Starting secondary with dyslexia

[GroveMum]

My DD will be starting secondary in September. She has dyslexia (assessed by an Ed Psyc), which is on the mild/moderate borderline. She has not received any special help in primary school and the LEA refused to assess her, but she had specialist teaching at Dyslexia Action for two and a half years which means she is generally above average.

I am wondering what I should be asking the secondary school for? I want to make the teachers aware that her spelling is pretty bad not because she is lazy but dyslexic. She might also forget homework etc. I also know that some kids at secondary schools use mini laptops for note taking and that teachers can give them handouts rather than having to rely on copying from the board. Does anyone have experience of this?
She is likely to start in one of the top sets based on the entrance test, but I don't want her to slide down to the bottom set because she can't spell etc.
Many thanks for any advice.

DS is yr9 and very similar, very bright but can't spell. I got a meeting with the senco not long after he started. He had been on and off the SEN register all the way through primary and did get extra help for spelling. However by the time he started secondary he had been taken off it. A few months after he started I had a meeting with the senco as because he was top set there was a lot of expectations of him especially in MFL. He was doing two languages and being expected to get a minimum of 70% in tests.

I spoke to the SENCIO and she put him back on SEN register and wrote an IEP which meant he was allowed to type all homework where possible. His german teacher was lovely and took the pressure off him.

Even if they are dyslexic they do need to start learning strategies to stop forgetting things. I noticed when DS started he set his watch alarm for everything, as he has a problem with time.

DS did get moved down in languages the next year but it was a positive move and he is doing really well now in german and will be taking german for GCSE.
He is improving all the time, but the school does recognise that he is really bright and although his written work is far better than average it is still a long way behind his mind IYSWIM, but he is definitely getting there.

Our Primary did very little for my son - except a bit of extra reading/lieracy help, so we got a private Ed Psych assessment in the summer of the transition to secondary. He is severely dyslexic and mildly dyspraxic.

He has now been at secondary for two terms. He has an IT advisor who is tying to find a way for his to cope with quantity of work. My son was advised to learn to touch type and we helped him learn using a program. He did all that before Christmas. It's not been very useful for him so we are now looking into voice recognition software.

He devours audio books. That has helped him maintain literacy progress outside of his difficulties.

I asked for all teachers to be made aware of his SEN and was told they would be. Most are very accommodating. The occasional one isn't. Luckily my son is a confident child and can talk to those teachers about his problems. Self esteem is very important - mmake sure you emphasise with your child the things they are good at.

We did ensure he had a reader and scribe in year 6 SATS where allowed to enable him to go to top school with a fair assessment - he scored 3c writing, 4b reading and maths and 5b science.

Just to add to that -

Using a laptop is all very well but bear in mind the child will have to be near a power socket in class, they will stand out against their peers as different as they are carrying a laptop and they will need to type faster than they write.

My son wants one eventally in school but the teachers have managed to see through his spelling difficulties, which are severe - he still spells was, have, saw wrong. Do talk to the schol about their attitiude to technology - I received short shrift and that is from a supportive school.

The homework I never thought I would be able to dicipher. Some lessons do write it down for him but most don't and after six months, between us, we can normally work it out. To be honest he has a clever mind on him. I ask daily what homework is and check his planner to ensure it is readable. Usually when you know what it says it is understandable. He then does it himself on his home computer and we word check it before printing out. Maths is online anyway. The hardest for him is the big projects - gepgraphy etc because he jsut cannot maintain the quantity. However, hopefully in the future that will come.

I was also scared he would all in science, as you are. Being set highly, when appropriate to their ability, is important for self esteem. I spoke to the year 7 head about my fears before they started school. She put my mind at rest. Should he ever been dropped a set I will be stright in there - in a calm manner not shouting and screaming - just to discuss the reasons and make sure it's not spelling/reading related. It's not happened yet, but I am expecting it to happen one day.

I had all of your fears this time last year. I do empathise.

Kez100, thank you for your positive and helpful advice and comments. I am worried about my daughter's school - huge intake of 240 and nothing about special needs is mentioned in the admissions pack they just sent - just a rather ominous statement saying that the work must be of a particular standard and no excuses allowed blah blah..!
We have a brief meeting at the school in a couple of weeks so I will bring it up then.
Thanks again.

There is some initiative called Every Child Matters so the school should ensure your daughter can access work.

Personally I have always had the stance we are working with the school to enable my son to achieve. They need to do their bit but so do we, and so does he.

Our intake was half of yours and the SEN transition better than I had expected. I now know who the SENCO is and keep in termly contact with her. If she wants me to try anything with my son (like the touch typing) we do it a home. Luckily he is motivated to become an independant learner. I hope your daughter will be as well as she is clearly bright.

I have been so surprised at just how good the teachers have been at reading his work. His first history assessment was a 5c and I was almost in tears seeing that at the bottom of what I could only describe as complete scrawl.

However, if he were moving school now I would still be worried! I'm sure they all differ in their senco departments and support of the teachers (in our school if the teachers canot read work it goes to the senco first before being returned to the child - because she is brilliant, I think it enables the children to not really know the amount of work that went on behind the scenes to mark their work).

Certainly from my experience I'd be looking at SATS scribe/reader were possible/allowed and then meeting the senco and explaining your worries on her transition. Emphasise your wish to work together (assuming you are happy to) and try and get a brief but regular communication stream going.

I would certainly talk to the school about your concerns. For DS1 the most important thing really is that teachers are aware of his dyslexia so they don't think he is just being careless or lazy. One English teacher humiliated him in front of the class by mocking his spelling then told him that "dyslexia is no excuse for poor spelling" - I removed him from that school after 7 weeks. He also struggles to copy things from blackboards so when he started secondary school he often came home not knowing exactly what his homework was; again a simple thing if teachers are aware and sympathetic, potentially a nightmare if not as the child then hasn't done all/the correct homework.

Schools do vary widely though in attitude and support. DS1 has been to two secondary schools in England (one appalling, one nice and sympathetic but they still dumped him in the bottom sets) and two in Australia (one the school I mentioned above where he stayed for 7 weeks and his current school which is FANTASTIC). As you know by now being the parent of a dyslexic child means you can NEVER take your eye off the ball when it comes to school if you want your child to achieve his/her potential, whatever that may be.

My dyslexic son had massive help all through primary school and went to secondary with lots of records and no one seemed to read them. The French teacher was keeping him in to redo spelling tests! I pointed out that she could keep him in until Christmas but since he couldn't spell in English he hadn't a hope. The last straw came when at the end of year 7 he was told he was doing German, in addition to French. At that point I saw the SENCO. Things improved after that. He got special one to one tuition in English when he should have been doing the German. He got TA help in some lessons and they did lots of tests and he got extra time in exams.
Don't wait until things go wrong, or hope for the best, see the SENCO straight away.He did very well in the end and reached his potential but I think he wasted year 7.

Ask to meet the SENCo. See if you can get some message put about your daughter on the SEN list, teachers should refer to this and it is very helpful if they know someone has a problem.
Is it a grammar school?
My son is dyslexic, and has things like a card to get someone else to write his homework in his diary for him, he also has requested sitting at the front of class.
Do talk to the school now, as it takes time to set things up at the beginning of the autumn term. However it also takes time for records to be passed from primary to senor school.

The school she is going to is a massive comp with a banded intake of 240. It is seriously scary as the behaviour we see from the kids from that school is appalling. Not sure if she is still on the SEN register in her school as she received absolutely no help from them and she is now well above average - thanks to us forking out £50 a lesson at Dyslexia Action.

I am not sure if the SENCO at the new school would even agree to meet me as they may not define her as having special needs. I do know that she is in the top band re the admission test and should therefore be in one of the top sets. I am worried that if I say the wrong thing, she will be placed in a lower set with the feral kids who do not want to learn. The school refuse to reveal the setting until they start in September.

I think you should ask her DA tutor for their recommendations that can be put into an IEP for your DD.

Her subject teachers should be able to meet her indivdual needs via normal differentiation. There are lots of easy strategies that can be used, and it would be beneficial for your DD if the teachers were aware of these early on, rather than having to discover them for themselves.

You can also do your bit by monitoring your DD's homework diary and helping her with her general organisation for school.

Bright dyslexic students can sometimes be their own worst enemy as they try to hide their difficulties, so lots of encouragement is a good thing during the early days of settling in and making her mark.

I would request to speak to the SENCo, they should speak to you if you have concerns. They should want to know any SEN kids as early as possible, and information isn't passed on until quite late. One aspect is that it will take them time to set up any special measures they may need for exams (GCSEs) and the sooner they know they may need to the better.

My son much prefers secondary school to primary school, so there is hope.