To want to take my DS out of school and home educate him

[StuntNun]

I'm posting here to try and get a bit more traffic.

DS is coming to the end of year 2; he has recently been diagnosed with Specific Learning Difficulties (basically dyslexia) and is currently working at Reception level in literacy but keeping up with the class in numeracy. DH and I knew he was struggling with literacy but hadn't realised just how far behind he is. (The school was giving him easier homework than the rest of the class so he seemed to us to be doing better than he actually was.)

His school want to keep him back with the year below so he can consolidate his work at this level but don't seem to have a plan for how he can catch up with the rest of his year. They have said that he can't have one-to-one reading support until at least year 4. DH thinks we should try to transfer him to another school that may be more supportive of his special needs. But I'm worried that it has reached the point where he would not be able to catch up. AIBU to think it might be better to pull him out of school and home educate him myself so he can work at his own pace?

Yes sorry for the confusion, I'm English so I think year 2 but here in NI it's called P3. So they are putting him in with the year younger than him from September 2014 then plan to put him back in with his own year from September 2015. In principle keeping him back might be best for him to consolidate his learning but I can't see how he can catch up later.

I'm not sure how that would work for him at all. I have a child in P5, I'm not sure how she could have progressed in school at all, if she'd skipped P4 especially with maths. Certainly in her school it's the big transition year mathematically.

Has he not received any additional classroom assistance at all?. I don't know if HE is the way forward for your son, but equally I wouldn't be convinced that his current school is thinking of what's best for him at the minute. Do you think the school are trying to push you out?

As other posters have said - are there any other nearby schools that have a more supportive structure. I know obviously it's a bit different in NI with regards to state & maintained schools but I'd seriously consider discussing another option with school or looking to move him & looking into HE.

My son is dyslexic and v behind with literacy. He is in 6th year of primary (scottish state school) and finally getting it. Maths however is too easy for him. He has had extra help at school, especially after the first couple of years, from class learning assistant. Also we have paid for 1 to 1 dyslexia action tuition over the last couple of years which really helped.

Never at any point was keeping him down a year suggested even though his writing is more than one year behind. I think your school are wrong / lazy to suggest this.

I imagine that the school feel that once he has learnt the basics, he will have a much better chance of catching up to his age group than if he's rushed into a class that does not teach the basics. I think this may be logical but also agree with the poster above that it could really knock his confident which could have a much longer lasting negative affect that him being a bit late with reading/writing aged 7. I would move him up but look to support with additional specialised tutoring and reading at home etc

Of course you can HE if you feel able and equipped to do so.

One word of caution I would give is avoid doing your research into HE on support sites (facebook and others) who have 'avoid the LA at any cost' as a rule or apparent mantra.

They will frighten the life out of you and start making you believe that the LA will come in and seize your children if you even so much as talk to them because the LA apparently hate HE and are out to get all home edders because the believe they are all doing it to cover up child abuse.

They will also bully you if you even think of using the word school in any of your descriptive terms about your style of education.

Stick to more balanced well rounded groups that are not only run by one self professed guru and a merry band of minions whose sole goal in life is to blow smoke up the arse of the guru.(these gurus often are not very nice and tend to go a bit braveheart on you,you know the bit "they will never take our FREEDOM"

There are some good recommendations in the HE topic on here

Take him out.Theres nothing school can do better than you if you are willing to put in the hours and give him the attention,love,stimulation and socialization he needs.Find your local home ed group there are more of us about than you think x

I have had contact with the LA and luckily ours is very pro home ed and i feel if i needed to i could get support,i have heard bad stories too though.

Also remember you dont legally have to see them or anyone.You tell the headteacher in writing you are taking him out,its up to them to inform LA,they may contact you,its then up to you if you want contact.

I think the school should be putting in place specialist dyslexia-specific support - that will be much more useful than repeating a year. They should get advice from a specialist dyslexia teacher.

I would agree with the poster who suggested getting your own specialist teacher if you can possibly afford it. I did that with dd, and she made much better progress from that point onwards. Most importantly, the teacher helped her massively with self confidence and self esteem - where previously she said she was "one of the thick ones" she realised that the problem was essentially just in the way her brain was wired and that, using the right strategies, she could do just as well as anyone else in her class if not better.

I didn't think schools were allowed to back -year children; they certainly aren't allowed in my local authority; your son doesn't seem to have serious special needs that would necessitate this. Now is absolute priority for extra support; the school possibly haven't the budget to allow for it, but he needs extra help now, not in Y4. Arrange a meeting with the SENCO and ask what support programmes she can recommend, and make sure you follow them; (so many parents ask for this and then fail to implement them) and use them throughout the rest of the term and the school holiday. It may be worth employing a home tutor. Using programmes at home will give you a taste of what home education is like, and how well your child responds to you, an important consideration.

Icimoi the school have said that DS isn't a priority and they won't be able to provide specialist dyslexia support until September 2015 as they haven't got enough funding to provide it this year since other children are higher priority than him and will receive the available support from September.

I was thinking about working with him over the summer and seeing how things go. We could also look at making a complaint about a child with diagnosed learning difficulties being refused extra support.