SpLD/Dyslexia and Modern foreign languages at secondary - what to do if a school insists on these subjects?

[Aero]

Dd is in Y6 and we're so confused over where to send her to secondary. The ideal choice would be her brothers school. They are caring and look to be pretty efficient in looking after children with SENs, BUT, they insist that French (and I think Spanish) is taught to all pupils on entry to the school. Can they do this? This is a big bug bear for us and puts me off the school. Dd already hates French at primary level (ie learning a few words verbally). I feel it's just another thing that will cause her un-necessary stress and a sense of failure. It's just not for her. I know some children can cope with it, but I really feel sure that dd will find it utterly confusing and for the writing aspect of it, very, very difficult and that it's not unreasonable to request the time to be used to support her in literacy instead. Apart from that, the school might suit her needs (ADD, SpLD and BESD). Is there anything I can do about this?

With SEN they can make any exceptions that are necessary.

Have you directly asked the SENCO if they will make an exception? Or get your SENCO to phone their SENCO and ask on your behalf?

If this is the right school for her I would send her there and insist that she doesn't do French.

They excused my son from Swimming which is compulsory... so they definitely can do it.

Actually I am furious because my son because of his dyslexia has been crippled in learning German. He was put in the remedial set in year 7 because of his written German, no allowance made for the fact he couldn't write that well in English. So now he will get a worthless NVQ. (In year 7 he was quite keen, and at Primary had done some French with the G & T kids.)

Spanish is supposed to be much better for Dyslexics. French is hard, but surely some chance to be exposed to the language, and in a slightly less boring way than often at Primary school, would be a good thing. I know some dyslexic children now studying languages at University. (Although I also know some who are taken out of languages for their study support sessions.)

Ds has sld problems and had to do both french and german. On top of that he was in top set so pressure on him to perform well was high.

I contacted the SENCO and they did take the pressure off him a bit, then in year 8 I got him moved down for both french and german and he was much happier. He found German the easiest because it is very phonetic. He is now in year 10 and taking German for GCSE and really enjoys it.
I did make comments of school feedback forms that it was not fair to expect new Year 7s to take two languages especially if they have spld.
Thankfully school seemed to have listened and by the time DD started she only did french. Now in year 8 she is doing Italian as well.

Yes, I spoke with the SENCo this morning and she said they all learn languages when they start there. She did say that if it was causing them serious bother that they would consider withdrawal, but I feel that they might just say she's doing fine etc, etc (like they did most of the way through school so far) because dd won't say anything in school - her problems were overlooked for years because she's not disruptive in any way and they just said 'she's very young' etc, etc and now we have a child who is incompetent in core subjects. I wonder if I'd get anywhere by getting our SENCo to speak with theirs, or failing that, an email to the head-teacher, or the Director of children's services. It the difference between a possible suitable mainstream school within our area and fighting for a place that's inconvenient to get to elsewhere, but that understand the problems some children with SpLD face when presented with learning a foreign language and put the time to better use.

At a local secondary I visited, they understand that some SEN children (mostly ASD in this case) have more difficulties with language and they tailor those classes appropriately. They teach odd words and phrases, but a lot of the time is spent doing stuff like cooking and eating national food, colouring in flags etc. You could ask if they have a class like this for the bottom set?

If your SENCO is on side then I think it's worth trying to get her to contact the school to discuss your DD's needs. Does she have a statement?

Will she be taken out of class for any support lessons? You could request that these are timetabled during the language lesson times.

When we were looking around for secondary school ,one of the schools let the SEN group take extra literacy and maths lessons instead which was much better .I`m sure as has been mentioned something can be done