New dyslexia diagnosis at grammar school, should support be moving faster?

[MrPickles73]

DS13 is at a grammar school and has just been diagnosed with dyslexia at the end of last term. He is very slow at writing and struggles with spelling but is very bright hence we only just noticed the dyslexia.

I let the school know at the end of last term re the dyslexia but they seem slow to do anything. There seems to be lots of paperwork with plans and reports but actual action seems weak.

The dyslexia assessment recommends typing rather than writing so we bought him a laptop in the summer holidays and he has been teaching himself to type. He's been using the laptop in lessons to take notes rather than handwriting.
I met with the head of send this week and she wasn't aware he was using a laptop and said his plan will get going around half-term.

Is this speed of the school normal or should I be concerned? The plan seems to mainly consist of 2 x 10mins phonetics a week which seems tokenism?

I don’t think the timings are that uncommon, I’m afraid. The end of the academic year and the start of the next academic year are both busy times of year. Things can take time, especially for an existing Y8/9 student.

Support in schools is based on needs rather than diagnosis.

What other support did the report recommend?

Unfortunately the system is incredibly stretched and most mainstream schools aren’t even implementing all of the (legally-required) EHCP provisions, never mind non-binding recommendations in reports.

Your child deserves the help they need to thrive, of course, but the same SENCo responsible for getting that into place will potentially be dealing with multiple children who actually need specialist schooling or EOTAS, challenging behaviours, children in MH crisis and potentially (depending on roles) significant child safe guarding issues and other pressures.

There will probably be less of some types of difficulties because of the nature of a grammar school, but also probably have a higher % of parents holding independent reports with recommendations they want implementing, potentially higher parental expectations, students tutored to within an inch of their life to get in but who are now really struggling, neurodivergent pupils with significant challenges associated with e.g. autism and ADHD who are very bright but not coping with the pressure and academic demands… and so on.

So the speed isn’t right but is certainly normal. If non-binding recommendations are actually implemented at all, they’re probably doing better than a lot of schools. It’s a real mess out there I’m afraid!

ah ok, thankyou. Tbh it's all new to me so I don't know what to expect..

That is normal for a grammar school. They often don't have much SEN experience or capacity as the entrance tests weed out those kids on the whole.

On the plus side he's evidently very bright!

@Phineyj thanks I think you are right re SEND. However some of the kids don't seem very bright.. I'm guessing alot are heavily coached for the entrance exam and then pretty much left to free wheel 😬