Marking the work of a child with dyslexia

Just keep on at the SENCO about it, copy in tutor and head of year. DS has illegible writing and it took until after Christmas of Year 7 to get regular access to a laptop despite school having all the information well before he started. For the peer marking - I would have a word with that teacher and say DS found it upsetting but you do need to build his resilience on this - peer marking is used in all subjects and for some it just isn't practical to use a laptop all the time even once he has one.

Remind the school they must make reasonable adjustments and must make their best endeavours to meet DS’s SEN and the current arrangements are not meeting his needs. If that doesn’t work, formally complain.

Alongside this, request an EHCNA yourself because he needs more support. Not just in relation to the laptop but more generally.

I know that.

It took me all my spare time for two years to get my daughter's EHCP. And I still ended up buying a laptop myself (for one thing the school ones are heavy and she has a long commute).

I'm not going to post on the thread again as I feel like it's a bit of a distraction from what the OP originally posted about which was essentially differentiation for a child who finds languages very hard.

SEN provision is completely separate to IT for staff. And as my post said, if the support required cannot be provided within the resources available to the school, the school needs to support an EHCNA request, especially when it sounds like the tip of the iceberg. An EHCP can include tech, assistive tech, specialist software, training to use it, staff to support it… on top of the other support it sounds like OP’s DS needs. That is ‘the real world’. Also in the ‘real world’ there are schools where all pupils, including under 16s, have devices.

With the greatest respect @EndlessLight, in the real world my state comprehensive school (in an affluent part of the country) has still not got reliable working IT for the teachers...

Anyway good luck OP and I hope you can get more support for your son.

Under 16s manage their own devices in lots of schools. In some schools, all pupils have devices. If the pupil needs support to manage the device and its use because of their SEN, the school should be supporting that. If the support required cannot be provided within the resources available to the school, the school needs to support an EHCNA request, especially when it sounds like the tip of the iceberg.

DS3 now has EOTAS but was in school up to the beginning of this year. He had a laptop from school via his EHCP. It was the school’s property, set up by their IT department, but given to him for the duration he was there. He took it too and from school and his 1:1 helped with organisation, etc.

DS2 doesn’t yet have an EHCP (mid appeal) but he uses a device for some subjects. The school is supporting him with this. His poor executive function coupled with his impulsiveness are not beneficial to being organised.

In my reasonably extensive experience of this students need to be 16 to have that responsibility. A non charged laptop is an expensive paperweight!

My 11 year old is managing because I'm essentially organising her and she used a laptop throughout Junior school years.

The problem with school laptops is that often they aren't charged or are faulty, the child can't store work on them so needs internet access and children are put off using them if they are constantly late due to collecting/returning. This is even more of an issue if the child has co-morbid ADHD and executive function is challenged.

If they have their own device, internet access isn't needed in the same way, they are responsible for making sure it works and is charged.

It would only be reasonable if the child could get and use a laptop for every lesson. It wouldn’t be reasonable if, for example, the laptop could only be signed out for a lesson at a time and the pupil’s anxiety prevented them from picking up and dropping off at the start/end of each lesson rather than being picked up in the morning and taken to all lessons that day or even taking the laptop home. Or if the place to get the laptops took 5 minutes to get to/from at the start/end of each lesson thus missing so much lesson time.

I think the issue is if they have laptops available to check out every lesson then that is a reasonable substitute at least in the short term.

DD's school has no such resources except for 6th form.

Also agree it's completely ridiculous. They don't even need to connect to the internet.

DD has her ipad as much for her hypermobile fingers - which make writing by hand extremely painful and difficult - as for her dyslexia. What would your school do in that situation? She's used that since primary.

Thousands of children use laptops everyday in school and for exams. In order to get the use for exams it also has to be their normal way of working, so your school are actually creating massive disadvantage for their students.

I would just send him in with one and be prepared to have a big fight with school on it.

I second @TeenToTwenties’s post. The school is fobbing you off.

That's ridiculous (ie the school's position is ridiculous).
You could provide a laptop and the school's IT department could put restrictions on as needed (or advise you on how to do it).
Lots of dyslexic students use laptops in schools.

My DD uses a laptop so I got her a lightweight Samsung tablet with a long battery life to use in year 7.

She has an EHCP but I didn't want to wait around and see if/when school would get round to providing one.

I do have to get involved with keeping it charged, making sure the camera is deactivated and emailing classwork and tests to subject teachers.

So it has pros and cons.

I would recommend being polite and persistent to get him support and to stop worrying about being "that parent".

Unfortunately MFL is often far worse for dyslexic children than English as they have to spell correctly.

Peer marking is also very normal and in our experience you never get proper access adjustments outside formal end of year exams or public exams. I believe some schools do manage it - but I haven't come across it in practice.

DD tried 3 different ones and ultimately it was agreed to drop languages completely. However, she does really well on Duolingo learning languages orally and is interested to see if it's better with something like Korean or Chinese that has symbols rather than letters.

With the laptop, I would seriously recommend looking into funding one yourself or via a charity. It makes a massive difference having their own device (ipads with keyboard cases are lighter weight, less obtrusive and work out cheaper).

How did he revise for the test?

If he has severe dyslexia, do they have any scheme whereby he can be excused doing an MFL and do additional English instead?
Or just be excused the MFL?

Chase the SENCO again. The school needs to be providing support now. Encourage DS to go and get a laptop each time he needs one. You should also consider requesting an EHCNA.

I thought it didn't sound like he was upset because your original post only mentioned your surprise around his low score, and nothing about his response - which actually seems to be the bigger issue around whether his SEN could have been better accommodated. I'm sorry he was so upset.

When I said he should have used a laptop, I meant he should have one to use - I didn't mean to sound like I was putting responsibility on him. Definitely speak to the SENCO. Perhaps the Spanish teacher could adjust the testing for him, or have a mark system that credits knowledge and correct spelling separately.

Have you spoken to/chased the SENCO? It sounds like the vocab test is the tip of the iceberg and DS needs more support all round. Other than using a laptop what support is DS receiving/on his pupil passport? Does he have an EHCP?