EHCP and dyslexia/SEN

[OhCrumbsWhereNow]

Would be really interested to hear what support people are getting from school if you have a child with dyslexia and/or ADHD.

DD (15) has great attendance, no behaviour issues and is v high CAT scores. But severely dyslexic and primarily inattentive ADHD (medicated).

In the subjects she enjoys she is getting really high marks and is on track for top grades at GCSE. (English, politics, music, arts etc)

In the subjects that she is taking because the government say you must and that she doesn't like she is currently on track to fail spectacularly badly. (Sciences). We are talking a grade 1 here, not a 6 in case anyone thinks I am chasing all A*s.

Her notes for these are beautiful and all there - and not a single teeny piece of information retained inside her head.

She probably won't get any 9s because her punctuation and spelling will let her down and lose her the marks, she also struggles with reading questions - half her energy is spent working out what the words say and then has to start over again and work out what the question asks.

She has exam access arrangements - 25% extra time etc, but no other help from SEN. I have no idea what could even be done to help her with learning how to learn or learning how to retain information she's not interested in.

She also masks constantly - she doesn't want to admit she doesn't understand things or know things, and will try to make teachers happy by saying she does so they go away. But then is in a complete mess and doesn't have a clue. It means revision is pointless as she doesn't know what she is revising.

I'm desperate for some strategies that could help her - and am wondering whether I should apply for an EHCP so we can get her some dedicated 1:1 in school (I am maxed out on tutors etc outside school and she would need someone who specialised in teaching kids with her SEN to get anywhere and that isn't feasible financially).

I think requesting an EHCNA would be a good idea. Not only for not but for thinking ahead to post 16.

Obviously every child is different but some things that may help:
Dyslexia specialist tutor.
Pre-teaching. Science is heavy on subject specific vocab, pre-teaching that would be a good idea.
Recapping lessons 1:1.
Assistive technology.
Sensory OT.
More exam access arrangements. For example, some with ADHD need rest breaks &/or a prompter and some with ADHD need a word processor or scribe &/or a reader/computer reader/reading pen. Some with either or both need a smaller exam room.

Has DD ever had an ed psych assessment? That alone would be helpful.

Full Ed Psych testing done. Working memory is the main issue. Processing speed is average but much lower than other scores.

In terms of access arrangements we have 25% extra time, rest breaks, reading pen, laptop (normal way of working for DD). Am discussing adding in enabled spellcheck and losing SPAG marks.

Should I be expecting school to do the pre-teaching and the 1:1 recapping?

Without an EHCP pre-teaching and recapping is very unlikely to happen, but with an EHCP is more than possible.

Thank you - that is what I feared.

Had a long meeting yesterday with SENCo and they didn't seem to have any help available at all - other than a lot of powerpoints on 'how to study' that DD just rolls her eyes at and telling me to go through past papers with her. I have said that there is no point telling her how to study - they need to show her.

And if her SEN plan says that she should be pre-taught vocabulary, everything should be chunked and scaffolding should be provided, when is this happening, how is it being monitored and who is doing it? Was told that all teachers do it as a matter of normal working. Sigh... I know DD gets nothing different from any other child in her class at any point.

Given she's currently in Y10, is there any point in my pursuing an EHCP for her? Especially given she's likely to pass Maths and English (If I had to predict her GCSE grades it's likely to be 8,8,7,7,6,3,1,1) - she has the potential to be getting 9s but her SEN will let her down. She's planning to do music after GCSEs rather than A Levels.

Requesting an EHCNA will still be beneficial, I think. Especially when you consider the transition to post 16. Additional support will still be relevant to music (unless you mean a route that where an EHCP would cease?)

It wouldn't help with getting a place as those are dependent on auditions not GCSE results (they just want maths & English) and they're all very selective - so it's more about the support is that is on offer once they get a place.

And most of my problem is that I have absolutely no idea what support looks like - there doesn't seem to be a guide that says if your child has dyslexia, school should offer x, y and z or if they have ADHD then school should do a, b and c.

Also because it's not a one size fits all. My child with dyslexia has one set of issues that may be completely different from those that another child with dyslexia has.

I'm going to look at what next steps will be - does school need to agree to helping with the forms? I am concerned that with only a year and a bit to go that they may feel that they can just say 'no concerns' and we will get no further.

You don’t need the school to agree or help you request an EHCNA. IPSEA has a model letter you can use to make the request yourself.

You don’t need to know exactly what support is required right now. The point of the EHCNA is to highlight needs and the provision reasonably required. There isn’t a guide like you describe because, as you say, different presentations require different support even if they have the same diagnosis. Support in schools and EHCPs is based on needs, not diagnosis which is why the professional assessments and reports from an EHCNA will help.