What questions to ask school at meeting regarding Dd1 who is dyslexic?

[trickydickie]

My dd is nearly 10 and in primary 5 in Scotland.

She has always struggled at school. Progressively getting further behind each year. In P4 during parents night we asked for her to get more help. The teacher put her on a staged intervention plan. She said they would test for dyslexia.

We were called into a meeting about 2 months ago and were told some results of tests the support for learning teacher had done with her. Her spelling age was at 6.5 year old. Her reading that of 7.5 but her comprehension that of an 11 year old.

The education psychologist told us that going by these assessments he would say she is dyslexic and that this would be on her file, which we said we were fine with.

The duputy head was very keen to constantly tell us that nothing that the schoool does with Dd1 would change. She did say she would get an alpha smart and obviously when older extra time for exams etc.

A few weeks ago I asked the class teacher if she would get anytime with the support for learning teacher (which I know two other dyslexic children in her class get) and the teacher told me that, as my DD1's reading levels weren't the lowest in her group then she would not get any extra help as this support for learning teacher has no time in her timetable.

We have requested a meeting with the deputy head and class teacher, mainly because deputy head said at end of meeting with ed psych, to just ask to see her again if we had any further questions!! She was not too happy about us requesting this meeting though, even so we are still going ahead with it.

Do you think these questions seem reasonable?

1. Can my daughter can be tested for dyscalculia.

1. Is there any chance that my daughter will ever get any one to one help with spelling, reading, maths.

1. If the school really can't give my daughter anymore help can they recommend a dyslexia or special educational needs private tutor. (Dh seems to think the school might know of reputable ones).

1. Could they tell me what level of progress she has made each year for past few years! If so, is this the amount of progress expected of children each year.

At the moment she gets Nessie for 5 mins a week. She gets Code Cracker (with a group with the class teacher), and for maths she is at a table of 8 with the class teacher at the table.

The class teacher has told me she can't just leave my daughter to get on with work, she needs everything explained to her first. Dd1 says within her maths group she is within the bottom 2 (and this is the bottom maths group).

I think my problem is that I want her to get 121 help with a TA or any teacher.

I obviously want to keep relations between the school and us as good as possible. Therefore, does everyone think these questions are reasonable, especially question 4?

Can anyone suggest any other questions for me? I am really stressing about this meeting.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and for any advice/suggestions you have.

I went to a meeting recently given by head of sen in la. She used the guidelines given by dyslexia friendly schools scheme which I think is on the british dyslexia association website. They give a list of things that the school should be doing to help dyslexics in class. Also she said that one of the criteria they use is how much progress has child made each year and what intervention was used. Obviously in a year a child should make a years progress. I think in levels it is 1/2 sublevels so from a 3c to 3a for example. Children should be 2b at end of yr2, 3b at end of yr4 etc. I would ask for maths progress too, often this is missed. The school will have limited resources and so often children who are bobbing along get missed. Usually a reading or spelling age is 'average' if within 2 yrs of actual age - they will give support to children below that -esp for reading. Hope this is helpful.