How does the school communicate with about your child's SEN?

[Corestrategy]

I have a dyslexic child in Year 7. He is getting support at school but I only know because he tells me. The school has not ever been in touch with me about it. I realise that he has only been there for half a term but I would have expected the school to be communicating with parents about this. I want dialogue with them so that I can be informed about supporting him at home.
The school is very rough and I suspect it just doesn't think it is worthwhile liaising with the parents of low attainers.
I'm going to ask to speak to the head teacher at her surgery in December and I wonder if anyone has any positive (or negative) experiences to give me some ideas about what to suggest to her.
TIA

[eatyourveg]

Ask for an appointment with the senco to discuss your dc's IEP. Ask your dc what areas he/she finds toughest and then ask the senco to incorporate some specific targets into your dc's IEP that will help address it.

The IEP should include short term and long term targets both should be smart (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound) your dc should have a hand in drawing it up. It should also mention what resources will be available to help meet the targets set

Does the LSA scribe for your dc and if so might they consider offering a laptop to increase independence?

Ask too if he is having any out of class support whereby an LSA can work on a 1:1 basis reinforcing concepts learned in class.

Consider asking what assistive technologies are available to help your dc - do they provide laptops with speech recognition software ie dragon

Do they have dictaphones available that can be used to record lessons where there is a lot of note taking required. If the answer is no, can your dc take one in?

Do they have coloured overlays available

Please can any handouts be on a specific coloured paper (if that has been found to make a difference to your dc)

Do the computers all have dyslexic friendly fonts installed. Teachers making any resources for handouts should be using these fonts imo.

Does your dc have a coloured map of the school campus (if your dc has particular orientation difficulties)

Does that give you somewhere to start?

[Corestrategy]

Thanks, eat. That is very useful. I will ask about some of those strategies as I think that they could help him. I also want them to tell me what they have already put in place and explain to me what level he is currently working at etc. My main concern is that I want them to have a dialogue about him. I don't think they have done and IEP or anything equivalent.