Dyslexic daughters school report - how can they say she's not behind?!

[Curlewwoohoo]

My daughter has just finished yr4 today. She's dyslexic, not severely, but it does impact things. Her school report is grand, it puts her at the expected level for reading, writing and maths. But, I know from the AR reading tests that she's at least a year behind on her reading. I've also had her school books home today and her spelling is bad, to the point it makes it hard to interpret her fabulous written work. She got 15 / 25 in the times tables tests. I don't really understand how school are telling me she's at the expected level! Anyone got any insight? School don't currently give her any additional support.

Can you ask for an education care plan?? That seems like a good grade on the test for me, my son got 3 out of a 100 and school said he's fine!!!

Maybe it's ok, there's no pass mark for it and I have no comparison. She's got a myplan. But in terms of extra support in spelling or reading they are essentially saying she's not bad enough and they need to target their resources at other children. Which I can understand on paper, obviously less keen when it's my child. And to me she seems to be behind?!

We are in exactly the same position, and I don’t know what to do about it either. My DC doesn’t meet requirements for additional support. And their writing has come back at the level for Year 3, so they are a year behind. I feel like I’m letting them down.

Hopefully someone can offer advice for you on here. Best wishes OP!

Op you need to ask the school again for extra help maybe?? Could you afford a private tutor?? How old is your daughter x

She's 9, she'll be 10 not long into the next school year .

They won't have just decided to put her at those grades. At my son's school they have a series of statements they have to match to be at age expected - ask for her tracking documents, they should be bale to give you a copy and it should show what they think she is achieving and not achieving.

The band of expected attainment is quite large.

Or, to put it another way, the child has to be doing really, really badly to get not at age related expectations.

If AR is the accelerated reader programme I wouldn't be putting too much trust in that personally.

If you want her to do better, sounds like you know what she needs to work on.

If you are concerned about a dyslexic DC, you can get hold of a reading workbook like Toe by Toe (there is a more modern one, but that was what we had in the school where I worked) and just work through it until you reach the point where the words the child is now reading confidently are above the stage they're working at (I didn't think 9 year olds were going to have much use for words like 'magistrate' for a while, so we clocked off at that point but I told them if they ever had reading issues again, they knew what they needed to ask for). It's advised to do some of the scheme each day, but I I only had the time to do a bit with a child for 10-20 minutes 3 times a week, and the impact was dramatic. It brought up their reading ages by about 2 years over 2-ish terms, and that in turn improved their spelling, their handwriting (because they weren't using every ounce of effort on trying to spell) and the amount they wrote.

It was a fairly dull job, so I did my best to spice it up with conversations about what the words meant (and little sketches if useful) and stickers and whatever else I could think of.

It was one of the best parts of my job, because the impact was dramatic and fed through into their SATS results - and their confidence.

My son is severely dyslexic and he went under the radar until the beginning of Year 5. He was also 2yrs behind in reading age according to his Assessment (see 3rd paragraph) which I still can’t get my head around because on every school report he is ‘exceeding’ expectations in reading. I can only think it’s due to him being a slow reader and somewhat reluctant to read aloud and that is what has determined the reading age.

What I would say is that the work really ramps up in Year 5. Our school started him on Word Wasp which sounds similar to Toe by Toe mentioned above. You can buy it off Amazon for about £30… be careful not to buy the US Edition.

I paid for a Dyslexia Assessor to assess him. It cost £400 and took me a couple of days to arrange. If you have the means to pay for this then I would say it is money worth spent because they dissect the dyslexia and say exactly which components your child struggles with. We got 25% recommend extra time in all tests and assessments and strong recommendation to move him across to computer based work.

There are Educational Psychologists also, but I’ve no knowledge how they differ and what additional info they could provide. They are double the price to see.

The report took a few months to come back. Goes into quite a lot of detail and then SEN dept in school were given a copy and did an Additional Provisions Map.

School does Word Wasp with him and at home we read an hour each night. Often I’m the one that reads and I’ll throw in the odd ‘how do you spell…’ We have also started doing Word Wasp at home.

I’d get your daughter off to a head start over the summer doing the Word Wasp. My son says that it definitely has helped him with his spelling.

This isn't true and could make parents feel really bad about their children's attainment.

Of this year's Year 6 cohort, the only cohort whose assessments are formally required and recorded, 39% did not get age related expectations. That doesn't mean they're doing really, really badly.

Children with dyslexia do pass their reading and writing sats at the expected level or above. They may have an exemption for spelling in the written part or may have extra time in reading. If they meet the criteria for the writing but have a specific weakness in just one area such as spelling they can still pass.

If your child already has a myplan, I am guessing that there is already intervention and help happening at school. I understand your concern that the respites assessment results don’t match what you are seeing. It would be worth giving September’s teacher a few weeks to get to know your child, then go in and make an appointment. Looking at your child with fresh eyes and Year 5 expectations in mind, they will be in a good position to help.

@sendismylifemy phone won't let me delete this tag! Thanks for your reply.

Her myplan has things in it like she needs to sit square on to the board - to help an eye teamwork issue that plays in. It says to do Nessy programme, which I then paid for. We were advised by the dyslexia assessor to do it 3 times a week. School said they'd get her to do it there but have fallen off the wagon. When I asked why they said to my daughter that she won't be doing it there as they need to use the time for the kids who have it funded through school.

We paid for a private dyslexia assessment so have got that, with loads of recommendations. Including things for the future like extra times in exams.

She's in a spelling intervention group in class but they don't teach spellings in a way that would help her by the sounds of it. Eg they don't make it multisensory. Her spelling is yr1 level I would say, yr2 at best. Eg bleu and yelouwe were examples from last night.

They got her to do one session of BBC dance mat typing. Touch typing is another recommendation.

I feel like school should be doing a lot more to be honest, but because she's "meeting expectations" academically and not causing them trouble, she's falling off their radar or something.

It's putting me in a difficult position because I am twitching to try to do things with her at home, but I think it would create stress here as my daughter is not always keen to do home learning. She needs a break too as she's worked hard all year.

I think there’s loads of kids who barely meet expectations but don’t cause teachers any grief …..and basically fall through gaps…..it wouldn’t be viable to provide them with extra support…..would cost a fortune so it will never happen….getting an ehcp for a child will complex needs is a minefield these days so most kids like yours don’t stand a chance my eldest…..my GD8 is one of these…..my DD pays for weekly tutoring and spends lots of time doing maths and literacy tasks with her…..fingers crossed she will do ok

Has your dd been diagnosed officially with dyslexia?

I would be surprised at her grades based on your spelling examples and also her times tables result.

My suggestion is to arrange a meeting with the Sendco at the beginning of next year. Explain your concerns, ask for justifications how the grades were reached and discuss what you and the school can do to help her.

Can I ask what sats results she got in y2?

Yes, she needs a break, but there may be some time during this summer break where you could do things like the Toe by Toe already suggested. You say that the school hasn’t put things in place, but then mention Myplan, which indicates there are interventions, but they haven’t had the impact you’d hoped for.

The criteria for ‘expected’ isn’t arbitrary and follows national guidelines, so if they say she’s working at the expected level, that’s good. Schools are moderated and have to be very careful to be sure that the judgements they make meet the criteria and are accurate.

Of course your daughter needs a break in the holidays, but it might be possible to spend a small regular amount of time doing Toe by Toe, even if she’s not keen on doing things at home.

I agree that after some settling in time, it’s worth having a chat with her new teacher and then, if you feel she’s not making progress, you can take more formal steps.

Sadly, I think this is true: there are a fair few DC who are bumping along in the middle somewhere who with a bit more input could do much better. The school I worked in was pretty good at offering this.

One of my DC is very dyslexic, and it was knowing just how easily she could have fallen through the cracks (she was bright enough to do okay and not be a cause for concern) that sparked my interest in the whole issue.

I wish schools would screen for dyslexia routinely at about age 7. There are going to be several dyslexic DC in every class, and dealing with their literacy issues is often quite straightforward. Unfortunately though it's 1:1, but 20 hours of input by a motivated TA or similar reaps massive benefits.

I could wang on about this for hours...

The criteria for ‘expected’ isn’t arbitrary and follows national guidelines, so if they say she’s working at the expected level, that’s good.

There is no national agreed criteria for ‘expected’ at Y4, so anything that any school comes up with absolutely IS arbitrary!

I’m a writing moderator. A child should not be described as having a specific weakness for spelling. It could be a certain aspect of spelling, eg suffixes. Not for just spelling.

15/25 is probably age rated expectations. 25/25 would be above expectations

I'm not a primary teacher so can't say for definite but in my subject at secondary around 50% at gcse would be a grade 5 so absolutely would lead into firther eduction.

My point being that expectations in education have shifted so at a level for their age is usually somewhere in the middle meaning they're average for age.

This is what I think too.

Year 2 and Year 6 have strict criteria, which is why I was asking for year 2 sats results.

Yes, it’s a good question here, especially since the OP’s dd is at exactly the mid point.

@Sherrystrull yes officially diagnosed by a private assessment. School didn't do yr2 sats. I understand they are optional.

Her myplan is about 3 lines long. One line relates to her position in front of the board. Many of the recommendations in the dyslexia assessment are not being implemented. I have questioned this and got ok responses back, such as a recommendation to reduce copying from board for her, school say they don't ask her to do this sort of thing anyway. So it sounds ok.

What I don't feel like I'm getting is active support though, like getting her to do Nessy, which I paid for myself, or toe to toe or word wasp. Or spelling help that is geared up the right way. She's not the only dyslexic in the class. I would have thought they'd do more for all of them.

Regarding the writing, a child can have one specific weakness (spelling in a child with dyslexia woukd be a good example) and still achieve the expected criteria.

Y2 SATS became optional this year. If your daughter is currently in Year 4 that cohort definitely took them as they were compulsory at the time. (I teach Year 2 and our current year 4s did SATS while they were in my class).