DS15 Y(YR11) just been assesses as dyslexic What can I expect from school?

I have no professional experience but both my DCs have SENs and access arrangements, one of them on the basis of dyslexia. It probably is too late to do much this year now but still worth talking to the school. The guidance for access arrangements www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/AA_regs_20-21_FINAL.pdf does state that late applications may be made but you do still need all the evidence.

I think some of the responses above are harsh too, Ed.Psychs have professional codes of conduct, the blanket term dyslexia is possibly not helpful in itself as you do need to drill down to the specific needs of the individual but these assessment results are valid. Both my DCs had their EP assessments in year 5, one is in year 12 now and the exact difficulties identified then still hold true now.

Also - depending on the severity, he may fall into the category of disability covered by the Equalities Act, which is definitely a case of crossing a boundary from one group of students to another.

Ds is a bit younger than yours op. We have just had an assessment at school for extra support in exams.

We’ve always known he struggled with handwriting and had some other issues in the classroom, but nobody has been able to put a finger on what the problem is.

His report showed he is 99.7 centile for cognitive ability but 2nd centile for processing speed. Although dyslexia hasn’t been mentioned (I’m not sure this was the purpose of the assessment). Does anyone know if it is likely?

Like you I hope we will be able to help him more effectively now. I’d be interested to hear what your school do put in place

We got DD assessed at the age of 8. Schools have been next to useless because she is bright and quiet. She had a little reading intervention in primary and has had odd bouts of intervention at secondary. Her Secondary school had a copy of her EP report before she started, I have sent this several times since, reminded teachers at parents evenings most were unaware (which showed up in some of the comments made by them). She is also in year 11 the first lot of timed assessments she received no extra time whatsoever but its ok because they would be doing more tests!!!
All she we has received is if they remember and its convenient for them she might receive 25% extra time in some tests.

@TwigTheWonderKid some absolutely horrendous posts on this thread!

I am severely dyslexic as is my son. He was only diagnosed at the age of 18 (last year of A levels), I was only diagnosed in my 20s.

If your son plans to go to university, you will find they have amazing provision for dyslexics. My son refused all extra help as he wants to do things on his own but please know that if your son chooses a path of further education, bizarrely the help is much better at that point!

His dyslexia means he has trouble writing - he didn't write at school till he was 7 (yet remained undiagnosed for so many years despite us asking!). What rings clear to me from your post is the anxiety your son suffers - my son also suffered with this and I think it's the stress of knowing they can't do things as well as they think they should. To be honest, the best help you can get him now is someone who understands this frustration and helps him deal with it.

Yes chat to head of year and take it from there, I would have thought extra time/laptop etc

I have no idea what @Wingdefender is speaking of. It’s very old fashioned to think children should still be forced to write and laptops won’t help them. Really wingdender you seem dismissive of the whole notion of SEN

For the hyper mobility you may need an ot referral to get it confirmed and look at ways to support him ie writing slope or using side of A4 folder to lean on, good posture, finger/wrist exercises etc. Can he touch type yet? If not he needs to decide if typing would be any quicker and less tiring.

What I found was the school won't do anything until they get the report. However I would be making meetings with them now as his grades will be dependant on the scores hes got in internal tests for which he will not have had extra time.

The school will want time to read and analyse the report (is he staying at this school for A-level? If not they may not want to know....as it's essentially too late for him)

If it were me I absolutely would be emphasising the fact that he should have had 25% extra time on exams.

You may have to bite your lip a little, with DS1 although he was younger, I had a lot of "oh he's fine, he's just an average student" when I questioned whether there was a problem. Then after he was diagnosed "oh well he's obviously dyslexic..."

The same with DS2 (who frankly I only had tested because of his brother! Even I didn't think he was dyslexic)

On a practical level I absolutely would not switch him to a laptop immediately - I would get him on a touch typing course over the summer and start him on a laptop to coincidence with A-Levels.

Again although mine were younger it does take a while to get used to it as a "usual way of working"

With an essay subject like history he will need to type at a high speed so you need to make sure he can achieve this.

Try not to worry or feel guilty. My DS who had dyslexic tendencies at primary, coped at secondary but never quite got the grades. Started at a fab 6th from college and within 2 weeks issues were picked up asssed and computer and extra time.put.in place. His hand writing is 30% speed of normal . He now getting great marks A's and B's and hopefully off to uni in September. They know and will part pay for the formal post 16 assessment when he gets there

@TwigTheWonderKid

Have you had an EdPsych report?

If so does it give specific recommendations - such as extra time in exams, or laptop use?

Is he 16 yet? What does he plan to do post gcse?

Going forwards a Post 16 assessment will help with exam access arrangements and adjustments such as laptop use or scribe, extra time if appropriate, through to university if he is likely to go. "Usual mode of working" means using these adjustments in class, internal assessments and so on over a period of time and teachers endorsing it. For extra time it may be that internal exams are noted where extra time is used by changing ink colour or font at end of normal time. JCQ is the body which issues guidance to schools for access arrangements for external exams.

The standard in my school is 25% extra time in exams. Possibly a computer to read the text or a scribe to write for him.

You're too late for this year but you should look into it for further education. We still scribe and read for A Levels.

We were very similar to you. We had my son assessed in year 7. He is now year 12. The school do recognise private assessments as currently there is one who will diagnose dyslexia. My son is also good at reading but spelling and writing is poor. He gets extra time in exams and can use a lap top if he wants. When he was younger he missed French for extra lessons to help catch up or with homework. He also had access to an online programme. School don't provide any support as he's now in 6th form but I think it's important that his teachers are aware. Also it really helped him getting the diagnosis. He was really struggling and the Ed psy made it very clear that he's not stupid (which is how he felt) but he learns in a different way.

As a teacher and a parent of a son with dyslexia I'd ignore Wingdefender! No idea what she is going on about. My son uses a laptop and it has helped him enormously with his writing, hand writing things hinders him and his SENDCO is absolutely of the opinion that using a laptop is the way to go in order for him to fulfill his potential.
It might be a bit late now for his GCSEs but there should definitely be some things put in place to support him through A-Levels.

I opened this thread as my DD is y11 and I am thinking of trying to arrange a formal assessment as she has a collection of varied difficulties.

However, I suspect the previous posters are right, there is not much chance of anything being put in place for GCSEs. The best you can probably hope for is for access arrangements for A levels.

DD has slow processing. This was assessed in y7 and re-confirmed in y9. She qualified for extra time, but then lost it for some subjects as she wasn't making good enough use for it. There are tests the SENCO can run, they have to score below a certain level to qualify for extra time, and then it has to become their usual way of working, with benefit shown (eg moving to a different coloured pen).

You are right that his high cognitive ability will have helped mask slower processing but as the work gets harder it causes more issues. I honestly have no idea whether bottom 13% for processing would be 'slow enough' to qualify for extra time.

I would
a) contact SENCO / HoY to inform them of results (and why you organised the test) and enquire whether it is too late for them to assess for extra time for GCSEs
b) if he is staying on for A levels, ask them to assess anyway for A levels

Unfortunately, if this is the first they have heard from you my guess is you won't get very far for the GCSEs, but it may still be beneficial for the A levels.

I am myself in the process of reviewing the info I have had on DD over the years to then ask the school & college SENCOs about further assessments for my DD as there is still more going on than we understand.

Hindsight is a marvellous thing.

Our school don’t facilitate anything apart from extra time (presumably plus anything in an EHCP but they don’t have many children with those). They did assess everyone for that though I think. Did he have any assessments? You could ask the school. If his processing is on the 13th centile he may not have qualified in the test. As above there is a cut off date to apply so not much you can do now for gcse. They’re not full exams so would it help him much anyway?

@LolaSmiles we had the assessment because I have seen my usually happy, bright boy become increasingly withdrawn and anxious and watched him vomit with fear every time he has to do a test or knows he'll have to read in front of hs class. I was clutching at straws, but not in the way you are insinuating.

Can you please explain to me what the phrase " usual way of working" means?
I'm not insinuating anything, just that it's getting to the end of the course and now there's a push to see what can be done. Usually substantial concerns about learning needs would have come up long before the end of Year 11.

Usual way of working is exactly that, that a student has a range of access arrangements that are their typical way of working.
For example, some of my students have used laptops or had access to a scribe from year 8 or 9. Some sit their exams in a separate room due to mental health issues and they're unable to cope in the main exam hall. Some students have rest breaks due to medical issues or physical disabilities. These students will have had these arrangements in place in their mock exams, and often during in class assessments, often with their papers annotated by staff to show where the arrangement was applied. We then have a body of evidence to show the child's SEN/medical needs, usually we keep a sample of work before the access arrangements were implemented, then we keep copies of assessments with the arrangements. When it comes to submitting access arrangements to the exam board, we have proof that the arrangements we are implementing for their GCSEs are typical of the adjustments already in place.
There is a deadline to submit these arrangements to the exam boards.

There are many causes of slow processing speed, however it is characteristic of dyslexia. Of course it’s not the only deficit

Also mind maps help my daughter, she has to write a minimum of three types of maps for it to ‘stick’,her homework takes hours!

Dyslexia and the diagnosis you have written are two different things, I’m dyslexic but my daughter has slow processing, above average ability, it just takes her her a long time to process the info she is reading, for example she needs to read something several times before she ‘gets it’ once she has got it she retains it, it just takes a lot longer, she has an extra 20 minutes in exams. Dyslexia is completely different.

Absolute rubbish that 1/4 of the students in a class have a ‘diagnosis’ of dyslexia, the estimate is that 1 in 10 may have it, far fewer are diagnosed. It’s a very standard assessment which is in depth and takes a few hours and can only be performed by a qualified Ed psych or qualified teacher with an additional assessor qualification. These people are professionals with integrity it doesn’t matter whether it’s paid for or not.
I think for GCSE it is really too late but I would suggest you pay for some sessions with a trained specialist teacher to assess access requirements going forward. If the school provide nothing their ‘normal way of working’ will be doing them a disservice. If you have a bright child who works hard you’ll get fobbed off because although your child will not be totally failing or disrupting the class but they will probably be far below their potential. SEN doesn’t feature much in teaching training, if you have the money pay for help from a qualified professional. The whole rhetoric of not using labels seems mainly to exist to avoid the need to put resource into giving additional help. There’s huge value in having a proper diagnosis of dyslexia for the individual self esteem and because it is recognised by name in the DDA which provides protection from discrimination.

You have completely misunderstood the situation. The English teacher is spot on. She has named his issues. You say she is ‘not qualified to join the dots’ but she IS qualified, and there are no fits to join, not in the way you mean. The first begin and end with what she said.

You are looking for something which doesn’t exist. He has some specific areas of weakness. That is what the teacher identified. That is the data the school have. That is the data your son has. That is the data that will be used in assessments. You refer to ‘new information’ in your OP, but fundamentally there isn’t any, other than one private assessors gave one particular, vague, subjective label, which is irrelevant.

(And will still be irrelevant at university)

I don’t think you have really grasped what SEND actually means. You seem to think your son has crossed some dirt if boundary from one group of students into another. That’s not what’s happened. You have just said the school was already aware of his weaknesses. The ‘assessment’ doesn’t add or change anything. It’s us the weaknesses that are important, not the vague, subjective label, particularly when it has been bought and paid for

I hope this clarifies the situation for you.

Just contact his year head, like I said. Discuss what problems he had, how you can support him, any recommendations suggested in your private assessment, etc

With 6 weeks to go I would expect very little. It feels like a last minute clutching at straws to get a boost as the course comes to an end.

To have exam access arrangements for examined assessments, it needs to be the candidate's usual way of working, which usually involves assessments that are ok-ed by school, a SEN plan that is implemented in all their assessments over a period time, and this evidence is used to justify the access arrangements.

You could discuss the recommendations from the report with the SENco and see what can be implemented in lessons to support DC's learning, but it's well past the time to affect the exam arrangements.