Can't decide whether to move DS to a different school

[StuntNun]

DS is coming to the end of year 2 and has got quite far behind the rest of his class due to recently diagnosed dyslexia. In September he will be going into a combined years 2 and 3 class of 18 pupils but his school will not be able to provide any one-to-one teaching to help him to catch up. His current school is small (

Why shouldn't someone get a statement for dyslexia? We have a report from an education psychologist saying that he has a Specific Learning Difficulty due to developmental dyslexia and that he is current testing 21 months behind his age. Also his teacher is well aware that he is struggling and he is already in the remedial reading group since her observation is that he is behind the rest of his class.

It is my understanding that it is very difficult to get a statment for dyslexia unless it is very severe. I suspect being 21 months behind is still within the normal range of what you would find in classroom but it depends on what the local criteria are. Both of mine are dyslexic but in private school so we didn't bother thinking about statements.
www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/about-dyslexia/parents/staments.html

DS1 reads well now (Y6) but has a significant gap between his spelling and phonological awareness and his reading (3-4 years difference - reading 2 years ahead, spelling nearly 2 years behind). DS2 has at least 4 year gap between his maths and reading abilities. They are both classed as mild to moderate so I doubt they would get a formal statement.
Mine do get extra support in school with a LS teacher who does phonological awareness training followed later by Toe by Toe.

This is a good programme if you want to do some work at home
www.soundfoundationsbooks.co.uk/

Bear Necessities or Dancing Bears depending on how your DS is doing.

My DS was 2 years behind and the school told me that statements are for children who cannot access the curriculum at all. I'm not saying that she is right but if you think about it, there are loads of kids with SEN but very few are statemented. Have a look on Ofsted reports to see just how few children in a school will have a statement. Anyway, the main thing is the intervention and attitude of the school rather than the actual statement.

I've found www.wordshark.co.uk/index.aspx really useful. My son hated Toe to Toe but other people say it is great.

Thanks for the info, I will look into those recommendations. I thought statements were broader than that. Certainly my older DS had one in the early years for ADHD even though academically he was keeping up with the class.

Statements are going to disappear from this autumn anyway and replaced with Education Health and Care Plans. Are you sure your older son didn't just have an IEP or Individual Education Paln, which just states his needs, targets and the steps that are going to be taken to help him meet his targets? They are reviewed at least once a year, often more frequently. However IEPs are now voluntary and not all schools use them.

He was statemented at level 3 at one point because they wanted to move him up to level 5 and apply for a classroom assistant for him.

My DS 7 is in Y2, has a recent diagnosis of moderate dyslexia and is 2 years behind. He has just been issued with a statement.

I have a daughter who is Aspergers with high academic ability and she also has a statement!

It is hard to know without knowing all the ins and outs whether a child needs a statement or not.

My sons statement is not purely for his dyslexia as he also has social anxiety, auditory processing difficulties, fine motor skill difficulties and some speech and language difficulties.

With your son having autism and ADHD he will also probably have needs beyond his dyslexia.

School are expected to fund the first £6000 of SEN provision for a child. They receive a SEN notional budget for this and if their budget is not enough to cover what your son needs then they can apply to the LA for top up funding. Funding is not your issue. They need to meet his needs regardless. To not meet his ASD/dyslexic needs is disability discrimination.

A school doesn't have to use an IEP but they have to use something else instead. If school are failing to meet his needs then you should follow the school's complaints procedure. You can make a claim for disability discrimination if they continue to refuse to meet his needs.

Sorry if doesn't read very well as on my phone.

The problem I've found is that the school will put useless interventions in place and then say that they are meeting his needs. The main thing is whether or not the interventions are effective.