Anyone know how/where I can get hold of BSquared assessments?

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Desperate for a set but the company won't supply to individuals.

Bump?

form

Youre not applying as an individual parent. You're applying in your capacity as mini-star's ABA specialist. School name Starlight ABA Solutions

Or see if they'll sell it to an education otherwise homeschool group, and give them the money. here

The look pricey though.
You might need to start up a genuine micro-business so you can set them against tax

SABAS?

I will join your SABAS school - am a qualified teacher too so I look forward to our Tuesday morning staff meetings. It could be an online community school, for tutorials in missed P scale targets. Let's face it, there is probably a big market for our school, given low academic expectations in so many special schools.

www.caspaonline.co.uk/evaluation/ CASPA is what my LA use, star. It's very similar to BSquared (apparently superior, but that will be subjective) and they offer a free evaluation copy which is fully functional except for some import/export restrictions.

could we stop with the undermining of special schools? They are a perfectly valid environment for dinner children and speaking only for myself, I feel quite isolated and pushed out by the anti-special-school sentiments so freely expressed.

*some, not dinner

Thank you so much Lougle. Though I can't seem to find any assessment criteria. It seems to be empty .

One of the help files says this:

"Whilst we are unable to offer detailed exemplification for sub-divisions of levels, both the QCA descriptors for levels and a set of exemplification materials made available by Hampshire County Council can be found in
the CASPA Help system: select a result data entry field, press the F1 key to access the help page for that subject and follow the links from there."

If you already have PIVATS for your DS (that's the BSquared System name for the subdivisions) then here is the Conversion of PIVATS to CASPA levels document

I don't have any information really. There's a whole school policy not to supply it

Lougle, Thank you so much for that. I have found it now (what a rigmarole though) and it is very helpful.

Do you not get a breakdown of his levels in his Annual Review? When I get DD1's AR paperwork, I get a teacher report which lists her levels (including subdivision) and attached to the back is a print out of her CASPA profile, showing the trajectory against the expected trajectory for her prime category of need (MLD in her case).

No. Just scores, plus a couple of paragraphs about them for each subject. He has subject teachers.

Subject teachers at 6? Blimey

How do they get an overall profile, then? Surely if each teacher only sees his S&L skills related to their subject, it's a very difficult process to tie up his overall S&L skills, functionally.

I have no idea. It's all a secret.

Apparently they are streamed to but any question about where will result in 'there are no top or bottoms, only peers with similar profiles'.

I'm fed up. The don't lie to me in the way that the state sector did, but nor are they transparent.

I guess that is why he can score 1c in Numeracy but p4 in music.

Hi Lougle
Wanted to say I get special school [thl envy] whenever I read about your dd1's experience. It probably wouldn't suit ds now, but would've been ideal up to year 2 or 3, and instead I wasted those years trying to explain his needs to various mainstream carrots (some uncaring, some trying their best, but none with the skills to help him)

I mean

Stupid stuff like preparing the dc for non-uniform day rather than issuing vague last-minute guidelines to be communicated to the parent verbally via a dc with language issues

Music p scales

P4 is far less demanding than P5, especially if they use a group improvisation format. A dc with quite advanced formal music skills (in a structured setting) could still really struggle with P5.

Ds is level 3 in music according to school. Individually, or with clear guidance, yes. But he would struggle to reach p6 in a flexible session.

Think of the difference between an amateur self-taught jazz pianist and a grade 6 pupil after private-school piano-lessons.

It just shows that everywhere is so very different. In DD1's school everyone knows that they have:

ASD specific classes (for the children whose ASD requires very very small classes with lots of staff)
PMLD specific classes
ASD-'focused' classes (for children whose ASD requires high levels of structure but they can cope with a bigger class and less staff - by big I mean 10 children).
general classes - class size is around 10 children, 4-5 staff. Lots of structure but less rigid than the ASD focus classes. Children can range from SLD to MLD. Plenty of ASD thrown in.

Each child has their own curriculum plan, so there are 113 'curriculums' in the school. Each parent is given a list of their child's plan (like a fancy IEP).

Each parent is invited to a 'focused conversation' in the first half-term of the academic year - a 30 minute 1:1 with the class teacher to discuss strengths and weaknesses, with areas to work on over the year - parents and teachers are equal in this, so teachers expect parents to share what they see as the priorities for their child and incorporate that into the targets.

Maria, thank you, that's encouraging. I just feel a bit battered with discussions over the last week or two. The theme seems to be that SS is ok for parents with no aspirations for their children. That couldn't be further from the truth where DD1 is concerned.

I agree Lougle... it does feel like SS is considered to be the option when you have given up on your children achieving :/

However my Ds1 was the first child EVER at our SLD school to achieve a GCSE (maths, grade E). He has ASD and MLD and maths is his 'splinter' skill.
Now I know one grade E doesn't sound like a lot, but for my son, who has the writing skills of a 6 yr old and finds most stuff SO beyond him... this was bloody amazing.

And his special school got him there :)