Dyslexia advise for GCSE English

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Goodmorning everyone! I need some advise regarding DC who has a private diagnosis of dyslexia. He is in Y10 and till now has compensated really well with our support. The school have tested him for extra time assessment and he does not fulfill the need. His results are borderline 86 and they need to be less than 84 to qualify for extra time. Moving forward I am looking for advise on how to support him with his essay questions and English. We feel that he needs that extra time in English to understand the question and then answer it. He had his mocks and struggled with English paper. With his dyslexia I think his main struggles are not the lack of knowledge but to express that in a clear format. And I have noted that this inability to communicate out clearly is present both in verbal and written format. I am thinking of getting him some tuitions for english language. But I am not sure if it should be dyslexia specific or GCSE exam focused. He is a hard worker but I feel he is not able to show his full potential despite the hard work. Any advise on how to support him in Year 11 journey would be appreciated.

I would get a tutor for English Language who can
. give very clear instructions as to structure of each answer
. give if needed very clear instructions as to how to find the bits needed for the answer
. give sentence structures for answers

I would also consider having pre-prepared stories / paragraphs that can be adapted / shoehorned in for the creative writing. I have heard this done to good effect but it wouldn't have suited my DD.

Finally I would work generally on planning answers with bullet points to help organisation.

Thank you so much for your reply. That is very helpful. He has had a look at some English youtube channels and he has found mr everything english most useful in structuring his answers. Any ideas on what is the best way to find an English tutor. Is it just trial and error? Any recommendations? He worked with one local one in Primary but they were not useful. So I started to work with him during and after covid times, so it was regular, every day, small chunks. It has helped but I am starting to think some professional help may be useful for him.

Does he use a laptop? Ds used to write his answer then reorder the paragraphs, add introduction and conclusion as a more cohesive essay. Can he practice questions so he can pick out key phrases like describe, discuss, identify, compare, character , theme etc and grasp what type of answer expected. Any strategies agreed as exam adjustments need to be established now as his normal way of working.

No. He doesn't. The SENco are going to assess him to check if it is suitable. He prefers typing than writing. Thank you for your useful advise. What books or resources did your ds use for practising questions? Thank you. x

If you have a private diagnosis that shows he is dyslexic they should be accepting that as evidence that he is and not a school assessment which may not even have been carried out by a qualified assessor/Ed psychology and just a learning support assistant..

Thank you. I will speak to the school about it. I have arranged a meeting with them. Ed psych assessment was done at the beginning of year 7 so I am not sure if we need to repeat it. I did a google search about this and it says a diagnosis of dyslexia does not guarantee extra time which I did not realise uptil now. And the assessment should be done after year 9 to be counted. It is all so confusing so that is the reason I have come here for advise.

Year 7 will be too long ago for year 11 exams. Ds didn’t need additional tuition other than school practise, he is not dyslexic as such but dyspraxic with some dyslexic traits.

It's the speed scores in an Ed Psych assessment that are used to see if they qualify for extra time but the Senco is also able to assess, as you've experienced. The ed psych report from Y7 is too old, but I wouldn't fork out for another one just for this. As he's on the cusp of it I would ask senco to reassess in autumn term before the access arrangement deadlines.

I will say though that extra time doesn't really make much difference if processing speed isn't the biggest issue in your son's dyslexia. My DD has it, but never uses it because her memory is the thing that's most effected and it doesn't really matter how long you've got in an exam, if you don't know what to write.
I would work a lot on copying model answers in writing it's better than writing (helps the brain remember) practising paragraphs. Also, get him to write down what happened at school each day. Even if it's just a couple of sentences. This improves memory so so much and helped my DD a lot.

Thank you so much. I will speak with Senco if they can repeat the assesment. With him its the processing speed which is extremely low, memory is above average, and he is hardworker; that is why he has compensated until now. Sen have done these tests - ctopp, towre, tomal, yarc, is there any specific test for processing speed which, I could request.

Very dyslexic DD doing GCSEs at the moment.

She has scores under 84 and ADHD so does get the extra time. Definitely get the scores checked.

Also a laptop has been a game changer. It means in exams that she can go back and edit and no endless crossing out. Plus she's a very fast touch typer.

I would push hard for a laptop and do a touch typing course (English Type is dyslexia friendly).

In terms of tutor, we have found an amazing one for English via MyTutor. It's online, and all the lessons are recorded so she can watch them back. We have a number of tutors with various companies, but I'm impressed with this one.

Fit is quite important. DD and hers have similar taste in music and similar sense of humour and they really clicked - her English Lit has improved massively.

Unfortunately there's no much you can do to fix a lot of it. DD will never learn to spell, but the only time that matters is in GCSE exam.

Thank you that is very useful advise. I will look into all this. It is true it matters mainly for Gcse. I keep reminding DS when he gets despondent that it is just one more year and he will not have to English ever again. I don't how true it is, but it keeps him going. Just out another question is laptop usage helpful for just English or helps in Science and other subjects too.

DD uses a laptop for everything except maths, but she hates with Science that you have to go back and forth between the two. I believe they are trialing e-papers this year, so it may become possible to do them all online.

Weirdly DD is really, really good at English - top set and target of 8 (which she won't get) - but doesn't read, and without software her spelling is completely phonetic, punctuation erratic and syntax very strange. So that is almost all the SPaG marks gone (20% in language papers) which is very depressing. She uses videos and watches a lot of films which seem to help a lot. She say YouTube has been good for English Lit.

She's done a few modules with a university over the last few years in her main subject and that has massively helped with mindset. The difference in support and presentation is night and day. Course notes all properly chunked and presented as words, audio, video and interactive. Options to present final assignment as a video presentation rather than an essay. She knows it's just these exams that are the problem and that's on the exam board, not her.

Teachers and us as parents have done a lot of work to boost confidence and to say that we will not be judging her based on final results, so there will be celebrations if she gets a 5 regardless of target. That's her main worry - that she'll look stupid if she doesn't get the grades the rest of her class will.

It is worth reading JCQ’s access arrangements guidance. Although the overwhelming majority with extra time will have 2 scores of 84 and below or 1 score of 84 or below and 1 score of 85-89, it is sometimes possible to also get it with 2 scores of 85-89 related to different areas of speed of working but you need other evidence too. And rarely you can get extra time with 3 scores between 90 and 94 and other evidence.

It is worth trying a computer reader to see if that would help. The benefit of a computer reader over a reader is you can use it in all the English Language GCSE sections.

Dyslexia doesn’t qualify anyone for examination access arrangements. As the OP said, her son would need a score of 84 or below. That’s been the JCQ rule for many years.

They are the standard tests allowed by JCQ.

Make sure that laptop use is his normal way of working as of now so he can get his typing speed faster.

My DD was diagnosed with dyslexia aged 10 via a short school assessment and was given extra time after this (she did score below 84 on some tests) but I was told by our Senco not to do any external dyslexia testing prior to GCSEs if my DD was coping. The reason for this was that they have to use the JCQ tests to assess for extra time for GCSEs, they don’t accept anything else. So I’d check this before doing any more external tests. We are going to do a full dyslexia assessment after GCSEs, when apparently it will help with support for A levels and beyond.

I would definitely investigate the use of a keyboard if this helps your DS.

I think a good English tutor could help, as opposed to a dyslexia specialist, to really clue your son into how to score points. DD’s school are very clear on technique and this really helps her to focus on the right things. She will lose the points for spelling and grammar, well definitely spelling! Also, once you know what texts he is covering, there are lots of online resources to help.

Best of luck.

I agree that a good English tutor would be more helpful than a dyslexia specialist (I am a dyslexic specialist and exams access assessor).

It's now 2 scores under 84.

Absolutely agree with this.

We tried both.

Result was that the incredibly qualified dyslexia tutor made DD cry and told me that they needed years not weeks to make any difference.

English tutor has taught DD enough that she a) looks forward to the sessions b) came out of the exam last Monday on cloud 9 and is looking forward to Tuesday morning.

I pity the examiner and hope they read fluent phonetics as well as English!

We looked into having spell check enabled and just losing all SPaG marks, but apparently she didn't score low enough for that.

I do worry that examiners will read her papers and err on the side of marking down because of her wonky syntax and spelling, even if her content is good. But that may just be me.

@Canadeeio24 are SEN papers sent to examiners with experience of dyslexia or just anyone? I do worry that DD's will look less polished than other kids targeting the same grades.

Thank you and Well done, I think you are doing a great job by boosting her confidence. Unfortuantely, this is the way exam system is. I struggled with my education and now with DS's diagnosis, I often wonder if I have dyslexia too. But I was very determined and got through it in the end. I think resilience matters over everything else. It all works out in the end.
How much do Gcse scores matter for getting into good universities? I know it is very competitive nowadays? I have read that universities are much better in supporting neurodiversity. Good luck to her and I hope she does well! x

Thank you. We were thinking of getting another assessment done. Will hold off for now. I will start looking for an english tutor. x

As far as I know they are sent to any examiner. If your DC gets to university they have a reasonable adjustments plan with a front sheet or sticker stating words to the effect of, “This is the work of a student with SpLD, please mark accordingly”.

Universities are much better at supporting dyslexic students than the GCSE and A-level system.

Thank you!

How relevant GCSE scores are, are entirely dependent on university and course. No one rule.

DD's specialism is music and nobody has the slightest interest in her academics and grades beyond getting the maths and English over the line and having 5 in total (this includes some big name institutions) - they're only really interested in what she can do on the composition/performance front.

We were possibly lucky that she was so severely dyslexic that it was obvious by Y2 in primary (had to wait till 7 to get the official diagnosis). She was already very upset and feeling stupid next to her peers as she couldn't read or write till nearly 8.

So I just took what she seemed to be naturally good at and decided better to put what resources I had into music lessons and not into boosting academics.

For anyone with a dyslexic child, it's so important that they have something they are good at - art, drama, music, sport... whatever. There are a million jobs out there in areas most of us have never heard of. Find their niche that they really enjoy and celebrate that, keeping self esteem high then helps with academics as well as they're not defining themselves by their grades.