Withdrawal from year 6 sats

[elliejjtiny]

Every year at my son's school there is usually 2 children who don't do year 6 sats. They go into the year 5 class for quite a big portion of the day in the 2 terms before the tests. They still get to join in with the fun stuff afterwards like watching a film and going to the park etc but obviously they don't get to stand up with the rest of the class in assembly and get a certificate.

My ds is in year 5. He has moderate learning disability and struggles to write anything legible. He has an ehcp with 1-1 some of the time. Is it the school's decision to withdraw him from sats or is it ours? If it's our decision should I withdraw him? I don't want to cause him any stress but at the same time I don't want to exclude him. He's such a happy little soul and although he isn't good at anything academic he is brilliant at things like sorting the recycling and stacking the dishwasher which my very able teenagers seem to struggle with!

You can see the rules for who should be entered here (section 6). If DS would have completed the KS2 programme of study, would be working at pre-KS2 standards, is being assessed using the engagement model or working at the standard of the tests but unable to access them due to his disability even with access arrangements he shouldn’t sit them. Ultimately it is the headteacher’s decision.

Thankyou. He will have been taught all of KS2 by then so I'm assuming that he will be entered but with extra help put in place. He does the same work as the bottom set in maths and English but has extra help/explanation from the ta.

My DS has just done his SATS. Beforehand we had a presentation from his teacher about what to expect etc, and as part of it we were told that it is possible to withdraw out DCs from the SATS, and to contact the headteacher to discuss further.

If he has completed the KS2 curriculum, then it’s likely he’ll be entered for the test. The only extra support he’ll be entitled to is 25% extra time. Hemay also be able to have a reader and/or a scribe, it that is normal practice for him but obviously he won’t be able to have any support with the actual content of the test.

Apologies I have spotted a mistake in my pp which completely changes the meaning. My second sentence should have said “would not have” completed rather than “would have”.

You can see the access arrangements available and the rules here.

Why does he only have a 1:1 some of the time? Does he have an OT report suggesting what things to put in place to improve writing?
Whether I'd enter my child in your situation would depend on a lot.

Surely it's better if he does. It records where he is now. That actually gives you leverage for fighting for more support in year 7.

Thankyou. He doesn't have anything from OT. He only has a 1-1 some of the time because he doesn't have enough funding in his ehcp to give him a whole ta to himself so he shares her with other pupils. I hadn't thought of his sats results recording where he is now and using them as evidence for more funding, that's a good point.

You need to request an early review of the EHCP. It doesn’t sound like it is meeting DS’s needs. DS should have had an OT assessment and ongoing provision.

With the 1:1 what is detailed, specified and quantified in F? That is the important part, not funding. If it is detailed, specified and quantified it must be provided and if it isn’t you can enforce it. If the school need more funding they should approach the LA. If 1:1 isn’t actually in F you need of tighten the wording up

Surely it's better if he does.

That depends entirely on the pupil. For some it won’t be in their best interests as they will find it too distressing, which is why some DC can be disapplied.

Thank you. Ehcp review is just before half term. His section F is quite vague and doesn't mention 1-1, just says something like may benefit from extra support. He used to see an OT regularly when he was younger but she discharged him when he was 4.

If he is well below the expected standard, the test will not give yu any useful information. It will just show that he has not scored enough to give a scaled score.
I have seen children who cannot read and write try to do these tests and I think it is very poor practice. You cannot get any other support than extra time. For kids who can access the paper, the extra time is of no use whatsoever. You are not allowed to read the texts to the children nor can you read the questions in the reading paper. I would recommend that you speak to the school and ask whether your dc is likely to score on the paper. If not, it really is not in his interests and could well feel very demoralised sitting the paper.

The EHCP really needs improving, even if you have to appeal, especially for secondary school. A vague and woolly EHCP without all the provision reasonably required is worthless. DC may not receive any support and you wouldn’t be able to enforce it.

Ask Senco for a meeting re why he isn't being properly supported.

You need to change this.

My DD has an EHCP for severe SpLD. Mostly dyslexia and dyscalculia. We did SATS for multiple reasons. 1 I didn't want her to feel different and no one in her class opted out. 2, we were being told her needs are met. Therefore if they're met, she's surely accessing the KS2 curriculum and should be fine to take SATS. This kicked the school a little and they increased her support. It was still useless until I made her EHCP very specific, but in your situation I wouldn't skip them. If your child can't access SATS, that means he's not accessing class work. Therefore the provision he has isn't meeting his needs. Remember your son's outcomes need to be as specific and ambitious as the interventions you want funded. Section F is a list of things your son needs in order to meet his outcomes. If those outcomes are vague and not measurable, you'll have a hard time getting anything substantial in section F. Also, if your son is in y5 and hasn't got legible writing, OT needs to see him again and a handwriting plan put in place as well as access to a laptop and touch typing software.

Thankyou. How do I go about asking section F to be changed? Last time they just went through the things that were going well and the things that weren't and then went through his targets. Section F wasn't mentioned at all. Also it was just the senco and his teacher at the meeting, plus me and dh, no ed psych or anyone from the Lea, is that normal? The ed psych did a telephone assessment during lockdown when he had the assessment for the ehcp 2 years ago but we haven't seen or heard from her since then.

He uses the computer quite a bit at home to write things (he likes making lists) but although it's easier to read than his handwriting it's still hard to read as his spelling isn't great. His reading is quite good and he became a free reader at the end of year 4. We really struggled with home learning during lockdown but we did lots of reading so now his reading ability is quite a way ahead of anything else.

OP I would start on the IPSEA website. Get some information on there and try to get a phone call with one of the advisors.

It is quite common for the LA not to attend ARs, especially when the AR is routine. You can make it known during the AR process you want F to be amended and then if the LA make amendments you will get the chance to comment on it. If the LA don’t agree to amend or amend but don’t agree to make the amendments you want you will get the right of appeal.

Provision in EHCPs is taken from reports, so if you don’t have any evidence to support the need for certain provision to be included in F the LA are unlikely to agree and you will need to appeal and seek independent assessments. If you need to and aren’t eligible for legal aid contact Parents in Need as they can sometimes help.

If typing isn’t helpful for DS have you tried speech to text software or a scribe? You could also try software to help with spelling.

We had the option to withdraw DS from the maths sats as they thought he most likely wouldn't score high enough to even get a grade. I think you have to achieve 80 as a minimum. He was doing all the practice papers and SATs related stuff in school and was completely unfazed by it all so I decided I did want him to do it. I had been saying to the primary for years that the maths was too hard for him and asking about putting him down one or two years for maths or following a scaled down curriculum but it all went on deaf ears and I wanted the school to absorb in their stats their lack of SEN provision.

But in your case, if your DS has the chance to side step all the tedious SATs preparation, it would probably be of more benefit academically to spend some time in Y5 presumably doing something more interesting than memorising grammar terms etc.

Agree with previous posters about input from an OT. My DS types and will do for his GCSEs as he can't hand write for various reasons. He did a handwriting programme for several years through the OT called Handwriting without Tears. It helped but not enough for handwriting ever to really be a viable option for him. Might make more sense to use the valuable time freed up by not doing SATs to work on typing or handwriting?