ISEB PreTest and Dyslexia

We only have one life, and we know the impact that being a different learner can have, not just on individuals but on whole families. how can we let this go on?

But where does one make a start to change things?

This is a snippet from the minutes of the
All Party Parliamentary Group on Dyslexia and other Specific Learning Difficulties Minutes, March 15th, 2016

The ISEB is just one part of a whole much bigger issue.

Speaker: Neil Alexander Passe -
How do we get to a child as being seen as dyslexic and as a SENCo I need those skills to make that judgement so for this session did a small research project in my borough. Out of 11 primary school SENCos only two of them had the ability to assess. This means that with the SEND Code of Practice saying that a child should be assessed at the earliest point SENCos are not able to do that. Most schools buy in to an Educational Psychology service in their boroughs which allows 7-9 visits a year. The research project also found that most SENCOs lacked the knowledge of what dyslexia is and they lacked support for that role. We have a barrier here that SENCos lacked the skills to be able to assess any child with a learning need. We need to build on the national SENCO award and say the requirement of a SENCo must be having the ability to assess, a similar Level 7 postgrad qualification. SENCos are supporting teachers so they can differentiate. However, there is a lack of skills within the normal teaching body for every teacher to support every child in the classroom as is required by the Children and Families Act so supporting what LA is saying for ITT we really need to make a SEN based CPD for professional development every year for a school. It should be seen as a requirement and that they have that knowledge-base so they can develop that within the teaching body.

My child is taking this exam next week- for the reasons above I am very concerned. This is not a fair exam

Thanks for this thread!!!

My DS (y5) is due to sit these tests next autumn and I'm really concerned about it. He recently did the online Durham tests (which I believe are similar) and did really poorly in the English - his English teacher was standing behind him and said rushed it, got lots wrong, got easier questions, which he then got wrong and finished first with a very low score - much lower than the teacher was expecting. On the plus side, he was delighted that he finished first .

All of the coping strategies he's been taught rely on pen and paper - reading the questions first, coloured overlays, underlining, circling names, making notes, chunking words, checking back over his work etc. He is allowed 15% extra time, but this is of limited help with these tests, esp as you can' t break down and revisit etc.

Thank you for the advice upthread - especially on how to deal with schools. I've emailed the ISEB as couldn't find anything on their site and they directed me to this.

I am going to call a couple of the schools we're interested in and ask a bit more about how it will work. It sounds really non-inclusive and I'm quite shocked about the arrangements....

Hi @bluestarind my child is taking this next week can you PM me - I would be interested.

I think standard depends on the school and how they are using it (some use as a bar, others use to set and as additional information)

can share personal experience for ISEB Exam for 11plus pre-test.

what kind of standard expected?

Hi , is anyone already did Pretest this year ? Which kind of comprehension was? Fiction or non- fiction ? Thank you

Very interesting- their website does not reflect this yet

Haven’t got that far as reading their full regs on it, but if normal way of working at school due to recognised need then we will be applying it to ISEB test

@trinity0097 does this need to be applied for with the relevant Ed Psychology report etc submitted?

The revised arrangements from September will allow extra time in the ISEB test for those eligible.

Hi @IdaDown

Probably year 7 (this is because we are ruling out schools which have a year 6 pretest.....)

Hi Meadow, when is your DC sitting pre-test?

I just saw this thread. I am also concerned about this. My child has slow processing speed and dyslexia. I have no idea how they are supposed to do this test

It may not allow extra time but other access arrangements such as a reader are. See p. 20 www.iseb.co.uk/getmedia/d59f538f-c022-44fe-8671-c97bbc403615/Documentation-CPT-Admin-Guide.pdf.aspx

I know it’s the same, I am a teacher who administers the test. One test is written per academic year, for anyone to sit in that time in any relevant year group. Results are then age standardised against independent school pupils. Only the maths test is adaptive.

This week I had a year 6 sit it, straight after half term a year 7. The year 6 this time had identical questions and text to the kids who sat it last term, but all different to the previous year.

Place marking as I have exactly the same problem. A year 5 child, very bright, dyslexic with a slow processing speed. It does seem very unfair.

But LIZS if you can’t read the question, you can’t answer the question. Similarly, if you have a spectrum or related condition, SpLD, tracking difficulty etc... then misinterpreting, misreading the question will lead to incorrect answers which then puts the kids back down the rung of question difficulty.

These final scores are weighted by difficulty not by an overall number of questions answered.
The selectives and ‘super selectives’ are looking at these top difficulty rated questions. Educational profiling.

Roses - Rugby and Winchester don’t use the pre-test at all.

Roses there are some excellent academic schools that don't use the ISEB pretest and also have a track record of excellent learning support and pastoral care. Off the top of my head - for boys/co-ed:
KCS
Dulwich College
Trinity
KGS
Latymer Upper
Brighton College (they use ISEB at 13 but not at 11) - they also have a specialist dyslexia centre

These are all excellent schools and I'm sure there are others that don't pretest. Good luck to your ds!

I think there may be some truth in thinking it is indicative of an attitude towards Splds. However the online tests also vary in difficulty so it chooses the level of subsequent questions based on whether the previous answer was correct or not, thus weighting the test towards those who have a higher iq than necessarily those who answer the most in the time. Your prep should be able to offer a range of suitable options. Maybe look at both forms of entry. Some do a deferred 13+ taken in y7 which covers a range of papers.

Trinity - Is the yr6 pre-test different from the yr7 one? How did you find that out?