problems at high school

[mumeeee]

My DD is in year 8. She is dyspraxic and on action plus on the special needs register. Her writing has got worse since staring high school.
The school has provided a writing slpoe for her which she is supposed to collect at the start of school. She often forgets to do this and teachers are not reminding her. She is aso supposed to be allowed to write on every other line but some teachers are not allowing her to do this as it is wasting paper. Some of her teachers are very good and will let her write straight onto the work sheets. She did have an assesment for a laptop last term and is supposed to be being assesed again. Other tha this she is not getting any help at all and we have not seen an IEP for her. I spoke to the SENCO yesterday and said she used to go to the special needs teacher for help with her writing at primary school. She told me that the English department could arrange a handwriting programme for her. This is the first time that this has been mentioned. It would have been helpful for her to have being doing this during year 7. Anyway we are having a meeting with the SENCO and Head of year soon. Could anybody give me advice on what to we should ask and am I right in thinking she should have extra help on action plus? Sorry about the long post

We've got a girl with dyspraxia in our school and she shares one to one help with another pupil- maybe your dd should be getting more help. I'm not a SENCO so don't really know the ins and outs of finance etc
she should definetly be getting more help from subject teachers ie not being made to copy from the board. The SENCO needs to send a memo round reminding staff of the allowances she has to have- ie writing every other line, the fact that she gets tired easily etc.
It's the SENCO's job to sort out the handwriting programme not the english dept.
maybe her tutor could have the writing slope as she sees the tutor first thing to register.
The school needs to think ways round these problems- you don't know their routines etc. Good luck

I would start asking some difficult questions of this school.

As Schools Action Plus is clearly falling short for what she requires I would now ask school about possibility of DD being statemented. An IEP should be done every three months with regards to Schools Action Plus. This involves the school meeting with you.

Would suggest you also contact IPSEA (www.ipsea.org.uk) for further advice.

HTH and good luck

Thanks for the help. I have to phone the school tomorrow to arrange a meeting. I will post again to let you know whats happening.

Well we have at last had a meeting with the SENCO. a bit frustrating sas she kept saying well I know this should happen but teachers may be busy or we havn't got enough funding.
She is now using her writting slope all the time her form teacher has it as you suggested pixiefish.
She is now going to have 2 extra lessons a week one for handwriting and one for spelling. The first one is tomorrow so we shall see how that goes. We have seen her IEP now and it actually says on there about using worksheets. Her needs are going to be typed up and sent to all her teachers. I have some leaflets about Dyspraxia so are going to send them in.They will be sent round wth the sheets about her needs.
School is going to look into having her assesed by an Ed phsycholagist again. She has now had an assesment for a laptop but is unlikely to get one unless statemented and her typing needs to be faster for it to be any help.We are going to have another meeting in febuary to reviw the situation. I feel a bit happier now but am angry that we have had to fight to get this far. Thanks for al your support