Standardised scoring- how likely are things to improve further?

[Tryingtohelp12]

Basic background:
son has receptive language delay which significantly impacts his communication
on the referral pathways for adhd and autism
has an EHCP with 8.5 units of funding, school are providing more than this and he essentially has a full time TA at all times with him and another child. EHCP came through this summer as he headed into yr3
summer baby, year 3 age 7.

hopefully that gives some context!

last year (y2) my son at the end of the year was assessed as pk against the KS1 curriculum. His school didn’t allow him to attempt the sats (one of 3 in his class left out) and as a result was assessed as working below ks1 curriculum.

in Sept he moved to juniors with his EHCP and full support. In October he was assessed along with his class against the ks2 curriculum. He scored 78 in reading and a 91 in maths (standardised scoring). So definitely below but accessing the curriculum and a big improvement on the summer term.

my question is, how likely is he to reach an academically ‘average’ standard over the next few years, or is it more likely these scores will just continue around this level?

just to say we are super proud of the level of hard work and resilience he is showing (it’s so tough spending 6 hours a day doing stuff you don’t feel good at) so either is fine I just wondered where my expectations should be. Maybe there are some teachers around who see these scores a lot and know how much they tend to move.

thank you

It sounds like you need an early review of the EHCP. What support is currently in F of the EHCP? What SALT input is DS receiving?

With the right support, some will be able to achieve age-related expectations from that point with maths. However, for the reading, it is less likely, IMO. Not impossible, but even with all the support required, many will not.

Thank you, his EHCP was only accepted in the summer, and he changed schools in September (moved to junior sxhool, round here infants/juniors are totally separate) so they feel they will struggle to get anything though. I’m not so worried as they have guaranteed me his existing provision for the full year so that’s a problem for another day.

good to know, I’m constantly finding the balance between ensuring we have high expectations for him and realistic achieveable expectations. My worry with the maths is as it become more language focused (eg John has 10 beads and gives away half how many does he have) his language barriers will impact his ability to improve (he’d struggle to interpret that but could easily answer half of ten or 10/2) if this makes sense.

re salt, he gets an assessment every 6 months where they give recommendations for interventions to be done 4x a week at school. We don’t feel this is enough (too long between input /guidance) so pay privately for SALT to come into school every 2-3 weeks to work with him, set new interventions and support the TAs who are wonderful but not experts in this area. School are really pleased as they haven’t had a parent do this before (it’s expensive) and feel it is having good impact.

thank you for your reply 🙂🙂

I would still request an early review of the EHCP. It needs improving. Not just related to 1:1 but also things like SALT and some targeted support for maths and English. You don’t want to wait until next year to do this because if you have to appeal that takes time.

You are right that some struggle with maths not because they can’t do the actual maths but because of the wordy nature of some questions. You have to be able to read (or listen to) the question, understand the words, know what the question is asking before you even get to the maths itself. There are things that can help with this. Some simple strategies such as teaching DC to change the names in questions to very simple names they are familiar with. To support that can be included in the EHCP such as pre-teaching vocab.

I disagree that you need to push for an early review of his EHCP. While the EHCP may not be good enough, between his school and private SALT, he is making good progress. How great!

You're right about progress in maths. He could be really successful from this starting point. Or he could find the increasing complexity of language stalls his progress. It's impossible to know at this point. He sounds like the kind of child who might reach age related expectations at Year 6 through good arithmetic. I'm a primary teacher, so I don't know as much about how such pupils progress after that.

His language disorder may make reading and writing progress, as well as progress in the humanities, a challenge. I can't say how much of one though. Standardized scores at Year 3 are unusual, but 78 at Year 6 would put him at pre key stage.

A lot depends on his journey so far, and how it will look going forward. For example, if teaching wasn't great at infants or he struggled to access due to lack of support, he may have scored lower than his potential. Hopefully, the EHCP will be the key to unlocking that potential. It sounds as if it is lacking in some areas (6 monthly SALT review sounds particularly poor!), but it's a start.

If OP waits until the AR next summer and doesn’t request an early review, she may find herself in any of the following positions:

The school continues to provide 1:2 this academic year but can’t provide it next year. The LA doesn’t agree to detail, specify and quantify 1:2 (or maybe even 1:1) in F at the AR and OP needs to appeal. Any hearing could well be into the academic year when DS is Y5, meaning he would be without the required support for the whole of Y4. Even if the LA agrees 1:2 at AR next summer, the timings for amending the EHCP could mean DS is without the support for over half a term of Y4.

Just because the school has said they will provide 1:2 this academic year doesn’t mean things won’t change. If another pupil with an EHCP starts the school or an existing pupil gets an EHCP with staffing detailed, quantified and quantified in F, the staff member currently providing 1:2 may need to be redeployed elsewhere. Similarly, if a staff member who is currently providing support to another child with a watertight EHCP goes off sick or leaves, the staff member currently providing 1:2 may need to be redeployed.

It shouldn’t happen but it isn’t unusual for 1:2 support to be provided to a child via piggy-backing off the support for another child who should be receiving 1:1 support. If that is the case here, and OP may not be aware if it is or not, and the other parents decide to take enforcement action, the school may not have another member of staff that can then continue to provide 1:2 to OP’s DS.

Then you consider the SALT. That needs to be in F. It isn’t just about OP funding the private therapy sessions. It is about all the indirect provision such as the training of staff and the updated advice and information for the AR and attendance at the AR meeting.

It isn’t about her DS making progress or not. It is about ensuring the support DS reasonably requires is secure.

Also, these are two issues I picked up from one MN post. I suspect there are also other elements that need amending.

Really interesting perspectives thank you.

I will chat the the SENCO about the EHCP. The child he shares with gets 25 hours, so essentially they are each in and out of the classroom for various interventions so sometimes they will be using 1 TA each (eg if my child is in salt intervention, the other child is in class with a TA) and other times they have a TA between them. I think it’s works out about right, in friendly with the other mum and we are both happy with the arrangement on the basis it prevents the boys from being oversupported and they have quite different needs. In an ideal world they wouldn’t be together so much, they are very different and are frustrated with each other at times but it is what it is.

we use the private salt as nhs have basically said they believe his receptive language is more impacted by his attention span and have supported an adhd pathway and basically refuse to do to much.

I think standardised scoring is unusual in year 3, he attends quite an academic school who do formal testing 3x a year and get standardised scoring from that but I’m not sure how they worked it out (these were his scores with additional time as per his EHCP).

A well trained TA deployed correctly doesn’t lead to DC being over supported or dependence, even if the TA is 1:1. That is a classic LA argument and misrepresents the research. Michael Charles, a well regarded SEN solicitor, once wrote an excellent piece if you are interested.

When you say the other child gets 25hrs, if the other child has 25hrs 1:1 detailed, specified and quantified in F (and it may not be. Many EHCPs are poor.) and the school is sharing the support, they are leaving themselves and the LA open to legal action. EHCPs are a legal document.

SALT can still be included in F of the EHCP if the NHS offer can’t meet needs. Other provision can be commissioned. Or depending on the wording, sometimes the NHS provides provision they wouldn’t if it wasn’t in an EHCP.

My experience with ADHD is that magic happens once you find a special interest and the hyper focus kicks in. My son went from working quite significantly below age related expectations in Reading, Writing and SPaG during KS1 (and his speech wasn't very fluent) to slightly above age related expectations (and assessors now state he sounds older and more mature than his age when he talks) during KS2 due to his hobbies Roblox and Dungeons and Dragons. He played for hours each day Roblox and would chat online, constantly reading and writing (admittedly not all in perfect spelling and grammar but he managed to communicate absolutely fine and probably quicker than me) - yet all I could get him to read books for was 15 min/day under protest, but for Roblox, it could be a whole day. Then came D&D, and suddenly he would spend his weekends reading pages of character descriptions and stats and make up and tell elaborate campaign scenarios. We also switched from handwriting to typing, which made writing in school much easier. I'd try and find things he enjoys and then see whether there are ways he'd freely want to read, write and talk about them.

Hi just an update
maths oct 91, maths Feb 95 - fab!
reading Oct 78, feb reading, too low to process a standardised score. His teacher said he was struggling on testing day and doesn’t feel it reflects his development.

so, unsure what to think at this point, maybe at the next round of testing we’ll get a clearer view.

Hi a little bit of hope for you.
my daughter now 12 was reading at a resorption level in year 4. We were struggling with both reading and writing.
ahe is now in year 7 reading at a year 7 level and year 6 writing level.