Could the school have got dyslexic ds's English grade wrong?

[Daisy8888]

I've just received my ds's school report and it says he is working at GCSE Grade C in English. Can this be possible when he cannot construct a sentence(no full stops, capital letters, apostrophes, comma's ... nothing) 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 ds is really suffering the emotional effects of being dyslexic in mainstream schooling and we are waiting for an appointment with CAHMS.

Has he sat his exams and got the results? if not its just a teachers assessment, an estimate, a prediction.

What claw says - I know a level 6 SATs in year 9 is a predictor of perhaps a grade D/C in year 11 if that helps. So the SATs you have could be predictors of perhaps a E/D grade to date?? Anyway someone more knowledgeable will post soon I am sure.

Write and ask the school how they have reached this conclusion ie c grade and good marks, when he hasnt completed any homework for 6 months and his previous grades were 4b etc. Doesnt matter if they reply or not, its all just your evidence for Tribunal.

They did a similar thing at Tribunal to me, all of ds's grades were bumped up a few levels.

Level 4 is the average for 11 year olds. 1.5 sub levels a year or a whole level every 2 years.

Would also add you can appeal, even if he is doing well academically, as you say he is suffering emotionally.

My ds is doing well academically, he is NC 3 for reading for example (year 3), but emotionally, self help, socially etc he is doing terribly.

Thanks for your comments. The year 9 report just says that his current GCSE tracking grade: C but in January it was D. It seems unlikely that he has gone from level 4 in Year 8 to level 6 in Year 9. I'm just so suspicious, I think it's all a conspiracy because of me going to Tribunal. If I could believe the Grade I'd be delighted haha.

Photocopy some of his school work to show Tribunal! If his writing is as bad as you say then they can draw their own conclusions He'll bring his books home sometimes. Don't EVER tell school you are doing this. Let them see the examples for the first time in the Tribunal pack lest you find they hang onto everything to prevent you getting the evidence you need.

His levels could also be independently assessed by one of the independent tutor services as a counterbalance to school.

Agree with Claw - write for clarification. Are these his levels today or his predicted grades? If predicted what assumptions as to support have they made to support their hypothesis? Ask the same questions re homework.

What did EP say in their report?

No EP has seen him since 2008 although I have spoken to them at length over the years. I always thought it was strange that his EP at Middle School never met my ds at all even though I had meetings with the EP and I told him I thought it was odd, he said he didn't need to meet him? Everyone seemed to just use the report done by Dyslexia Action when he was 9. I have not had an IEP since 2008 either as apparently they don't have to do them.

Sorry i might have misunderstood 'Tribunal', i thought you were talking about a statutory assessment or refusal to issue a statement tribunal. When applying for statutory assessment it is standard for EP to assess.

School and EP are talking rubbish. How on earth is EP going to be aware of what your ds's difficulties are unless they actually meet him and assess him. Rubbish about the IEP too, by Law they dont have to give anyone an IEP, but its good practice to.

Im a bit confused by the Tribunal comment? I know you said you didnt want to give too much away, but is this a Tribunal for the things i mentioned above?

I requested a Statutory Assessment of ds's special education needs, it was refused by LA so I need to go to Tribunal. It is me that confuses everything, they just tell me anything it seems, glum ...

On a brighter note I'll write to the school as suggested, seems a great plan.

oh and it's not that I don't want to say everything, I don't mind talking about the whole situation but to be honest this story is 7 years long so I thought too much detail would get tedious for everyone else haha

Oh ok, just wanted to make sure, you havent confused anything, just didnt want to make the wrong assumption

SEN COP 7:58 Children who demonstrate features of moderate, severe or profound learning difficulties or specific learning difficulties, such as dyslexia or dyspraxia, require specific programmes to aid progress in cognition and learning. Such requirements may also apply to some extent to children with physical and sensory impairments and those on the autistic spectrum. Some of these children may have associated sensory, physical and behavioural difficulties that compound their needs. These children may require some, or all, of the following:

? flexible teaching arrangements_
? help with processing language, memory and reasoning skills
? help and support in acquiring literacy skills
? help in organising and coordinating spoken and written English to aid cognition
? help with sequencing and organisational skills
? help with problem solving and developing concepts
? programmes to aid improvement of fine and motor competencies support in the use of technical terms and abstract ideas
? help in understanding ideas, concepts and experiences when information cannot be gained through first hand sensory or physical experiences.

SEN COP 7:59 As indicated in paragraphs 7:46 and 7:47, the LEA will need to consider on an individual basis, whether these programmes can be provided through intervention at School Action Plus or whether the LEA should undertake a statutory assessment. The decision may depend on the severity of the child?s cognitive ability and any associated needs that compound the child?s difficulties in accessing the curriculum. If solutions for a child have moved beyond ordinary differentiation to a solution where specific input is necessary not just to provide access to learning but more importantly to secure learning or to develop strategies to overcome particular areas of weakness, then an assessment may be necessary.

This might be helpful.

Many thanks for your time, I'm sure I'll be able to use the above Claw4. I do have the SEN COP book but to be honest I'm just a mum pretending to be a solicitor so ... well ... I have to face facts ... I'm simply not clever enough to understand it all. Never mind I'll keep trying :) Literacy skills is an interesting point as I know the English Teacher has asked him why he doesn't use capital letters etc (as if he'd know) and then tried to explain it to him. This of course is a typical dyslexic trait which needs specific teaching to overcome and not just an explanation. mmmmm interesting.

Daisy, we are all just mums pretending to be a solicitors and trying to navigate or stumble through the minefield, you are not alone

Good luck and keep posting, mn is brilliant for advice and support.

Many thanks for your support, it's much appreciated and I've written to the school.

Have a look on this thread, if you scroll down you can see an example of my DS's Yr 10 work and some teacher feedback. The work was assessed as GCSE E/F. How does your DS's work compare?

Yes, schools can get the grades wrong. DS had inflated grades throughout all KS's his school also 'helped' with his GCSE coursework by telling him what to write.

If you write to the school asking about his grades and coursework, be prepared that they may not wish to answer in writing, you may get asked to attend a meeting. It this is the case take somebody along to write notes. Get a copy of your notes back to the school before the tribunal.

If the school cannot adequately explain his grades, you will need to write to the GB and ask them, if they are unwilling/unable to explain, then you can go to the LEA.

Some schools no longer use IEP's, but if not they should be using provision mapping to document the additional needs/provision of pupils. Unless they do use IEP's, but haven't done one for your DS as they can't think of targets.

www.teachingexpertise.com/resources/special-educational-needs-sen-provision-mapping-and-intervention-planning-2693
www.innovatemyschool.com/industry-expert-articles/item/174-sen-provision-map.html

I too would collate as much of his written work as you can. You can also request to see his school coursework, and ask if he has completed all the necessary elements to date.

Does he get any support in class, TA help, writing frames etc?

Brill, thanks Minx179, it was fantastic to have an example of your ds's work to compare and the thread was really interesting.

My ds does have TA support but not in English as he uses a computer. My ds does not construct sentences even on the computer so the computer can't put the punctuation etc right if there is none to start with, I explained all this to the English Teacher. I also said to her there's no way he will use paragraphs until he learns sentence construction, she agreed.

I've requested a copy of the writing that was done to test to see if he needed a scribe, which he qualified for. I've had to ask the LA for a copy as the copy I got with my bundle of papers from the LA was not clear at all and the school are not replying to any of my letters or requests : (

The only books I'm getting are science (he has a scribe) and art where he doesn't write much (which by the by is the only reason he took art as an option).

The SENCO has written down accommodations etc in a list but it is basically everything I have hassled them to provide ie TA, the computer use in English, intervention (behavourist) by List team.

I'll try and put the piece of writing up when I get it, would've thought it would've arrived by now mmmmmmmmm.

Also the fact his reading diagnostic has him on 15 percentile, below average, it's all not making sense.

This link giving level descriptors for writing may help.

If you say your son can't punctuate, use paragraphs or capitalise, hes not achieving level 1 skills in the AF descriptor for Sentence Structure and Punctuation. This will always pull his writing level down as even if he wrote the most fantastically, detailed descriptive story, he's not meeting one of the criteria that would help him move forward.

If the school aren't responding, write to the governors.

Just an update for you all.

The school replied to my letter (surprisingly) and the attainment C grade was a prediction for year 11 (2 years time!) and the teacher said that ds is not currently working at GCSE grade C. There was a Target grade (based on CAT results) of C on the report which is the predicted grade and also an attainment grade (which is not attainment at all) which is also predicted, all very odd. Also the form tutor stated she was very pleased with ds attainment in English but according to her email it wasn't an attainment at all. Anyone managing to follow me so far :) The school seem to have got the definition of attainment confused. I used the level descriptors in my evidence, many thanks. I also used the SEN cop that Claw4 suggested, cheers. I got a copy of my ds's writing back from the LA which had FULL STOPS in it, seems there's a lot of trickery going on, ds was confused when I showed him. Never mind I had some copied work without full stops which I sent in as evidence.

Just about to start a new thread as I need more advice :)