Can my child repeat year six at school?

[ColinFirthsGirth]

Hi eveyone,

My daughter is in year 4 (so I am thinking ahead here) and has special needs although these are considered to not be severe enough to be statemented. She had a severe speech disorder before starting school and now has difficulties with literacy has some fine motor issues and is considerably behind in maths. She was born 31st August so is only 23 hours off being in the year below. I wanted her to start school a year later than she should have done but was told at the time that it wouldn't be possible as she wasn't statemented. However, I am considering if it might be worth pressing for her to repeat year six at the same school so that she will be with the year below when she goes up to secondary school. I do realise that there are down points to this like the risk of being bullied etc.

For things like maths she is working at year 2 level but is in year 4. She has an IQ of 112 so is working quite a way below what they would normally expect. She also has behavioural and social issues and I am not sure what she would be like at secondary school at just 11 years old - she is young for her age anyway.

Has anybody managed to argue the point successfully that their non- statemented child should repeat a year?

Year 5 to be repeated makes more sense if you are in England.

I remain unconvinced that year 6 isn't often a "wasted year" for most kids, given the intense focus on teaching to the test for SATS for the first 2 terms (as opposed to real functional learning). Once those are out of the way, staff sometimes give up on sen kids as they are about to become "someone elses" problem.

It also gived her a chance to build some real friendships to go up to secondary school with if you live in an area with a feeder primary school system.

If in doubt - apply for a statement. You don't need to ask permission from anyone and the worst that can happen is the lea says no. To kick the process off only takes the cost of a stamp. Have a look at the IPSEA site for model letters to get you going.

I would echo what Bochead has written here.

BTW who has considered that your DDs needs are not severe enough to be statemented?. TBH if I had £1 for every time I had heard similar on here I'd be quite wealthy by now.

Never forget that you are your child's best and only advocate here. You are truly best placed to fight her corner for her; this is also because no-one else will.

Thanks for the answers. I had wondered about the year six SATS thing because alot of parents have told me that my childrens school only revises for the SATS for the first two terms of year six. It is rather a pushy school unfortunately.

I thought about year six merely because her current year would have moved up to secondary school so there wouldn't be any chance of any of those kids teasing or even worse bullying her at school. I do not know which is the lesser of two evils - I am concerned about the repercussions if she did repeat a year but I am really worried about her starting secondary school with the kind of behavioural and social difficulties she has.

It has been implied that she isn't severe enough to be statemented and even when she was assessed for special needs the special needs advisory teacher couldn't really get to the bottom of things. Some of the teachers think she has got a bad attitude/doesn't want to try and one even told me she was faking it. She is reasonably bright and they seem to have more difficulty with this concept than if she had a far lower IQ.

The OT she saw recently also told me that from what I had said she had no chance of a statement as she wasn't severe enough.

Interestingly. I have been diagnosed with a specific learning difficulty (at 33 years old) they do not feel it is dyslexia and can't really get to the bottom of it. My 10 year old son has also recently been assessed and the advisory teacher told me that my children are enigmatic! He also couldn't get to the bottom of it with my son too - although he is going to be assessed for dyscalulia. He is 11 in September and is in year five but is only on year two maths, he is on 2a and was on 2c at his year 2 SATS. Good at reading though.

To be honest I have no idea how severe a child has to be before they can be statemented.

Sorry that was long!

Apply for a statement - you really have nothing to lose, as the worst that wiil happen is that they'll say no. That was my thought process - imagine my shock when DS got one, no quibbles at the first attempt after years of my being fobbed off by teachers etc, (school staff often have no more clue than you do as to statement criteria when the chips are down!).

Go see your GP and get a developmental pead to take a look at BOTH kids. Many SN's from dyslexia to AS run in families. Again you have nothing to lose by getting your kids assesed - EP's and advisory teachers aren't qualified to diagnose most things so go see someone who is.

Familial learning issues, professionals-say-its-weird-language-dyslexia-thing... Have you looked at auditory processing disorder? (search for dolfrog's threads)