Dyspraxic DS2 sat his first GCSE today. 35% of the total mark. Somehow, and I don't yet know exactly who needs stringing up, he wasn't allowed any of the access arrangements - no laptop, no extra time. Someone didn't talk to someone else. This being despite the confirmation I have in writing from the shower of incompetent shits that he is entitled to use of a laptop in public exams where appropriate, and if not (so Maths/Science) then 25% extra time. Today he got neither, and he panicked - so 35% of his GCSE has been fucked up by idiots. To say I am cross is an understatement - they will feel my wrath.
So my question: what if I had severe SEN myself? What if English wasn't my first language? What if I wasn't a confident, reasonably articulate woman prepared to argue the toss? What if I just couldn't be arsed? Where would my children be then? And this applies to all of us, and the injustice of it has me raging.
Here are some suggested organisations that offer expert advice on special needs.
SN children
A question I just keep coming back to
Hassled · 24/01/2013 19:35
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Ime, there are some DCs that are so poorly supported by family that professionals almost 'take over' the whole process.
It's the DCs that fall just outside this category that I feel for. It is assumed that if you have a reasonable command of english that you can cope within the SN /SEN system that we find ourselves in. Rubbish.
It is also assumed that appearances tell you the whole story about a parent. Rubbish. Appearance doesn't tell you how emotionally capable someone is. It doesn't tell you that they are going to put into practise anything that is suggested.
A friend with a SN child was constantly harangued by SS as she did not fit the image of a 'good' parent. She begged and begged for support, telling them exactly what she needed. After they had taken him off her, they provided exactly what she had been asking for. 
It's the squeezed middle - to coin a phrase - that often suffers. Not enough £ to go private, buy in all the support and services required, thwarted in most attempts to access support without fighting.
No wonder we're all drained.
Hassled I hope you take whoever stuffed up to task. Your DS was given this time for a reason. His rights have been denied. Who will speak up for him if you don't?
Not sure where I am with this at the moment. B and Sil, who incidentally (or not, can't decide) live in quite a tough inner city area, refused to accept their ds's issues were ASD and as a result school etc took over. Dn had full time 1:1, scribe and just about every other intervention possible, without a statement and has had an excellent outcome. This came about because the school has lots of experience of dealing with children with various additional and/or special needs and therefore has the experience and facilities to just get on and help those that need it.
My two nieces, also living in tough areas and with difficult homelives, both have young ds's with different SNs. Both have speech/language problems, one in all likelihood has ASD and ADHD and the other probably ASD, but could be more complicated. Both have been identified young, had portage and playworkers, SALT and are on the path to more intervention, dx and probably statements. Neither dniece has had to push or fight for this.
Ds on the other hand lives in a lovely, leafy well-to-do area and attends a 'supposedly' excellent school, that refused to either recognise or support his issues so we had to bypass them and bring in assessment and support ourselves. Years down the line school is on it's 4th (and seemingly best qualified) SENCO but is only interested in paying lipservice to inclusion and making things look right on paper (tick-boxing).
Ds is a mess, anxiety through the roof and no-one will help. GP said go via Paed, because he needs CAMHS and they will listen to Paed, Paed said CAMHS won't see him because the anxiety is school related and it's therefore down to EP, EP said ds is lucky to have/have had the support he's had thus far (so that will be a few sessions in 2010 then, which encompassed part of his ASD assessment) and all they will do is teach dh and I some relaxation and mindfulness techniques, as 'he has to learn to handle the anxiety himself, because, having ASD, it's not going to go away'.
We have been as good as told that because we are intelligent, interested and capable parents who will fight for and help our ds in every way we can, it's down to us to help him. We are essentially on our own.
BUT then again, although we hear the same stories over and over, I don't think it's a simple and clear cut as the scenarios I've just recounted would seem to suggest. Not all the vulnerable children in tough areas get noticed and supported, not all get overlooked and let down - same goes for children in naice middle-class schools. To some extent it's the luck of the draw, which LEA you are in and also very much down to the individual professionals whose path you happen to cross.
This has all given me lots to think about - thank you. At least diagnosis is better - for example, Dyspraxia doesn't seem to have existed until the early 70s 
, so there are still many, many adults out there who must have had a hell of a time growing up, and who must still find adult life very difficult. I was doing some googling - this report estimates that 2% of the UK population has a learning difficulty, and then [[http://www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Publications/vw/1/ItemID/67 this says that 25% of the prison population have SEN. That's just so depressing.
Moosemama - the best of luck in your fight.
GCSE cock-up news is that I've had a profuse apology and they're working out the best next course of action - whether a retake or a letter to the exams board, I presume. I fairly churlishly told them the apology should be directed at DS2. He went off to school looking like death - this has really shaken him up.
Thank you Hassled, likewise for your ds's GCSE. Imho they should give him his predicted grade and not make him go through the stress of the exam all over again due to their incompetence and as you rightly say, they should be apologising to him, as well as reassuring him that they will deal with it.
Unfortunately, apologies are all very well - and easy to throw about, but actions speak louder than words and in the case of our dcs, are usually too little too late, because the damage has already been done.
I hope your ds can find a way to get past this and the rest of his GCSEs go more smoothly.
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