50 years on and still we disadvantage children with learn differences

[silverridgerider]

50 years ago I started school, the thick kid. I struggled reading and wtiting and was put in the bottom set for everything and left to fail. 40 years later with a diagnosis of dyslexia I gained a PhD. Yesterday my son who is on the spectrum was treated as a criminal because his parents gave him help with his GCSE PE essay assesment. "Malpractice" is the term the school used. His essay was deleted and he was given 4 days to rewrite an assignment that took 4 months to research and write, all his diagrams, pictures deleted. Oh and he was given a detention just to reinforce his wrong doung! 50 years! and we still put these children at a a disadvantage. It is not enough that they have learning difficulties....the education system is not interested in what they know. They subject them to questions written for neurotypicals and give them no help so that they can understand what is being asked. As parents you help them with different words and sentence structures in the name of educating and learning and your child is sanctioned.
What sort of society lines its neurodiverse child up to fail? We give them extra time and scribes, but what use is that if the child does not understand the questions. My son knows masses, but our education system wants him to fail!
We know how to ask questions using alternative, wording, videos, prompting, but the system is determined that they are disadvantaged at birth and they will remain that way through their education. Am I cross....I am incandescent. 50 years and we are still the thick kids!

How did the school know you'd helped him with the GCSE work?

It depends on how much help he had with the essay. If the school had reason to suspect it was largely not his own work then they were correct to sanction him. I have two DC with ASD, each affected to varying degrees and I've never had to be so involved with their essays that there was any question over whether they'd done the work themselves.

Well how much help did he have?!?

My experience is that most schools go out of their way to help kids. However they can't allow cheating so it really depends on how much help he had. It's a really fine line

Dyslixia is rife in my family and honestly think most schools do a great job now.

I agree that the GCSE system does not work for some children with leaning differences.
However it is important to stay within the rules for GCSE work so if you did 'over help' then I can see why the school would take a strong line on it.

I am not so cross with the school but the system. We still expect our neurodiverse children to fit the neurotypical education and we will disadvantage them by having zero exam flexibility

Most schools do have flexibility and processes in place for exams for neurodiverse students though? It sounds like they didn't believe your son wrote his own essay and that's a whole other issue.

Flexibility is never going to mean parents can help with GCSE coursework, sorry.

How did the school find out? Was it a massively different standard to his usual work? Or did he tell them?

Sorry but having a learning disability doesn't give you the right to do his work for him! The teacher wouldn't be doing their job if they accepted work that parents had done for gcse coursework. You're completely unreasonable to think that's acceptable!

OP says she helped him with "words and sentence structures" allegedly in the name of educating her child so it very much sounds like she practically wrote the essay for him.

I don't understand. What kind of flexibility do you want? One which makes it ok for parents to help??

By 'zero exam flexibility' you seem to mean someone else doing the work for them?!?

The assignment was visible to the teacher for 3 month and nothing was said....even at parents evening where we discussed it. 6 days before the hand in date the teacher raised concerns with the Head. He had help in accessing different words and sentence formulation...oh and scribing as he would in an exam.

Also mentions how they couldn’t understand the question without the parent assisting, so pretty fundamental help from the start, sounds like.

@MississippiAF if they couldn't understand the questions this should have been flagged to the teacher long before the submission date rather than OP doing the work for him.

Right. So, you had to explain to him what the question meant, and give him the words for his answers. You did it for him op.
What is the value to society in giving a child a false mark, which doesn't reflect the work they are capable of on their own?

I can quiz my son and get the information he knows. However, if you ask a question without expanding on it you will struggle to access all he knows. As for writing it for him....dream on, if inly I had that much time. A level playing field is whats needed😕

So what exactly did you do with/for your son in this essay that meant it was flagged as not being his own work?

There was clearly enough material in the essay that the teachers didn't believe he'd done it himself though. If he struggled to understand the questions what steps did you take with the teachers in the preceding 4 months before submission to support him with this?

I'm neurodivergent.

I am all in favour of making reasonable adjustments for people etc, but it sounds like the school thinks you did the work for your son instead of supporting him to do it himself?

Neurodiversity can't just be used as a license to do whatever you like.

The JCQ regs are made very clear to students and that choosing to break them is malpractice. As a scribe cannot explain anything by doing so you’re putting him at more of a disadvantage as he will have become used to you doing that. Nor can they alter his wording etc.

Maybe in hindsight subjects without NEA may have been better suited.

Yes, because you are asking probing questions. Whereas the essay is likely be a single title question.

But being able to create a structured essay with introductions, points, different arguments and summing up, without direct questions as in a question and answer exam, is the essential reasoning behind coursework.

If a student cannot do that, they’re not operating at GCSE level, sorry,

One of the reasons for giving people grades for their work, in fact the only reason, is so that a potential employer knows exactly what they are getting.

The person with the A needs to be the person who knows all the info, can deliver all the info etc without help.

What is the point of helping every single child with whatever is their difficulty, ti get an A?

There are plenty of kids who would benefit from being quizzed and having the information drawn out of them, if not ALL kids. I'm sorry but you're being ridiculous!

You helping with sentence structure etc is no different to people trying to pass off ChatGPT as their own work. The latter is a major problem and schools are right to treat you helping ds to cheat very seriously. Ime schools drive home the not cheating message to the kids and the kids sign a declaration with their coursework swearing that it’s all their own work. (Not sure about GCSE PE bug definitely in other subjects) This was a screw up by you and not the school.

If your son didn’t understand the question then he should have gone to the teacher and have the question explained in more detail. He should have submitted drafts earlier to check that he was on the right track. That’s the kind of adjustments that a ND child should expect.