SATS

[tattootealady]

My son is in Year 6, is severely dyslexic, really struggles with working memory. He is not doing SATS with the agreement of the school. He did a mental maths SATS mock test last week which I was furious about. He got zero out of twenty.
I want him to go to a specialist school with dyslexia specialisation and have a big fight on my hands with the TA. He is bright but can't do tests.

I have one of those. You do indeed have a fight on your hands. I have no real advice (apart from the fact you need to constantly fight his corner - it's hard) but can I provide a glimmer of hope for the future? Ds is 18 now, got a fairly decent clutch of GCSEs (though they no way reflect his ability). He's found a course he loves - tree surgery - and is excelling for the first time in his life. No longer competes with his v bright/academic/non-dyslexic sisters. Hang in there and good luck.

tattoo, I've got a dyslexic year 6 child too - my DS isn't severely dyslexic, but also struggles with working memory and I've been in and complained about them making him do those tests too. They threatened to keep him in at lunchtime if he didn't get over 15 out of 20, which he never does.

On the other hand, lots of people have told me that secondaries are a lot better at helping children with an SPLD than primaries, so have you had a chat to the SENCO at whichever school he's moving to yet? I chatted to the head at the school my son's going to and she was hugely reassuring and it does seem far more structured and thought out. I'm not saying don't fight for a specialist school, I'm just saying there might be a bit of light on the horizon if you can't get one. Good luck!

We had the same problem Smee when ds went to secondary. He is a very bright dyslexic who did really well in part of his year 6 SATS and scraped his English writinglevel 4 by one point. They put him in top sets for everything including two languages for MFL. He was expected to get 75% in weekly mfl tests or lose lunch time. We had words with the teacher who passed us onto SENCO and they dropped the pressure. He had been taken off the SEB register because he got level 4 in his writing, but they put him straight back on it , as soon as I explained his problems.