should I just let this one go?

[dogoncouch]

So I parent my grandson who is in Y6 at our local church primary. I'm a teacher myself and can get twitchy about lots of things others might just not care about and this might be the case here. GS is medicated for ADHD, has his moments but generally functions ok at school. He is bright but when younger, school were not seeing this because of his - at the time - unmedicated ADHD. However since Y3 things have taken off academically for him and every year since Y3 has had a scaled score (FFT) above 110 in maths and in Y3 and Y5 for reading. GS has every conceivable disadvantage it is possible for a child to have including being a late summer born boy and a rough around the edges mother who swears alot in the playground but who is actively involved in his life and picks him up for me once or twice a week. I've always felt that despite him proving himself on standardised tests for the last 3 years, school do not see past the disadvantage and have low expectations of him

This week was parents evening after their first practise paper. I was given the results and was shocked to see he had scored 51/110 on the maths paper - 58 needed for expected. Anyway when I questionned GS, he said that he had done the test in a room with the other 'additional needs' kids (he qualifies for extra time) and all the children who arrived late - about 15 in total with one teaching assistant. He had gone to the toilet which was the other side of the school in the middle of the arithmetic test and then when he got back had been chucked out of the room for kicking a balloon around. When I looked at his arithmetic test, he had done exactly half and scored 19 (out of the 20 marks he had done). Last year he was regularly scoring 40 out of 40 on the weekly arithemetic tests. Now don't get me wrong, he had a good old dressing down from me for the shenanigans and not taking the test seriously.

I am however really cross about the testing arrangements they've put in place for him. One TA with 15 SEND kids. Really. Am I being unreasonable or should I talk to the school about better arrangments before the next test?

you absolutely should speak to them (and/or push for a retest)

It’s not good enough but if there’s only one TA for that many children, there’s not much they can do. This is life in primary school.

By all means talk to the school but increasing SEND needs and lack of support staff is well documented in schools. It’s not right, and the school I expect would far rather every child has their needs met, but if you haven’t got the staff (or extra rooms) then there isn’t much the can do on that aspect. As a staff member in a primary school myself, we find it so very frustrating. Ideally your DS would be 1:1 in a room with an adult so as not to distract others.

Yes I totally get what you are saying about lack of staff, but with that many ND kids of one kind or another in one room with a poor TA, what chance did any of them have of performing their best? He would have been better off in the main classroom with his teacher who wouldn't have stood for the shenanigans

I am a teacher too and I definitely think you should ask about how he will be supported for his SATs. Don't hugely need to dwell on what has happened, but what will be in place for him in May?

It sounds like he needs a prompt and rest breaks either instead of or as well as extra time. These are both "centre delegated" so they don't need to apply for them.

I imagine the main classroom would be tricky to facilitate individual children who need extra time. I agree that asking what is in place for SATs.

I guess the thing that is really annoying me is that his predicted KS2 results are 103 for reading and 105 for maths based on his KS1 results but as I mentioned up thread, in every termly standardised test since the beginning of Y3, he has been scoring above 110 in maths (a little more erratic with reading but still mostly above 110) and I have had to fight school to get them to recognise that these predicted grades are way too low for him...but now they are treating these results as an accurate assessment of what he is capable of, they can legitimately work to these predicted grades and not push him to greater depth.

I did ask the teacher if they were thinking of moving him down a set in maths and she said not - correct answer as WW3 would have erupted if they had.

A child with LD / ADHD / ASD who may need additional time / rest breaks or other accommodations should not be sitting in the same room as other pupils as their needs are different.
Practice SATS are used to indicate how a pupil may fare in the actual tests in May, ie 6 months time. We don’t do them under strict test conditions this early in the year primarily because the pupils shouldn’t be put under SATS pressure for a prolonged period. The point someone made about staffing is valid - when we do the trial SATS 2 weeks before the actual test date, we draught in all the spare bodies we can which puts additional pressure on all the other classes. It would be extremely unfair for this to happen every time the pupils did a practice paper.
By all means, discuss access arrangements with his teacher to satisfy yourself that the correct arrangements will be in place when needed.

I agree. We need many extra staff members to accommodate SATs week. All of the other year groups send their support staff to year 6, governors are drafted in, part time teachers do extra days, non teaching and office staff pitch in. This isn’t sustainable for any other time in the year and puts a massive pressure on everyone else.

Im wondering if he’s actually taking his the meds, as his behaviour suggests he’s not. Kicking a balloon around in the middle of a test is deliberately disruptive behaviour. The practice tests are trial run for a number of reasons, partly to see how arrangements will work, and if his teachers think he will do better in the main class then that’s where they will put him. But that comes at the risk of him disrupting more children.
For you to describe the TA as poor is unacceptable. 15 kids with SEN by herself, your GS doing his best to disrupt the test for all the other children, and you blame the TA?
I don’t know what has gone in GS’s life, the fact that he doesn’t live with his parents any more suggests things may have been quite traumatic, but you are unreasonable to blame the school for his behaviour, or being summer born.
The school will be aware that he is capable of doing better in his maths, but the predictions are based on the evidence. Do they have evidence that he will complete a paper? How can they possibly predict that he will score higher on the day? They may well hope that he will, and will try to round up as many extra helpers as they can for the actual SATS tests, and you can be assured that they will do everything possible to protect the rest of the class from being put off by his antics. But on current data, their prediction seems accurate.
Maybe arrange a meeting to discuss possibilities but you must be aware that if they don’t have any more staff, there is not much they can do without compromising the other children.

It’s worth bearing in mind that the school will want to give every child the best opportunity they can to do their best, whatever their best is. SATs results are used as a measure by some parents with Ofsted taking a keen interest too. Schools won’t be looking to set up children to fail in that respect.

As for pushing to greater depth, I’d only look to push children that can handle the pressure of that. Some cannot, they’re still emotionally too young to deal with it and I wouldn’t want to cause any dysregulation or melt/shut down if I felt that would happen, based on classroom experience with the child. From KS1 to end of KS2 so much changes for the child; they become far more aware of differences and react to that. And then there’s hormones starting to come in.

My own class, I have more children with SEND than not (some diagnosed, some on the pathway, some medicated but many not) as well as those with SEMH and trauma, and trying to meet the individual needs of every child every hour of the day is an unrelentingly hard task. Sometimes things go wrong, but going in and having a conversation with the school (rather seeing it as an adversarial battle) can help understand and clarify if anything further can be done.

I’ll also just mention that many staff also have neurodivergent families and some staff are neurodivergent themselves. We know the system and how broken it is.

Yes I agree - I do believe his meds need reviewing and that is happening later this month. And absolutely I don't condone his behaviour and he certainly got the sharp end of my tongue that evening...but as I said, generally his behaviour is fine at school. He would have done way better in the main class without any extra time - particularly in maths his strongest subject. He wouldn't have messed around in a test with his teacher - yes his focus is erratic (though she tells me mainly in English, not maths) but behaviour is fine. When he does mess around is when he's with other kids who are messing around - and this day they seem to be all concentrated in one classroom with one poor TA who doesn't have the same authority as the teacher,,, but I hear you all and will monitor what arrangements they put in place for him next time.

I would just ask for reassurance that proper arrangements will be in place for the SATs in May. A looked after child achieving GDS will look amazing for their data so that should incentivise them if nothing else!