My son is unachieving at high school in all subjects

[Olivia2007]

My son is in year 8 KS3. he got 2 5's and 4's in his year 6 SATs but now in his assessments in year 7 and up till march this year he's 3c's and a 2A in drama and French.

I got his a math and English tutor he does 1 hour of each subject a week.
The money is a struggle to find.

How can this be? I've spoken to the school and they give him 2 x 50 mins small group time and there a TA on his table in lessons to help with spellings.

An educational Psychologist saw him in October and is no feedback or report although asking. The school keep telling me his levels are fine but I know there not.

I don't know what to if he continues he'll get grade F at GCSE. what can I do? what can the school do?
what level should he be?

What are his grades across the board? Maths, English, science, humanities etc. Is french his only modern language?

Art 3a
drama 2a
DT 3a
English 3a
French 3a
geography 3b
history 3a
IT 3a
maths 3a
music 3a
PE 5C
RE 3C
science 3a

French is his only language

So he's jumped from 4s and 5s to 3s?

Given you will have seen his work at primary school and can compare with now, does this make sense to you? When you look at his exercise books over the last 3 years can you see any sense of progress?

The issue here isn't about French and drama - it is about English, maths and Science first and foremost.

How is he finding school? Challenging? Boring?

When you spoke to the school, what did they say about his progress? Is this fairly normal or is it unheard of for levels to drop like this? When will he next be re-assessed, or is that constant? What does the tutor say, what are your son's strengths and weaknesses? Does that fit with what you think his strengths and weaknesses are?

The high level in PE is interesting. I don't know much about the PE syllabus. Does that fit with what you know about him? Does he find active learning much easier?

Why did school get the Ed Psych involved? Are they using the old NC levels (sounds like it but level 3 in year 8 following 4 and 5 in year 6 is very unusual) or are these different grades? What were end of year 7 levels?

I noticed In year 7 a dip in grades when I approached the school they told me the marking scheme was different so they where not concerned. The educational psychologist got involved because they believe my son is capable of higher levels but does not demonstrate this in his work. They felt there may be a learning difficult but there's been no feedback.

My son says he finds high school difficult. I can see his handwriting has got worse but his standard of work has not changed.

The high school feel the primary school taught him papers so he'd achieve a higher grade.

I feel the school are not as concerned as me and this worries me.

'standard of work has not changed' - do you mean he hasn't progressed in two years?

I'd be furious very worried at the lack of feedback from the ed psych and the lack of concern from the school. What does the tutor say?

I agree you need to find out more from school - I'd advise strongly signally you won't be upset if it's bad news (i.e. kid is goofing off in their opinion) - but if they agree he's a good kid, working hard - it sounds to me pursuing learning disability line (which the school seem to have started to do ) is reasonable. I would also ask for a copy of Ed Psych report - which as your child's guardian you are entitled to.

I think you also can do a bit of investigating yourself - talk to your son about what the issue is. Are words dancing on the page? Is it hard to read numbers - do they shift about? Does it take him a lot longer to read things in class than friends. Does he fail to copy things correctly - numbers/ spellings/ etc... [his tutor may also have observed some of this or have some opinions].

You can be very good at sport and dyslexic. I'm not saying it's dyslexia - but a lot of what you describe: poor spelling/ illegible handwriting/ finding school progressively more and more difficult are classic symptoms on 'the spectrum'.

If he's otherwise a bright kid and applying himself - it's worth pursuing 'learning disability' diagnosis. Not saying it definitely is - but certainly some of what you are describing makes me suspect it may be the case.

HTH

The tutor assesses his level to be higher but my son works better one to one not when he's left to get on with the work.

I've been chasing the report from the ed psy and I'm going to call the school tommorow and ask for a meeting.

I don't fell my sons really progress since leaving primary school and I'm very worried. I feel there's a learning difficult.

If your child was assessed at KS2 with 5s and 4 this cannot be disregarded. You need to contact the school asap.

Thanks for all the response. I called the school this morning and I'm meeting with them on Thursday after school.

Went to the meeting with the school and they didn't take my concerns seriously. They said we should wait for the new assessments coming out and the end of next week to see the overall progress he's made this year although half way through the year there was no progress so he should of made 1 sub level.

They didn't have the educational psychologist report. I called the EP myself at the local council who told me she verbally feed back to them in October all the recommendations and sent the report back then when the school got in contact recently she emailed and re-posted it. So she posted it out to me and called the school.

Friday morning, the school calls me saying they had it there had been a mix up.

Basically it says my son has dyslexia, although he's 13 he a reading age of 8 years 4 months and spelling age of 9 years 8 months. His literacy needs multi sensory teaching and further handwriting assessments are required.

All staff working with him should be aware that he needs high literacy support, additional explanations, extra time, reader, scribe for exams. A regulate individualised literacy programme which is based on multi sensory techniques.

The school have not been doing any of this and are not bothered about his grades. I've left a message asking for another meeting straight after Easter.

Shocking how badly the school has handled this so far!

Hope they inprove, you'll have to be on their back

That's outrageous that he should have been receiving all this support since October and they've done nothing. They've got a lot of explaining and apologising to do.

But he didn't seem to have these issues at primary school based on his grades, this is all very inconsistent and very odd.

Just to add, I'm not at all doubting the Ed psych, just don't understand how he went from achieving very well in primary, to level 3's and various learning difficulties only noticed since secondary school, unless the primary school were wrong about his levels???? is that a possibility?

So it sounds that either the primary school levelling was very poorly done (and I do think it is a hard thing to do) or some enormous change has happened in your dc?? What on earth?

This issue about the report falling down the back of a radiator or whatever happened there is absolutely horrifying. And why was the EP report not copied to you immediately?

I don't understand any of this, though perhaps an educational professional would understand more. I don't understand why the school are taking such a relaxed approach to a child who has a long way to go to achieve well at GCSE. They should surely be able to provide you with an action plan to move things forward.

I personally would fire off complaints about the school and the EP too, although the school would be my focus. I am not impressed by a school that is effectively saying 'let's wait a bit longer and see what happens' in this situation' and is completely unbothered by failing to give a child who is struggling any of the recommended support.

Ask around, are there any schools locally which are known for their dyslexia provision? Try a post on the SEN board?