that ds wouldn't need to be singled out for extra special support that would draw even more attention to his differences and difficulties. Again, it was mentioned in the letter explaining why we won the case, so I think the panel did take it into consideration.

You need to use absolutely everything you have, let the panel judge whether they think it is relevant or not.

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admission · 21/05/2011 21:06

They should be keeping to the cut off date for secondary appeals which is 6th July for those appeals that have come immediately from the initial allocation of places.
Obviously there can be appeal hearings at any time of the year for appealants after the initial "rush".
In previous situations where the timetable has not been kept to, there has been a good reason and the LGO has been happy for it to be late. Given that we are in late May, which gives a full month before 6th July I would not have expected there to need to be any kind of postponement but you can't do anything about it till you actually know the appeal dates. The 22nd july sounds like the end of term date.

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Yazkiz · 04/01/2021 17:23

@lamaworrywart, did you win your appeal and if so on what grounds? I'm in the same situation now and my son has dyslexia too. I'm trying to research grounds for successful appeals.

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prh47bridge · 04/01/2021 19:13

I doubt you will get an answer. This thread is 10 years old and, as far as I can see, the OP hasn't posted on Mumsnet since then.

As Admission says up thread, in theory any school can cope with dyslexia. An appeal panel is unlikely to admit your son just on that basis. You need to show that he will be disadvantaged if he is not admitted to this school. If you can show that this school has better provision for children with dyslexia than the allocated school that may give you a case.

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Yazkiz · 04/01/2021 22:04

@prh47bridge, Thanks for your reply. I won't focus on the dyslexia.
As they are a school that uses iPads, I am going to say it supports his learning style. I won't necessary say he has dyslexia. I have other reasons for him going to that school too.

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