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Secondary education

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Original poster

Dyslexia and Reasonable Adjustments

12 replies

SummerDayz63 · 25/09/2023 12:23

My DD is year 7 at secondary. She has dyslexia. she is struggling with the pace in the classroom, it’s mostly spoken and she has trouble with auditory processing, she also works slowly (again processing). In particular she said her maths teacher keeps telling her she should work quicker, and that it’s not good enough if she doesn’t understand. She said her maths teacher makes her feel stupid and she is now dreading those classes

How much reasonable adjustment can wexpect? At primary she had a profile where it said what helped / hindered and they are doing a few of the hinders…

So as not to drip feed, she passed all her SATS and other than her spelling she masks pretty well.

OP posts:
Lint6 · 25/09/2023 12:31

No teacher should tell a dyslexic child to 'work faster' or belittle them for being slow. Ask for a meeting asap - either with the maths teacher or Head of Year. Firmly tell them it's not acceptable - it really isn't! There's a chance that the teacher has somehow missed that she has specific learning need - that happened a few times with my son and he masked things well too. At every stage I found we had to constantly remind. It was astonishing how often teachers forgot - eg: asking him to read things out loud, etc, etc..

Legacy · 25/09/2023 12:40

Came to say the same as the previous poster. You need to nip this in the bud before it damages your daughter's self esteem. DS has dyslexia and had an Independent Learning Profile which all his teachers were sent. It mentioned things like being able to photograph the whiteboard rather than laboriously copying it and missing the explanation. Also extra, subtle, checking from teachers to ensure understanding.

Contact form teacher/ Head of SEN etc. Ask for meeting and copy of ILP and confirmation that all your DDs teachers have it.

DS ended up in the 'bottom' set for maths, but in reality it was fine as it meant it was a small class that took longer over things. He could do maths, but just needed more time. He got an A (9 these days) in his GCSE!

pentuppetula · 25/09/2023 13:04

Meeting with the HoY and SENDCO asap. Do the school have her learning profile?
Your poor daughter. Nip this in the bud now!

Singleandproud · 25/09/2023 13:16

Sounds like an old-school teacher who doesn't believe in ND. You would be surprised at how little Send training teachers actually get, Contact the Sendco as a priority.

Reasonable adjustments for dyslexiq could be PowerPoint printed with all info on so child just has to highlight key words or a gap fill. In maths, worked examples placed infront of them so they don't have to keep copying from the board which can be a huge issue.

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 25/09/2023 14:07

Definitely time for meeting with school.

FWIW, my DD (14) and severely dyslexic got put in the top maths set in Y7 based on her NVR scores (no SATs for her year group) and was miserable as it was all too fast for her to keep up.

She was moved to a different set where it was far too slow and she was finishing everything way before everyone else - but good in the short term for her confidence to be getting things right.

Moved her up a couple of sets and it was better, and then in Y9 they managed to get the perfect combo of pace and teacher and everyone is happy.

We sent DD to secondary with a laptop for everything (EP recommendation for both dyslexia and hypermobile fingers) and that has proved very useful for flagging in teacher's minds that she has SpLd.

She masks, is high IQ and her verbal abilities are far in advance of anything written, so it is very easy for teachers to forget that she has incredibly poor working memory and struggles to read and spell and her hypermobility makes it very painful to write by hand. The visual reminder seems to do the trick most of the time.

Did have one teacher who told her to put the tech away and pick up pencil and write. DD asked them if they would ask a child in a wheelchair to get up and run the 100 metres as that was basically the same.

Original poster
SummerDayz63 · 25/09/2023 14:33

Thank you everyone, I really appreciate the responses. I have made an appointment with the senco. I can see there are a lot more things for me to consider and your input has been very helpful.

OP posts:
tothelefttotheleft · 25/09/2023 15:29

Legacy · 25/09/2023 12:40

Came to say the same as the previous poster. You need to nip this in the bud before it damages your daughter's self esteem. DS has dyslexia and had an Independent Learning Profile which all his teachers were sent. It mentioned things like being able to photograph the whiteboard rather than laboriously copying it and missing the explanation. Also extra, subtle, checking from teachers to ensure understanding.

Contact form teacher/ Head of SEN etc. Ask for meeting and copy of ILP and confirmation that all your DDs teachers have it.

DS ended up in the 'bottom' set for maths, but in reality it was fine as it meant it was a small class that took longer over things. He could do maths, but just needed more time. He got an A (9 these days) in his GCSE!

What if he's been put in a set that took papers that meant he could only get a c maximum?

tothelefttotheleft · 25/09/2023 15:29

@OhCrumbsWhereNow

Good on your daughter for saying that!!!!

Legacy · 25/09/2023 16:39

tothelefttotheleft · 25/09/2023 15:29

What if he's been put in a set that took papers that meant he could only get a c maximum?

Show quote history

This wasn't the case for my DS - everyone took the higher level paper. But if that's the case for your son/daughter and you think they are capable of more than a C then you need to speak to the school.

I know that in some cases a school thinks it's better to get a solid C on the lower level paper than risk a D taking the higher level.

Legacy · 25/09/2023 16:42

@OhCrumbsWhereNow
Did have one teacher who told her to put the tech away and pick up pencil and write. DD asked them if they would ask a child in a wheelchair to get up and run the 100 metres as that was basically the same.

Oh bravo to your daughter! She will go far. Unfortunately, a lot of children wouldn't have the confidence to do this.
I do remember trying to explain to DS that his 'reasonable adjustments' were like a ramp that allowed a person in a wheelchair to access a building with steps - designed to give him access to the same place.

prh47bridge · 25/09/2023 16:59

Sadly, some teachers have a very poor attitude to SEN. A couple of months ago someone claiming to be a teacher told us on here that, when required to provide worksheets on green paper for a student suffering from Irlen's syndrome, she just laughed. She said that the syndrome "completely obviously didn't exist". Irlen's syndrome does, of course, exist and there is no way anyone other than a medical professional would be able to tell whether or not a pupil suffers from it.

SpaceRaiders · 25/09/2023 21:25

We’re in a similar boat. I’ve been holding off requesting a meeting with the HOY and SENCO not wanting to be that parent.

The school have said Dd doesn’t need SEN support which she had been receiving at her previous school. But equally it seems they’re not currently providing her with reasonable adjustments which were clearly set out in her report.

I’ve spent such a long time building rapport with our previous SENCO, who were fab only to start from scratch in a new school. So I’m feeling a bit deflated, I don’t know why can’t they just go with the recommendations that have been working for her for the last 3 years. Gah!

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