What help do your Children with dyslexia get at secondary achool

[CharlieBoo]

Hi, dd is 13 and in year 9. She was screened as dyslexic at the age of 7 and it had been pretty obvious from the middle of year 1. Primary school were excellent, super proactive, lots of extra help, really understood her needs and gave her lots of little breaks and jobs when she was tired/loosing concentration. Lots of extra time reading/spelling interventions/volunteers coming in, reading tree lady and time with a dyslexic tutor for 40 minutes on a Friday.

Skip to secondary school and it’s honestly just crap. There is nothing. SEN department super unhelpful, saying she has a reading class three times a week (ALL students do this) and that is about it. They think she is fine and nothing is flagged from her teachers. She’s almost 14 and her reading age is 10 years 8 months. She struggles massively with homework and a piece that should take 20 minutes can take twice that time and more. Her memory is also affected and her ability to stay focused.

Just wondered if this is normal for an inner city comp. Thanks

Ask for a meeting with the SENCO again. If the response isn’t satisfactory escalate your concerns to the member of SLT responsible for SEN or the HT. Follow up verbal conversations with emails so you have a paper trail.

Does DD use a laptop and specialist software/assistive technology? You could ask about the Lexia programme. The school could also pre-teach some content/vocab.

You could ask about limiting homework to core subjects &/or spending a set amount of time and then stopping whether DD has finished or not.

Are you sure all pupils have 3 reading lessons a week? That would be unusual in a secondary school.

Thanks for your reply. Yes all children have a ‘drop it and read’ session three times a week, which can happen during class time, so today dd said it was during History. Other than this she goes out to read once a week and her English teacher keeps an eye on her reading and spelling and that unless it drops to age 8 or below her department can’t help me.

I asked head of senco to call me but she basically emailed me and fobbed me off that no concerns have been raised by any teachers. She’s a good kid, who tries so hard. The results don’t always match the effort she puts in which is very disheartening.

I don’t want to get to year 11 and there’s a huge mountain to climb. She does a lot outside school, so I may need to cut some of this back but she gets so much pleasure and confidence from it that it’s difficult.

thank you for listening

If the SENCO is fobbing you off escalate it to someone more senior.


The drop everything and read times aren’t classes as such so I would push for something directly aimed at direct teaching/intervention to support DD’s reading and literacy skills.