could the school have got dyslexic son's English grade wrong?

[Daisy8888]

I've just received my ds's school report and it says he has a Grade C in English. Can this be possible when he cannot construct a sentence, his spelling is bad and his reading is on the 15 percentile. He is 14 and qualified for a scribe, reader and extra time in exams at the start of the year so perhaps this could explain the grade. The last tracking grade was D although the English teacher told me verbally (no proof) that he was working at Grade E. He left year 8 with reading 5c, writing 4b, speaking and listening 4b, although he did also get level 4 in year 4 but I disputed that - a long story. Anyway coincidentally everyone knows I'm applying to go to the Tribunal and I've also written letters of complaint to the school and governors but everyone has gone silent on me. I'm getting sidetracked .... how can I check this GCSE C grade as I can't really appeal if he is doing that well. Oh, his report also gave him satisfactory and good marks for homework when he hasn't completed any for over 6 months. I've kept this brief but my son is really suffering the emotional effects of being dyslexic in mainstream schooling and we are waiting for an appointment with CAHMS.

Sorry to say I would be very suspicious that your son's grades have dramatically improved when a tribunal is on the cards . Possibly you may need to get an independent ed psych to review his current work/abilities to get an unbiased opinion.

It actually is possible. English coursework is way different now to when I was at school. (will assume you are the same age as me), English course work consists of controlled assessments that are planned and planned for weeks, and can be re-worked (redone) at a later date if they are not good enough. With a 1:1 you so e would have had access to doing the actually writing part in another room, so no distractions. He would have also been entitled to extra time. Bearing this in mind it is possible to get his grades up.

This is the same thing I am going through. It is all politics with these schools. They do inflate NC levels for their own selfish needs all the while you child is stuffed. I agree it could happen that the grades are a C however it should be looked at holistically. In my case they are lokking at his teacher assesments (which I believe are inflated) but happen to be leaving out that over the last 1.5 years his yearly exam grades have been on a serious decline and the excuse of "he freezes in exams" does not wash as he did fine on his Sats, and fine in the first year of secondary, sadly my son will not ultimately be marked on teacher assessments but his exam grades.

The only way to really have some idea is a good independent EP assessment, I stress a good one as the last one I had was very useless and independent. The LEA one will be biased and not do as intensive assessment.

Good luck.

HB