Leeds / Bradford/ Harrogate private schools

[Nellsbells11]

We're in north-west Leeds and looking for a private school for our daughter. Its something that we've never considered and has never been on our radar and I'm therefore clueless! I'm just looking for some advice ! My daughter is in Year three in a local primary. She's very, very bright ( in the top 5% in terms of ability) but has just been diagnosed with dyslexia. She's been holding her own at school and isn't failing but is achieving very averagely, which, for her is definitely underachieving. More importantly she's switching off and disengaging, having entered school very sparky and motivated. She's not a priority for extra help or much support. She's excellent at science and music and quite sporty too. We've decided to look at private schools in the hope that smaller class sizes, more focused attention and a broader curriculum will help. I've looked st Woodhouse Grove and Fulneck both of which are meant to have good pastoral care for children with dyslexia. Are there any other recommendations or any experiences of the above schools. Fulneck isn't doing it for me at the moment, not sure why. She is used to and thrives socially in s bigger school and it just seems very small. I've stayed away from the acedemoc schools in the area as I'm guessing they won't want to deal with her dyslexia. Is that right? Any help would be great.

I'm not local, but have family close by. Please don't dismiss the more academic schools in your area, such as the gramnar school at leeds given that your daughter's dyslexia has been highlighted by the fact she is very able, but the dyslexia has so far lead her to be seen as 'doing fine'. This is also what we encountered at a state primary with our son. He took a pre test (in year 5) for an academically selective Indy, and their feedback on his English was the final nudge we needed to get him formally tested for dyslexia. Well done for recognising it in your daughter earlier. He then sat 11+ for the same school with his dyslexia diagnosis taken into consideration, and passed! Find the Indy school that recognises that high ability can go with dyslexia, and it's all about learning different strategies as to how to fulfill your potential. Ask the schools straight out about their support, you may be pleasantly surprised.

That's great. Thank you. That's what I wanted to know really. I'll ring Leeds Grammar and find out. Her assessor suggested it for secondary, given her general ability score but I wondered if she was being a bit optimistic! It is VERY acedemic from what I've heard but she seemed to be saying that that is what she would need. It's difficult because she is just very average at the moment, although verbally, quite obviously very bright. There seem to be so many hurdles to overcome to reach that level across the board though !

Go and have a look round GSAL. We go there for matches and it has a nice feel as a visitor. I think most independent schools now have a lead for dyslexia so you could get a feel for the extent of support the school provides. My advice would be to move her as soon as you can. They like to make sure children from the junior school make it into the senior school.

The only thing that would make me hesitate is that she compares herself to others a lot and is very aware of where they're doing well and she's struggling. For instance pen licenses and the fact that she's not that likely to ever get one , has really knocked her sideways! It's almost caused a full on nervous breakdown! I know there's a lot of emphasis on high acheivement at GSAL and I'm just not sure how she'd cope in that environment. I think improving her confidence is probably key to her attainment in the future. I will definitely get in touch with them though and discuss it. I assumed they they wouldn't support children with SEN, so it's good to know that that might not be the case.

From the gsal website

"Sally is a Head of Learning Support at The Grammar School at Leeds and is a dyslexia specialist teacher-assessor. She has worked across the 3-18 range in several settings, including mainstream schools and Local Authority SEN Services. Sally also sits on an advisory panel for NASEN."

Just say your daughter has a dyslexia assessment, she needs learning support, she does not have a statement of special educational needs, these are two very different things. We had trouble with the whole pen licence thing, the school have now dropped this and all start with a pen in year 4 regardless. An emphasis on high achievement is no bad thing, and you may be surprised by how many high ability kids have dyslexia. Look on there website to see if there is a mention of a head of learning support or similar job title, they should have one.