Your opinion?

[Everythinghappensforareason1]

We moved to a new area and new school 3 months ago. Dd is year 3 had dsylexia assessment done when he was 6.5 years mild dsylexia, struggles with working memory and processing therefore struggles with maths, still has to do number bonds to 10 on her fingers as she just can't remember them.

Previous school she was under ed psy.

So we have moved had a term for teachers to make there own assessment. Thy have done assessments on her which led to a meeting last day of term.

There assessments states she is 8.3 year for reading she is 8 years old next week. Spelling is 6.11 years so a year behind. They have agreed maths Is her weakness but today I realised no maths assessment was not done and no predicted age of where she is upto when I know for a fact she is at least 2 years behind. So my question is why was I given her Builth of reading nd spelling but not maths...

Last week they referred her to SALT

Throughout the meeting they told me they had done dsylexia screening and she comes up higher therefore she doesn't score enough on there test to be classed as dsylexic. having spent £500 on assessment with dsylexia action i was annoyed at this. Was constantly told throughout the meeting that there is no funding and she doesn't score low enough for intervention on a 1-2-1 basis. I was told 'i m sorry this isnt what you wanted to hear'. Her score were not low enough for ed psy to be issued for a referral, although was under ed psy at previous school (different local authority)

She does access a teaching assistant in a small group in lass when a TA is available hence not all the time.

I suppose it's bugging me that no proper assessment was done in maths. What do you make if this? Any opinions would be gratefully received, I am going to email the teacher and ask about maths assessment and her ability age as this would qualify for ed psy referral surely.

Lots of points made on lack of attention and focus. Going to go doctors for suspected ADD although not told school yet I am going down that route as decision only made today after watching her in gymnastics lesson and admitting to myself there may be a problem on that side of things,

Sorry this is all jumbled, just been reflecting on meeting today while I had 5 mins and kicking myself at loads of things I should of asked,

I welcome anyone's advice.

Blimey I'm shocked.

Do Sencos not read reports from NHS professionals after a GP referral if school didn't request it either?

Starting to see why school seems to have so little understanding of my dc's condition.

Really shocked,what a waste of NHS money.

IB I've never met any SENCO who wouldn't read reports ... If you don't read them his do you know what's relevant and what isn't.

As a SENCo reading reports is one of my responsibilities that comes with the job. It isn't optional. A good skill for leadership is the ability to scan and read reports really quickly to establish their value and important parts. I find using a highlighter pen on a photocopy invaluable! Then the relevant information can be disseminated to those working closely with the child. The more reports you read the quicker you become at homing in on the relevant points, identifying the key phrases and skimming over the useless preamble and padding some assessors use! You also pick up on home based or early life information that parents forget to mention to the school, but that are really relevant!

yes, that is all fine, for the official reports commissioned by the school, but completely impossible and pointless for the deluge of private ones we get.

If I understand your background correctly from another thread you are a teacher at a seriously understaffed and demoralised secondary school Charis1 - so that situation is rather different from the primary schools being discussed in this topic and thread. It is not surprising that a school like yours (stretched to beyond its limit) struggles to read reports and as a secondary it will have substantially more pupils than primary schools. It does make me wonder if parents have concerns about the school and the support it can provide if they are commissioning so many private reports?

No it's fine for every report relating to a child.
If you don't read it how do you know that it doesn't contain some important information that will help you support the child more effectively!

It will also have staff with free periods and a SENCO who isn't a full time class teacher

Apparently charis is also a supply teacher AND a SENCO. And a full time sixth form college teacher.

I've seen a few threads now where Charis has appeared to pop up solely to derail, to be honest.

I think not engaging is perhaps the most constructive way to deal with it to avoid things getting sidetracked.

No wonder she doesn't have time to read reports ??

I teach in what is considered a 'deprived area' with high levers of unemployment. I suspect that probably 40% of my class would get a diagnosis of some form of dyslexia or dyspraxia,if they had parents who would pay for a private assessment. As a class teacher, I know the traits that different children exhibit (issues with tracking, poor working memory, poor spatial awareness, orientation and sequencing problems, language processing problems etc etc) and I make sure in my normal daily teaching practise that we (my class TA and myself) address and support these issues as best we can. However, none of them are significantly behind national expectations, they are just lower than national expectations (some by a couple of years) so there is no money/additional support/extra adults forth coming. They certainly wouldn't get seen by the Ed Psych, as even with us buying in extra hours, their time is taken up with children at our school with significant learning difficulties and a huge gap between their academic achievement and national expectations - children with global delay, severe behavioural and emotional problems, complicated autism diagnosis's etc.

I'm not saying it's right, it's just the way it is. I suspect if you plonked at least 1/3 of my class into a leafy middle class school they would be shouting for the SENCO in 10 mins and demanding Ed Psych observations. Schools, areas, LEAs, teachers... They're all different.

I suggest you write to your MP and complain, especially if they're a Tory. I did.

Thing is Pad you're addressing it,pretty sure the m/c parents in the leafy suburbs would be happy with that,your obvious knowledge and a bit of understanding. Ime looking out of the classroom for support is due to frustration at the lack of all of the above.

I rely heavily on the goodwill of staff who give up lunch breaks or time before and after school to provide extra input for those children who need a boost.

In addition all our staff have received high quality phonics training and the school continually invests heavily in books. Al? teaching staff have received Big Reading and Big Writing training and all teaching staff have attended at least one Pie Corbett Talk for Writing and/or Grammar for writing course.... Heavy investment in raising standards and staff skills.

Sorry wrong thread