Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who responded to my post about DS getting a 1 in his English Language mocks, and for sharing online resources/books and your DC's experiences. English Literature has already been dropped so no more Macbeth, which is a shame as he did Malcolm's speech so well at LAMDA.
We're getting a date for an online assessment for dyslexia/other learning differences, but it'll be in May or June. Also looking to schedule a Functional Skills English Level 2 test for him in early August, for which a pass should be equivalent to a GCSE Grade 4.
@DontWheeshtMe I know it's too late to get access changes, and to be honest I don't think getting more extra time would make much difference with the block DS seems to have for English and essay writing. It will still help in the long run if it turns out there's something identifiable behind it all separate to the ADHD and ASD.
@newmum1976 and @IThinkImAMathmoMum , his school doesn't have a sixth form so he applied to three sixth forms (two private, one state) and got conditional offers from all of them. The state sixth form should take him even if he fails the English Language GCSE and he can re-sit it in November (probably with similar results).
DS has had 1:1 English tutors through the years (Years 4 and 5, and from the start of Year 11) but they haven't really made much of a dent. He's got 1 week of English at a revision school this Easter break.
@FreedomandPeace, it's a good point about checking the boards for his A levels (Chemistry, Biology, Maths with Physics as a fourth). Given his mock 8s in Chemistry, Physics and Maths, and 7 in Biology (as per pattern not doing well with answers requiring sentences, although he prefers Biology as a subject over Physics), I think he should be ok with the sixth form choices he has. They're mostly AQA (is that a lot of essays compared with Edexcel?) and OCR. At the moment we'll go with whichever one will take him, he just really has to pass English Language!
@NotDonna, at parent 1:1s his English teacher told us that the school are supposedly looking into getting a specialist educator who may be able to help with this sort of thing (he's quite engaged, participates in discussions at school but consistently has very low written output). However they've not promised anything and we haven't heard from them at all.
At the time of the November mocks, Maths was a 5 and Further Maths was a 3, so passing Further Maths seemed a more distant possibility versus Drama, especially as DS says his maths teacher is unintelligible. He has a 9 in practicals (60% of the grade) so his Drama teacher says he should pass whatever the written test result. According to her, he's so articulate and engaged in class, she couldn't really see him doing so badly with the writing. I think all his teachers — and us as parents — believed he would outgrow the aversion to writing, especially given he is otherwise bright, but now it does seem to be a much deeper problem. Anyway we just need to keep going forward. Sorry for the long post.