Monday, 6 July 2009
Monday, 18 May 2009
Sporting Success!
Matthew won the most improved player of the year 2008/2009 in his Rugby Team. He was absolutely delighted as he kept asking if he would get it, as he knew himself that his skills have soared this year. It was very well earned, he had his sights on winning it for the last few months, he went out and worked his socks off. The team won a silver medal this year when Matthew was picked to play. We now have a "Wall of Matthew" for him to put his trophies on :) That's JPR WIlliams (an X Lions and Wales rugby star) awarding him his trophy.
Update
Thought I'd better give you all an update. Matthew's support reteurned after Christmas after an uncomfortable time with the school. He was given double support to make up for the lost hours - this cannot really make up for time lost but we have to be grateful for anything these days. He's much happier again. We had a parents evening in April where the teacher was very pleased with him said he was a bright child who came out with a suprising amount of facts verbally, he showed us a excellent piece of work that we know he's capable of, done with very little support (science), he's been holding his own in the class tests. The teacher allows him to answer questions in english if he's struggling for the welsh words which takes alot of pressure away.
His tutor is very pleased that he has improved vastly since she first taught him back in September, ordering his stories and spelling. He actually loves to read Tintin books and is asking me to buy him new ones all the time. He also enjoys history along with maths!
His tutor is very pleased that he has improved vastly since she first taught him back in September, ordering his stories and spelling. He actually loves to read Tintin books and is asking me to buy him new ones all the time. He also enjoys history along with maths!
Monday, 27 October 2008
Secondary School Choice
The time has arrived when we have to make our 1st and 2nd choice of Secondary school.
We have chosen to remove Matthew from the bilingual Welsh school environment, for several reasons.
The first one being with his Speech and language problems we have decided that one language is quite enough to cope with, for him and for me. Although his Dad speaks Welsh he simply hasn't the time in the evening to help with the welsh reading/spelling and I have become increasing frustrated at reaching for the dictionary constantly. The welsh resources for reading schemes are non exsistent and Matthew is continualy bringing home books too hard for him (and me, although I have taken several welsh courses and do have a good understanding of grammar and vocabulary) even although I have asked the teachers to monitor the books.
The second reason is thet the secondary school we feed is a poor secondary school on the discipline front, we have alraady moved our older son from there to another welsh nedium school and we were hoping it had improved, apparently not. I also cannot find this years results printed anywhere (no surprise there). At the recent year 7 taster visit, 2 boys in the class were bullied at dinner time with not a teacher or 6th former in sight and the swearing on the yard was appauling.
The 3rd reason is that we have am English medium school which has for 4 years running been in the top 250 schools in the UK, their Estyn school report was all 1s and 2s. It always has open days for the parents to look around (none at the welsh comp.), we went along and it was clear to us that they were extremley proud of their record and were actively promoting and selling their school to us parents. The children calmly moved lessons around us. They admit they have their problems as do all secondary schools but are extremley strong on discipline and communicating with the parents. So hopefully we have made the best choice. The school is 10 mins walk away and Matthew's best and second best friends are also going there for the 2nd and 3rd reasons above, Matthew is extremely pleased about that. They went for the taster day last Friday and had a great day, even although they actually had 4 lessons on that day.
We have chosen to remove Matthew from the bilingual Welsh school environment, for several reasons.
The first one being with his Speech and language problems we have decided that one language is quite enough to cope with, for him and for me. Although his Dad speaks Welsh he simply hasn't the time in the evening to help with the welsh reading/spelling and I have become increasing frustrated at reaching for the dictionary constantly. The welsh resources for reading schemes are non exsistent and Matthew is continualy bringing home books too hard for him (and me, although I have taken several welsh courses and do have a good understanding of grammar and vocabulary) even although I have asked the teachers to monitor the books.
The second reason is thet the secondary school we feed is a poor secondary school on the discipline front, we have alraady moved our older son from there to another welsh nedium school and we were hoping it had improved, apparently not. I also cannot find this years results printed anywhere (no surprise there). At the recent year 7 taster visit, 2 boys in the class were bullied at dinner time with not a teacher or 6th former in sight and the swearing on the yard was appauling.
The 3rd reason is that we have am English medium school which has for 4 years running been in the top 250 schools in the UK, their Estyn school report was all 1s and 2s. It always has open days for the parents to look around (none at the welsh comp.), we went along and it was clear to us that they were extremley proud of their record and were actively promoting and selling their school to us parents. The children calmly moved lessons around us. They admit they have their problems as do all secondary schools but are extremley strong on discipline and communicating with the parents. So hopefully we have made the best choice. The school is 10 mins walk away and Matthew's best and second best friends are also going there for the 2nd and 3rd reasons above, Matthew is extremely pleased about that. They went for the taster day last Friday and had a great day, even although they actually had 4 lessons on that day.
Thursday, 11 September 2008
Support Disappeared
Matthew has been back in school for 2 weeks now. His 1:1 support for 5hrs a day seems to have disappeared.
True to form, I had to contact school about it. Spoke to the SENCo who tells me the support is still being funded by LEA (great), BUT the TA who supported Matthew for most of last year has been seconded to the Foundation Phase (this is the new way of teaching for nursery classes which requires larger number of staff to children ratio to supervise, which in theory I fully support). The new trainee LSA has also been seconded to the Foundation phase. The Headteacher is trying to employ a LSA, but she told me this over a year ago and we haven't seen one.
I contacted the LEA to try and understand how this can happen and it was them who told me they are funding his help and that the Headteacher should contact the Head of Learning Support for help and advice.
My husbands take on it is "they have removed much needed support so that the nursery children can play outside"
True to form, I had to contact school about it. Spoke to the SENCo who tells me the support is still being funded by LEA (great), BUT the TA who supported Matthew for most of last year has been seconded to the Foundation Phase (this is the new way of teaching for nursery classes which requires larger number of staff to children ratio to supervise, which in theory I fully support). The new trainee LSA has also been seconded to the Foundation phase. The Headteacher is trying to employ a LSA, but she told me this over a year ago and we haven't seen one.
I contacted the LEA to try and understand how this can happen and it was them who told me they are funding his help and that the Headteacher should contact the Head of Learning Support for help and advice.
My husbands take on it is "they have removed much needed support so that the nursery children can play outside"
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
Reading gains
I was interested to have a look at what sort of gains were expected by Dyslexic children normally with just Language/phonological Support. I had another look at the Spellit Summary Report (not peer-reviewed) a research programme carried out by the Dyslexia Action Group. Taking another look at it, this is what I can glean from their report:-
Research design looks very similar to that of the Balsall Common Study i.e. not only Dyslexic children were chosen, they chose the lowest 10% in literacy, there was a cross over control group.
Results.
Home reading, age increased 9 months in 9 months - made no actual gains, remained as far behind as they were at the start.
Dyslexia Action, teaching made 11 months in 9 months - Caught up 2 months.
Combined, (Dyslexia action and Home reading) -not reported -disappointing results?
Waiting group, 6 months in 9 months- fell further behind their peers.
Now compare this to the gains Matthew has made,
Dore plus Home reading (+1 hr a week group support):-
29 months in 12 months.
I realise we are only 1 here, but know we are 1 amongst many who are seeing these gains. Another interesting factor was that children with specific verbal memory weaknesses and slow processing skils made less progress, and from what you can see from this blog (check previous Ed Psych reports) Matthew was in this catagory (OMG was he ever!).
Come on people there has to be something extra going on here. Why can't we have Dore plus phonological lessons for all Learning difficulties children? I admit it may not work for 100% of cases, but I think there would be absolutely no harm in trying it out for those who want to give it a chance. We need it in our education system ASAP.
Dore is currently being restructed, hopefully to make it substantially cheaper to run,allowing it to be available to a larger market and hopefully easier for our Government to embrace.
Research design looks very similar to that of the Balsall Common Study i.e. not only Dyslexic children were chosen, they chose the lowest 10% in literacy, there was a cross over control group.
Results.
Home reading, age increased 9 months in 9 months - made no actual gains, remained as far behind as they were at the start.
Dyslexia Action, teaching made 11 months in 9 months - Caught up 2 months.
Combined, (Dyslexia action and Home reading) -not reported -disappointing results?
Waiting group, 6 months in 9 months- fell further behind their peers.
Now compare this to the gains Matthew has made,
Dore plus Home reading (+1 hr a week group support):-
29 months in 12 months.
I realise we are only 1 here, but know we are 1 amongst many who are seeing these gains. Another interesting factor was that children with specific verbal memory weaknesses and slow processing skils made less progress, and from what you can see from this blog (check previous Ed Psych reports) Matthew was in this catagory (OMG was he ever!).
Come on people there has to be something extra going on here. Why can't we have Dore plus phonological lessons for all Learning difficulties children? I admit it may not work for 100% of cases, but I think there would be absolutely no harm in trying it out for those who want to give it a chance. We need it in our education system ASAP.
Dore is currently being restructed, hopefully to make it substantially cheaper to run,allowing it to be available to a larger market and hopefully easier for our Government to embrace.
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
Concert today
We had a great concert this year, the 2 top classes together. All the children had a speaking part and Matthew got all his lines correct. Even better he was bright and alert, singing all the songs and getting the words correct, he was for the first time singing his heart out with a big smile on his face. HUGE difference.
New LSA
For the past few weeks Matthew has had a new and trianed LSA teaching him for his 1:1 within the class, I haven't met her and true to form the school hasn't let us know what's happening. Matthew informed me and at the school fayre I chatted to the TA who used to help him. She was sad to leave him, but says the new LSA is on her third module of specialist support, so good news. Matthew says all he sems to be doing at the momwnt is reading, but she has been removing him from concert practice to give him his required 5 hrs throughout the week, I'm sure when they get back in September she will be helping him within the class.
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