Dc4 passed his sats, should I raise my expectations of him?

[elliejjtiny]

Ds4 is 11 and just finishing year 6. He has learning disabilities but he has always tried hard and plodded along in mainstream school. His writing is really below average for his age. He still writes like a reception aged child would, although his writing has got smaller as he has got older and the lines in his school books have got narrower. He needs to be reminded about spaces between words, capital letters, full stop etc. If left to his own devices his writing will be a continuous stream of barely legible letters with no spaces between words or punctuation. He sometimes uses a laptop at school which helps.

Anyway, about a year ago they started doing sats practice and they gave him a scribe. He has gone from strength to strength and he actually passed his sats with scores of 107, 105 and 100. The teachers assessment was working towards expected standard for writing and expected standard for science. It's amazing what a difference having a scribe has made for him.

What does this mean going forwards for him? Does this mean he might do this well in GCSE exams too? They won't take away his scribe in future exams because he has done so well, will they? I've had problems with 2 of my older dc where extra sen support has been given but then they improve so it gets taken away. Then they go downhill again so they get the SEN support back and we just go round in circles.

You need to apply for and EHCP, and then the SEN support written into that will be legally binding on the school.

Good luck, it’s a hard and stressful process. If they refuse to assess, appeal and go to tribunal of needs be- most decisions are overturned and rule in favour of child. IPSEA is great for advice.

www.ipsea.org.uk

Thank you. He has had his ehcp since year 3 although the scribe isn't written in it. The senco at his new secondary school said he probably wouldn't get one if we applied now as he has improved in everything except writing since we got it so I'm very glad we already had one.

My understanding is that if his usual way of working with written work in secondary school is with a scribe, then the school can apply to the exam boards for him to have a scribe. Having an EHCP is not required for exam concessions (a scribe, extra time, typing on a laptop, rest breaks etc), as it's the individual exam boards that decide whether a young person is entitled, however the guidance from most exam boards is if it's the usual way the child does their work then they are eligible.

The scribe rules for GCSEs change all the time, but laptop use for exams is always less strict so I’d focus on improving his typing speed using free typing programmes. I oversaw access arrangements in high schools for 20 years and attend yearly JCQ access arrangements training plus the Access Arrangements assessment qualification, if by Year 10 his handwriting is 50% illegible he would qualify for a scribe under the current rules.

I was also going to suggest laptop. He can the use it for homework, in class tests as well as formal exams. It is also more reliable I would have thought than relying on a human scribe

I guess it depends which result relates to which subject as spag isnt used for predicting gcse results
100 would be like a 4.
The average sats scores are like 104 i think.

I agree about the sen support and in some ways using sats to predict more than highest potential (to an extent) isnt helpful as sats are after a year of mostly revision and lots of practise papers and with tas etc.
So in some ways a drop into y7 for sen kids would make sense.

I would guess, not in EHCP, it won't happen. However, not a bad thing, because typing is better, because you can get spag marks, which you can't with a scribe, 7unless everything spelt out.

Also in a workplace won't necessarily have a scribe, but if typing, he can be self sufficient.

Dictate is also an option, which again promotes self sufficiency rather than reliance.