how much progress should a child make per year re NC levels?

[bjkmummy]

my sunday afternoon job is to write a request for a statement for my daughter who has dyslexia.

have gone around the house and been trying to find all of her school reports - we moved a few times as DH was in the armed forces.

quite frustrating that quite a few of her school reports don't have her NC levels on so tracking her progress not been easy.

anyway from the information I do have is end of year 1 she was 1c for everything, end year 3 she was 2b for everything so that's 4 sublevels in 2 years.

from end of year 3 to now - she's in year 5 so 18 months she has made no progress at all and is still 2b on everything.

so what is the general rule of progress - I think I read some where its 1.5 sublevels per year in ks2 - is that right? no that I trust these NC levels - her twin brother was put at level 3 at year 2 SATS - had his anuual review this week and 3 years later hes on levels 2!

incidentially at age 10 year 2 months the dyslexia testing put her at between 6 yr 8 months - to 7 years on the reading spelling maths tests etc so I know she is significantly behind - so much of all those years of shes 'fine'

haven't been brave enough to speak to school yet to tell them im doing it! may have to send dh in me thinks! but seriously what can they do? she is clearly struggling and school now just seem to be doing their best to avoid me :-(

I read a case on the Douglas Silas site where a DS was given indi specialist dyslexia school. The LA alternative was Wave 3 intervention in m/s school. It was vital to the parents' winning that this was not considered a viable alternative. If DD has not done it already, there is always the risk that a panel would say that you don't know for sure if something would be ineffective if you have not tried it.

You need actual evidence of failure rather than a prediction of failure.

In reality this means hanging around to collect the evidence of failure that you will need to win.

Your LA might be OKish when statementing DC with ASD but you are likely to find they are completely different wrt dyslexia.

Ds has issues with his visual/auditory/vestibular triad. Like a radio that's not tuned in properly.

I've done some work on the visual (BO) and vestibular (OT) but haven't had the funds to tackle the auditory as yet.

I'm trying to decide whether to fund the listening programme or to go to GOSH and pay for a private diagnosis of APD to see if I can then get any NHS help for him.

DS's diagnosis says "motor-coordination issues" but I'm also wondering if I should have pursued a full dyspraxia diagnosis as nowadays this impacts him far more than his ASD traits. Same for sensory processing disorder.

It's SO hard to choose the right course with limited funds, and I can so relate to that feeling that time is running out. I've moved LA's so when/if I do decide to send DS back to school I run the risk of an "old" statement not being recognised by our new LA.

Thanks keepon - went and read that case and was very interesting. My daughter is performing below the child in the case. All I can do I guess now is put in the application and then sit back and wait and see what happens next. All I do know is that by doing nothing is not the right path. I now find my self wishing if only it had been acted on over the years when it was raised would things now be different. I guess I will never know now

bjk - you can do both. If they refuse, put in an appeal AND use the LA to put pressure on the school to state precisely what intervention they 'need' and to collect data to calculate progress.

If the school don't put in intervention and collect progress data, tribunal panels have been known to uphold refusal to assess or giving of NIL.

YOU do not have the power to force them to do this but the LA does.

The key guiding principle for schools is that if you do not identify a need, you do not have to provide the resources to meet it. For statementing, needs have to be identified and then assessed according to severity, persistence and resistance. You need to have access to data that the school do not want to collect. The LA, at this stage, want the school to collect the data to prove the child does not need a statement. Use convergent interests at this early stage. Your and the LA interests will not 'officially' diverge until you name placement and you can't do that til you have a draft statement.

boc - DS1 has a diagnosis of APD from GOSH but there is no NHS intervention, just diagnosis -> discharge.

He does Johannson's at school but tbh very small classes are the only thing that really works for him.

Interventions so far from school :-

5 times a week of 1 hour in a group of 3
3 times a week for 33 mins in a group of 4
5 times a week of 5 mins 1:1

She works in a small group of 3 for English and maths. She has a TA assigned to the group for English sessions 5 times a week.

Spelling intervention group with 3 other children for 1 hour 40 mins a week split into 3 sessions with either a TA or teacher.

Teacher wrote this term and last term we put in place several extra sessions /intervention programmes tailored towards her needs and yet we saw very little progress . What advances were made over the summer term seem to have been lost during the holidays. She struggles to retain and retain new knowledge.

What wave of intervention would you put that at?

Re reading what th school have wrote thing I was being harsh saying they have done nothing. When I showed this report to dyslexia action EP they did say that the school were doing quite a bit but clearly it's still not enough. Dyslexia is like a different language to me so I am grateful to all of your opinions / help - would rather go in knowing what lies ahead so to speak rather than being blind to it all.

Google Wave interventions 1 - 3. They tend to be off-the-shelf jobbies that fit neatly with a graduated response.

Given it is such a small school it is difficult to work out from that ^ what the school are doing that is different and extra for DD specifically as all the other DC in the small group (and its hard to imagine how it could be otherwise) are receiving the same amount of provision.

Did they name the intervention programmes? If so, you should be able to find out what Wave they are.

No doesn't say. But even though she is in such a small school and all of the benefits of small classes she isn't making progress which is concerning as if she is not making progress here how would she be expected to make progress in a busy mainstream secondary with 30 kids in a class. My head is now definitely hurting! Especially when all I've heard previously isn that kids okay academically don't get statements and yet here I am with a kid failing academically and it's still a battle and for some reason i feel it's going to be even harder.

DS1 is not severely dyslexic (2b, 2a and level 3 at KS1) but perseverance and collecting data resulted in a bog standard dyslexia statement for 15 hours in m/s. There had been no other assessments at that point.

Just different rules. You can do it.

Will try and catch her class teacher tonight and just tell her I'm doing it - I'm coming in at the angle re secondary school. No doubt she will say I'm not going to succeed etc but then will out my head down and crack on it with it

tried to get a referral to a paedatrican for dd this morning - stupid system we have now where GP phones you rather than sees you. she refused point blank to refer dd for dyspraxia - states school has to do it as developmental??? spoke to school - not a clue how to do it but were going to try and get hold of the school nurse and see if she could help them - why the GP just couldn't do it I don't know - all this without seeing me or my daughter, me sobbing down the phone, 2 sons dx with it already but a cold hard no - she wont refer.

anyway whilst speaking to teacher on phone about this told her I intended to apply for stat assessment - she wished me well as the schools LA would refuse point blank she said and at a meeting last week was told that statements would be even harder to get. she then said I should have applied at her last school as now she is making good progress! I did say to her that's because 1) we are paying for a specialist teacher and also 2) shes in a class of 10 - shes going to not get that at secondary. class teacher agreed I was right to fight for a statement to get her specialist teaching. I did butter the teacher up to keep the peace - I handed it in today so now its wait and see what happens next - amazing that shes suddenly made progress yet only a few weeks ago she was struggling - me smells at rat! thank god for independent reports.....

Sorry your GP wasn't supportive bjkmummy. It's amazing how levels increase once a SA assessment is mentioned. That happened with DS too!

My son has recently started wave 3 intervention called reading rescue but they only put that in place once I had put in the request for statutory assessment. I don't think they're doing it as often as they should as the practicing for the school play seems to have got in the way of all his extra input!

The fortunate thing is I had a dyslexia screener done just before he started it so I have an accurate reading age before starting it. He was on the 13th centile for word reading and 6th for spelling. I intend to have my appeal application in by the end of this week.

By the time we get to tribunal I'll be able to have given the intervention a full term and have his reading/spelling age re checked. Thanks for that info KeepOn.

good luck sazale and hope you get it handed in today - my daughter is 2nd centile for reading and 7th centile for spelling. according to the dates I should now hear by 21st January - im not overly hopeful as my LA hate me and will possibly fight me all the way but then with levels such as she has will be hard for them not to assess but then who knows?

sorry didn't mean today - mean this week!