What should the school be doing?

[CB1234]

Firstly, I apologise if this is in the wrong place. My son has mild difficulties in comparison to some of your children and I don't want to offend, so if I ask something stupid it's out of ignorance and not malice.

My son is 10 and in year 5. He has always found school a bit of a struggle, always been in intervention (sits outside with a small group and a TA) but we never felt overly concerned. However, since year 5 (he finishes primary in 2019 for those of you not using the English school system) , issues have arisen in that he is behind across the board. His current teacher has said she is 'getting worried about SATs next year' and we have just found out he was working at a year below in maths year 4 (not told this at the time!).

After much pushing on my part I have finally got an appointment with SENCO who has referred him for an Ed Psych appointment (in May). But that's only because I have asked and I had to be quite pushy to even get an appointment. TBH, I don't think my son has suddenly deteriorated. I think his previous teacher just wasn't communicating with us or considering the possibility of a SEN. So, after that ramble, is there guidelines on what a school should be doing with a child who is working a year below their expected level? I have heard of IEPs, should he have one?

The real issue for me is how my son is feeling. He got a test result back on Friday for Maths comprehension and got the lowest score in the class and he was so upset about it . He then had the same this week for English comprehension and he got 2 out of 20.

I can't figure out what's going on. It's like he reads something and it just goes in one ear and out the other side. He says his memory doesn't work . I have noticed other things as well like, he can't do up laces or use cutlery, he struggles to remember things or follow instructions and he skips lines and words when he reads.

I don't want to turn this into a battle with the school. We need to be on the same page. However, I do feel they have let my son down. If he is having difficulties surely they should look into that. I also want to know when this all began. We don't get their assessment data. It's just a written report at the end of the year which tbh is a bit fluffy. I assume they have assessment data so I am thinking of asking for it all to work out when his issues arose.

Have you seen your GP and discussed through your concerns? If they think it helpful, they can refer him onto the community Paediatrician to look into things further for you. Hope that helps.

@zzzz. That's pretty unhelpful of you. Firstly, I didn't say I was going to be furious with the school. Secondly, how could I investigate when I didn't know anything was wrong because they weren't communicating that back? Sinxe I have been made aware I have pursued SENCO for a referal (Ed psych). And as for the laces and cutlery, he just can't do those things properly. He can eat with a fork but not a knife at the same time.

@yellowrain. Thanks for your more helpful post. I don't see how the GP can help but maybe that's an option. I think I'll wait for the Ed psych.

My point is these issues aren't new. The school are telling me now that they knew he had as behind a year ago but didn't do anything or share that with me. Does anyone know if there are national guidelines they should have followed but didn't? It all seems so haphazard.

Fine, but as I said I can hardly take responsibility for something I didn't know about. The teacher in year 4 kept saying he was fine. Then the end of year report suggested something quite different. For various reasons I wasn't able to raise this until the beginning of year 5. Then I was recently told he was working a year behind even back then. You would think there would be a process schools need to follow when a child is behind. Telling the parents would be a good starting point

Re: the cutlery. I didn't know about those suggestions so I shall look into them, thank you. TBH, I thought he was just being stubborn and messing about at meal times. I have made him eat with cutlery but he struggles. It's only when I started wondering if there was an issue that I though of issues with cutlery and laces.

His handwriting is awful. I booked an OT appointment last week for during Easter holidays. I would say his dexterity was good (he loves lego) but maybe not. From a parents perspective it's tricky. What you see is normal for your child so unless it's blatantly wrong it can be tricky to pick up. That coupled with only having a vague idea of what a child of a certain age should be doing academically makes it even more difficult when the school is not forthcoming.

As PP have said, I would seek for DC assessments by:

1. An educational psychologist - they could look for dyslexia and memory problems (if there are any)
2. An OT - for dyspraxia. DD loved duplo and lego, and her organisation was very good; but she still had dyspraxia and sensory processing disorder
3. A speech and language therapist - to see if DC has comprehension problems; and if he has dyslexia, if that is part of a specific language problem (like phonological, auditory processing or also auditory memory)
4. An opticians where they specialise in dyslexia (not necessarily a behavioural optometrist as they are very expensive), and they could look at his horizontal tracking - DD has dyslexia, but her horizontal tracking is poor also. (The ability to read across a page)

It can be difficult to tease out what problems are due to lack of attention or poor memory - hopefully, the above professionals might notice what his attention is like too? Don't feel bad about posting on here - it's very hard to tell with a first child, when you don't have experience of what is normal, and what isn't!

I am pretty sure you aren't meant to advertise here Mandy