Matthew's Dyslexic Experiences in the Educational System-A Diary

Parents Evening

2012-01-21T14:18:00.001Z

Had a good parent's evening, nothing new learnt really.

Matthew's is working at Level 5a/6c currently for English. If he can get to L6b by end of KS3 I will be over the moon! His target is L5, so fingers crossed.

Maths no problems there, they had a maths test that morning, he scored 90% with the class average being 77%! Brill.

Science - good marks for tests and homework, physics teacher says he always does well in the tests "somehow" but is disorganised in class. Biology/chemistry teacher pleased with him slightly better at Chemistry than Biology, I asked about him doing triple science next year she said its highly competitive and there are only 60 places! Personally I can't see a problem he is in the top half of the class on the whole.

Spanish in the top few of the class the class is mixed ability and the work is differentiated. I did tell her that Math is thinking of taking it as an option she said he should get a C at least.

Geography- teacher wants him in his Geography class next year as was going to twist him arm if he was not considering doing it as an option.

ICT teacher a substitute bit I was really impressed even though he looked really young he was a very enthusiastic teacher and was exceptionally pleased with Math's progress since he had taken over class.

Good School Year so far.

2012-01-16T18:11:00.001Z

Math has had a good Yr 9 so far. Keeping up with the set 1 work with no problems.
Set 3 work is also going well, but we have little idea how his English is coming along.
One thing has changed is his expected levels. At the end of last school year all levels were a L5 apart from maths which was given a N/A! This last autumn term all levels have shifted to L6 apart from English and RE. He is due to meet or exceed these targets apart from History which he may not get a L6 in. Not concerned about history as he has no plans to take it for GCSE.
We have a parents evening on Thurs so looking forward to that.

Set 1 for Maths & Science

2011-07-18T23:21:00.002+01:00

Success at last, the school has realised Matthew's potential and put him up to top set for maths and science. He came 10th out of 211 (top 5%)in his maths exam so together with his assessment results throughout the year he qualifies- Yay

Senco meeting

2011-07-07T14:11:00.006+01:00

We have a Senco meeting next Tues, to discuss the IEP, and progress, I spoke to him briefly this afternoon. He also said we can modify things?!
The SENCo who is also a Math teacher had congratulated Matthew on his Math's result - during dinner break in the dinner queue- very embarrassing! His friend in Set 1 also congratulated him saying that he only had 50% in Maths and told him to start worrying if teachers come up to you to give you good news.

It would be nice to get some National Curriculum levels for a change instead of the usual exceeding/meeting etc. level.

Summer Exams

2011-07-07T13:57:00.004+01:00

Matthew has once again excelled in his exams. All Sets 1-3 get the same papers. Lowest mark he has was 50% for English, no surprises there.
However after being in Set 3 Humanities for 1 term only, he had top mark for Set 3 for Geography (92%) and Spanish (86%), 3rd in History (70%) and Welsh 94%.
In Maths he had 85%- top mark, Science 86% -top mark (Physics 95, Chem 86 and Biol 78).
The exams were a total nightmare this year, instead of 3 days with 2 exams each day, they were over a 2 week period in lesson time. The exam dates were chopped and changed meaning he was learning 4 subjects 1 night and then discovering 2 had been moved the next day. Also his extra time was given to him in assembly time, lunch breaks or tea breaks or during the following lesson!

Parent's evening Yr 8

2011-05-09T23:05:00.009+01:00

Well what can I say, every teacher thinks he's a fantastic child. I,m going to log as much of it as I can remember, I'd really like to bottle it forever.

Doing great in maths, the teacher is looking forward to the next assessment on Wednesday.(Result 95%)

Chemistry teacher thinks he's a darling, she was sad to hear she was losing him from set 3 but happy when he appeared in her set 2 class.

Learnsmart teacher (who's head of Middle school-Yrs 9-11)expressed how pleased she was that he won "all those awards" and we must be so pleased with him as he was chosen out of over 200 pupils. She's seen his confidence rise throughout the year, he's proven to be a good leader in a group.

Geography teacher thanked us for having such a great child said he really good at geog and he can see him taking it at GCSE, clearly more able than the other in the set 4 group, he's missing his input.

RE teacher told us how he is always asking questions and this is what they like to see in RE-a child who shows interest.

Art doing fine enjoyed his last project of Fabalous fish more than portraits. Had a D for portraits and B for fab fish.

DT teacher thinks he's great, hasn't fallen behind because of his broken arm as he has organised all his friends to help him. Great leadership skills.

Spanish- sorry to see him go but he's clearly more able.

Welsh teacher loves him really sorry to see him move from her class, we were a while with her as she told does how he helps all the other children and is an absolute gem.

PE teacher described how the group of set1 and set 4 mix is a hard group and how Matthew brings every one together gets on equally well with both groups, is a calming influence, he has a great sense of humour, will go up to "the line" stick his nose over but won't cross it. Suprisingly he is really good at the theory side they are teaching them (trying to cover most of GCSE theory during yrs 7,8 and 9) -no surprise to us!

English teacher is glad he has moved up is cautious but thinks he has the abilty but must be carefully managed

Prize

2011-05-04T13:18:00.001+01:00

Broken wrist had to be reset.

2011-04-16T23:47:00.002+01:00

Matthew had to go into hospital on Thursday, for a minor operation to have his broken wrist reset. What a surreal week that was. I was working a 12 hr night shift the same night, exhausted on Friday. Going to stay with my sister and brother-in-law and Matthews 2 cousins for a few days, can't wait.

Prize Giving!

2011-04-15T15:32:00.004+01:00

Arrived at 6.45pm promptly, as website said the start was at 7pm and we had no letter. Actual start was at 7.30pm.

Still can't believe it Matthew received 4 endeavour awards for Science, History, DT Food and the Special Acheivement Award. He was overall winner in his year (Yr 7) and received the Overall Prize Certificate for Outstanding Endeavour with a prize of a £25 gift voucher. Could have scraped me off the floor we were so shocked! 2 very proud and happy parents. It was a lovely evening with refreshments afterwards.

Prize Giving!

2011-04-12T15:36:00.003+01:00

Matthew came home yesterday asking for a letter to take in this morning requesting 3 seats for the Prize Giving Ceromony. Apparently he had a letter last week which he promptly lost and also forgot to tell us anything about until yesterday. No idea what it's all about.
He couldn't find anyone to give the letter to today so he brought it home. I had to phone school to let them know we want to attend! Hope he's actually getting something or we'll look pretty silly sat there for 2 and a half hours.

Ed Psych Assessment Report

2011-04-12T12:17:00.015+01:00

We had it yesterday, it is a few sheets long. The test done was British Ability Scale II, both the cognitve and achievement scales and the descrepancy between the 2 indicates dyslexia. To me this appears the better test of the 2, working memory and processing speed weren't tested this time as we already know this is a weakness.
Core Scales
Verbal Ability 100
Nonverbal Ability 110
Spacial Ability 113
This gives an Overall Conceptual Ability of 109

Achievement Scales
Word Reading 90
Spelling 82

Discrepancy Analysis
------------------ Predicted Score / Actual Score
-------------------------------------------------

Word Reading___ 105__________ 90
Spelling________ 105__________ 82

Broken Arm!

2011-04-10T16:35:00.002+01:00

Oh no the end to a brilliant week leaves us with 1 broken arm. Math was playing rugby and having a great game...... then came down on his hand. Managed to jump the queue in A&E due to the fact I work in the labs and have a friend in X-ray. Felt a bit guilty about going in quickly but hey what other perks do we have in the NHS! Got a McD's on the way home. He's now happily playing on the Wii, thumb from broken arm side still works on the numbchuck, and Mam isn't nagging him to go out in the fresh air and glorious sunshine.

Update from the Ed Psych

2011-04-08T18:20:00.006+01:00

Well she rang from outside the school with the news that he's moving on Monday, she spoke to my hubby, who "thinks" it's to Set 2!
She's also going into the school to do a twilight session on accomodations for dyslexia for his teachers and anybody else who wants to attend, which is voluntary so hopefully there'll be a good attendance. They had a talk earlier this year about ASD which was well attended.
The report went to be typed yesterday.

Contacting the Ed Psych

2011-04-07T20:43:00.018+01:00

Having heard nothing now for 10 days, chomping at the bit for the report, my hubbie gave her a call. She is going into the school to test another child tomorrow and is going to discuss Matthew and then give us a ring. She reiterated what she said to me a week last Monday, but added that the SENCo had said to her in the conversation" we have been discriminating against Matthew then?" to which she answered "Yes you have". My husband and I had been discussing this after I had stumbled across this pdf
Disability Discrimination Act 1995 Part 4 Code Of Practice for Schools especially liked chapters 5 & 6.

Matthew had Sats Level 4 and his cats average was 108 end of Yr 6. Any child who had these score without a label would have made at least B stream, the justification for putting him in the C stream was that he was heavily supported at primary, in other words he's in the C stream because of his disabilty in spite of his ability.

Matthew makes the 1st team in school rugby.

2011-04-05T19:04:00.003+01:00

Matthew's off to Llanelli tomorrow representing the school for 7's rugby. He has made the team! Lot's of pats on the back from his mates when they were checking the team list. He went to London last week with the team who were representing Wales in a National competition. He was reserve for the reserves, went all that way and didn't play although he was happy to be the water boy!

Scouts- Otter pack Leader!

2011-03-30T23:33:00.001+01:00

Matthew was made the leader of the Otter pack tonight More sowing-groan.

Phonecall from Educational Psychologist

2011-03-28T15:48:00.008+01:00

Just had a phonecall from the Ed psych, she has spoken to the SENCo telling him that Matthew should be in Set 2 for Humanity subjects..... and he agreed! She was expecting a "discussion" as the school don't like to be told where to set pupils, but Matthew seems to have made his mark as a conscientious pupil. The SENCo taught Matthew for Learnsmart last year and agrees that Matthew is the sort of boy who could cope (with the right help). He says that he'd like him to move straight up, but he has to consult with the Head of Lower School (the 1 who said Matthew didn't have dyslexia as he can read), he says there might have to be a stepped approach through Set 3. Personally I think that this could prove to be more disruptive for Matthew.
The Psychologist has volunteered her help to any of Matthew's new teachers who need help with strategies/accomodations to help him.
I'm so happy!

Result! An Educational Psychologist who understands.

2011-03-25T13:27:00.010Z

We had the most fantastic education psychologist today. She wasn't frightened of using the word "dyslexia". The WISC IV IQ test was redone with some extra subtsets, we are awaiting the write-up. She had a copy of the letter we wrote to the current SENCo (see below) , it was great that he shared that with her. Matthew still has a gap between his reading and spelling and his age but it is moving upwards with his age.

Matthew most definitely has dyslexia- I could have cried, the first person who has not skirted around the issue whispering Specific Learning\difficulties, it could be this or that.

She believes he is a bright child who should NOT be in set 4.

Her 1st task is to write a pen-portrait for all his subject teachers with possible accomodations, this will be the 1st time they will be given his diagnosis of dyslexia.

She is going to tackle the Set 4 problem, but says she has had stand up arguments with teachers (HOYs and school managers) who won't accept that Dyslexic children should be in higher sets. She stated thar poor basic skills should not be a bar to higher sets. She says don't expect him to move overnight, but if there are 2 or 3 teachers who will stand up and say Matthew should be in a higher set then she stands a chance. I'm sure a good few of his teachers will agree in light of his "new" diagnosis.

Can you believe we are still fighting this battle after a diagnosis when he was 7.5 yrs old- bizarre!

Ed Psych Assessment on Friday

2011-03-21T12:43:00.005Z

Here we go again! Dreading it really. Hate these timed tests they give out, different ed psych have different opinions. The Ed Psych phoned us to arrange a date that is suitable for us and for us to meet after the assessment. Got to get my act together, get some questions ready this is probably the post important test to date as we need to get some accomodations in place.

Top Mark in Maths - Set 2

2011-03-10T17:51:00.007Z

Well he's done it again. At this point I want scream at the Head of Lower school "Why can't you Listen to the Parents". There's got to be some good/great teachers out there with some understanding of these great kids, who never give up trying their best.
He had 86% in the Set 1/2 maths test, top mark when you discount the other boy who cheated by learning his older sister's test from last year. The teacher called that boy to another room, all the class knew he cheated as he brandished his sister's test last week. If he had more enterprise he could have copied it and sold it LOL.
21/3 Just found out the average mark for set1 X =76% and set1 Y =84%

Mentoring Scheme

2011-03-05T12:15:00.014Z

Click on image

Just had this letter in the post this morning- a standard letter, undated. It states that if level 3/4 are given (possibilty of not meeting target/unlikely to meet target) in 4 subjects or more the child will be mentored. (Hate the way we don't actually know what the targets are). This begs the questions why hasn't Matthew been getting this mentoring since Jan 2011, when the interim report highlighted this underacheivement in Dec 2010? Did a strong worded letter questioning the status quo have anything to do with it? Other children in Set 4 had it given to them in Sept. 2010. I've included Math's interim report of Dec 2010, wasn't that concerned about Art, Music and Drama to be honest, didn't even register with me, I am concerned about History as that could keep him out of set 3 and IT is a compulsory half/full GCSE so that is also a concern.

Biology Test

2011-03-04T18:17:00.006Z

Matthew's first test in Set 2, 83% top 5. The set 2 booklet was given to him on the Fri and test was on Mon. The few missing topics were hurriedly learnt.
Extremely pleased with him as the test was actually a disaster, a substitute teacher came in to adminster it, as class teacher was away. The test was noisy, some children had their books out on their laps, the teacher was giving out answers. To add to this there was homework section stuck on the back, which the substitute told them to do. Matthew lost sleep over this as he thought he would have a low mark as he hadn't had time to finish (not surprising as he was struggling with the homework section) and he always likes to check his work as he usually misses out questions (which he did- he left 3 questions that were easy) and of course children were cheating. Add to this Dyslexic children need quiet to gather their thoughts, and noise just makes things stressful.

"Something to help me with my grades"?

2011-03-02T17:43:00.004Z

Matthew reports he was taken out of class for 10 mins to sign something with a table on it (IEP?), and was going on a programme to help him improve his grades.
Something is happening but what it is is anyone's guess. Where's the comunication?

Letter Sent to Senco

2011-02-17T17:02:00.000Z

RE: MATTHEW JOHNSON
Thank you for sending out the form for reassessment of Matthew with the Educational Psychologist. We are returning it promptly in order that the process can be undertaken as quickly as possible.
Following our conversation on the 14/2/11, we must admit we are greatly disappointed and frustrated that the school has only now recognised Matthew’s diagnosis of Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD). We did have a meeting with the then temporary SENCO Miss XXXXXX in Nov 2009 when we discussed these facts and we were asked to forward the Nov 2006 Educational Psychologist report to the school, which we did early in Dec 2009 to ensure that the information was in your hands. I’m sure you’ll find this in the minutes of the meeting.
However, we feel we should move forward from this in a positive manner.
We have a number of questions:-
• Are all his current Set 4 subject teachers and new teachers in Set 2 now being informed of his diagnosis of Specific Learning Difficulties via a new Pen Portrait?
• Will Matthew be issued with a new IEP? Will Matthew be consulted on what he thinks will help him to achieve his best work?
• The IEP given to us in Nov ’09 doesn’t appear to have been reviewed in June ’10 with outcomes/target achievements, with particular reference to spelling. If it has been done shouldn’t we have a copy?
• Will the school be able to check his spelling age quickly as we are concerned that waiting for the Ed. Psych. to attend will hold up any help in this area?
• Where is this school year’s IEP?
Our feelings are that it is important to update his assessment, but emphasis on accommodations available to him within the classroom setting are more important. He has proved that with such things as booklets e.g. sciences and languages, where there is less emphasis on writing tasks he can cope well independently. We find that he still brings unfinished parts home but is enthusiastic to complete them on the same night and this actually helps with his learning. Further concerns are that although he has an excellent vocabulary and can speak confidently, his work suffers as he tries to shorten things down due to writing problems and also omits his first choice word because he can’t spell it.
Please can you keep us informed of any accommodations you’re putting in place for Matthew in light of the new information that has come to your attention with reference to his earlier diagnosis of SpLD?
Yours sincerely,

Enclosures:
• Annex – Points of Concern (and Letter to Miss XXXXXXX dated Dec 09)
• IEP – September 2009 to June 2010

Annex
I am unsure whose attention this should have, so please could you pass it on to the correct person.

Points of Concern
I have grave concerns about the Set 4 class Matthew is in. My concerns are exacerbated by the fact that the school was unaware that Matthew has a diagnosis of Specific Learning Difficulties; even though I sent a copy of the Nov. 2006 Ed. Psych report directly to Miss xxxxxx in December 2009 with a covering letter. This was following the meeting in November 2009 where we discussed the probable misdiagnosis of ADD and Matthew’s earlier diagnoses.
Dyslexia and dyspraxia does not disappear over time but can be remediated with the correct input, so the diagnosis of Dyslexia still stands with the other updated reports which should be in his file.
I feel Matthew is in Set 4 not due to a lack of ability but due to his Learning Disability, the only Year 7 exam mark that let him down was English at 30%. His English teacher even concluded in her report that “the exam result was disappointing and does not reflect his ability in the subject”.
In the Set 4 class there are several children who seem to lack any enthusiasm to learn (and I fully understand that this is probably not their fault), but it does not help the class work moving along.
Examples: -
• October half term Mr XXXXX (a learning support teacher? - who teaches 1 geography class every other week) asked the class to learn for an EU test in Geography for the following week. Only 2 pupils revised so the test was postponed another 2 weeks, then a pre test was given (with maps), then in another 2 weeks the actual test was given. Matthew learned the information for the first weeks test and was left hanging around for most of the class to catch up, and was totally bored and fed up by the time the test came around. He still received 100% for this test.
• The Spanish class is disrupted every week by the same group of boys. Matthew and other children are exposed to bad language and poor behaviour in every class, every week. Matthew enjoys Spanish and has a good relationship with Miss XXXXX, but can he give his best work and can the teacher do her best teaching with this continual disruption?

We only wish to fully understand the reasoning behind placing an enthusiastic learner who has an understanding of these humanity subjects and has a real thirst for learning in the lower set when his only “crime” is having poor basic skills, through no fault of his own. Obviously we do not expect Matthew to ever be in Set 1 and probably not 2 for Humanities (or are we selling him short?), but we do have expectations that he would give his best work in Set 3 and this is his aim. I feel with the help of appropriate accommodations and teacher knowledge of his difficulties he could manage this. Surely our education system today has the knowledge and capabilities to circumvent these problems? Please could you outline exactly what Matthew has to prove before he can expect a review of this setting?
Yours faithfully

Enclosed: - Covering Letter that was sent to Miss XXXXXX dated Dec 2009

Miss XXXXXXX
X xxxxx Comprehensive School
XXXXXX Road
XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXX
XXXX XXXXX XXX
XXXX XXX

2nd December 2009

Dear Miss XXXXXXX,

RE: MATTHEW XXXXXXX YR7
Many thanks to you and your colleagues for the “Brief Progress Summary” report dated Nov 09, which was sent home with Matthew last week. We are extremely pleased with his progress since beginning at X XXXX, and he is thoroughly enjoying all his lessons at present.

We attended an appointment with the Paediatrician on Tuesday 1 December 2009. The doctor seems to think that in some cases, ADD subsides with age and there would be “no point in re-assessing Matthew” as the Connors Test was representative of his condition at that time, and there is no harm in letting it stand. His condition appears to have totally altered since this assessment, but if you think it is beneficial to get the diagnosis removed we have another appointment in a years time when we can revisit it with the Doctor again.

In our opinion, Matthew's lack of attention was due to Sensory Processing Disorder (which was diagnosed by the Occupational Therapist), causing Matthew auditory and fine motor problems at a crucial window of learning, i.e. up until 8 yrs old. These symptoms caused a lack of language acquisition in English and Welsh, which was more apparent in his second language in which he was taught. It appears that there will always be underlying problems due to the way Matthew's development has compensated for these difficulties, which gave rise to his Specific Learning Differences, and also the unique way that he interprets information.

We have included the Educational Psychology report dated 15 November 2006 in which Matthew was given a diagnosis of Specific Learning Difficulties. Mr Richard Edwards also hoped to refer Matthew to the Dyslexia panel for extra support but he did not meet the criteria at this point. When retested in February 2007 Matthew did meet the criteria for the panel but was denied this support due to his scores not falling below the cut off line for numbers to receive support within RCT. Consequently we undertook the Stairway to Spelling technique to teach Matthew to spell at least the first 300 most used words which was and still is a highly effective way for Matthew to learn his spellings.

Matthew’s biggest problem seems to be written work and the speed at which he writes. The Educational Psychologist answer to this was to suggest typing on a computer, which he has been working on, but he still has not got the speed up above 13 words per minute. I wonder what the schools opinion would be of him working on a computer in lessons and at home, maybe sometime in the future?

Once again, thank you for your detailed appraisal of Matthew's progress, and we look forward to reviewing his progress in the future with the school.

Yours sincerely,

New Tutor

2011-02-14T20:59:00.005Z

Decided to bite the bullet and get Matthew a new English tutor. First impressions are promising. She tested him on listening and speaking, and states that he is confident and listens well. She gave him a reading test, were she could tell he wasn't totally fluent but he told her on the whole he understands most of what he reads. His writing he needs to work on the skills and grammar. Spelling not so good, but she commented on how spelling is not concentrated on in primary and how much of a gap Secondary teachers are expected to fill. If he learns the spellings these days he can retain the spellings, something Dore tells clients to revisit after the programme, but sadly spelling is something that schools don't seem to concentrate on after a certain age. Something to work on!

Spoke to Senco

2011-02-14T20:38:00.008Z

Managed to speak to Senco who started in September, basically to ask why Matthew hasn't had his spelling scores updated as promised by the temporary Senco last July, asked why Matthew had no accomodations to help him with History e.g copying out swathes of writng which is slow and laborious, taking up the time that he could be answering the questions at the end. Found out that Matthew's diagnosis of SpLD has not been recognised by the school, they have the diagnosis or rather misdiagnosis of ADD but he was unaware of the Ed Psych report (the one I copied, highlighted and sent in to make sure the school had it, with a covering letter about Sensory processing disorder). However he dug out the file and found the report. I also asked about getting writing speed checked. The Senco advisedus to have Matthew's Ed Psych report updated, and writing speed could be measured at the same time. He is also going to speak to the History teacher in light of the "new" information on Math's SpLD. He also taught Matthew last year and remembers him as an enthusiastic learner, and wouldn't say had ADD at all. So a positive outcome- hopefully.

At last Some Sense

2011-02-04T18:35:00.003Z

Matthew has been moved to Set 2, following yet another high mark, physics this time 92%, all sets 1-3 had the same test (they cover the same booklet). Had the phone call Wed morning, and he moved today-Fri. Came home with extra booklet sheets to add to his Level 3-6 booklet for Chemistry (the Level 5-7 work).
A bit shocked at how swiftly they moved him.

Current Situation

2011-01-20T15:05:00.007Z

Matthew was placed in set4 for humanities and Set 3 for Science/Maths. So he's in set 8Y 4.3

The old A/B streams of Yr7 contained ~180 children, ~90 in each, are now split into 3 sets X1,Y1, X2,Y2 and X3,Y3 of ~30 each. There is an Humanities set and a Science set. The Humanities are geography, history, welsh, spanish, and english. The Sciences are Biology,Chemistry,Physics and Maths. The other subjects are not set.

So your all thinking we're happy that Matthew has moved into a B stream equivalent for Sciences! Well we would be if he hadn't out performed his friends in A stream in Science. His class C1 was allowed to do the same end of year exam paper as all the others in Science, had 84% with a comment from his teacher that the mark was "outstanding as expected and reflects his undoubted ability and commitment to the subject" (as he'd performed brilliantly all year). However the Maths exam was the C1 exam, Matthew was so dissappointed after doing it, he did it in 40mins (an hour and half paper) and got 93% (left 2 questions out as usual! got 1 wrong). We phoned the school to complain that it was not challenging enough, as he had gone to the ceiling of the test. This paper although he had top mark in the C1 class, put him 170th out of 210 in Maths, which made the Chemistry dept think his maths was poor and he would "sink under the pressure of a higher set".

Move on to Nov 2010, Matthew's first test in Maths at half term was 81% 3rd, coming a close to joint 1st mark of 83% (class average 65), great we thought, not merely holding his own in this class of ~27, but floating pretty much near the top. Move on to Dec, next test, this time he gets 98% 1st position, but not only that, the 2nd place was 72% and class average 51% (not if you take out Matthew's 98% it's not). He was so excited after taking the test he asked me if he could have a game if he got 100%, I of course thought "no chance" and agreed.
So here we have the dilema, do the "pushy parents" go in once more and complain. Every time I speak to the school they make me feel that he's going to fall at the next hurdle, but they claim "they have an eye on things and he will be moved if he shows he is capable". What are they waiting for, guess I'll just have to go in and ask.

RE Test

2011-01-10T19:31:00.001Z

Matthew's RE test results came home, he announced he had 5 out of 8!!??
Not very well explained to him, I believe as the teacher said " very well done Matthew" this is a Level 5, so from me it's a "Very well done Matthew" as well. He was given the part of the question before Xmas, so he wrote out what he wanted to include in his answer, cutting it down to the bare bones, and then learnt it parrot fashion. He said the test question wanted things slightly differently but he understood what was required and gave it.

Parent's Evening

2010-02-10T09:36:00.006Z

We had parent's evening Monday night, and are once again over the moon with Matthew's progress. Nobody had 1 negative word to say(what a difference to primary), he's doing extremely well.
Science and Maths are his best subjects (no surprise there), his last science test was 98% he had one wrong(which was right but he changed it!) and the teacher told us this was the highest mark in all her classes (she teaches A1,B1 and C1 and they all get the same test).
English reading has jumped from 9.09 to 13.0, comprehension from 9.2 to 12.06, he was tested in Sept 09 and january 10. We spoke to the head of lower school, to ensure he knew how Matthew was doing, we let him know his english scores and science. I hated to sound like a pushy parent, but we need to make sure that Matthew remains on their radar, the teacher remains cautious with the humanity subjects as they can involve alot of writing, but things are very positive overall.
The Art teacher gave an insight into the the target setting process, the report given out at Xmas recorded whether the child was exceeding, meeting, or underperforming according to their targets -with no mention of their targets. The targets it seems are worked out from the NFER Cat scores taken in June, the result sheets that were given out in at the previous paretns evening. The levels are the targets for KS3 end of yr 9.
Matthew has a new Engish teacher from January (last one left for maternity leave) is very pleased with him but didn't know of Matthew's previous SpLDifficulties diagnosis, and speech and language problems. She says that the majority of boys have problems with creative writing and that's what they are working on in the next term. He probably needs that more than anything.

Drama - he's motivating eveyrone.

PE - he is very determined and won't give up until he has the technique (tell me about it!!)
Music great class, doing really well.
Art - meeting targets enjoying work. Target level 6c

Spanish, doing well grasping things quickly (I find his book very messy).

Geography exceeding expectations some really good work.

History, the history teacher loves his class, great kids eager to do their work, thinks that the Sats levels that the primary schools send to the secondaries are extremmly misleading, many kids are misbanded but says it'll all change next school year.

Design/Food (cookery) Matthew is a gem, very good with his hands enthusiastic.

Welsh -Matthew's an absolute joy to teach, helps out his school mates when he's finished. He's well respected by his peers.

Winter Term Report

2010-02-01T13:44:00.006Z

1 = Exceeding Targets = E
2 Meeting Targets = M

Brief Report Nov 2009

2009-12-01T14:00:00.004Z

Cat Scores June 2009

2009-10-07T17:55:00.003+01:00

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Matthew has been placed in the C stream for now as I phoned the SENCo in July to find out where he was to be placed following these Cat tests and his Sats scores. He said that they were putting him in a large class of 30 in the C stream which I thought would be too much for Matthew too soon, so after some discussion the Senco decided he would be placed in a class of 14 children. I did not know at the time the actual Cat scores and assumed that he had done particularly poorly.
There was a Parents evening Monday and the CAT results were given out along with a presentation as to how the school interprets them. The average range the school uses is 95-105, tighter limits than usually published, they also use the upper confidence limit scores as the children's full potential, so that's 5 above the SAS score.
Naturally we had some question for the teacher, such as "how did you decide on the stream for Matthew?" The teachers are actuallly already discussing what to do with him and have been for a few weeks, he is a "quandry". They might possibly move him to the "B" stream at half term but want to make absolutely sure he would be able to cope. We are happy to go with the decision they make as they know what they are talking about - I think.
1 thing that worries me is that they think the lower verbal score is due to Matthew going to welsh school which is probably true to a small extent, but to me it is more the dyslexia . I also discovered 1 friend's son from the welsh school had 2 average and a below average in his CAT tests but he is in the "A" stream due to the his SATS being level 5s. The feeder schools have all been practising the tests - although how you can practise your ability to a higher level I don't know, the welsh school being a non feeder didn't do this, and I see this practise as unhelpful almost as though they are trying to cheat the system- to what end? The teacher also explained how these streams are all "fluid" and they will be moving the children around so I think any attempt to push up grades by the primarys should be ironed out, (some schools also push the SAT levels up as it's all done on teacher assessments in Wales).

School report click on it to enlarge

2009-07-06T18:55:00.001+01:00

School report

2009-07-06T18:27:00.003+01:00

Here is an extract from Matthew's report.

School report-Sats

2009-07-06T12:59:00.000+01:00

Sporting Success!

2009-05-18T12:51:00.005+01:00

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

2009-05-18T12:37:00.003+01:00

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!

Secondary School Choice

2008-10-27T19:16:00.004Z

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.

Support Disappeared

2008-09-11T09:55:00.003+01:00

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"

Reading gains

2008-07-16T11:39:00.008+01:00

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.

Concert today

2008-07-15T20:36:00.003+01:00

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

2008-07-15T20:30:00.003+01:00

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.

SEN Review- Neales Analysis of reading Ability

2008-07-15T17:27:00.010+01:00

Here's Matthew review from the Language support teacher (weekly 1 hr group class) who does a reading test once a year, this test encompasses accuracy, fluency and comprehension. Here's the report

Click on pic for bigger image.
His reading score has improved by 2.5 yrs since July 2007. THe only problem is they haven't given us the actual age equivalent to the score, I saw the class teacher and she has promised to ask the LSA to phone me tomorrow.

PS found this write up on Primary Movement and Dyslexia while searching for informattion on the Neales test. There's a reasearch paper mentioned from the Lancet which I will have a look at when I have more time.

Swimming Success

2008-07-15T17:16:00.007+01:00

Matthew tried for a distance badge last Sunday, the last one he swam was 400m.
He decided he would go for the 1 mile badge (1600m) as the week before he heard anohter boy talking about it. I'm pleased to say that he had no trouble at all, and was infact the first one to finish. He happily went around putting his thumb up every time he passed me and declaring that "he wasn't even out of breath yet" at 1000m mark. I can remember things when anything was too much of an effort.

More good news

2008-07-02T19:15:00.007+01:00

Our new private tutor has been sorted out. A semi retired Dyslexia/Special Needs teacher living on our estate, so Matthew can walk around to her house. Amazingly her grandson has done the Dore programme, she is very pleased with his progress, also teaches 2 other boys who are doing the program and she can also see the progress they have made. She says undoubtedly the program is beneficial to these children
She tested out a good few things with Matthew such as Alphabet tested him on a few unusual spelling patterns and agree with me that the on the whole he is doing really well, she tried asking him the months of the year and could pick up on the slight hestitiation when asked what is the month 2 months before, although only a slight processing pause. She is going to work on the writing side of things, getting things ordered in his head and try some Mind Mapping. She can also work on the handwriting if we want (yes please) but says he is not as bad as she thought.

News about the Dore programme. Assessments have restarted at Kenilworth (Dore HQ) with more in local patrtnerships (don't really know what that means) to follow. Assessments are going to be shorter and less frequent, but with the help of MyDore hopefully this will make the programme more affordable. I'm very hopeful at this point that Dore will available to those who most require it.

Good News

2008-06-25T16:08:00.003+01:00

Spoke to Matthew's teacher this afternoon, to discuss the fact he is sitting next to a boy who is being "mean" to him, he has ADHD and his mum's the TA helping Matthew. Understandably he is feeling some jealousy towards Matthew. However should a child who is extremly hyper be sat next to one who has extreme problems with attention himself? The teacher says she is going to move Matthew, but also said normally when children get above 90 on their end of year tests, they are released from SEN. She has decided as she is the Senco that his support will however remain and I think this is right.
My only concern about this is that there should be more than hitting a number in a test to determine whether a child needs extra support (an obviously in our school they are using they experience of this).
Matthew did extremley well on his English and Welsh classwork today as he was excited to tell me and so was his teacher. Strangely enough the distracting influence (the boy)was absence today!

Private Tutor Problems

2008-06-25T15:06:00.004+01:00

We had to stop Matthew's private tutoring last night. The lady who had been teaching him had been absent for a few weeks and I thought she just had a break, but we found out yesterday that she had left abruptly. She was a SENCo and knew exactly how to procede with Matthew and we could see a structured programe was being used with him. However the lady who took over- the person who is running the Kip McGrath franchise, had no idea Matthew even had SEN problems.
My husband dropped him off and went in to let them her know that he hadn't completed the homework because it was too much to ask of him (write a fictional story about anything!), I spent 3 X 20 mins trying to help him, but he just didn't know where to start, and wrote a few unorganized sentences. She said "No! Matthew that should have taken you 10 mins.", my husband went on to explain that this is the very thing he needs help with and he just doesn't get it, with his SEN problems. She replied that he didn't have SEN problems, he is bright and articulate he just couldn't be bothered!! (AKA lazy) .
Needless to say I went to pick him up, put her straight and cancelled his lessons, she had changed her tune after I told her all the support he gets at school and that is why he is there. Her resposne was he will not always get 1:1 and Kip McGrath is a happy medium with 1:5 teaching, my respnose is if he is never taught how to do things he is never going to do it by himself??!!
I know a lady on our estate who is a Dyslexia teacher, so I'm going to try her.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He has obviuosly picked up so much that he appears to have the ability and this is fooling the teachers into thinking that he can but won't. This is the very problem that worries me the most, future teachers in comprehensive schools thinking him able and lazy. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!

Independent Reading

2008-06-16T09:06:00.005+01:00

Matthew has moved on to his next book, another Michael Morpurgo- Waiting for Anya, harder than the last book as it has slightly smaller print and NO pictures (gulp), We chose it as it is about the 2nd World War and that's what they have covered this term in school.
We had a hesitant start, where I had to go back and hear him read as he was resistant (?confidence issue) and needed to get "into" the characters, but once he got into it he is again reading 4 pages a night.
Dad went to tuck him in last night and he retold what he had read (as I ask him to do this to check comprehension). Dad asked if it was a good story and he says he's enjoying it!!

Reading Progress

2008-05-27T18:12:00.003+01:00

Ironically, Matthew's reading is getting better all the time, he now goes to bed on his own and reads a chapter independently from myself. When he's finished he shouts downstairs for me to go up and chat and tuck him in, last night he commented as he put his book proudly on the bedside table that he understood it all. He also commented how he must work on his welsh reading now to get it as good.
The reading was at the start the 1 benchmark that would prove to me that we had success, but all his other improvements are really reamarkable as well.

Wii and Cricket

2008-05-25T18:47:00.003+01:00

Following another Dore mum's experiences with the Wii/ Wii fit balance board we got one for Matthew for his birthday, I was thinking that post Dore he could use that just to keep him "tuned", via the balance /yoga games. In the body test (you do at the start-up) are -standing still eyes open, and also standing still eyes closed, it then measures your COG and how balanced you remain for somehting like 20s - really useful. Not quite Dore posteography but not bad. Also the Wii sport games are great too, we have discovered that Matthew's batting skills are fantastic in the baseball game and his timeing is great in the tennis, consequently I spotted a rounders game (rather like baseball) at Tesco's, he has been over on our "green" opposite our house, batting away with Dad/ friends/anyone and is brilliant, consequently he started cricket practice last week and loves it.

Dore Collapse

2008-05-23T20:25:00.004+01:00

Following the Dore collapse in Australia, Dore UK have announced that Dore UK are also in adminsatration. These are truly sad events in the world of SEN, now once again motion based therapy is to be put on the back burner, hopefully not for another 30yrs . It was 30yrs ago that the initial pioneer Jean Ayres came out with these sort of exercises and Dore made these quantifiable and user friendly.
Luckily for us Matthew has possibly progressed as much as he is likely to, although I would have like to have seen him signed off properly, but it makes me extremely sad that all our Dore friends at different stages of the programme are left hanging. The future of our special children are once again left in the hands of the educationalist, pushing them to do things that they are not yet capable of doing, seeing them as naughty, lazy or stupid when in fact all they need is a few simple exercises twice a day that can bring them on.

Test score 2008

2008-05-20T09:50:00.011+01:00

Our new SENCo freely offered us Matthew's end of year test scores this year, prevously I have had to ask for them and have been begridgingly given them.

English.........................Maths......................... Welsh Reading Test
(Average 88-111) ...............(Avg 88-111) ...........................No Avg given
(Class Range 82-127)........ (class Range 74-137) ...............(Range 72-130)

2008...... 97............................. 103......................... 89(8yrs 2months) 2007 .......91............................. 104........................................... 80
2006....... 95.............................. 88........................................... 91

The SENCo showed us an example of the welsh reading test it was filling the gaps in a reading passage, so more a test of vocabulary gained by the amount of reading experience. The 1st language children are inevitably going to outscore the 2nd language pupils, which is probaly why there is no average given. She also told us that most children do get considerably lower scores in this, she showed the test to my husband to illustrate the difficulty of the test.
I am in fact pleased that the score has increased since last time, and he has not declined any further.
The English test was a booklet where spelling, listening and comprehension was tested, so unless she went really slowly through the tests to allow for Matthew's (and the other SEN children's)difficulties, they are going to appear to perform at a lower level. She said that Matthew was given extra time at the end of the tests but only needed 5 mins., he needed the thinking time more withn the test than at the end! Much of the English test was read out by the teacher, so the pace she went at would be a limiting factor for children with processing deficeits. Good result I think.
But I'm pleased on the whole, things are moving in the right direction.
The only thing that is really concerning is welsh spelling, which is 7 yrs and 6months. I have read on several sites that the welsh reading and spelling should be easier as it's phonetic, we are not seeing this. Spelling tests have been stopped in school as some "expert advisor" came in and said that they were old fashioned and out dated. This is the 1 and only way that Matthew learns to spell, he learns words quiclky that way but must make a mental note of them. We will be asking his tutor to look into a spelling list to learn.

Update

2008-04-30T10:17:00.003+01:00

All seems going along OK at the moment, asked him to relay a story he is reading currently while doing his exercises this morning. The was much resistence as he just prefers to do something easy, but I insisted. After throwing himself around, he started and did a very good job of retelling it in an ordered manner. the book was a about a white lion, and he even digressed at one point to tell me that the lion was white because he had a special gene similar to white Bengal Tigers (thank you Animal Park). They had a test last week in English (sounded like comprehension work), he told me he was disappointed as he nearly finished but left 2 questions out, after investigating further I found out there where 26 questions in all. I told him I thought that was fantastic- only left 2 out, sounds brilliant to me.
During a maths lesson told the class taecher he knew all his times tables, so she tested him and he had them all right.

Cub Scout Silver Award

2008-04-25T12:47:00.004+01:00

Matthew recieved his cub scout silver award on Wednesday night and we all went to a presentation evening to see him receive his certificate. The cubs have been absolutely brilliant with Matthew, no feeling of exclusion from them. He was so over the moon he specifically asked me to put his picture on the blog. He has taken his certificate to school today, to show in assembly.

S&L Special Support Teacher

2008-04-23T09:04:00.004+01:00

The S&L SSA had her open afternoon yesterday she teaches Matthew for 2 X 30 mins a week, but only in Welsh. She said Matthew has made very good progress., he scored last June as being average in English and just below in Welsh on their S&L assessment, she will retest this year to compare things.
She was VERY interested in hearing about Dore, and said the only problem she had with them was the cost. I did point out that it would have cost us a comparable sum for private OT, but Dore is so much more organised,rigurous and targeted than OT. We had to wait 12 months for NHS OT, yes they understood and have more standing with the school than Dore, but we couldn't wait 12 months in limbo.
She also related how he answered a question in English 1 lesson and was astonished at how "articulate" he was, she wanted to go on with the conversation but of course she had to go back to Welsh. I never thought the word "articulate" would be used to describe my son!!
His Welsh is obviously behind as we had to concentrate on his English due to the fact that he had serious deficits pre Dore with English, having a word recall age of 4.5 yrs 1 month before Dore he was 8.6yrs at the time. So we have now got to blast him with the Welsh. My husband will have to be roped in for this as my Welsh is slow, although I can converse with him he knows I do not have the vocabularly- maybe we can improve together! Although he seems to convers really well in Welsh the confidence and some grammar is slow.

12 Asesssment -11th follow up

2008-04-18T18:12:00.002+01:00

here are our latest assessment and the results are getting consistenly green, for the first time ever we had all greens, Test 1 +2 were only checked once as they were green they were not repeated. Test 4+5 were tested 3 times and the bar shows the range, which I think is really good but they want to see those tighter still!!

Slight regression

2008-04-09T12:30:00.003+01:00

Matthew seems to be going through a slight regression in that he hasn't been hearing things correctly again, it fills me with fear when I am repeating words to him, his Dad has noticed too, but I know it will get better. Conversley he went back to school and told me that he had had a brilliant day with his work and his reading was more fluent last night. So perhaps we are moving forward again- I'll keep you informed :)
His tutor has decided to concentrate more on his written work, although he doing maths and Welsh alternative weeks(more to give him an extra feel good/confidence factor in his maths) on his maths week she is slipping in 20 mins of written and all the homework is going to be written.
Gawd he needs it, it is coming across as lazy e.g. she asks him to write about his day and he doesn't use full sentences, more of a list e'g. I got up, got dressed, ate breakfast, made bed etc. I know it's just him getting around the fact that he hates writing, avoidance tactics basically.

Paediatrician Follow-up

2008-04-09T12:26:00.002+01:00

We revisited the Paediatrician last week, had a little chat about Matthew's progress and the outcome was "Keep on doing what your doing and things will continue to improve". We agreed that it was all the interventions together that were making the impact. Although if I wasn't subsidising the school with all the extra help, I'm sure he wouldn't be making the progress that he is, but he is able to learn now so must be happy with that.

Stairway to Spelling finished

2008-04-07T15:52:00.002+01:00

Well we have finished Stairway to spelling, we didn't even use the technique on the last fifty words. I just quizzed him while doing his exercises, and went over the ones he had wrong about twice and he got them. We have been learning lists from the Education City site we signed up to last year- we have 3 months left of our subcription. He whizzed through English Yr 4 over Easter break and has moved on to Yr 5 English and is now learning Yr 5 spelling words. The first list was learnt in a day i.e. i before e except after c words e.g receipt, conceit, field, brief. He did them on the site as a game and I am retesteing them while he does his exercises.

Reading

2008-03-28T11:28:00.003Z

Here's an update on Mathew's reading. Still fluency problems (when reading out loud anyway), but the books are age appropriate, he isn't a fast reader and it'll never be his favourite passtime.

Parents Evening

2008-03-18T08:35:00.001Z

Had Parents evening last nught, all seems to be progressing well. Matthew is learning things on par with his peers! The only poblem is output- back to that writing again! There was lots more in his exercise books this year, including the ones where he has no help. A grades in his Maths and Science books.(in the end of subject tests). We discussed more times in test (as per EPsych first report way back form 2006) as I don't think he had extra time in last May tests, she said she fine with that. Also the laptop that was spoken about in last Ed Psych meeting, apparently, a speed of 30 Words/min is required before they are allowed to use these, we told her Matthew is working on it, but if he can type faster than write that really shoud be the criteria. She is going to test his writing speed. Also we asked for a contact book where we can write in any worries and she can let us know if things need to be worked on.
Oh yes and discovered that since Sept 2007 the head is no longer the SENCO, but Matthew current class teacher is. Nice of them to let us know. We only found this out from the LSA at the end of the evening. During the discussion with the class teacher we complained that we haven't had Feb's IEP, we hadn't been invited to discuss it and we had never once had a IEP review, although she said we should have had a review, not once did she say "well I'm the Senco now". She said was we should have had the IEP reviewed and it will be this year and they are due out this week.Also the regulatons are changing and the child will be consulted on the IEP from Sept.
We felt it quite productive, but hoping they are not just paying us lip service.

OT Technician visits us at Home

2008-03-17T13:54:00.005Z

The OT Technician, popped a few things into us last Thursday, a nonslip sheet to under paper, and to try him on the caring cutlery (she lives in our village). She had a look at him with knife and fork and says he has no problem just needs to practice.
We chatted about motion based therapy and she says just keep plugging away and things will improve. She has a dyslexic daughter who is currently at university, took a different route to get there but has got there all the same, and is doing well although needs the support that is offered.
She was excited about the new foundation phase that is to be brought in here in Wales, following along the lines of Scandanavian countries, there will be no formal teaching of reading/writing /spelling until junior classes (age 7), but emphasis of learning through play. I think this is very enlightened and a definite way forward, get the basic needs of the children up to scratch first i.e. lots of play, getting the gross motor skills and then fine motor skills tuned up before bringing in the academics. IMO this is brilliant as even my older son has troubles with writing neatly and quickly, and could have done with those years of concentrating on development of these unpining skils.

Dore Assessment 11 -Follow up 10.

2008-03-04T13:45:00.013Z

Good results again moving in the right direction, the specialist is encouraging us to keep at it, she believes that the balance scores are tightening up now and we may push them up even more.

The Occular motor tests are coming along, smooth persuit are as good as they'll get, and the Saccades just need a little more tightening up, 3 overshoots needing a correction and a few guesses. Matthew's reading does seem more fluent lately so if we can just sort this out- who knows!!

OT Technician

2008-02-26T12:50:00.003Z

The OT Technician is coming to the school to give Matthew his short block of OT therapy for 6 sessions. I had to phone her to rearrange one, for him to attend his Dore Assess. next week. She tells me Matthew is a very enthusiastic learner, and I said well they all love 1:1 help, but she assures me that they are not all that enthusiastic. He has mastered tying shoe laces, but I have taught him this before (I did post it here) so it really is just a recap.
They are doing handwriting on an upright black board at 90 degrees, so he uses both hands, however 6 days of doing this isn't going to cut any ice I'm afraid, she said herself he has to keep practising it. She also mentioned that he has progressed in some things that she expected him to have trouble with, so then stated that we were doing well with our exercises--YES but which ones!!!!!!!!!! Haven't done any of the OT ones yet, although several are similar to Dore ones so that's probably where the improvements came from. She also mentioned his excessive pressure with a pen and his low muscle tone.

Half Term Week

2008-02-17T11:50:00.002Z

Not much to report really, a marked improvement in performance of exercises. Also it seems we have a corresponding jump in awareness, watching the news relating it back, asking questions, memory problems sinking away to the dark distance past.
My husband came home again after rugby practice with a smile on his face, relating that Matthew has great awareness of the game, sizes up the field of play before hand, no tunnel vision. It is suprising how many other children just charge and don't pass the ball as they don't have the spacial awareness (Gosh sounds very smug saying that!!) He is very happy, very chatty.

A very good week

2008-01-26T14:37:00.000Z

We have had a great week, started off with his first tutor session, where the tutor gave me a small amount of homework saiid that Matthew was having problems with worded problems, and not to push him if he couldn't do them (don't spend too long on 1 if he can't do it). He did the page in 2 mins flat, and said it was easy!?
Tues he came home to tell me that he had finished 2 pieces of work, one of these was independent work, he certainly gets a buzz out of his own efforts. Wednesday the SENCO tells us he is confidently answering a lot of questions in class and the 1:1 help is showing beneifits :). Friday was St Dwyren's Day (Welsh St valentine) the teacher has little chocolate hearts to give to all the children, but larger chocolate hearts to those who answered certain questions correctly. Matthew's question was how many months in 2/3 of a year and yes he got it correct (who said he can't do fractions?) and he had the larger chocolate (enough of an incentive).
Now we come to the major breakthrough, at rugby training they finished up with an obstacle course, stepping through hoops at speed, crawling under a net, darting between vertical posts. There were 2 teams Matthew was last to run, his team was well behind, his coordination and balance were brilliant not to mention his speed. He caught up and just pipped his rival at the post. All his team jumped on him, he had a real buzz, oh and he also scored 2 tries the same night.
Nearly forgot 10/10 on spelling test!

Quick chat to SENCO

2008-01-23T19:07:00.000Z

When I picked up Matthew for his assess. I saw the SENCO, she says Matthew is responding well to the 1:1 help, and is confidently answering questions within the class. She also said he was sooooooooo sweet in both talk and actions.

Assessment 10 -Follow up 9

2008-01-23T17:24:00.000Z

Specialist happy with the results, she said when we get the eye test next time they will look at overall progress. Test 3 has been consistent and looks like it won't increase much more. Test 5 is still improving (with mental distraction 63, 63 and this time 76)so they hope to continue trying to push this until the value is as high as they can get it and the variance is small. She said not to worry about the 1st two tests as it is normal for younger children to fidget these into the red as they as so boring to do! Test 5 he had 2 consistent high scores and 1 lower although all were in the green.

More Spelling Success

2008-01-20T23:23:00.000Z

Matthew brought his spelling home Monday night, I went over 5 words on Tues evening and then forgot the other 5 until Fri morning- day of test-oops!! We went over them, then did them as mental tasks and he again had 10/10. We really only need to fill in the gaps these days, if only there was more time in the day!!

An A in Science.

2008-01-18T14:15:00.000Z

Matthew tells me he had an A for his last Science classwork, and he tells me he sometimes asks the teacher if he can stay in play times to finish his work.

Yesterday he told me that his TA that helps him for 1hr, took him out of the class to do his work, as the the noise was too distracting. Don't know if this is going to be a regular thing - the OT suggested that he was being distracted by noise and visual distractions.

Tutor Assessment

2008-01-16T10:43:00.000Z

Finally bit the bullet and decided to get Matthew tested for a tutoring at a local centre.

Results were he is 18months to 2 years behind in Maths!! He seems to have completeley missed the point of fractions. I am shocked at this as the school report states he is very good at Maths. The tutor says that a lot of children miss the basics of fractions and the lessons move on to another subject. The school teacher did say in her write-up that we should practice fractions and decimals over the summer, but did not explain that there was such a huge problem.

Just found his end of year School tests (which I had to request as they are not given willingly)

May 2007 NFER in Maths 104 - average is 100. He also had a Level 4- , on a maths test on percentages recently. (2006 NFER score was 80)

Again I am confused with our Education system.

I also asked them to look at his welsh. It was very poor, when asked to write about what he had for Xmas he wrote a list, mostly illegible. He was then asked to write about what he did in school, when asked vebally all was fine. When putting it down on paper he wrote a few illegible sentences. They asked about his reading as they didn't have time to assess it and I told them that his Welsh reading was poorer than his English, they were suprised at this as it is usually the other way around. They are going to carry on assessing in his first lesson

On a more positive note after we explained about the "fog" he was in over a year ago, she told us about a similar pupil who was removed form school for a year at age 6 (then returned in a lower year) as he was in a fog who is now attaining A*'s at GCSEs at the moment. She says Matthew is a bright boy, has a great enthusiasm for learning, and he is a lovely child. All is not lost so we plod on.

Phonecall to OT

2008-01-16T09:09:00.000Z

I spoke to the OT yesterday to inquire about age equivalents for the percentiles quoted on the report for the Beery test of Visual Motor Intergration. The Overall test score put him at 7.6 yrs (2 years behind) and the subcomponents Visual Perceptual - 7.6yrs and the Motor Component 6.6yrs (3 years behind).
She said the wedge should help him alot, and the OT assisstant will be working on his shoulder strength.

Presentation Homework

2008-01-10T09:36:00.000Z

Matthew had a presentation to do for homework, he had to find information on his favourite author, learn it and present it to the class with only the help notes. I did help him write it, getting the information from the book leaf, but so do did many of the other mums.
He choose Holly Black who wrote the Spiderwick Chronicles.
He came home Tuesday telling me he had the loudest applause (ok not subjective there!) and his presentation was the 2nd longest! He had learnt it well managing to keep his eyes off the prompt cards mostly and using them as they should be used. He didn't take to long to learn then either. He had a great confidence boost and a big hug off me.

Sensory Processing/Integration Disorder

2008-01-04T19:26:00.000Z

After having mild Sensory Processing Disorder diagnosed by the OT I had a quick "Google" on the subject and found this OT site which is rather good. I especially recommend the Newsletter Page and you can see how it all links to what Dore is doing . Covers S&L problems also.
http://www.otawatertown.com/

Here's the newsletter link as their link goes to the wrong page http://www.otawatertown.com/newsletter.html

"Children's Occupational Therapist" Report

2008-01-02T15:15:00.000Z

As promised here's the Occupational Therapist report. Lots of work to do, and we have a brochure of exercises to do at home- 20mins a night. I can see why lots of people fail at doing these as they are not structured enough, just sort of choose what you want for loads of suggestions, very intimidating, where to start. Dore is more of do this for this many nights then move on, not so mind boggling! I going to wait for Dore to end and just try a few of the games.

Mince Pies

2007-12-17T17:22:00.000Z

We went to see the class teacher tonight, she is very pleased with his work,

in his maths book was a test on percentages and he had a Level 4- , which is great as this moment in time, average is Level 4 by end of primary.

The teacher is very pleased with his handwriting it seems average in form but still a little slow. We have the 1:1 help at least to the end of the school year (July 2008), the SENCO hasn't bothered to inform us so we are pleased about the fact that she at least remembered to apply for it! He is going to get both sets of spelling words for the spelling tests next year (easy and harder) as he is doing so well with them, he has some catching up to do.

The biggest problem is getting his thoughts down on paper before he gets them jumbled, and keeping on task, the helper is still egging him on, on occasions. He has lots of good things to write, still it's processing speed letting him down. Science is good.

So very pleased altogether.

Assessment with mental distractions Follow up 8

2007-12-11T16:04:00.000Z

I am pleased again with these results. Matthew was turning again to look at his score on the screen just as he was finishing each session. Grrrrrrrrrrr. I also noticed he was twitching his hands quite a bit as he listed things, on the floor moving trials this however didn't seem to alter his balance he seemed well in control. He needs to tighten up those scores (the bar indicating range of 3 tries). Matthew always has trouble with test 2, don't know why! but I have been told that 4 + 5 are the most important. We also did the eye tracking. Smooth persuit was excellent and saccades had three red bars(a bar chart was shown to me on the computer comparing this time to last time) compared to 7 reds last time (they indicate speed of movements, slow movements = red bar).

Voting on X-factor

2007-12-10T12:39:00.000Z

Absolutely no worries about Matthew's working memory anymore. It's better than mine. Matthew loves "Same Difference" and asked me if we could vote for them. We waited for the number to flash up and I quickly punched in the wrong number. As I grasped for the number, he just shouted across to me 09016161104. Makes me smile as he is so much quicker than I am these days, always correcting my awful memory.

Occupational Therapist at school

2007-12-09T17:03:00.000Z

As promised the OT came out to the school, (delayed 2 weeks because she was sick). She assessed Matthew with a handwriting assessment, talked to the class teacher, observed him playing football. She chatted to Matthew to discover what he would like improved. Waiting for the report now.
She has 5 strategies to help him
1) Tying laces, which he knows how to do just doesn't get practice in this age of velcro.
2) Strengthening shoulders
3) A wedge for him to sit on
4) Strategies for organising his work (not himself)
5) A special knife and fork to make eating easier, although he is ok he just prefers not use them.

She is going to give him a handwritng program called ?Meska to help with fluency. She discovered his class teacher went on a course a few weeks ago called "Write Dance" which the teacher is going to implement with the whole class as well as with those that need more help.
Finally an OT assistant is going to come out and give him a short 4-6 week course doing some of the above with him probably in Feb.
She stated that much that she would have done with him had been done already through Dore so her job was much easier. As she was trying him on some exercise matthew kept saying "I know that one".
Waiting for the report.
If only we had had this a year ago we would never have needed Dore?- Joke as good as the OT dept is I don't beleive their programs to be long enough or relentless enough. Unless somebody knows different.

Cubs Astronomers Badge

2007-12-07T11:22:00.001Z

Last night Matthew came home proudly with his Astronomer's badge. The Cubs have been absolutely fantastic with Matthew. The Leader of our Scout pack has a Dyslexic son only diagnosed at 14 due to the schools labeling him thick and lazy. (Another horror story). This unfortunately had to be filled in quickly, and he had trouble getting it down at speed, but it's all his own work, and he was very proud.

Handwriting Dec 2006 and Nov 2007

2007-11-26T12:31:00.000Z

Click on the picture for bigger image.
An example of Matthew's writing Dec 2006, note that fis= this and fers = there's, he couldn't discriminate the "th" sound.

Much better, this is a dictation test I did with him after learning 50 spelling words ("Stairway to Spelling").

Great Day on Friday

2007-11-24T13:04:00.000Z

Matthew came home and tells us he has had a fabulous day in school. I must congratulate the school as due to the accomodations and help he gets he is currently very happy. He was becoming despondent during early Spring term last year he just hated not finishing his work and feeling stupid, his 1:1 teaching assistant started May 2006 , and although she is not the LSA promised, she has successfully boosted Matthew's confidence. He is enjoying learning the songs for the Xmas concert for the first time. Of course he is now able to process the information better and is in tune with what's going on. He was laughing that he has to remind his best friend not to forget things, as "he forgets everything and loses things and I find them!".

Reading Support Teacher

2007-11-20T17:55:00.000Z

Just been to see our Reading support teacher, and she reports that Matthews reading age is 9.6 for English and 8.10 for Welsh. Spelling about 8.6 but coming along. She's new and when we were telling her how he was last year she said "oh he sounds Dyslexic!!" and was surprised to be informed by us that he has a diagnosis of Specific Learning Difficulties (dyslexia but could also be dyspraxic in nature). So he must be doing well (you'd think they'd know if a child has a diagnosis though, wouldn't you?). He is still slow at getting his thoughts down on paper, but he can do the work.
When explaining to her just how bad he was last year (as we thought we ought to put her in the picture), it really made us realise how far he has come in just 1 year.

A little recap for any new comers:
Oct 2006 Matthew didn't know what day of the week it was, didn't know months of the year, couldn't tell the time, had no concept of time, was confused as to what was happening in class, his work had platauxed again etc etc!
Oct 2006 Previous Reading Suppport Teacher tests Matthew when she starts, she goes straight to the class teacher and asks "How are you coping with Matthew he is severley Dyspraxic". The class teacher reports that she "isn't coping" and wants help.
We meet with the same lady and she tells us Matthew in her opinion is like a Venn diagram with Dyslexia/Dyspraxia/ADD in the 3 circles Matthew being in the intersection of the 3. She tells us to try to get 1:1 Dyslexia LSA support within the school as "there are children not nearly as bad as Matthew being given support, although due to the fact that he is already receiving 1:1 for S&L he probably won't get it".
Nov 2006 Ed Psych called out urgently to reassess situation. At this point he was thinking ASD (we weren't I must add) and Dyspraxia, so refered to the Paediatrician. He also diagnosed Sp LD and had worries about ADD.
Dec 2006 Dore (thank God).

Reading?

2007-11-14T13:30:00.000Z

Just thought I'd add this. Matthew was caught reading tonight!!

Occupational Therapist

2007-11-14T13:06:00.000Z

We had a very good meeting with the OT on Monday, she chatted with us about Matthew and what we had put on the questionaire. Very interested at the fact he hadn't crawled and thoroughly tested his Primitive reflexes (just like Dore only 12 months too late). He still has a slight retention of the ATNR reflex. She was very supportive of our decision to go to Dore, I explained that some of their work had been based on Jean Ayres work (American OT who used motion based therapy 30 years ago- yes 30 yrs ago and there's still people out there saying it doesn't work e.g. Dyslexia Action, BDA), she quite agreed that waiting for OT support for 12 months is not an option if at all possible. Of course some people haven't the option and have to wait. Shame on our government I say. She also checked out his muscle tone and handwriting skills.
She wants to assess him at the school, so is going to arrange that before November is out. She recommends trying a wobble cushion to try and encourage him from putting his head on the desk to write. The Ed Psych in his observations reported that the teacher was asking him to sit up each time he slumped down (yes these educational professionals don't have the knowledge of how uncomfortable these children get trying to get on with their work). They are getting him a sloped board to write on, something else to try. These will be on loan for a term to see if they help, if they do and IF the school will fund then he will have them full time, but she told us it depends on the school budget (yes I know shocking that the could turn round and refuse!) I am hopeful our school would find the money as they have been v. good with funds.

Maths

2007-11-12T13:23:00.000Z

I discovered about a week ago that Matthew did not know how to do multiplication properly e.g
135
x5

he was working it out in his head the logical way as 100x5 + 30x5 + 5x5 and it was taking him ages.

Ok he was doing it, but no wonder he is so slow, I had to show him and he quickly got it when I explained clearly and it was practised. I have being giving him 6 problems every night for a week. He now does them easily in 5 minutes.

They were shown the logical way first but he has just stuck to it (he totally understands the logical way). Last year June time, he came home with a sheet of 20 written out multiplications, to do the long written out way and went off to do them and did them in his head very quicky (they were 1 to 5 tables) and just wrote a list of answers down (all correct) I felt he had not done it correctly although there was no written explanation as to how they were to be done, so I asked the teacher, she confirmed that she wanted them copied out and done the long way. She marked them all correct but there was no "well done" Matthew as he had not done it the way she had told him to. This is how I know the class has moved on where he had not, I nor the class teacher realised that he had done them that way because he had not understood. I do feel it should have rung alarm bells for her as she must see this sort of things from time to time. His new teacher says he is slow to do his maths and I can see why if he tries to do 20 harder multipicatons in this fashion.
Good news he did 6 sums in 5 mins last night 6/6 and tonight 6/6 in 3mins 30s, so he has it sorted now. I just wish if they see him struggle they could send a little note home and then I can sort it, but this has never happened, is it really too much to ask? My biggest bug bear is the lack of communication, it is not both ways.

But where are the teachers that this was not discovered last school year? When moving on to long multiplication he would be totally lost! Must investigate divisions next (sigh).

Bad Weekend

2007-11-12T09:58:00.000Z

Well Matthew seemed to have a very foggy day on Sunday. In his rugby match someone passed the ball to him after a penalty and he appeared frozen to the spot, unable to think quickly what to do. Then homework in the afternoon he couldn't think what to write, how to phrase things and the result was a mass of scribbles, I had to jump in and help him out.
2 onths into Mentals are we seeing some sort of restructuring? We plough on.

Dore Assessment with Mental Distractions

2007-10-30T17:08:00.000Z

Our 7th follow up Assessment, once more we are very pleased with Matthew's progress, they were his first set with mental distractions and I was expecting his results to go way back in the red. We had a lovely new lady who was very good at explaining how to relax and focus, we also had what seemed like a jutterly old machine, but it was actually a new one which creaked like mad! With balance well in hand, they want to focus on the eyes more, and the lady wrote on the book what order she wanted them done in and also made sure he was doing his eye exercises properly, she gave him some tips.

Scott Quinell and family were there at the same time (lovely man!), for all who have followed the BBC programme I'm sure Scott won't mind me telling you his daughter has finished (19 months) and son was hoping to finish today (21 months).

At our visit today a trainee Programme Specialist was sitting in, who tells me they are opening a Dore centre in Carmarthen West Wales, in January to take follow ups firstly. Great news that Dore is expanding.

Parent's Evening

2007-10-28T11:42:00.000Z

We had a quick 5 minutes with the teacher Wednesday evening to discuss how Matthew has settled into Yr 5. He is always very happy (tell me something new), and has settled well. We had to ask to see his literacy book (she was not supposed to be showing books this time) as that was what we came for. Matthew for the first time in his life was anxious for us to see his work and well it was a WOW time. The writing is truly amazing, I'm going to ask for a photocopy for the OT and will post it here after half term.
The teacher commented that this was done when he has his 1:1 helper so there was more of it than when he works independently. However I feel that if he can get his writing automatic, it will allow his brain to spend more time thinking about his work. I feel this is a big jump forward. She says he still works slowly, a reflection of his slow processing speed. We are only 6 weeks into him starting mental tasks and things have certainly improving quickly.

We are having an open morning with the Learning support Assistant who takes him 1hr 1 morning for a group session.

Occupational Therapist Appointment

2007-10-28T11:14:00.001Z

Yay, we have an occupational therapist appointment at last- Monday 12th November. Seems the Ed Psych certainly knew what he was talking about, going through the Paediatrician was possibly quicker than going straight on the OT waiting list, still took us a full 12 months though.
We have also been given a parents questionaire and "sensory history"form to fill in and send off before going, the sort I would have expected to fill in before the Paediatrician's appointment, seems the OT's are more organised!

I'm feeling that Matthew has no where near as many problems all round this year, they really should have seen him last year pre-Dore, so it will be interesting to see what they say. I see Dore as Occupational Therapy only specialised for the Learning Difficulties community with the added bonus of Ocular Motor therapy which I'm not sure that OT's cover. Of course Dore have the monitoring systems in place also and that structured aproach that gives you a feeling that they are totally on top of things and know their stuff.

We really need the Dore approach to LD within the Education system, as you get the feeling that they really aren't on top of the LD field. They are grasping about trying to get a diagnosis for these children, sending them from pillar to post. It does not inspire confidence in the parents. We luckily have alot of help put in place, pushed for by myself and the class teacher, both of us not really knowing what the best help would be.

We really need a 1 stop centre where a quick diagnosis can be be made and the most relevant intervention can be supplied within say 3 months. Of course I'd want a Dore centre placesd in these centre :) !!

Mental Tasks Update

2007-10-23T11:27:00.001+01:00

Matthew is coping well with his exercises plus mental tasks, the exercises are harder than he has had before so he has that to contend with as well. His Dad is doing with him in Welsh and he that doesn't bother him any more. It did at first but he has stopped moaning now.
We're back next Tuesday to Dore for the verdict, most people see a drop in scores when they first do them on the machine with mental focus added in.

Treasure Hunt

2007-10-23T11:20:00.000+01:00

We went on the annual school treasure hunt on Sunday, had a great time. This year we had an extra person on our team- yes you've guessed it- Matthew. He took a full part in proceedings this year and thoroughly enjoyed it, and he found lots of the answers to the clues.

Rugby Improvements

2007-10-23T11:16:00.000+01:00

Matthew is at least having some comments on how is rugby is improving, the coaches are giving him recognition for his good game play. The other boys have even started throwing the ball to him at last.

Came home from school instead of going to Rugby AGAIN

2007-10-16T12:58:00.000+01:00

Matthew arrived home at 3.40pm the bus lady walked him to the door as she could see my car on the drive. I immediately bundled him in the car and took him back. On getting there the Head-teacher comes to gate to unlock and let him in. She asks "did you send in the letter" [setting out what he's doing every night] I reply "yes" (thank God) she then turns to Matthew and asks if he handed it in, he says Yes. She shrugs and smiles no comment or apology.
Matthew says the teacher doesn't shout out names this year, then why am I bothering with filling in the sheet every week? Doh!

Bilingual Schooling Rant

2007-10-09T09:08:00.000+01:00

I do question whether Bilingual Schools are coping well enough with SEN children. As I have mentioned before his last class teacher recommended we transfered Matthew to an English school. Why? Well for a start where his English reading and spelling has improved greatly, it is myself who has been working with him relentlessly for short bursts most nights in ENGLISH, his welsh reading is slipping back all the time which just proves to me that the teaching methods within the school are not appropriate interventions. It is the extra at home help that is the thing that is moving him on, otherwise we would see his Welsh reading and writing advance at the same rate.
He has a lot of help at the moment which we could not transfer to another school as he has not got a statement. With all the help he has surely we will should see advancements here.

The SENCO also being the headmistress really suprises and dismays me, but as she is the key to his support I cannot come out and express my disenchantment with this arrangement. I'm sure she does what she considers is enough but it is a specialist role and she simply hasn't the time to give it her full attention. Matthew's SEN file is very poorly kept, photocopies stuffed into a paper file, I have viewed it and there are no write up as to what she feels about him or any observations on a regular basis it is just a side role she is managing. She even told us that dyslexia was not a disability! this just shows how much she knows about SEN, we had to agree to disagree on that point.

Spelling test seem too Easy

2007-10-09T08:56:00.000+01:00

More spellings came home tonight, look, took moon book , etc. Went through them once with Matthew they are words learnt before with Reading/Learning Support teacher and he knows them.
There are several spelling groups in the class, and these words are just not helping any advancement. I wonder whether they can see what I see. I just feel he is in the bottom set and there he will remain.
He still gets the Speech and Language LSA for 2 x30mins a week although he was discharged from the S&L therapist as not requiring any more help with word finding. When he returned from his last lesson he was told to play on the computer as the class teacher had already explained the Maths lesson to the other children. When I asked what the teacher was doing for the rest of the lesson Matthew told me she was marking books ??!!! Maths is his strongest subject yet if this continues he will be falling behind here.

Spelling

2007-10-06T14:07:00.000+01:00

Matthew forgot to bring home his spelling words on Monday, so on Tuesday I called his friend's mother and got the list, which we started to learn that night. Matthew however said that it was the wrong list and he had easier words on his list. I didn't know anyone who had the other list so Wednesday we learnt the list we had. Thurs Matthew came home with the correct list, he had asked his teacher for a copy (that's a triumph in itself!). So Thurs night we learnt the easier list.
Friday Matthew came home after taking the 2 spelling tests, 10/10 for his easy list he spent 1 night learning and 8/10 for the harder list he spent 2 previous nights learning.
I'm very happy with his ability, he certainly capable of learning his spellings now.

Still waiting for the fluency in reading to arrive!

Saw his new teacher

2007-09-25T10:54:00.000+01:00

I saw Matthew's new class teacher last night, she showed me his books so far. She commemted that she really hadn't got to know the children fully as yet. She was pleased and supportive of him. With his 1:1 help he is producing a lot more work, finishing his work, but without her he is still not finshing things. His writing is looking a lot neater and there was far more of it, there was also a sketch of a shoe which I was surprised that Matthew had drawn it was so good.
Matthew came home last night saying that he had finished his work again and had not required much help from his helper, so I am encouraging him to try to write more when she is not around as this would really impress his teacher.
She should have more to tell us at parents evening on 24th Oct (another month). I'm planning on seeing her once a month throughout the year.

Llangrannog Activity Centre

2007-09-24T11:03:00.000+01:00

Matthew went on his activity weekend this weekend, the one that the Head threatend to exclude him from. He had a lovely time, wore the same socks, pants, trainers and trousers all weekend!! The Head reported that all the school staff and centre staff adored him as he is so sweet and helpful with everything and everyone. Seems I was caused all the stress and anxiety for no reason.