Choosing secondry schools. How much help should I expect for my Dyslexic children.What do yours get?

[Bananaknickers]

Looking at schools now. What should I be looking for? He is not statemented and so far the first school said a sesion every two weeks and no help in class unless there is a T.A in the class at the time assigned to a statemented child. Huge school with only 12 statemented T.A 'S. is this the norm?

Anyone please?

look at the ofsted report for the schools you are considering. the severity of dyslexia also influences the amount of support a child is given. ask what provisions are in place for children with dyslexia but without statements. some schools withdraw dyslexic children one lesson per week to boost their reading skills for example. i have not yet in secondary, met a scenario where a dyslexic child had any one to one support in classroom but i speak only for MFL.

Warning: Long response as this is dear to my heart! This varies hugely, so choose wisely! DS1 started off year 7 in a school with a good reputation. They streamed straight away (spent the first few weeks doing tests, and also considered Y6 SATS and teacher reports), but as DS came from a school that didn't do SATS they went mainly on tests. They dumped him in the lowest ability groups for everything which basically meant the teachers spent all day shouting at the class to try and control difficult behaviour. His dyslexia assessment had been privately done and the SENCO at his new school told me that "if you pay they will tell you what you want to hear" so didn't want to allocate him any resources (like I wanted to hear he's dyslexic!!!!). After many arguments he was offered two class periods a week in the LSU which meant he effectively missed history all the time (2/3 lessons). He was totally miserable. After a nightmare scenario (non dyslexia-related) where he was assaulted by a teacher, we got him transferred to a smaller (700 pupil) rural school. They accepted the fact that he is dyslexic straight away and although they did put him in a tutor group with a statemented child so there was an extra adult in each one of his classes to start with, the school policy is to put TAs in as many classes as possible anyway - especially the younger years. At one point there were two TAs and a student teacher in his maths class as well as the teacher!!. He continues to be supported from within the class rather than being identified as "different" and is doing incredibly well (year 9 now). When he joined the school he had an IEP for the first time ever within a couple of weeks (sadly now being phased out!), the SENCO phoned me before the end of year 7 exams to discuss what support he would need, subject by subject, and told me to contact her any time there was a problem, and the teachers helped him record his homework if necessary. One thing that really made a difference to him was the fact that the school didn't stream at all until the end of year 7, and then only in maths and english. This year they also set for science. My dyslexic son is now in the second highest set for English and the middle set for science and he no longer spends his life thinking he is "useless". It obviously depends on your son't level of dyslexia, but what you have been offered does not sound enough. For us the important thing has been for DS to be in classes with a TA so he can ask for help immediately rather than leaving the class with no idea of what just went on. Ask the schools you see what their policy is on TA's (though remember that depending on the statemented child's needs a TA attached to him/her may have limited "spare capacity" and there is of course an ethical issue here - if you were the parent of the statemented child who had been promised 1:1 how happy would you be with "your" TA being used to support every other child with difficulties in the class! I struggle with this one.) Bottom line: if you can't find somewhere that suits can you afford to go private? We got lucky, but I would have sold my soul in the end to get him out of the hellhole that was the first school!