what do you think about this (academic levels)

[Handywoman]

I have posted on here before about my daughter, who is dyslexic, and her struggles with numeracy. I have found school very defensive and unwilling to recognize any problems with numeracy, despite my belief (backed up by my dd's specialist tutor, whose opinion seems of no value to the school) that my daughter is very shakey with basic numeracy. She displays great anxiety about numbers, this seems to be pretty much exclusively at home since at school they say there is no anxiety displayed there. She is 9 and a half years old and often cries about her perceived lack of ability in maths. I just asked her to go into the shop. She is very independent and loves going out on her own yet is petrified of being asked to go and buy something, such is her anxiety over dealing with numbers/coins. That's the back ground. So she is just about to go into Y5.

Re: her academic levels for numeracy: what do you think about this?

Sats in Y2: 2B
Easter of Y3: 2A
Easter Y4: 2A at which point I asked for extra help, worksheets at home and easier homework set on the web portal (the work she was set she would cry and run away from). None of this was done.
cue snotty e-mail from me at half term June 2012 about lack of help and lack of progress. Then they reassessed and, low and behold that week they suddenly put her at level 3C (surprise surprise, sudden leap in progress, which her private tutor feels is an overestimation of her level).

What do you think about this progress. Slow but acceptable? Or not? Would you be expecting intervention?

School have resisted helping her but I insisted which the SENCO is VERY cross about! so she has had 4 x extra sessions with a TA, which will no doubt fall by the wayside come Sept. They have refused point blank to set an IEP saying categorically that it will 'NEVER happen'.

I am at a loss and am not happy about a) school's defensive attitude (the SENCO said it was my anxiety causing my daughter to worry, if indeed there is any, which she denies). b) the school's apathetic attitude re my daughter's learning. c) the fact that they disregarded my daughter's specialist tutor's findings.

What are your thoughts on this academic progress? Am I wrong to expect better progress than this?

Thanks, Handywoman
x

I think you know it is not acceptable. I would ask the SENco what she is going to do/has done so far, maybe?

Between end of Y2 and end of Y4 every child should make a whole level's progress.

Anything less than that is not adequate, and school should be as worried as you (because that means she's not on track to make the needed 2 levels of progress between Y2 and Y4 - and will make their value add score look bad in the league tables)

I would be worried at the lack of progress.
I would also ask to see evidence of her meeting the criteria for a 3c - they should be able to have evidence in her workbooks.
I say this as maybe the school is 'massaging' the figures in thinking that 2 sub-levels of progress a year would be fine (if it happens - history seems to say not). So Y5 starting 3c - Y6 ending 4c - would meet gov. target.
If miraculously they can evidence a 3c - you should still be asking for support to ensure 2 sub-levels of progress.

THanks a lot for these replies. The only evidence they have of this 3c level is a test paper they gave her after the half term, after I put something in writing. In terms of help, she had some sessions in Y3 but this did not last for very long and they failed to inform me when this help ended or why.

SENCO has pretty much point blank refused to give any extra help (saying in a disgusted/exasperated tone, that giving her help will stigmatize her and make her fall further behind[!]), but I insisted, and SENCO gave her these 4 sessions in the last month of term. But unless I go in and make another fuss that is it, there will be no help. My e-mail cc'd the Deputy Head so presumably he too is happy with this level of progress. I do not believe that she is on target to hit Level 4 by the end of primary school. I think there is certainly an element of 'massaging' figures in all of this on the part of the school, and fully expected them to tell me she has 'suddenly' hit level 3c after I put pen to paper. She is not ready to learn the division facts as we are still ploughing on with x tables. I am concerned that the school are happy to heap on more complex work and hence her confidence bumps along at rock bottom and the progress is painfully slow, if there at all, because the problem is not recognized.

Please nobody tell me to approach the Head. She is worse than the SENCO. She told dd's Y3 teacher off for mentioning to me that maybe my dd might need to see and Ed Psych. By this time I had been begging school for a whole year for input about her non progress in literacy. All I needed was for them to acknowledge that there was a problem. This delayed the diagnosis of Dyslexia (which I had to pay £500 for) by a year and by that point my daughter's lack of confidence at school with literacy/numeracy and bad habits such as guessing, were well entrenched.

I wish I could afford to send dd to a specialist school. Mainstream school is just a sausage machine, they are quite happy to have a quota of underachievers as long as there are enough bright stars to make the league tables look good.

So I approached my local parent partnership and IPSEA (who never got back to me) and Parent Partnership were rubbish and had nothing useful to add.

I don't know what to do next. I know that the Head will say exactly the same thing as the SENCO. It is all a farce. But it is my daughter's education.

Any advice for where to go from here gratefully received.......

Handy

I agree with the others that a minimum of 2-levels progress in a year should be shown. More than likely that there is massaging of figures going on. We had similar experience with ds' numeracy and literacy results differing hugely when assessed in mainstream (problem-deniers) and in special school. Only 2 options - huge regression or initial grade inflation. You can try to force the senco's hand by standing your ground/continuing to insist on help. You can research a move to another school and hope for a more sympathetic head/senco. You can apply to the LA for a statutory assessment of your dd's special educational needs. This can and nearly always is a battle in itself but does allow you to circumvent the school's denial of there being any problem. It's really worth while getting a copy of the SEN code of practice document as it spells out the whole process including I think criteria for being on school action, school action plus, assessment of statement.

link here to a page where you can download it or get phone number to request hard copy: www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DfES%200581%202001

Try contact a family for advice they have educational helplines now as well as Ipsea