One for @noblegiraffe, if you would be so kind. And other Maths teachers!

[EmmatheStageRat]

I really hope that this isn’t overstepping but I’d really (REALLY) appreciate some guidance from a Maths teacher.

My DD (14) is about to start Y10 at a selective grammar school and I have been pushing for an EHCNA since Y7. My LA has finally agreed to assess her and I have just today read the EdPsych’s report to the LA panel and it seems that she is predicted a 5 or 6 for Maths.

DD is registered blind and has, in the last six months, been diagnosed with ADHD and autism, among other conditions. DD is also adopted from the UK care system and is a FSM pupil. It has been brought to my attention (by the specialist VI) teacher that DD’s work has not been appropriately differentiated for the majority of her Maths lessons in Y10.

I’ve condensed massively otherwise it would be a case of TL:DR.

So, my six million dollar question is: how best can I help my DD, who clearly struggles with numeracy, bump up a grade or two in her Maths GCSE? I am a totally lone parent on a low income, a carer to my housebound and ailing elderly mother, plus, I have a six- year-old who is on the ASC/ADHD pathway, so I don’t have masses of spare time or money to throw at a solution. On the other hand, I do have an A-grade O-Level in Maths from back when dinosaurs roamed the land.

Please, I’d be so grateful for any suggestions of apps/revision guides/flash cards etc that we could undertake together.

Thanks so much in advance!

Crikey, you have a lot on your plate.

Before you go spending money on anything, ask what the support the school is providing using the covid recovery premium, and the national tutoring programme. As on FSM and adopted from care, she should be a priority.

I will say that if she is predicted a 5 or 6, she doesn't seem to be struggling with numeracy, although she may be attaining higher grades in other subjects. 5/6 is not a low grade outside of grammar schools!

What do you mean by the work not being appropriately differentiated? Do you mean she was unable to access it due to her issues with her vision, or was it pitched at the wrong level? How does she work? Reader and scribe?

The school may have bought access to a website like mathswatch or hegartymaths which are useful as they have videos and self-marking questions so ask if they have a login.

For free there's a huge number of resources on corbettmaths.com/contents/ the only downside is that they are ordered alphabetically so you need to know which topic you want to work through.

For revision guides, CGP are good.

Did she do an end of year exam that you can look at? It would be useful to know her strengths and weaknesses so that you know where to start.

The best way to get better at maths is to identify a topic she is struggling with, get some support with understanding it (e.g. revision guide or video), try some questions, mark them, and then go back over any incorrect answers to try to improve. Then try some more questions until confident. Flashcards (e.g. sold on Corbettmaths) would be more useful closer to exams.

Does the school use a maths service that your DD can access at home? DS was at a school that used Mathswatch, it was really helpful as there was a video for each topic and then practice questions. His new school uses a different program (can’t remember that it’s called) which is also very good for supporting maths at home.

@noblegiraffe , thanks so much for responding. Maybe I should chill out a bit and not stress about DD not achieving the MN9?!

In answer to your questions, DD has been accessing online tutoring through the National Tutoring service once a week after school but she hates it as she is wrung out after a day at school (ADHD & ASC) and she reckons that it’s a different teenager tutor every week and the tutored subjects are not related to the curriculum work she is doing in school. Also, because she has to stay in school to access the online tutoring, and so misses her dedicated bus service, I have to pay to put my younger DD into after-school club so I can drive a 20-mile round trip to pick her up. This is not a sustainable option for us as a family.

You asked about how her work is differentiated. DD doesn’t have a scribe because she doesn’t have an EHCP. She doesn’t have an EHCP because her school wouldn’t support the EHCNA. We were turned downed for a needs assessment at panel a year ago because DD was judged to be meeting age-related expectations (because she is at a grammar school)! Her Qualified Teacher for the Vision Impaired is utterly brilliant and dedicated but has such a massive caseload that she can only visit school once a term, at most. She/we trust that school will implement her specialist guidance but this has not been the case. DD’s Maths teacher apparently explains the work to the class and then ducks out to make DD’s work accessible (enlarged appropriately) so DD has been missing about 10 to 15 minutes of each lesson waiting for her work to be delivered in an accessible format. DD is a highly anxious people-pleaser so she sits patiently rather than raising hell (my job!). I only found this out at the end of Y10.

Thanks for the Corbett Maths flash cards recommendation; I will definitely seek these out.

May I ask, how much Maths work would you recommend for my DD to do each evening? She seems to like learning alongside me and I could commit to this - now that I’ve recovered my will to live after lockdown learning!

@Skiphopbump , thanks for replying. DD’s school did use MathsWatch during the pandemic and lockdown learning, I need to get back on board with whichever learning tool they’re using now.

5 or 6 is in the top half of the kids in my school.
The teacher certainly shouldn't be enlarging work during the lesson, that's a planning job rather than an in lesson job. Kick up a fuss about that!!!!

How big does the print need to be for her to read it? Is there a technology solution to enlarging things? I'm thinking about the huge magnifying sheet the last blind child I taught used, but that was 15 years ago so there's probably a more modern thing to replace that now.

I'm very surprised she doesn't have a reader/scribe. And being registered blind should be enough to get her an echp without even considering the other things she's got going on.

Noble has given some good places to go for support outside school so I won't repeat that (I do love Corbett maths if you know which things she's struggling with)

Reapply for an EHCNA. Did you appeal the EHCNA refusal? The vast majority of refusals to assess are upheld.

Does DD receive extra time for exams?

Although the school might not be able to provide a scribe in lessons without an EHCP what about a reading pen/e-reader and speech recognition software?

It’s not acceptable to refuse an EHCP because academic attainment is at or above AREs. You would certainly have grounds to appeal.

@MsAwesomeDragon , believe me, I have kicked up a fuss! This situation was not just specific to Maths but to the science subjects DD has chosen for her GCSE options. There was a terrible incident where DD was left to wander around the school on her own (admittedly during GCSE exams) to find a quiet place to complete her end of Y9 Physics monitoring exam. The school will not make that mistake again. Especially as her Y9 Physics teacher is to be the new head teacher.) You know the howlers from Harry Potter? I reckon that mine will still be shouting in the communal areas forever and a day!

I hear you re: the 5/6 so I am just going to chill out. In my defence, if such were needed, the employment statistics for young people who are registered blind are absolutely woeful. And then factor in the ADHD and the autism. I’m an older parent and I really need for my DD to be able to live independently and to be employable.

With regards to font size, I’m told that her examining board has changed things recently so she has to access N22. DD also qualifies for 100pc extra time but she and her QTVI have currently agreed on 50pc extra time to prevent fatigue.

Apologies, I have re-read your posts and I missed the LA are now assessing. If they refuse to issue do appeal.

What exam board(s) is it as I think with AQA, Edexcel and OCR exam papers can be modified up to N36?

If fatigue is a potential problem does DD have rest breaks?

It is shocking that happened with the physics exam, I should hope it doesn’t happen again, but I do like your Harry Potter explanation.

@Thatsnotmycar @Wavingnotdrown1ng , thanks so much for your help. Just to clarify, as I have learned to be a ninja parent as an adopter, I absolutely agree with you re: the EHCNA. Normally, I’m more ‘on’ stuff and battle-ready but my dad died last summer just as I was applying (again) for an EHCNA. I was absolutely poleaxed with grief and didn’t have the energy to fight my LA for something that I think that any right-thinking humanitarian would grant without question.

Don't know much about how to help your daughter but you're both superstars. Whatever grades your DD achieves, and despite her diagnoses, she's winning as she's got you.

Try not to worry about her not being able to keep up with the top 1% of the population that her classmates are in.

Hi, fellow adopter here. I am amazed at how well your DD is doing given the barriers she has.
My suggestion with respect to you helping her would be to check in with her daily about each of her lessons, and then especially with maths/science check whether she fully understood the lesson, and if not go through the subject with her. It means you can straighten things out with her before the next lesson.
That approach really helped my DD1 in GCSE years.

(A 5/6 is fine for maths unless she wants to do sciences at A level, but as she is able I can see why you would want to improve it.)

It’s understandable you didn’t have the energy. Sadly, many LAs reject most EHCNA requests.

If the LA issue an EHCP, having pre-teaching for maths in the provision might help.

They need to sort the issue of accessible materials - that's not acceptable. They need to be available at the start of the lesson. She should be a priority for intervention, and in her case it would be better to provide that in-house, not the National Tutoring service. Online is likely to be more difficult for her, it's highly unlikely the tutors will have much training or experience in VI (hopefully some has been provided in the school - it was when I taught VI kids), especially if the tutor changes frequently.

I find it incredible that a child who is registered blind does not have an EHCNA. It shouldn't be a case of "she's doing well enough academically so she doesn't need one" - she should be entitled to the support she needs to do as well as she can.

Unfortunately, legally, the LA doesn’t have a duty to educate children or young people to their maximum potential or provide provision so the child or young person achieves the best possible educational and other outcomes. They only have to provide what is necessary and reasonably required. Which, I agree is more than is currently being provided, but isn’t legally “support she needs to do as well as she can”.

Thank you, that’s very kind. Obviously, my DD HATES me! Because she is 14 and adopted (and, whisper it quietly, a dick!)

Waves to fellow adopter (with the extra wrinkles and prematurely grey hair? 😅) Yes, thank you for the kind reminder that in between tearing out the aforementioned grey hair at my DD’s trauma-related antics, I should take time out to celebrate her achievements in the face of such extreme adversity.

I like your prosaic approach to learning with your DD; I think this could work for us, as apart from really HATING me, DD1 secretly loves to spend one-on-one time with me (all the attachment stuff). I just need to gaffer-tape DD2’s mouth for the duration!

I’m intrigued to know about pre-teaching?

Yes, I agree re: the materials. I think School has been suitably shamed by the QTVI and I am 100pc ‘on it’ now so I will not tolerate a single other breach of the Equality Act.

Just as a bit of background, my DD was only registered blind at the age of 11, so she has a strong visual memory and she has about 10pc functional sight. She very definitely punches above her weight sight-wise and people are quick to forget that she is legally registered blind (not all people who are registered blind are totally ‘dark’ - in the VI vernacular). She has only just been issued with a white cane and she loves it because now people get to truly see that she has a significant disability. And they make allowances for her; no more nasty comments when she accidentally bumps into them in the street because she genuinely hasn’t seen them. And, hallelujah, no more tuts and sarcastic comments when we use her Blue Badge in disabled parking bays.

Pre-teaching is where the pupil is taught new knowledge/vocab/concepts/skills prior to the lesson, so they can effectively hit the ground running in the lesson itself. As well as supporting the learning of the curriculum content it boosts confidence and self esteem. I think evidence suggests pre-teaching is more effective than re teaching the content after the lesson. Although I can’t be 100% certain on the up to date research.

I think this can also be referred to as 'flip learning'.

This has definitely helped both my DDs at times in maths. I'd say 'I don't expect you to take this all in, but let me just show you...' Then when it came up in the maths lessons it felt familiar and they were more minded to think they could understand it.

But you do need to know what's coming up in the curriculum.

Pre-teaching can be written into section F of the EHCP so the school must provide it.

Thank you, @TeenDivided @Thatsnotmycar , very helpful information.