All quiet from the LA but more fun with the school

[bjkmummy]

Served my final evidence last Thursday and heard nothing at all from the LA, no further evidence from them appeared so not sure if that's a good or bad sign.

Anyway school up to their usual tricks. In the last week all the kids have been assessed. On Friday my daughter had a reading test and by the sounds of it must have been reading comprehension as she had to wrote her answers.

Yesterday teacher made her redo the test as my daughter did so badly in the test in Friday! This time she had a TA to scribe her answers - seems so very wring when we are mid appeal heading to tribunal where I will be arguing lack of progress and the school doing all of these tricks! Surely she did the test, she did it badly and that shows that she needs help. I guess if her score goes up by using the TA its an argument to show how much more help she needs but school not sharing any of this information to me.

Now the head has disappeared and the school converted to an academy last week her class teacher/senco is now also the deputy head - as the only other teacher leaves on Friday it's understandable I guess.

My daughter said the teacher told her she had scored a 2b on the test which if true means she has gone down. I need to get these new scores don't i?

You do know that you have a right to access her school file (although if you want to photo copy they can charge a fee).

yes agreed - you can get a copy of her whole school file under the freedom of information act - ask for it and ensure it includes her final results you mention above
A TA helping your child complete a test supports your case definitely
If school being converted to an Academy this could actually be good news for you if you plan to keep her there fyi

I already have her school file - this has happened in the last couple of days. I iDVD discover some interesting stuff in the file such as the handwriting sample and her spelling tests that she was made to do again and again until she reached 90% pass mark. Also school sent different version of a form to the la than whats in her school file. School don't want her statemented as she will cost them money

Your post has made me so angry on your behalf - your poor daughter. Her self-esteem must be at an all time low. Making a dyslexic child repeat a test over and over again is NOT the correct way to give support!

Inappropriate support for my DS nearly drove him to a nervous breakdown. By the time we got to Tribunal for parts 2,3 & 4, his anxiety over his literacy problems was at an all time low. I had to give lengthy and draining evidence to the Judge about his anxiety.

I'd hate to see your daughter going down the same path.

But, having the TA give her support is just adding more fuel to your case. The fact she could only do it with support shows that she... well... needs support! Bit like the bullying that she's experiencing (and that the LA seems to be so worried about) would probably stop if her literacy problems were supported properly.

Make sure you raise all these examples during the tribunal.

Grrr - on your behalf!

"School don't want her statemented as she will cost them money" I dont think this is right- the school would absolutely want her statemented because the funds for her additional support would then come from the Local Authority rather than out of their own budget. I suspect that its probably more to do with the school trying to cook the books before the Academy status change. Are you representing yourself at tribunal ? what is your shopping list?

Sounds about right bjk Schools are being leaned on by LA's to not put children forward for SA so why would they want her results to show that she is falling behind

Dd3 regularly has to re-write her writing assessments which is utterly ridiculous as it doesnt give a true picture of her writing abilities.

The LA turned up at our tribunal with half of an OT report which stated that Dd3's writing speed is average but not the part with the writing which was illegible

Get all your Dd's records!!

Toni - schools have to now fund the first 6k - my school don't have it - I know it means the LA should fund it but we are caught in the crossfire of the politics hence why I'm fighting her cos I'm not interested in the politics - my only concern is my daughter.

I don't know how this is going to play out as the la have submitted nothing. They think I guess they can just tell the tribunal she's making progress and that will be enough. There's no la ep report, not a single report in fact just this constant mantra she's making progress. I am sending dh in tomorrow morning to confront the teacher again and ask for her new results. Thank god I followed everyone's advice in here and got the dyslexia teacher to do standardised assessments with her. And got the school file although school have not given me everything cos I also asked the la for everything they had as well and it doesn't match up

It's a shame I can't package up some of DS1's truculence and send it to you for your DD, bjk. They're only getting away with doing this to her because she so desperately wants to get things right. The behaviour over the spelling test sounds like they don't believe she's trying hard enough :(

The behaviour over the spelling test sounds like they don't believe she's trying hard enough

Ouryve - that is such a startlingly true observation. Dyslexia is so misunderstood that I can well believe the teacher's attitude is that bjk's poor daughter is "playing up" and "not trying". (As a dyslexic, I spent my childhood hearing similar words)

Keep going bjk

That's the thing though - she tries her absolute best at everything and this is how all of her efforts are rewarded. It's heart breaking and I'm beginning to slowly hate the school for what they are doing to her

And even more heart breaking the class teacher is dyslexic herself and tells me 'off the record' she understands why we are fighting as her parents had to fight for her to get specialist teaching and yet her she is playing these ridiculous games and condemning my daughters future. I think it makes it worse knowing she is dyslexic herself as she should have more compassion and understanding

Its not great is it bjk, The literacy teacher that Dd3 is so frightened of told us in a meeting that her Dd had just been dx'ed with dyslexia on entry to university!! She told us how she had struggled with some areas of literacy

And yet she still has no empathy for Dd3 or what we are trying to do!!

Keep battling on bjk

Totally agree with you bjk. Being dyslexic myself (and all the mis-understooding I suffered as a child) is one of the reasons I fought so hard for my DS.

But then I encountered LA EPs during my battles whose attitude was "you did it without help so your DS can do it too". Hardly the point! These are more enlightened times... Surely?

Thats exactly how I feel TOWIE, I have no dx but really struggled at school academically and socially, I didnt realise until recently that I have a similar profile to Dd3.

There is no way I am going to let Dd3 struggle the way I did at secondary

A test which has been done twice is not a true test, and the fact that they gave dd a scribe is yet more evidence that she needs support.

You could maybe use the fact that the school has become an academy in support of your case. If it were a maintained school, the LA would have some control over them, but as it is an academy there is no way the LA can make sure that dd is getting the support she needs unless she has a statement.

Thankfully in my bundle I have the evidence of the two previous tests where they have manipulated the results so its all in front of the tribunal.

The teacher said in a meeting that dd doesn't get help from the TA anymore as she was making this progress.

Unfortunately when the OT went in she noted in her report how much help the TA had to give my dd and how much my dd needed the support. The OT specifically questioned my dd how much the TA helped her and put it in the report.

I think the dyslexia teachers report sums my daughter up perfectly. It says :-

Dd personality and disposition is to try hard be enthusiastic and please those around her. She is embarrassed by her weaknesses.

Think that says it all really