extra help in private education

[risingstar]

Hi

My DD2 is dyslexic and we are getting nowhere at all with her middle school. i won't bore you with the details. We have decided to investigate private education for years 7 and 8 initially( we have a great upper school from year 9). There are a couple of non selective private schools that are a possibility.Clearly none of them are able to state how much extra they would charge for additional help( using a teaching assistant, or being taken out for 121 help) until they have assessed dd2s needs. Does anyone have any experience of this and feel able to say how much extra they have paid? I need to get a feel for it, for example if it was 10% extra its do-able (gulp!) but if its 50% short of autioning all our possessions, its not IFYWIM.

many thanks!

In the independent schools I have knowledge of, normally dyslexic kids have 1x or 2x 1:1 session a week, which costs in the region of £20 per hour.

There are arguments about whether it is good for children to be removed from the main class for extra coaching however. A lot of educational psychologists think that it is better for children to be supported within the classroom context.

As an educationalist I am a big fan of 1:4 tuition, especially for things like handwriting, spelling and certain aspects of mathematics. This gives support without stigmatising the child. However if your DD is very badly dyslexic this may not be appropriate.

Thanks for your response. Counting my blessings, she can read and write after a fashion but very slowly which has caused so many problems at School and this is only going to get worse in years 7 and 8. She is off the scale at the upper end for cognitive ability, assess by Ed Psych at 16 yrs 8 months but off the scale at the other end for processing ability and working memory 6 to 7 yrs. Her current school didnt pick up the dyslexia and really are just refusing to do anything about it. I feel that just being in a class of 15 rather than 28 must help and a setting that isn't bound by national curriculum and an obsession with SATS would do her good. We will see, a big decision to be made all round!

Ah, bright kid with SEN. Not easy for a maintained school to handle.

Some options:

Private school with smaller class sizes. (Most expensive option; no guarantees; private schools are funnily enough not always the best places for SEN support, although they can be)

Coach her yourself at home a bit. (Free but takes commitment)

Home tutor. (Can be variable quality)

Kumon Maths and English for drill in basics. (mid-priced option; can be done as distance learning; takes commitment)

Pester Local Authority for a statement of Special Educational Needs (you have got to be scary to make this work; SENDIST organisation will help you work out how to do this).

I think it's about £30 per hour round here but I don't know if that changes if 121 or small group.

A friend moved her child to a much smaller school with very small classes to help. Even smaller groups were taken out of class for extra help. I understand he has improved massively from age 7 to age 11.

we get 'free' help for ds in his independent school he has dyslexia- hour a week one to one , some during class time some over break (they move it around so that no one misses too much of one subject.) This is the reason that we took him out of state primary - he was gettin very lost there.

Dd gets extra oneto one help for her appalling handwriting from the LSa for nothing.

Another girl in her class has a statement and so funding is provided though her parents top it up but I don;t know what the charge is for that.

The credit crunch is hitting the private schools too - we got a letter last week from the headmaster explaining that the school roll has fallen and that they are looking at ways of helping families. This is the perfect time to start negotiating with schools about things like this. They will be far more interested in the £X thousands they will earn each year from another child on the roll than in the marginal £50 a week or so in private lessons, so don't be afraid of asking them to provide at least some of the lessons free. And also bear in mind that the smaller the class the better she will progress (if it is a good school) regardless of whether she has extra lessons or not. But her progression depends on the attention she gets, which might be just as good in a state school. depends entirely on what the options are around where you live. A rubbish independant school won't help at all.

1 to 1 at ours is £30ph. ds has 1/2 hr per week.

Our independent primary (goes up to Year 8) offers free extra help up to a certain level for all its SEN children (I think it's 1 to 2 sessions a week depending on the child's needs.) Beyond that, I know they charge, but it's not a % of the fees, it's an hourly rate. Don't know what it is though. I realise that independent secondaries, being so much bigger, are probably quite different in the way they organise and charge for that kind of help though.

Independent Secondary my DD goes to offers free small group tuition ( learning support group about 4 kids they do this once a week during Spanish for the other kids) free and teachers will also liaise very closely with any outside tutors children might have (one of dds friends is wildly dyslexic).

They also have sets for English Maths and Science with only 5 children in each of the lowest sets and 12 or so in the other 2 groups.

It must work well as their results at GCSE are 92% (5 or more A*-C including English and MAths)despite 20% of their pupils having SN such as dyslexia and dyspraxia.

I think it must depend on the school.

Thanks for all your replies. The School I am contemplating has an excellent reputation for SEN and this is backed up by a very recent independent report. Like the idea about negotiating and must admit that I would lay my stall out at first meeting along the lines of stretching ourselves to find fees at basic level and see what they suggest. I also think that as she is bright, just having smaller classes and a teacher that will do simple things like make sure that homework has been written down and understood and be willing to put ed pysch's recommendations into practice will be a good start. We do lots at home and have a private tutor but current school has no interest at all in joining this up! no seriously....her form tutor didn't want a meeting with me about it because"i am only her form teacher".

Anyway thanks so much. may well post again once i have done the visits to ask further advice!

At my DDs' school, extra help is roughly the same a peri-music lessons (around £200 per term per lesson).

These extra lessons are very beneficial. They are given by Dyslexia Action teachers.

At my DDs' school, extra help is roughly the same a peri-music lessons (around £200 per term per lesson).

These extra lessons are very beneficial. They are given by Dyslexia Action teachers.

Interesting what merrysquiffiness said. Althought independent schools are being hit by the credit crunch, teachers salaries, especially SEN specialists do not get cheaper and we still need to cover their time. It is worth stating that you might find meeting the basic fees hard and see what they say - whay about applying for a bursery. Does your DD have any other talents they could offer the school?

My DS3 gets free help for his dyslexia at his independent school (1:1 and extra small group work) but most of the others round here charge around £25-30 per session.

At DD's prep school learning support in literacy and numeracy, including Dyslexia support, is free (well included in fees). This is not constant help or anything though, more like 2-3 sessions a week for one to one support.

A boy in DS's class has SEN, and has one-to-one sessions with the SN teacher. It doesn't cost anything on top of the normal fees.

May also depend on age and format . Pre-prep individual learning support is free at ours as our small groups throughout and touch typing but one to one after aged 7 is chargeable.