Feeling encouraged by SEN meeting

[dragonstitcher]

I went to the school meeting that I was invited to by the SENCo this evening and feel very encouraged. DD is on the schools SEN register which is passed to all of her teachers detailing her problems. We were told that after screening last years year 7's they found that a third of the children had a reading level of age 8. So the school went cap in hand to the government for extra funding, which after fighting tooth and nail they got. They have ran a 'Success Makers' scheme from January and the children learned more in two terms than they did in the whole of KS2. The scheme was such a success that they are doing it again. Our years 7's have the advantage of 3 terms of the scheme. It was also hinted at that they are well aware of the dis-service many of our kids have got from Primary school and they are determined to make up a lot of lost time. I tell you, I was close to tears!

Please, everyone keep your fingers crossed that they deliver all that they promised!

Now I'm not so sure. I seem to be the only parent who is in the dark over how it all works. The others who I spoke to have been told their childs reading age and have been into school on a few occasions already meeting teachers/TAs etc.

I had a tutorial/academic review with DDs tutor yesterday who wasn't sure about DD being on the SEN register or having an IEP. I was led to believe at the meeting that everyone on this course was on the SEN register and that everyone on the SEN register had an IEP. I'm completely confused. I feel like a fraud being there cos everyone else knows what their childs problems are and they don't seem to have a clue with DD. Basically it has always been put down to lack of confidence and that their is nothing else wrong with her. I don't want there to be something wrong with her. I don't want to be one of those people who want something wrong with their child so they have something to talk about in the playground. I feel that there is something wrong and nobody can give me an answer.

I have asked the tutor to find out DDs reading age for me, because I feel I should know. She is also going to ask subject teachers to make sure DD has recorded her homework properly and ask for a writing frame for subjects such as history.

DD has been taken out of mainstream lessons for English and French to work with the SEN assistants and also twice a week during tutor time for literacy skills.

BEWARE!!
I was livid when I found out that my son was being taken out of English for successmaker, because he said that that was basically a computer program with little (if any?) human interaction, never mind curriculum.
Then they told me that he was struggling in English (mainly because he didn't know what the class was doing or sometimes even what the homework was (having been regularly taken out).
Successmaker might be OK, but not instead of curriculum teaching - unless they are not expected to achieve anything beyond successmaker.
It's a nice way to keep naive parents happy (imo!). Counselling was another con - as it was only provided during lesson time!!
When I challenged them if any of the support was relevant to the curriculum he was missing in the class, there was a silence... so we declined any more such help.
Strangely, my son is doing better in subjects where he doesn't even have an LSA with him, and he is in a higher set (as this was the only option), then in the lowest set with LSA, but full of disruptive and behaviourally challenging children. This includes French: if he can handle French (even at lowish level), let them fool others with a successmaker I say.

Keep your eyes and ears wide open and read between the lines too! For the first 2 years I was 100% in support of anything that the school suggested (after all they were professionals?) and I believed that we were on the same agenda working towards one goal. I learned the hard way that we were not, or at least not always. It was better for them to keep my son's LSA in the disruptive group to control the behaviour than to aid learning!

Sometimes they can point out certain symptoms/behaviours to you w/out naming a condition (I guess it must be standard practice, after all they can't diagnose them, can they).
I hope you have better luck with your school.

Thank you Nightcat. I will keep an eye on things. I finally found out DDs SEN status today.

DD is on School Action for her literacy needs - her current reading age is : 7yrs 6mths and her spelling age: 9yrs. DD is in the Y7 Success Makers group for intensive literacy support. She also attends the Literacy Progress Units programme, two sessions early in the morning per week.

I am a bit confused because DDs tutor told me that DD wouldn't have an IEP because she wasn't on School Action. I have made sure that the SENCo knows how ill informed her tutor is.