Parent's evening Yr 8

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

Broken wrist had to be reset.

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!

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!

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

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!

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

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

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.

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!