Extra help for SEN children during Y6 SATS

[daisysue2]

Does anyone know what extra help children with SEN are allowed during Y6 SATS. She doesn't have reading problems so don't really need anyone to read for, although they will. But what else should I be pushing for. She is a bit slow, with a very bad memory, and easily distracted.

Main thing I am concerned about is that my dd will be taken out with all the other SEN children and dumped in the hallway (as they normally do when doing practice tests) and it actually becomes more distracting for her. Also that one LA has to deal with all the children.

Any help, advice would be much appreciated.

they did that to my son and legal or not (which it doesnt sound) seem to get away with it they want good results so why would they want our LO's to do them i may be wrong but being left outs what happened to my DS until yr 4 he then did them ,then last year (5) the school opted out of the sats as some schools were allowed to this year they are doing them but he wont be as hes now being sent after half term to SS

My DS2 (Dyspraxic) got 25% extra time and a scribe, which made a huge difference. I should talk to the school SENCo asap because the extra time needs approval from County and needs to be formally applied for.

You need to talk to your SENCO. There are lots of things which can be done to support SEN children during SATS (inculding having them dis-applied if they are very far behind, although this will probably not apply to your dd if she is reading ok). She might need a scribe though, or a prompt to keep her on task, or extra time. These things must be applied for though and quite quickly now as I believe the cut-off is this month sometime, according to our SENCO.

My DS2 with ASD is in Y6 at the moment and has a Statement. He can have extra time without having to apply as he has a statement and he will be using an Alphasmart (word processor) for the literacy long and short writing, again without applying as he uses it in class.

Don't know if your DD has a statement, so may be different in that case. You need to hassle them very soon.

My DD school has told us that she wont be sitting her SATS for she is exempt from doing them, then went on to say that she wont be able to sit any exam.

She might qualify for extra time.

If she normally has somebody to help her 'keep on task' then she can still have that person during SATs.

If here handwriting is messy she can have a transcriber to rewrite her answers after the exam has finished.

There is one caveat though - her getting good grades is not necessarily to her advantage. (Whereas it is always to the schools advantage)

If you feel she is really capable of a '3' for example, but she gets a lot of extra support and gets a '4', then secondary school will assume she is a 4 and might not give her extra support because she's doing fine.....

Also if you ever try to apply for a statement, it is not in her interests for her grades to be artificially boosted with extra support....

However if you feel she really is a 4, but without support she will get a 3, and that will cause her to be placed in a lower set than you feel is right for her then push for support.

But most secondary schools don't use SATs exams to stream children (although some do). Mostly they assess them themselves and then decide what set to place them in.....

My DS is not in secondary school yet, so I could be wrong about all this, but my current thinking is I am going to fight for him not to get extra support in his exams.

Extra time, Large print papers, Doing the tests in a different room either alone or with other children needing extra time etc. All possible. Discuss with your Senco