ISEB PreTest and Dyslexia

[RosesAroundMyDesk]

My child is currently in YR5 and dyslexic. A number of the schools we may apply for have decided to adopt this pre-testing. I have been told there is no accomodation for spld, which given dyslexia often comes with slower processing .... I find surprising. Does anyone who has been through this test (particularly those with children with spld) have any thoughts/views?

Haven’t got that far as reading their full regs on it, but if normal way of working at school due to recognised need then we will be applying it to ISEB test

Very interesting- their website does not reflect this yet

Hi , is anyone already did Pretest this year ? Which kind of comprehension was? Fiction or non- fiction ? Thank you

can share personal experience for ISEB Exam for 11plus pre-test.

what kind of standard expected?

Hi @bluestarind my child is taking this next week can you PM me - I would be interested.

I think standard depends on the school and how they are using it (some use as a bar, others use to set and as additional information)

Thanks for this thread!!!

My DS (y5) is due to sit these tests next autumn and I'm really concerned about it. He recently did the online Durham tests (which I believe are similar) and did really poorly in the English - his English teacher was standing behind him and said rushed it, got lots wrong, got easier questions, which he then got wrong and finished first with a very low score - much lower than the teacher was expecting. On the plus side, he was delighted that he finished first .

All of the coping strategies he's been taught rely on pen and paper - reading the questions first, coloured overlays, underlining, circling names, making notes, chunking words, checking back over his work etc. He is allowed 15% extra time, but this is of limited help with these tests, esp as you can' t break down and revisit etc.

Thank you for the advice upthread - especially on how to deal with schools. I've emailed the ISEB as couldn't find anything on their site and they directed me to this.

I am going to call a couple of the schools we're interested in and ask a bit more about how it will work. It sounds really non-inclusive and I'm quite shocked about the arrangements....

My child is taking this exam next week- for the reasons above I am very concerned. This is not a fair exam

This is a snippet from the minutes of the
All Party Parliamentary Group on Dyslexia and other Specific Learning Difficulties Minutes, March 15th, 2016

The ISEB is just one part of a whole much bigger issue.

Speaker: Neil Alexander Passe -
How do we get to a child as being seen as dyslexic and as a SENCo I need those skills to make that judgement so for this session did a small research project in my borough. Out of 11 primary school SENCos only two of them had the ability to assess. This means that with the SEND Code of Practice saying that a child should be assessed at the earliest point SENCos are not able to do that. Most schools buy in to an Educational Psychology service in their boroughs which allows 7-9 visits a year. The research project also found that most SENCOs lacked the knowledge of what dyslexia is and they lacked support for that role. We have a barrier here that SENCos lacked the skills to be able to assess any child with a learning need. We need to build on the national SENCO award and say the requirement of a SENCo must be having the ability to assess, a similar Level 7 postgrad qualification. SENCos are supporting teachers so they can differentiate. However, there is a lack of skills within the normal teaching body for every teacher to support every child in the classroom as is required by the Children and Families Act so supporting what LA is saying for ITT we really need to make a SEN based CPD for professional development every year for a school. It should be seen as a requirement and that they have that knowledge-base so they can develop that within the teaching body.

We only have one life, and we know the impact that being a different learner can have, not just on individuals but on whole families. how can we let this go on?

But where does one make a start to change things?