Dyslexic at sec school - would really appreciate your experience today please.

[swedishmum]

My dyslexic ds is at grammar school in Y7. At parents' eve it became clear that a number of his teachers are not even aware of his dyslexia diagnosis, and he has not seen or spoken to anyone from the SEN dept.
I have an appointment with the SENCO tomorrow, and have my own opinions on what should be done (have teaching and dyslexia quals and experience) but would love some anecdotal evidence of what support/resources your child has access to.
Many thanks.

bump for you - and bookmarking (my ds is only in y3, also dyslexic, I'm also a sen teacher. starting to look for suitable secondaries now Watching with interest, I desperately need info too - so thank you for starting the thread.

forgot this > )

bump.
My DD has been diagnosed as having dyslexia but is not getting anything to support her in class imo.
Will be interested to see if anyone else has any experience or advice.

For my dyslexic students, I am given a list of things to do for each of them from the Senco. For example, for some students I photocopy onto coloured paper, others I have to make sure they use their overlays. I need to take account of their dyslexia when marking their books, so that I can move them on without shattering their self-esteem. I also know who I can ask to read alound in class, and how to construct small groups.

It's all about knowing your pupils. My dyslexic pupils are no different in my eyes to any of my other pupils - I treat them all as individuals.

I can imagine its very worrying if the teachers don't even know a child is dyslexic. I guess the big difference between primary and secondary school is the amount of teachers involved with the pupils on a day to day basis.

Sounds like you are well informed when it comes to your pupils scienceteacher, I hope my DD has teachers like that when she gets to secondary school

Scienceteacher, you sound a zillion miles ahead of ds's teachers. I'm not asking for anything complicated for ds, and I know he's in the right place in a selective school, but some teachers really seem to do the bare minimum.
Geog teacher for eg on parents' eve - your ds is fantastically articulate in verbal tasks and full of great ideas, but obviously can't be bothered as his diagrams and written work are scruffy. This after half a year. I ask if she knows he's severely dyslexic, she ignores me and looks at ds. I ask again, she mumbles ooh so many bits of paper. You get the picture.
I so feel for ds. He did well to pass 11 plus with no extra time. He loves learning. How many times do I have to say the same old thing??

I had a terrible problem with year 7. The primary school had been so supportive and no one appeared to have read any of the notes that went up with my DS2. The French teacher was keeping him in to redo his spelling tests. I had to point out that she could keep him in everyday but he stil wouldn't be able to do them-he couldn't spell in English!
I got the support in the end and they were super but I had to fight for it at the start which was a shame.

The only one of mine to have had any real help is now 23. He had a full statement which was then quite unusual for a dyslexic child. I know SEN teachers told all his subject teachers about his problems with writing & spelling but come parents evening none of these teachers seemed to know any thing about it. My son was allowed to drop french (then compulsary at 14) and spend those lessons in SEN dept doing extra english work. He did get enough a-cs to do A levels. But he only go D in english. He went on to do 2 A levels & 1 AS in the sciences. He had the grades to go to university (Ex-poly), but didn't want to go. He has done very well for himself and now has a good, well paid job.

His two younger brothers have similar problems, but not as severe. They will both struggle to get a C in english, but will manage A/Bs in everything else ( I hope). They don't get any extra help.To be honest neither of them want help so I don't push it.

My DS had the same problem piscesmoon, made it worse as he had to do french and german
He is top set so they had high expectations of him.
He was worrying all the time because he was expected to get 70% in tests. I rang up and had a meeting with the senco and they eased up on him and really tried to boost his confidence.
Unfortunately in yr 8 with a new teacher (who is not a good teacher) we have gone backwards and I have managed to get him moved down a class in german with a much better teacher.

His humanities teacher seem to realise that he has problems. He still manages to get higher than average scores but his writing skills are quite a bit behind his vocal skills and they say they are keeping an eye on him.
His IEP says he can use pc to do his homework whereever practicable.

Ds doesn't have an IEP from sec school - has spoken to no-one in SEN dept ince he's been there although his details were passed on. Only when I spoke to his English teacher (apparently the dyslexia "expert") did anyone mention handwriting club for eg.

Strangely, he seems really good at German...

At the end of year 7 they wanted him to do German as well as French! It was at that point that I managed to get him extra English when he should have been doing German and at last got him some help. They were very good after that.

My son is lucky to have a fabulous SENCo, and a visually impared unit. The thing that helps him most is bigger print handouts, oh and a lot of patience.
Some selective schools are not really set up for SEN, even though they will have their fair share. Do congratulate your son for having got through the 11+, and help him develop strategies.