GCSEs 2018 (5 & a puppy, but no kittens)

[Stickerrocks]

Here we go again.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3177476-GCSEs-2018-4-already

Hmmm feeling very fortunate that what he wants to do (not in detail but in terms of vague area), what he has become good at, and what he enjoys have come together in the last few months. And even equate with good teachers that he likes !! Was very different at the start of the year when we didn't have a clue what direction he would go or what he was capable of.

Hello - can I join you at the start of this new thread? I’m prompted to join in after DS’s parents evening yesterday. DS is doing well academically (he got 7’s and 8’s in mocks) but just about every teacher (essay subjects and maths/science) commented on his poor handwriting- and the English teacher on his poor spelling. He misspells common words (writing thier’ not ‘their’) and muddles the sounds in words (he wrote ‘blinging’ for ‘blinding’.) The computer science teacher presumed DS was using a laptop for essay subjects.

But DS doesn’t have difficulty getting his ideas or solutions down on paper (and he doesn’t complain of pain) - he just can’t seem to do it neatly - or more importantly, to get his answers to be consistently legible. I noticed (again) in an English essay he hadn’t written on the lines - the teacher said she’d given up on that!

Then I come to this thread and see you’re talking about dysgraphia and dyspraxia. I’ve generally thought that DS just ‘rushes’ to get his thoughts down on paper and ‘forgets’ about handwriting and spelling. Do you think I should be looking into whether it is something more? (For sixth form now rather than GCSES). DS has had an EP assessment 4 years ago - that was shortly after his ASD diagnosis - but the EP didn’t pick up anything.

One downside of taking away AS s is they can't add that fourth subject they just enjoy doing - though overall I think a good thing that they are gone. DS really looking forward to lower sixth with fewer subjects and time to enjoy extra curricular without pressure of external exams. Older DC started lower sixth enthusiastically but had a shock when straight into AS mocks after Christmas after just a term of the subject - I'm glad that's gone.

@pannetone it sounds like you are describing dysgraphia to me (but i'm not an expert). Its not well-known. When I told DS's year 6 teacher-cum-senco about the diagnosis, her exact words were "humph, they have an excuse for everything these days". She was a bit of a witch, tbh. I think she was disappointed not to be allowed to pick on DS any more for his poor handwriting. She had turned him into a nervous, crying wreck over it. (She also is the reason I started to monitor my DC's education so closely).

Typing in the exams doesn't need a diagnosis though, just that its the normal way of working. Its a bit late for the GCSEs sadly, but not too late for A levels and university.

Extra time is a bit more tricky. It takes a lot of evidence that is gathered by learning support/ senco, but I don't know what evidence exactly.

Thanks mmzz. I think I need to do some reading up - I’m finding the overlap of dysgraphia, dyspraxia and dyslexia confusing.

I’m not sure how quick DS is at typing - but he has been producing homework on a laptop for years. It’s with class tests and mocks where he has to hand write that the teachers are flagging up difficulties. DS is looking to do maths and science for A levels so no essays but still a legibility issue in showing his working out and answers. If DS gets the grades for his place at a sixth form grammar he will take History AS as well, so he may not have finished with essay writing either.

It was a bit frustrating last night when his English teacher thought his handwriting and spelling issues could cost him a grade.

I do love Fridays! It's my day off from work. Back from drinking cappuccinos and trying to work up the enthusiasm to do some housework....

pannetone I would say you could get a report from an Occupational Therapist.

My ds meets the criteria for dyspraxia according to a report we paid for privately when he was 11, on the basis of that and the OT we employed speaking to the school in year 7, he is awarded 25% extra time in exams. He still struggles though, but works hard and should get good enough grades to get where he wants to be.

mmzz at the comment from your ds's year 6 teacher. What's the point of destroying a child's confidence....

Can anybody help me with a question please? My friend I've just met up with is told by her dd there are no resits any more. Does this mean it is not possible to resit and that's that, no second chance? Or does it mean they have to wait until the next year to resit?

It depends how you define resits! The only November resits are in maths and English.
In theory you could resit other subjects the following June but you would probably have to pay to do them as an external candidate or through a private college.

DS2 has hypermobility in his hands and wrists. He has to grip the pen very tightly (which makes his hands ache after a few minutes) and the pen sometimes goes through the paper because he is pressing so hard. His writing is uniform but small, spidery and difficult to read.

Luckily he can touch type quickly, accurately and painlessly. He uses a laptop for exams in certain subjects: English language, English literature, Geography & Computer Science (he doesn't do History).

Thankfully he is planning to do subjects at A-level which don't involve extended writing: Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry.

t’s with class tests and mocks where he has to hand write that the teachers are flagging up difficulties.

Why can't he just type for those too?

www.handwriting-solutions.com/dysgraphia.asp Here is a good description of dysgraphia. Its as good a place as any to start researching.
If you can use a diagnosis to get 25% extra time for A levels and later, then it may be worth exploring. If all you need is an agreement that he can type in exams, then it is easier just to get the school to agree that he can do it in class and for class tests.

For me, the diagnosis fell out of what the teacher was doing to DS when he was 10. She genuinely believed that she could bully him into writing better. I spoke to her about it, told her I'd support her if she was willing to help him write more quickly and more neatly, and she replied something about it not being her responsibility. Then over the next few months, DS got more and more anxious and tearful, and finally he showed me some of her written comments, and told me about some of the things she had said to him.
So, I found a handwriting tutor. The tutor spent approx 10 mins with DS before telling me that she strongly suspected a SEN and asking if dyslexia runs in the family. I then paid for a private assessment and dysgraphia was confirmed (along with a high IQ and extremely good memory).
I told the teacher. She refused to accept it. She continued to make DS's life a misery. I asked for a meeting and she gave me an appointment 3 weeks away. Finally, there was a day when DS was in floods of tears in the car coming home from school and I called the HT as soon as I got in the door. I don't think I've ever been so angry in my life. I told him what was happening. I told him that the teacher was breaching the Disability Discrimination Act. I told him i had evidence of her bad behaviour to DS. And I told him that DS himself was calling it bullying. Finally, I said that if it didn't stop immediately, I'd be withdrawing DS from school (he was about to sit SATS and would get 5s and 6s) and I'd devote myself to pursuing an official complaint against the teacher, and the school for failing to deal with her.
It stopped immediately. The teacher added positive notes to the end of her comments in his books, lost others and tippexed over the rest.

All was quiet for a little while, and then, unbelievably, she started to attack me. In front of another parent, she implied I am a bad mother and that she had to do my job for me by giving my 10 year old son a sex education.

@mmzz that's appalling. I can't believe your DS was treated that way. Thank goodness you were able to get a diagnosis and the right support.

The awful thing is that there must be lots of other DC out there who don't get a diagnosis and never get the support they need.

Even now, i struggle to put into words how I feel about that woman. Ds was just a young boy. He had big trusting eyes. He always behaved himself and did what he was told. He was shy. He always did his best. So why would that bitch think it ok to abuse him?

In a weird way, she did him and me a favour of forcing me to resolve his handwriting problems whereas I'd have waited for it to improve by itself. However, I need to dig deep to remember that. Mostly, I just want to hurt her the way she hurt my child.

Thanks for your thoughts and experiences of handwriting issues and for the link mmzz.

TheSecond DS is also going to do Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry at A level (plus History AS if he goes to the grammar sixth form). But for DS legibility is the problem - rather than pain from extended writing - and we had the Maths, Computing and Physics teacher saying his solutions were hard to read. DS thought it wasn’t such an issue as in ‘essay’ subjects but the teachers pointed out he could lose marks if the examiner couldn’t read his work, even if it is numbers rather than words.

I’ve no idea if DS’s difficulties are pronounced enough for a diagnosis (and extra time) but I suppose that the job of an assessment! I know several friends who’ve had DC assessed for dyslexia- do you think the same assessors would test for dysgraphia or is it an OT area?

I think the dyslexia assessors would do dysgraphia too. Best check when booking the appointment though.

I think an assessor / educational psychologist does the diagnosis and then an occupational therapist suggests the things your DS can do to improve his writing. To be honest, though I could tell you the standard ones off the top of my head.

I was advised that its very difficult to make big improvements after about the age of 7 or 8. After that, its about finding ways of managing it (e.g. using laptops, pens with minimal drag, encouraging the use of mind maps for planning essays and writing slopes).

I've been googling about it today (inspired by this thread) and there seems to be something called LATEX en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX which may be the way forward for delivering highly legible, written maths answers in the future.

Talking to DS this evening he was telling me about a motivational speaker that came into the school this week some of the highlights were:-
You have 10 weeks to the exams
You should aim for half an hours revision a night and an hour at the weekend
don't worry if you fails your GCSE's I failed you can re-take
Finally, he starting talking about perserverence but as some DC were talking he stopped and said he wasn't going to continue so they could talk amongst themselves till the end of the lesson, all I can say is , and . I really don't think this was a good use of the school funds!!

Even DS thought it was a complete waste of time.

BlueBelle123 - was he trying to do some reverse psychology? If you don't work properly you can turn out like me!

unfortuately I don't think so!

I then asked DS how many hours the school said they should be revising and he said they haven't, they have said you should be revising but no guidance, the school is very hot on DC's mental health so I think that is probably why no figure is put on it probably also the thinking behind the speaker!!

One of you recommended a book called "What about me?" a couple of weeks ago (Teen?). Started it earlier & now I'm on a sprint to find out what happens with the baby. I would just like to categorically state that I'm not pregnant, simply stroppy!

Place marking for later

mmzz that's really sad - what a bitch when DS started nursery at another country, he was miserable and missed us all the time. He would cry and cling to the teacher's legs as she sat in a bench instead of joining the other kids in the playground. She was fed up and told us we had spoilt him rotten (he was 2 and half) and he lacked independence (?) because he was still in nappies! One year later, she said to him it was noT allowed to scribble in school. Henceforth DS refused to touch a pen or crayon for almost a year. Luckily we came to the UK and found a lovely primary school where he blossomed. Some people should not be in education.

Bluebelle and in what way was that ‘motivational’? I particularly like the bit where he gives up during his section on resilience!

mmzz you are a I would have gone after that teacher and probably ended up being arrested! Its disgraceful that teachers in this day and age act in such a way. In my day teachers were awful ( to me) and I suffered a lot of abuse. Left handers used to have their hand tied behind their backs is a good example but I thought abusing pupils was a thing of the past. I was wrong.

I am right handed, my eldest dd and grandson are right handed. My youngest dd and dgd are left handed. My ex husband is left handed. How many of your dc are left handed? Left handers are supposed to be better at spacial skills and maths. Just curious.

10% are left handed. The problem for left handers is that it is connected with words like gauche (French) and sinister (Italian: sinistro) which are obviously unpleasant words in English.
I read a psychology article about this once. It argued that if we have a stroke when a tiny infant, then the other side of the brain will take over some of the motor functions. However, it won't be able to perform the motor functions as well as the side that should have controlled them, had there not been a stroke there.
If you take 1000 new born babies, 900 will be naturally right handed, and 100 naturally left handed. If 1% of the babies have minor strokes in the womb or just after birth, then 9 of the right handed babies will grow up to be clumsy left handers, and 1 of the left handers will grow up to be a clumsy right gander.
But the right handed population will be 900-9+1=891 with just 1/891 being clumsy i.e. Not enough to be noticeable.
Whereas the left handed population will be 100-1+9= 108 with nearly 10% clumsy.
That's how being left handed got a bad name. Then, uneducated, superstitious people made up all sorts of silly arguments to justify their unease eg lucifer sat on God's left side.