The Goose & Carrot Pub

[RedRegular]

A thread for all who have DC with SN. The thread is deleted in 90 days and doesn’t show in active. The season is changing and the bar is well stocked.

I'm not sure about the extra 2 foot for depth, one foot of it is on the concrete base (great), one foot would be overhanging with no base and into my flower beds. So think we will go for one foot extra rather than 2.

We can also have the gable end either at the front with 2 windows and one door or the gable at the side and 1 window and one door and thatched roof more visible. The windows will open. They are doing drawings. Comes with electrics, flooring and insulation and they can take old shed down. DH said I think old shed may contain asbestos so they have taken a sample away to test. I love the way DH only mentions this now after I have done lots of clearing of the roof before though DH reckons its safe. DH was so happy to chat about it with the guy and he also loved our cat.

@Lougle well done to DD3.

@RedRegular great you managed a run today. You deserve far more than the measly CA.

That's great news @Tulipandmagnolia . The extra space on the shed will be really useful, I think.

Good news re sheds and runs.
DS had no absences at Scouts again. We've said if we get a few more weeks like this we'll ask about leaving him for a short while.

@Tulipandmagnolia having an extra foot of concrete poured is cheap (I think a meter cubed is about £200). Get the asbestos removed professionally and tell dh he should have mentioned it.

@RedRegular some of the things I teach have been decades and no progress. I think he’ll get it when he’s ready. Keep going. Honk honk.

My motability car is drinking oil. I talked to the garage but they weren’t interested. I think I will have to drive it in but finding the time to do that is hard. Ds did nothing all day today and by about 11am was laughing again. So so good to hear. He’s just so tired. I think I have to ignore dh (hard) and let ds slob about on the days he should have been in college. It’s difficult because it’s what I need too. The schedule has been relentless for years. I want ds to learn to have a tidy clean house and be more part of creating that. I want him to be able to cook a meal and manage his clothes and just be very good at it all. At the moment he lives here like a child with me providing everything.

I’m still shocked by how a young person can understand really complex academic learning but struggle so much with basic tasks and I’m her mum. I know the theory behind it but if I wasn’t witness to the enormous disparity between the can do and the complete dependency I would never have thought it was a thing that is possible. Couldn’t catch a hook today so final assignment is still hanging over her. I’m hoping she will do a Lougle and power through at the last hour.

@Zeonlywayisup i feel very guilty when DD grinds on gaming for some random challenge as I get so much done. It doesn’t happen as much as I would selfishly enjoy.

I feel like I want a daughter not a lifelong project. Really looking forward to the next few months and dropping the agenda. Going back to jigsaws, chats and just living gently without trying to ‘bring her on’ with a series of plans but making progress a bit more organic again.

I'm supporting DD3 as she finishes her sea glass project. She wants to give it to her teacher tomorrow and there's absolutely no point in trying to make her go to bed with it unfinished. I'm dog tired though.

DMIL phoned earlier to say that SIL's house is having viewings tomorrow so could she come to us for 5 hours in the afternoon. I just couldn't do it. I have to take DD3 to school, take DD1 to the psychologist, have a phonecall with DF and his bank, collect DD3, then have an ADHD medication titration appointment with DD2. DMIL really finds dogs difficult and our youngest dog will get right up close to her, which she will hate. I can't just leave her to her own devices.

I felt terrible until DH pointed out that she does have her own flat (not living there yet) available to go and sit in.

Or she could go to the cinema, go and drink coffee, and go to the shops? I'd easily kill 5 hours with those and a good book.
I'm hungry but I only just took my pre breakfast tablet so I have to wait half an hour to eat. DD has left for school and everyone else is asleep. Our dining room ceiling has been fixed but everything is dusty and the cleaner can't come today (we put her off because the plastering company said they'd do a deep clean today - and now they can't come either).
First world problems!

Had a really nice visit to the possible new school - DS anxious but managed to make it in, they do a slightly more academic curriculum though also take some LD children, also have animals(they have a sister school that is much more academic but it's full) and we were just saying we'd take a place but they rang back just now to say they don't think he fits with the cohort.
So it's back to tribunal for us.
All of the schools we like (this school, its sister school, another similar school in the same group, an SEMH school in the same group and the furthest away school) are non section 41. So the only school we can appeal for is the RP. But the HT there has said they would never take a DC into a lower year. While I know it's not their choice, the way they worded their refusal makes me think they would refuse again even if the tribunal insisted, or would just make life difficult for DS. Gah.

DH reminded me the EHCP didn't have a setting so isn't final. So we will just tell them to finalise and immediately appeal.

But now we're going to have to teach him GCSE English (or steps towards it) ourselves, and persuade the school to enter him for double science and get his maths tutor to teach him the physics and chemistry as well.

We may start with a new English tutor in September but he has had so little teaching in the last 3 years we are starting from nothing. I could actually teach Maths or Science with books, videos and a load of practice problems but for English I have no clue beyond "this thing you've written here isn't right". We tried some primary school workbooks with him but they were all SPAG, and didn't have enough practice per item for him to get the hang of it, or for comprehension and writing the lower levels were ok but the higher it goes the harder we find, as non specialists, to tell what he's doing right or wrong.

I think the English IS much harder to support (but we are a very science heavy couple). Could you try the functional skills papers and see if getting those under his belt for confidence would help? Entry level 3 is what my other dc could do in primary. Ds only has EL2 but frankly for mine that’s a triumph.

Nobody has contributed anything to ds’s EHC so it will be interesting to see what they have planned…..
We took ds bowling last night. He was very tired. He seems much happier but annoyingly I can’t actually tell if that’s meds or dropping college. Anyway it’s nice to see glimpses of my happy boy again.

EL3 is a bit hard for him right now (which means if he was being taught, I reckon he could get a lower grade at GCSE in two years time, but since they don't teach him, he won't get better and won't get EL3 let alone functional skills).
The problem is I can't do much beyond say "that's not right, the answer is X" which isn't helpful. We too are a science household!
I've just posted in the Staffroom board where usually nobody answers but it's worth a shot.

How is he at EL2?

@drspouse Teaching English is my nemesis as well but Save my exams website is relatively cheap to join as a member and provides really good breakdown of the exam papers, analysis and mark schemes. The Cambridge exam board syllabus is good for logical ASD type brains as you can learn a formalic approach. We are doing Edexcel IGCSE as it has a coursework option and the hardest part for DD are in the coursework so we can use some good YouTube videos which a analyses the set texts and she can take longer to do those parts not under time pressure and then the exam content is non-fiction focused either write a letter, website, article type exercise so again we are going to learn a set format and switch out / in the topic given. There are lots of resources online once you get your head around what the exam paper is looking for.

makes me think they would refuse again even if the tribunal insisted

They wouldn’t be able to do that.

DH reminded me the EHCP didn't have a setting so isn't final.

This isn’t necessarily the case. Section I of a draft must be blank. However, some finalised EHCPs also don’t have a placement named. Some will only have a type of placement and some will have section I blank. Definitely appeal as you can, but don’t rely on section I having a setting as the telltale sign of a finalised EHCPs.

If there is a possibility you will enter DS privately for Double Science &/or English Language, you should think about whether to do GCSE or IGCSE. For science and English Language, GCSE is harder to do as a private candidate because the practical statement and speaking endorsement respectively mean there are fewer centres who take private candidates for them. Centres are likely to become more cautious around this since Ofqual’s issued a Notice of Chief Regulator's Rebuke to WJEC earlier this year about 4 of their qualifications.

won't get EL3 let alone functional skills

Functional Skills come in different levels, including EL3 and both higher and lower levels. If EL3 is too much now, what about EL1 or EL2? If that is still too much, what about some of AQA UAS pre-entry level units?

English is tricky here too. DS1 won’t get an English qualification. IGCSE/GCSE English is beyond him. FS at any level doesn’t work for him either. Neither do other Entry Level Certificates.

The LEA say it isn't finalised as they were waiting for consultations. They will now name current school which is what they told us they would do. (Well, at least they did tell us that - though frankly who knows!)

I'm not sure how he'd do on EL1/2. I think he could try? If he had a scribe/helper to keep him on track he might manage it. We could give it a go actually.

We are hoping the school will enter him for double science and they'd definitely enter him for GCSE English. We'll ask the Maths/Science tutor about whether he should do GCSE or IGCSE.

@FrostySunRun we have no hopes of English Lit which I tend to find is the main one exam help deals with?

@drspouse a prompter is possible.

JCQ’s EAA guidance allows a scribe for functional skills, including the writing element. However, candidates forgo the SPaG marks unless they dictate that too. The rules are more complex than for a prompter and there have been some changes over recent times that aren’t fully reflected in all the specification documents yet. For example, now, for Edexcel's FS English allows the candidate to spell out each word and gain access to the full range of marks or go word by word and lose the SPaG marks for the writing part. For the spelling tests letter by letter dictation is required, and the same for the plurals questions on EL2&3. See here. But the specification guide says a human scribe isn’t allowed in the writing component.

For AQA’s English Entry Level Certificate, you can’t have a scribe for the writing tasks.

@drspouse no we are only doing English Lang not lit. Different exam boards cover different things. For the edexcel one there is an anthology to review & learn first but there is a you tube walkthrough for every text so I’ve screen shot and printed them and we review and discuss them. The save my exams website also has walk through of every text in the language anthology for edexcel. It’s taken me a while to get my head around it but it is possible and I’m a very logical scientific person.

All the mark schemes and past papers are available online to get a feel for what they are looking for as well.

This is an example of the notes they have some are free resources but I upgraded to premium as we’ve found it a really helpful website
www.savemyexams.com/igcse/english-language/edexcel/a/16/paper-1-non-fiction-texts-and-transactional-writing/revision-notes/

I think that kind of thing would be more helpful if he had a better handle on what writing involves, what different things you write are called etc. Hopefully we can get to that point but at the moment he needs to actually write what he's supposed to be writing, understand more than about 10% of what he reads etc.

You can get these Target books like this one which

Would those exist for, say, year 7 or 8?