deja vu - aspie flunks A levels -any one have any advice?

[ThatVikRinA22]

DS is 18 and taking A levels.

last year we had lots of issues - college tutors paid no heed to the fact that he has aspergers and dyslexia. needless to say he flunked but they all said he had potential etc etc.

he chose extremely difficult subjects - maths, physics and computing along with general studies.

cos he flunked they advised he redid the first year. i said at the time i felt that simply redoing the year without adequate support would result in another flunking.

they didnt agree

they talked him into the the exact same exams. he had wanted to change to the BTEC in computing. he is a talented self taught programmer (he now has a part time job in programming) but they said not to do that as it would limit his options etc etc etc...

roll forward a year and guess whats happened. ive sent an email to the special needs tutor as some of his tutors seem to have no idea of his special needs, they wont allow him to use his equipment like dictaphones or laptop. im fuming and he has only just told me!!! ive got to calm down as we have parents evening on monday and i want it to be constructive. my DS cant even pin point what is going wrong, but he is devastated as he really wants to go to university and do computer sciences. the best the college can now offer him is a foundation course of 2 years followed by a year at university - he really doesnt want that.

i feel they have totally failed him and made me feel like i was fussing when my fears were well founded.

what can i do now? ive emailed the special needs dept as follows:

dear xxxx Please can you advise as we have some problems.

Ds was given a dictaphone to use in lesson by xxx. He says it was extremely useful to him, but some of his tutors would not let him use it.

He is really struggling again. He is bitterly disappointed with his grades and he is really upset. Please can you liase with his tutors - he needs to be able to use any equipment that may help him overcome his difficulties and some tutors are stopping him from doing this in some cases. It seems that his tutors are unaware of his aspergers and dyslexia, as there can be no other explanation for them stopping him using equipment that would aid him.

I am coming to parents evening this Monday and will obviously discuss this, but i am concerned that Ds is feeling very deflated and he feels that university is unattainable for him. i really think that at the moment he needs to be able to use anything at his disposal, and am not understanding why the dictaphone was an issue to his maths and physics tutors. his maths tutor told him to take pictures of the board - impractical as his phone wont hold many pictures.

I really dont feel that his disabilites are being well supported, and once again he feels he is failing. He is unable to pin point exactly what the problems are, he is upset and muddled and he doesnt know who to speak to for help. I believe i said last year that i felt without adequate support i felt he would simply repeat his performance of last year and im afraid that this is what is happening.

I have no idea what to do next. Your help would be appreciated.

so thats the email - what can i do now?

Just wanted to say that, when he does get to Uni, he will be allowed to use a dictaphone in lectures.

My dyslexic son is allowed, in fact he was given one for free plus a separate microphone that picks up the sound. He was also given a laptop, good spellchecking software and 25% extra time in exams. He's doing really well (in third year of an MEng) so tell your son not to lose hope.

There are private "crammer" type colleges in Central London (don't know any names unfortunately) where A levels can be re-taken in an intensive manner. They are not schools exactly but specialise in getting kids throu A levels. It costs of course but if you could find the money it might be an answer for you.

The daughter of a friend of mine did science retakes for her A levels to fulfil her dream of studying medicine. She'd not achieved the right grades before. Good Luck.

Hi Vic

Gawd they just don't get it do they, even after all the contact you've had with the FE College about his difficulties

Ok - so he'll get some AS levels this year though possibly not at a very good grade. That's OK, as this year hasn't been totally wasted - these AS levels will give him some UCAS points.

Unless he is aiming for a top Uni for computer sciences such as York then it's probably not worth continuing with A levels. BTEC would give him sufficient UCAS points to get into another Uni. Computer science at Uni is heavily Maths -based rather than straight programming - i know several young people who've been surprised by this. Applied Compuetr Science woudl be less theoretical and more practical - which given his current strengths in programming may suit beter.

The foundation 2 years followed by a year at Uni is what they call a Foundation Degree. Ultimately its just as valid as a 3 year course at Uni - just more work-focused. I wouldn't discount it totally - but it would have to be done in the right FE College and linked to a 'good' University for the final year.

Whether to perservere with this FE College or go elsewhere seems to be worth considering. Is there anywhere else he could go to do a BTEC?

If not then you need to remind them of their statutory obligations under Disability Act - i.e. he has dyslexia so any aids that he needs should be permitted. Often just explaining the problem to his subject lectureres would gain acceptance. I know eyebrows were raised when own DS trooped into FE College lectures with support worker and dictaphone - they had no idea of his difficulties and thought he may be 'violent' as that would explain the support worker . we put them right on that score and things improved.

Also worth looking at which Uni he wants to go to and what computing courses they offer and what their entry criteria are - and then playing the disability card - we did.

Don't despair. It's not the end of the world. You know he'll take longer than most but he'll get there. You know the aim is to keep him in education as long as possible. Just go into bat for him with the FE Colege and go with the flow

hi witty and thanks for this - they really dont get it at all despite all the hype.

hindsight is a wonderful thing but for all the great reputation this college has, our experience of their dealing with SEN is truly crap.

slightly complex is the fact he did 2 subjects at A2 level and retook 2 at AS.

we are now looking at the options and your right - keeping him in education will be the best thing and i know ultimately a degree is a degree - he just had his heart set on getting it in one particular way. and he was looking at York, sheffield etc...no chance now though. still, Hull is on the cards. the other way to do this is do another 2 years at North lindsay with a final year at Lincoln uni.

the BTEC would have been worth 2 A levels in ucas points - but again it wouldnt have got him a top uni so either way he will have to accept what his options are. but you know how they get something into their heads!

parents eve on monday. should be fun...

we will start again tomorrow.

and the batting - i should be old hand at that by now.
your right, all is not lost. just got to start looking at other options and get cracking heads at college.

weekend off. then here we go again

well, had parents evening.

explained why he needs the aids etc - fell on deaf ears. they have said its a privacy issue and 2 (our of 3) of the tutors were not comfortable with him using the dictaphone. bloody marvellous.
they think im mummying him. i could tell. special needs dept had gone home so all hell broke loose in the car and he has barracaded himself in his bedroom refusing to speak to me.

remind me why we do this?

I would have thought that counts as disability discrimination! As mentioned above, at uni you can get funding for dictaphones or even a scribe. To be honest, with that attitude I wonder if it's worth the battle in keeping your child there. Are there any other options locally? Another idea is for him to study from home using something like the National Extension College. I did an A level with them years ago and they have very good structured courses with most of the material printed so you don't have to rely on note taking. However, it does require quite a lot of self motivation to study independently.

You could throw the Disability Discrimmination book at them with an attitude like that It's completely indefensible. That bloody place needs a good shake up.

Are you going to complain / go elsewhere to another FE college?

It's not fair on him at all. I really wouldn't let them get away with this.

am just contemplating next move.

i bloody well KNEW him doing another year there was a mistake.

the tutors didnt get his problems at all just kept telling me lots of students have difficulty make the move to independent study yada yada yada...

i said this wasnt the case here as this is his second year and therefore his second try at it. i got quite pissed off with the maths tutor who looked about 12....

they are basically saying they will help him in any way they can but he has to go and seek the help. fine in theory but he hasnt a clue when he needs help. even now he is saying he is coping when he clearly isnt. one minute he is up and next down - he quite frankly doesnt know his arse from his elbow and is so malleable he believes what the last person said to him...

i need to email the special needs dept again i feel and lay it down. i feel that if they are blocking his ability to utilise whatever is at his disposal then they are discriminating. but i think that may be the least of his problems tbh.

Hi Vic

Persinally, I 'd be looking elsewhere - BUT - if this FE College is the only show in town then they themselves need educating in SN suport.

I think you're right - you do need to contact the SEN dept - bt not by email. I'd use a letter -much more formal.

And I would be threatening.

I'd tellthem that their current apprrroach discrimminates against D and get assurances that:

!) he can use whatever aids he requires to overcome his disability
2) that he has regular (fornightly?) one - to -ones with his tutor

etc

I said threatening because I would tell them explicitly that they either start supporting his SENs in full by whatever means D feels he needs (i,e, dictaphone) or you will report them. They know he has these problems because they were party to his dx . Even more unforgiveable!!

Not nice - not something we want to do but FFS probably the only way they'll finally GET IT.

If it's any consolation it used to cheer son up enormously when I went into bat with a big stick!! It proved to him that they were wrong and that I cared.

I really am gutted that it's come to this.

cheers mrs..yeah am gutted too..this is his future and they are just not accommodating his needs at all other than to say he can go for help if he needs it. it just doesnt cut it! I spoke to friend whose son with SEN went there - he was left to flounder and he has developed anxiety to such a level that its left him with a possible life long obsessional condition.

letter it will be then.

how are you? is D still at uni? i really miss the PM system on the dark side!

its clear the softly softly approach isnt working.

they have now asked him for the PDA back. ffs!!!

ive now asked them how his needs being identified, supported and met.

ive asked them if his inability to manage independently means he shouldnt be there. that should rattle their cage.

ive asked for a part time support assistant. he needs someone there who can help him.

and ive asked them to explain the decision to take back the PDA.

this is bloody ridiculous.

ive phoned connexions and they are putting me in touch with the specialist SEN advisor - she should phone on monday.

here we go again.

wetty- how would changing college work now he is 18? am seriously thinking about this as an option but not sure how to do it - it would mean he is in college until 21 - not sure if

A) funding would be available

B) if he could still apply to university without being classed as a mature student - not sure if this makes any difference?

where can i get advice?