SATS. Y 6 scribe and extra time

Thank you for your reply aspecialist. I have had a meeting with the head this week and have just sent off an additional email this morning. It seems it is a case of funding that he isnt being provided with an ipad and the computer had got spell check on it. In addition they say its too late to start practising on a computer. Im not convinced that they have had his bestintersts for equal access in mind here. Im awaiting their response.

Hi Jellybeanz, we suggest you again have your son's case reviewed by the school heads. We understand it's not easy for your child to go through all the difficulties of communicating and interacting with different people. We even have to give your child credit for somehow trying to overcome all these by doing what other kids of his age also do. Just in case you haven't, you may have your son further looked onto by someone who specializes in natural medicine. Aside from being completely safe, it's been long proven to help treat or address various health issues. We recommend leading naturopathy expert Dr. Sundardas' services for this. Feel free to visit his web sites.

sundardasnaturopathy.com/
www.naturaltherapies.com/

Thank you rocombinantsocks. I feel strongly that he needs to do well in his education as he is disadvantaged socially. Grades will need to speak for him. However I am aware that it is only a KS2 test which marks the school ability to teach to a certain level. I do know however that they are refered to at next school and dont want him to be underestimated.

Unfortunately school talk about SATS all the time and are endlessly practising so they have a certain amount of anxiety attached to them. He is a perfectionist and will have low esteem if he does badly. I just want him to have the fair adjustments made for him as it is a National test.

Hello Emma

Thank you for your reply. He is working within the range.

The school's normal practise is only partially supportive. He has shared use of TA with the whole class (but as he has social anxiety he doesnt ask her for help). I can see evidence of scribe being used in English and the work is quite different with much more depth. His handwriting scored a 1 on the current system which I think is out of 0-5 and by the time he has struggled to write he only wants to do abbreviated sentences, so I feel a scribe would be best. The Senco said he'd loose marks so recommended for him to transibe and read his messy writing back but the thing is he wont write as fully as he is capable of.  He could do the spellling part himself and the filing in the blanks style questions.

I feel I should apply for a EHCP now as I want to qualify for extra time without question for GCSE. (the school said they didnt think Id get one) but they also said he was lazy and shouldnt fidget and chew (his stimming). 

I also want the extra time as he needs to get up and move. Im not sure how the rest breaks they suggested instead would work. I think they want them as they dont have to do paper work. I imagined from what they were saying that they would use a stop watch but he needs to get up and move and also his aches every few minutes so it looks like hes thinking or reflecting but hes just steeling himself to go again.

Thank you for the link I will spend quite a bit of time this morning reading through it before I get back to the school.

Please bear in mind that SAT results don't reflect the ability of a number of children, not only those with special educational needs, so all secondary schools will do their own baseline testing when their new year 7 pupils arrive (this won't be "testing" in the sense of a sit down written paper, but they will make their own judgements about a pupil's ability within the first half term based on their classwork and then adjust provision accordingly - i.e. providing greater challenge, or greater support depending on the pupil's needs). The next school will also receive his Teacher Assessment results as well as the test results - this is where his year 6 teachers write down what they think of his ability, so schools know that a test result doen't necessarily reflect a pupil's ability (this is also the case for a range of pupils, not only those with SEN). 

Hello,

If your son is working at the standard of the KS2 SAT test (i.e. although his attainment may be slightly lower/higher than his classmates he can broadly access the same material and curriculum for the test) he should be entered. 

However, just because he doesn't have an EHCP does not mean that he shouldn't get whatever additional s upport he needs. Additional support should reflect any additional support he gets in everyday "normal classroom practice". This support is not dependent on an EHCP - it is dependent on what support he gets in every day classroom practice and needs to access the tests. 

The head teacher has the final decision on whether a pupil is eligible for access arrangements, so it might be worth asking them. 

The school still has time to allow extra time or technical aids (different deadlines and further guidance is here: www.gov.uk/.../key-stage-2-tests-how-to-use-access-arrangements). 

To the best of my knowledge (this isn't my area of expertise), a scribe shouldn't affect the marks for his reading, maths and grammar test. Handwriting IS part of the teacher assessment result for Writing (but this isn't tested, it is based on his everyday work in class, so it's not really relevant to your question). 

However, I think it's also important to remember that the KS2 tests really aren't a be-all-and-end-all for your son. It's important he doesn't get stressed out about them, but how he does isn't a relfection on his potential. It will affect virtually nothing in his life - he will still be eligible for whatever support he needs when he moves to secondary school. 

Hope this helps. 

Welcome to the forum

The most important thing for him is not to worry about how well he does. He needs encouragement to do his best but at the end of the day a SATS score is neither here nor there. You want him to succeed, obviously, but you have to be OK with him doing as well as he can. Education is not everything and some people have a different furrow to plough with their lives.

If he comes out of his current school with a low mark then that reflects more on the school than it does on him and he can make a fresh start in a new school with everyone aware that he has special needs.

I went through school and only realised that I had taken the 11plus after I had taken it (I wasn't the most aware of children!) and I certainly felt no pressure but just enjoyed the challenge of school and my parents somehow knew how to encourage, but not force, me to do OK. There was no mention or awareness of ASD at the time and that had benefits as well as drawbacks.