Secondary refusing Yr 8 Dyslexia support

[MintfordGreen]

Our son was diagnosed dyslexic in year 3 at primary school. He was given the blue overlays etc and given extra time in his SATs.

Everything’s been okay until now he’s in year 8 at Secondary school. He said he’s struggling to finish his assessments particularly maths as he said he’s has to keep re reading the questions before they make sense and also the words keep getting muddled up. It sounds like the more stressed he gets the worse this is getting.

He’s in middle sets and always worked hard, he’s a great kid and takes pride in his work This isn’t like him and I feel like he’s really asking for help.

I contacted the school SENd to see if there was the option for him to be trialled on extended time even just for Maths to see how he goes and was really shocked to get a super firm really dismissive email back stating what I’ve listed below.

I just want to know. Is this standard for secondary schools? I feel like we’ve just been told to shut up and he is just being literally set up to fail? He’s opened up to us and said he’s struggling and it feels like the school said deal with it. We don’t have any experience in any of this, any help would be great.

The school only begins the formal process for exam accommodations in Year 10, as they require specific evidence from GCSE-level classwork and teacher observations to prove a student is being significantly impacted during assessments.
Key Points of the Process
If you need to elaborate further, here is how the school's policy works:
• Timing: They don’t officially implement arrangements (like extra time or a laptop) before Year 10 because Key Stage 3 assessments are viewed differently than formal GCSEs.
• The "Evidence of Need": The process is "teacher-led." This means a file is only opened once a teacher notices and documents that a student’s learning difficulty is actively hindering their performance in tests.
• Current Status: At this stage, no teachers have reported any specific barriers or "significant impact" regarding your child's assessment performance, so no official file has been started yet.

Something we can’t work out… they say a child needs to be significantly struggling before a teacher flags it up and even begins the process… so how does a teacher in a huge school differentiate between a child who’s struggling with the work and a child who’s struggling with their dyslexia? Isn’t it easier just for them to drop the child a set like all of the others rather than start a process and claim dyslexia is the issue?

Request a meeting with the SENCO. Access arrangements are just one element of your problem. More support is required more generally by the sounds of it.

If you have the email addresses of DS’s teachers, email them directly too.

Have a read of JCQ’s guidance. For GCSEs, for applications under the learning difficulty criteria, assessments for the Form 8 should be no earlier than the start of year 9, but they can still provide exam access arrangements before this and they should be building a picture of need and establishing normal way of working across Y7-9. They should be making reasonable adjustments.

@scoopofmintchocchipicecream thank you so much. This is exactly what I wanted to know - can they offer it. Do you know by any chance if there are other secondary schools out there who do offer extended time and additional help before year 9/10 or is the norm now?

It’s a huge school I just can’t see how the teachers will recognise he is struggling because of his dyslexia and not the work. I just feel if it’s teacher led this won’t be picked up, the school isn’t very on the ball with things and don’t seem very keen to discuss. It’s their way or the highway.

‘Students in the lower key stage do not have access arrangements in place as assessments in KS3 is very different to KS2’

I meant to provide this from the school. I’m just trying to work out if this is normal. If I need to move school to get somewhere more supportive it’s something we would consider.

Yes, many schools offer exam access arrangements in KS3.

The EAA rules for external exams such as GCSEs are different to the rules for KS2 SATs. Many secondary schools follow JCQ’s rules at KS3 as well.