General Chat

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I apologise ahead for rambling, ranting and raving.......... My son is half way thru year 8 secondary school now. I spent his infant and junior years literally fighting to get him the help and support he needed - eventually having to resort to threatening to remove him from school and going to the Chairman of board of Govenors and The Education Authority. My son was eventually 'Statmented' for his last 2 years of junior school. Now, whilst the term 'statemented' isnt so nice (and doesnt mean he is a naughty child) it does mean he gets the extra help/one-to-one/scribes for exams etc....he has dyslexia and very poor short term memory. Why am I so damn mad? The secondary school teachers didnt know he had these difficulties - or a statement, before he went there!!! We have told them umpteen times all this (because as concerned parents we phoned the school due to him being behind and struggling). Now we have to repeat ourselves and go thru this whole thing again. Im so, so mad. Nearly 2 years he has been there, and has a file over and inch thick! I had his open evening on Monday and his form teacher passed us on to the year tutor - fair enough. Now we have to wait yet again to get him assesed -AGAIN! More time wasting that could be used to teach. The year tutor had no idea he had a statement in years 5 & 6. My god do they not read notes? He has had so many detentions for 'forgetting' homework - but he just cant remember things. Im sorry for ranting - but ive just seen the statistics on the telly - 49 out of every 50 job applications wont even be considered if there is no grade C or above for english, maths and sciences! What bl**dy chance do we have? Vikki xx (rant over)

So are you saying that he had a Statement in force when he went there and they didnt know? What happened to the Review? This sounds dodgey to me. Please nip over to the adders.org website where Im sure you will get some advice over this matter. There is no way you should wait for another assessment if he already had one.

Vicky, hopefully he will have a chance now to catch up before it is too late, let's hope so anyway. Did they give any excuse for not reading the notes? Ann Glos

Hi Heather hun Yes he did - but I was told at the end of his junior year that it comes to an end, although, he will still get the help but, unless he has a physical disability(off the record, literally), he wont have the actual piece of paper saying he has a statement. Apparently, the secondary schools get allocated an amount of funding according to how many children had a 'statement' in year 6 (before moving up to the secondary school). Hope you can understand that - i get a bit messy with words when im explaining stuff. Now, the thing is, his year tutor told us that its a load of rubbish regarding that last paragraph. In fact his year tutor has never heard of that happening. So now I feel like: She kicked up a fuss, give her the statement for her son then say its not available at secondary school unless you literally have a physical disability. I wouldnt mind, but I thought I had it all sorted and we could just get on with helping him to get thru school! He dislikes school so much, its hard just keeping his spirits up to get him to go. Vikki xx

Hi Ann No they never gave an excuse - they always manage to sidetrack. I hope this gets sorted quickly now. I know its only half way thru year 8 and that he has till year 11, but its such a short time considering how long it takes to get anywhere in the education system. Fingers and toes are crossed for a speedy result. Though I wont hold my breath! Vikki xx

vikki we had the same problem with our son we knew that there was something wrong cos he couldnt read or spell at the age of 10 ever since he started school we told the teachers that there was something wrong but we were told he was just 'lazy'! hubby even told them to remove him from his french lessons and spend the extra 4 lessons a week on helping him with his english! but they said that they couldnt do that cos french was part of the national curriculum he took his 12 plus and was given a place at the local secondary school i was gobsmacked! how on earth would he cope with mainstream school? we went to the open evening at his new school and told them that we were worried because of his learning difficulties.they checked his records and said that they didnt know he had learning difficulties. we explained that we had been telling the teachers for years that he couldnt read or spell but they wouldnt listen. they offered to get him statemented when he started the school . the lady who done the statement couldnt believe it! she visited my sons middle school weekly and was disgusted to think that they hadnt even mentioned him to her. hence he didnt stay long at secondary mainstream. he was transferred to a special need school which specialised in dyslexia. my son was 12 yrs old and had the reading age of a 5yr old! i could have cried.my poor little boy was struggling. when he left school at the age of 16 he had the reading age of a 13yr old .i was so proud of him he is now 25 and still struggles.he gets embarrassed. he lacks confidence but makes up for it with his great sense of humour,everybody loves him lol i think its about time that the darn teachers listened to the parents.after all we know our children better than anyone susie

Vikki I understand your frustration. Please feel free to rant. I have a friend whose dyslexic son wasn't highlighted at 2ndary school and he had to go through all the assessments etc again, even though his dad showed them the report done when he was in year 6 at primary. On the other hand, I work in a primary school and often have allocated time to work with special needs children who are given the time because their parents or a professional has highlighted problems. That's fine, but there are often other children in the class with more severe problems which impact on the rest of the class, who because a big fuss hasn't been kicked up get nothing. I think the whole special needs system is bonkers and its main objective appears to be the production of paper - reports, assessments, diagnosis, observations, predictions, plans, statements, statistics. We have the barmy situation where we have advisers on how to fill in a form. My opinion is if anyone thinks it worth filling in a form - then the child should get help. nell

My Step Son apparently has Dyslexia and has just moved up to Secondary School - I don't know the ins and outs of it as he lives with his Mother and she's not good at communication, but we have our doubts as to wether he really is Dyslexic, but anyway he's having an extra class to help with his English etc. The point is, whether your Son has been officially diagnosed with Dyslexia and other learning problems or not, he should still be getting help - why on earth doesn't his new School know about his problems? It's too much Red Tape and Bureaucracy I would guess - many shools are more interested in Government figures than making sure Children get a decent grad in the basic subjects. My Step Son is about 2 years behind with a lot of subjects, yet is apparently doing well at German! I think it's crazy that they're bothering with German when he had the reading ability of a Child two years younger than he is! At least your Son has two good parents to fight his corner for him - good luck with it all. Kaye x

Vikki, you have every right to be furious, what an awful mess! I'm not a teacher but I've been a school secretary for 12 years at a primary school and this is what happened there. We averaged about one child per year with a statement, and quite a few more on the SEN register. A few months before the children were due to transfer up, there would be a *great* deal of liaison between our school and the middle school regarding children with SEN/statemented. I'm aware that it's more difficult to obtain a statement during secondary education than primary education, but secondary children do have statements! Did your son's primary school actually liaise with the secondary school at all? I know it's too late, but I'd want to find out from them for my own peace of mind. I'm sorry your son has had to go through this (and you of course), and I do hope that you can get him the help he needs and is entitled to. Love Mandy :) xx

Are you in touch with a locla British Dyslexia Association group? With my son I always found that once you had a 'professional' on board on your side, things started to speed up. Do have a look to see if you have a local parent befriender to help you with this because I found the school and LEA wanted to get away with as little as possible up to that point. We had a statement that the headmistress said was impossible for her to meet so the LEA had to pay for him to go to an independent school with specialist facilities.

Hi Susie My hubby has Dyslexia and my youngest son. The eldest doesnt. We asked to have even 1 or 2 of his 3 french/german lessons dropped for a while but no they cant do that. UNTIL, we met them face to face and they discovered that he was statemented, then they offered to try that! We have a school a bus ride away that is a specialist dyslexia school. But, its only available on referal and my son doesnt want to go to a different school, even though he dislikes this one. They virtually said - if we get extra money to teach him, then he can have the help, but if we dont then he cant. How daft is that. I understand that they need to find him a teacher when taken out of his foreign language classes - but they have a special needs section at his school (for both physical and educational needs). All it comes down to really is they want/need money! Vikki xx

Hi Helen, Kaye, Jim and Mandy Thank you for your comments. Ive known Josh had problems since he was a tot - he couldnt sort the three basic shapes and/or colours into the right slots (square, circle, triangle). With Dad having Dyslexia he knew the signs - but I was told that because my older son (3 years apart) was 'gifted', I was expecting my younger son to be the same! I thought about and discussed this with hubby at length and confimed what we already knew - we didnt think that because we treat them as two individuals. Yes I was a newish mum, but i wasnt stupid or overprotective either. Anyways, battle on I did, and thought it was finished. Then this. My youngest doesnt have any other learning problems - hes quite intelligent and very good at practical subjects like, ICT, science, music and PE. Its the writing and memory that he has a hard time with. He has been diagnosed with Dyslexia and poor short term memory skills. I will slodier on. Thank you to all for listening to me, I wish you all good luck in your own challenges. Your a good bunch of people. Vikki xx

I sympathise with you. My daughter has similar problems. They diagnosed as ADHD eventually but it is much more far reaching than that. All through primary we were up and down the school meetings with all different people. No one would do the job and statement her. Eventually we got her into the secondary we wanted that had a good special needs unit,. The teacher in charge realised immediately the problems we worked together to get the statement done. She then was awarded the top level of funding for her problems and the school employed a person to help her on a one to one basis in school, keep her on track of what she should be doing etc., wasn't totally the answer to her problems but a great help. After a year we moved here. We assumed the same help etc., what a shock we were in for. The funding transferred straightaway. All she got additional helpwise was a session on a computer programme!! We couldn't get over it. We managed to get a lovely psychiatrist from the child and family consultation service. He implemented some tests for her, when the results came back the report said she was in the bottom 1% of all the children who had taken these tests before. We had a major meeting up the school armed with this and blew the senco (who was an absolute cow) out of the water. She was saying she didn't need the help and everything. Well where was the money going they were getting. Well the educational pyschologist agreed with what we were saying and she had to go along with more help. Well we put up with another couple of months things were not really any better so we applied to a special school for her. We got her in unfortunately we never knew about this school earlier, she could have gone there from when she was 5, 9 years wasted!! Anyway she spent the last 18 months school time there. Things weren't perfect but much better. She then went onto a gateway course at college which she finished last term. Mencap took her on and got her Christmas work in Argos last christmas and since september she has been working part time in Woolworths. We really didn't think that she would be able to hold a job down, as she also has a lot of learning difficulties. But to be honest the only help we have had is from Charities like Mencap or what we have had to fight for ourselves. It's the pits having a child who needs help. It's hard enough with 'normal' kids who don't. I wish you all the luck in the world. Dianex

Vicki, The teacher is wrong. Children ARE statemented in secondary school. My nephew is. If you don't feel you are getting a positive and helpful response from the teacher, go to consult the headmaster. If you do not get satisaction from the head, you are entitled to contact the Chairman of the Governors to investigate on your behalf why you are not receiving the service you require. Big implications for OFSTED. Be clear about what you would like to see before you go to the teacher and be very specific in your questions. Ask the same questions of each of the teachers as you go up the ladder. Keep a record of the questions and the answers you receive from each person. Set a time limit for each person to achieve goals, meetings or answer questions. Stick to it and move up the ladder if they fail to achieve any of them within the time limit. Children have a very limited amount of school life - every day is precious and in a good school with a well developed support system they can achieve their own maximum potential. It is so much harder for them later. Good luck Abigail

All schools have children on their special needs register and get funding for them. Most of them will be on a “ band” of a particular number and will have some kind of learning target, which is to be met within a certain time span. A few of the children on the SEN register will have been assessed by an ed pysch and will actually have a statement of SEN, and the funding for these children is higher. There will have to be regular reviews, and you as a parent should have been advised of the review date so that you could attend, and you should also have seen the paperwork completed as a result, so that you are aware of new targets and time allocations/additional support. The funding is awarded to the child, NOT the school, so if a child transfers to a different school, the funding goes with him/her. When a child with a statement is coming to the end of primary education, there should be a review and the child either still has a statement or is, possibly, no longer deemed to be in need of the statement. Either way the parents are to be informed. If your child has a statement, all the information is passed on to the Secondary school and the funding is allocated to that school. The funding is in the name of the child, so schools cannot just receive the money and be unaware of whom it is to support. Hope this clarifies things a bit. Jay

My son was statmented in middle school and when he was due to go to high school they sent the special needs teacher down to the school to see him and the school and we also had a meeting with them as the statment went with him to the high school so I would get on to the education dept and kick up

Hi Vikki, being in Canada our reg's are a little different. I have a niece who has a learning disability, she was diagnosed end of grade 5 and then for 6 they did total assessments. In grade 7 & 8 she was enrolled in a special needs school where they teach learning skills to adapt to the disability. When she was returned to the secondary school system her records went with her and the school receives funds for special equipment, tutors etc. What I wanted to mention that my sister was warned by the special needs people to keep on top of it while she is in the SS system. They are given the funds for her special needs and to make sure they use it for that. Apparently sometimes the schools use the funds for things other than what it's intended (if that makes sense). Also, once a month the teachers, principal and parents have a meeting and have to sign a legal document that goes to the education ministers office, ie: progress, fund usage are all needs being met etc. Sis has refused to sign this document twice now and if the ministers office doesn't get it in time they want to know why. School could get in mega trouble if they forge etc. Should see if your education programs have things like this in place. Deb

Vikki - I can understand what you are going through. I was diagnosed with Dyslexia when I was 17 and we had to go private to get me statmented because BDA warned my mother that the LEA might put it off because I was in my last year at school. I was lucky that as soon as the school knew I was dyslexic they arranged for extra time in exams and sorted out help for my spellings. When I got to collage at 20 they reassesed my dislexia so they could organise help that would benifit best. The school should accept the statement that was done in primary but they are entitled to ask for another assessment to be done so they have an upto date statement or report to work from. Keep fighting for your son to have what he is entitled to. If they still refuse to help him because he doe not have a physical difficulty, then bear in mind that they are discriminating against him and breaking the law so you could seek leagle advice. A last resort would be to move him to another school that will give him all the support he needs, but it is drastic as it means he will have to make new friends. Best of luck with everything

HI Vikki. Keep ranting, better out than in. I hope im not telling you something you already know or how to suck eggs but, on'this morning' programme yesterday, they had a little girl on who HAD the same problem as your son. She does balancing excercises and juggling type excercises every day and she no longer has problems. Her writing alone had improved soooo much, it eas great to see. If you are not aware of this treatment, perhaps if you contact the prograame and they could give you the contact details. Sorry if you already know this, im not being rude. deb :-)