Dyslexic child in SEND Secondary Class

[BlackSwan2024]

Hello, my 11 year old child has just started Secondary School and they are in a SEND class. My child is dyslexic and they are finding this class very distracting. I have asked the head of year if they can move up and the teacher said my child might not get the help. My child currently has private tuition with a qualified dyslexic teacher. The tutor said, if my child has a dyslexic pen this might help and they don't see any reason why my child can't go into a mainstream class. Can anyone give some advice please. Can a dyslexic child attend mainstream classes? Many thanks

Lots of dyslexic children attend mainstream classes.
It all depends on how severe the dyslexia is surely?
Does he/she have an EHCP?

It depends on the child and their particular profile.

I have a very dyslexic child who is in normal sets - including top set English. She find reading hard, can't spell at all and punctuation is ropey. But she just does everything on a laptop with software that corrects it all for her.

Her SEN means she doesn't get the grades she would without it, but no problems at all keeping up.

What does the tutor mean by a dyslexic pen? Is this a reading pen? DD hasn't found it difficult being only child in most of her classes with a lot of tech.

My dyslexic child was in mainstream. He was at National Expected level for year 6 SATS and passed all of his GCSEs with minimal revision. it depends how her dyslexia affected her.

I'm waiting to have a meeting with SEND teachers in January. Yes my child has an EHCP. Thank you for your help.

Thank you for your message, this gives me hope when I have a meeting with SEND in January.

The pen that was recommended is a C-Pen Reader.

What's her prior attainment (SATS)?

Thank you for this. You give me hope. I'll see what they say at the SEND meeting in January.

Hmmm, DD has one of these for exams but isn't a big fan and didn't want one for the rest of the time.

They only work on very clean, flat paper and the voice has no emphasis so she finds it exhausting to listen to, and just uses it if she wants to double check a long word's pronunciation to work out meaning.

Having an EHCP should potentially make things easier.

DD is very high VR/NVR but very low working memory, so needs to be in high sets, but has had to get used to never getting the top marks and struggling with things that others in the class don't. It's worth keeping an eye on the emotional side of things.

School had to do a lot of tweaking with sets for most subjects to get DD in the right one for both cognitive ability, and where she didn't feel a total dunce.

In my school she would be in regular classes and supported by a TA at times. I would have thought that pen would be more use for homework?
Teachers in many mainstream secondaries don't really understand dyslexia but as long as she has her tutor and you are working with her to organise herself I think she will be fine. I can't recommend audio books enough for dyslexic students. It's is great way for her to access reading for pleasure. Please get her to listen for 20 minutes everyday to a book of her choosing and plan to increase as she gets older it will help her vocabulary so much.

My DD is dyslexic, she also has ADHD. She is in top set for all classes except English (set 2). She can’t spell and her grammar is awful but she is intelligent and has a brilliant memory.
I also work in the same school and there isn’t a single dyslexic student in the SEND class, they are all in mainstream at different levels as suits their abilities.
Simple measures such as a C pen, a Chromebook and additional time for exams/homework should be the least the school can offer and should not be an impediment to your child accessing a mainstream education.

It may be that the school have seen he has an EHCP and immediately decided he has complex needs. I've worked with plenty of staff who would think this way. It's so unhelpful.

That said, I don't know your child's needs, but some dyslexic children thrive in a SEN class and others would be completely out of place.

This is surprising to me. The secondary schools here don't have SEN specific classes and they also don't teach in sets until much later on. My DD is dyslexic. At the school I THINK like the look of best, dyslexia is very much seen as business as usual as there will be several dyslexic students in each class (this is what the English teacher said at open evening). They have access to tech, laptops, reading pens, large print texts. All kids are screened for dyslexia when they start at the school.

Is the SEN class a formal additionally/enhanced resourced provision/base/unit/cabin (whatever that LA calls them)? Or is it a more informal school level provision?

What is included in the EHCP? All the provision DS needs should be in the EHCP. The provision detailed, specified and quantified in F of an EHCP has to be provided. It sounds like you perhaps need an early review.

Like @OhCrumbsWhereNow’s DD, my DS also didn’t find the C-Pen useful. They work for many but DS finds a computer reader text to speech software or a physical human reader more helpful.

Thank you so much for this and thank you for sharing. I needed to see this.

Thank you so much for your message. This is so encouraging to see. Many thanks.