AIBU to expect a more individual school plan after dyslexia diagnosis?

[Pigwig22]

Looking for advice / experience from those that have navigated the UK school system following a dyslexia diagnosis. Posting here for visibility.

My DD was diagnosed nearly a year ago and I’ve just been sent her plan. It’s riddled with inaccuracies and includes measures we have specifically asked not to be in place because they are not beneficial to her. And others that have definitely never been done.

The school has 840 pupils and one Senco, who has never met my DD. So I suspect that this is a very generic plan applied to all children with this diagnosis. It does include some recommendations from her dyslexic assessment report but others that nobody has ever suggested and I think are unnecessary / unhelpful. There’s also too much - a teacher with 30 kids could never do everything in it - surely a few meaningful measures would be more impactful than a gigantic list half of which isn’t needed??

I’m particularly angry that it signals her out to attend a calm group to help with social skills. As when I heard she was going I asked the class teacher why and was told she had asked my DD if she would like to attend as she would be such a good influence for others but was reassured she has no need for it herself.

My DD is a very sociable child, she is quiet but always confident to walk into a new group of people and make friends. Her empathy and social skills are very much a strength, so I believed the teacher. But now this plan suggests otherwise and I can only assume because the person saying it does not know my DD. But if they have identified an issue why have I not been informed?

I really think the plan is just a copy and paste for all dyslexic children and I’m really unhappy about it.

AIBU to expect more? And what do I do to get more?

Have you spoken to anyone at school?
Most dyslexia diagnosis reports I read include every potential strategy that be helpful for dyslexia and so are not much use. The plan needs to be more bespoke and needs to be written with pupil and parent input. Given the size of the school, I’m assuming secondary?

I woukd suggest you make your own list of what woukd be helpful. If you can afford a private tutor this would also be helpful, and after getting to know your child, they may have some good suggestions you can pass on to school. I found the plan was very much a starting point for negotiations. You are right to challenge something you dont feel will be helpful.

My son has Dyslexia and Dyspraxia, no support at school other than occasional use of a chromebook. The main difference was that diagnosis made him feel better about himself and it mostly stopped teachers saying that he would have no problems if he just tried harder. I agree with a private tutor to teach strategies if you can afford it and find one - no luck in my area.

Yes, 2 meetings with the Senco (who has never met my DD) and regular meetings with the class teacher. They don’t seem joined up at all.

It’s primary school- DD is year 4.

If I hadn’t pushed for the plan I doubt I would have ever received it. No suggestion I was meant to comment, reply or give any input.

We have a private tutor, I’ve sent her the plan and asked for her views. I think I’m not really sure what to ask for, I had a list but they were all pushed back due to resource

Thanks, we have a private tutor. We mainly got the diagnosis for confidence as well, but I think I was a bit shocked at how this plan didn’t seem to relate to my DD at all! I’d be happier if there wasn’t one at all tbh some stuff in it seems so damaging to me.

As much as you think it's generic and not applicable to her, you don't decide what she actually needs to learn.

Hopefully the tutor will give your child knowledge of where their strengths lie, and what helps. Eg sitting at front of class, printed handouts rather than copying from the board. Strategies depending on what type of learner they are. Can school provide monthly or weekly check ins with your child, as to how the plan is going, what is being implemented/ missed/ helpful.
I missed how old they are.

What experience do you have in this area? A plan is not about what she needs to learn it’s about what might help her learn, and in this case written by someone whose never met her

Op welcome to the school Sen system
What I found is that noone has any idea of what anything means and could t help at all
I had to get the knowledge to tell them

Can she read ? Has she failed the phonics test ?

Can you give an example of some of the things that you don’t think should be on the plan? Also, if the SENCo has never met your DD, who carried out the Dyslexia assessment?

My DS 16 just doing GCSE's now. He was diagnosed in year 7 so abit older than your DC.

I've never seen a written plan but had fairly regular contact with school at first but less now.

He has in place, extra time for all written/reading tasks and exams, everything printed out or he's given a laptop with it on so he doesn't have to copy from the board and everything is on green paper, handouts and his exercise books (that was after a visual stress diagnosis).

They tried him with a reader pen and reading software but he didn't like them.

The things that have worked for him were specific to what was in his diagnosis report and it has been abit of trial and error to find what has worked the best.

He is very good at advocating for himself, this has really helped getting the right measures in place.

Can your tutor suggest some specific measures to put in place to start with?

A senco would not be qualified to give a dyslexia diagnosis. They may use a screener, but that only gives an indication.
A diagnosis, is often paid for by the parents, and there are specific criteria on who is able to provide one.

There are a few councils where they will fund a diagnosis themselves, but I think this is the minority.
Sencos don't always know every child with an additional need, even in one much smaller than the number quoted. One page profiles, or what ever is being used, may be put together by the class teacher ( or I assume someone else).
It will vary from school to school, and teacher to teacher, but what a profile/plan says the school will provide, and what is actually provided isn't always the same. This may often be due to lack of time/resources, but not always.

Others will ( and my understanding is that they should), provide appropriate support based on seeing a need, even before a diagnosis is provided.

Honestly, I would try not to overthink it.

I say this as someone who was diagnosed at the same age as your daughter, and who went through the education system as a dyslexic person, so don't think I'm simplifying downplaying or trivializing it, but...

Its just dyslexia.

What I mean by that is, in the scheme of conditions that require support, it isn't one of the hardest to manage or most challenging to deal with. You have already done the main things right in getting a diagnosis, and seeking additional help (tutoring, special dyslexic classes etc.) Aside from that, extra time in exams when she is a bit older, access to technology so she can type rather than write etc. and she will be absolutely fine.

Looking back at the educational pathways of all of the kids that I used to know from my special dyslexic classes/SEND type groups, the only ones who really needed extensive or detailed support were those who had other conditions as well. E.G. Dyslexic + ___. For those who were just dyslexic? Extra help, extra, time, technology, and we all ended up getting through schooling and achieving well.

So for me, I would keep focusing on what you are doing at home. More reading, more support, tutoring etc. Let school muddle along, and then when she gets to the point were examinations matter, make sure that practical support, extra time, laptops etc, is in place.

It was a private assessment.

My issue with it is that it reads like an all encompassing list of absolutely anything you could try with a dyslexic child. No class teacher could hope to address even half of it and some are irrelevant to my DD. They should focus on a few meaningful measures with the things she actually struggles with, mainly spelling.

Some of the suggestions that are unnecessary / not needed for her:

Noise cancelling headphones - she has no sensitivity to sound or trouble concentrating on tasks.

Calm group at lunch time for children that struggle on the playground - she has a good group of friends, is very sociable, confident to make new friends and an active child. I questioned why she was going ages ago in case I was unaware of some difficulty and was told by her class teacher she could choose to go or not as she is a good influence on others and doesn’t need it. But there it was on the plan.

Breaking down instructions - she has no trouble following instructions, it says this in the assessment and in the questionnaire for the assessment her class teacher said this was not an issue and she even reminds him of things sometimes.

Her biggest issue is spelling - for this it just says “nessy” but she’s been doing this for three years with no impact so I had made some other suggestions such as focusing on year 2 words as she is with her dyslexic tutor - her dyslexia tutor offered to send in work. My suggestion ignored.

Games offered on chrome book if shes finding something challenging - my DD said this has never happened to her (thank goodness) because she is happy in the classroom and a hard worker so I would assume the teacher has never thought it necessary. But I am completely opposed to sticking a screen in a child’s face rather than helping them to deal with something challenging. This is what’s going wrong in society if you ask me and seems to be the school’s default for every little thing! Child upset at playtime - stick a chrome book in their face; ADHD child doesn’t disrupt lesson reward is miss a lesson to sit on the chrome book. Ridiculous.

Use a chrome book to write up notes - there is no way she could type fast enough for this yet! Not that it’s ever been done.

I could go on.

Tbh I think this is my issue with it - the plan reads like a child who can’t cope at all, which is not my DD! She just can’t spell!

So why they are suggesting things like noise cancelling headphones is beyond me.

My worry is this stuff is written down on her record and passed on to future teachers making it sound like a child with lots of difficulties which she isn’t.

tbh right now I’m kicking myself for even telling the school her diagnosis as they are making too much of it.

Request a further meeting to personalise the plan, ask for your daughter to attend so she can share her views on what isn't applicable to her.

Id prepare by making bullet points of her difficulties and then ask the senco what provision or interventions the school can offer to support those.

It may be the school have included their "ordinarily available" within her plan, this explains what the school offers for all pupils. Some of this may meet students individual needs.

In a nut shell, your requesting a person centered plan. Good luck!

My DD is dyslexic (diagnosed in Y3). As a PP says it’s very low down on the SEN list of the many, many, many things schools are required to support so at primary we got zero support. I get that though and we just cracked on with a tutor. At secondary I had a chat with the SEN coordinator before she started and she uses a lap top, coloured paper, a coloured screen over words and gets extra time for tests. Her report suggested many things that MAY work and we use the things that DO work but that’s been very much her and I seeing what works best and feeding back to the school who have been happy to implement.

The best advice that I was given for my DD was that she should learn to touch type and that she just needed to be able to get the first three letters of the word then the spell check would take over. Being able to touch type got her through GCSEs and sixth form as she had extra time and use of a computer.
At uni help was thrown at her recording software to make notes, more advanced grammar and spell checks. Plus 15 hours support a term and more for her dissertation.
As a dyslexic myself I wish I could touch type, but my life has been changed by AI. I record my consultations I have an app that then cuts out the waffle and creates my clinical notes which I check, amend and save.
Sadly it is about working out what you need to survive school. But as a dyslexic your DD will develop incredible problem solving skills and good lateral thinking. Plus the world is adapting to make it easier for dyslexics everyday. She will understand that everyone has different skills to bring to the table and her struggle will help her empathise in the work place and this builds strong teams.
I work clinically, but I lead teams and specialise in bringing change and rejuvenation of teams. My dyslexia has made me look at how my teams learn and use this to nurture them.
I talked to my DD’s about her super powers, she has extraordinary levels of verbal reasoning and verbal processing - as a performer this means that by listening she can learn whole scripts incredibly fast. As a teacher ( in between jobs) she is great with children with SEN as she gets what they need and these are some of the classes she loves most.
It is hard to feel in primary school that you need to work out how to help your child survive, but for DD like many others the diagnosis stopped the ridiculous ‘DD could do better if she tried harder’. Secondary was better as there’s a bigger range of subjects less emphasis on spelling.
Sorry a bit of a long post and probably the magpie dyslexic brain too, but it is a marathon for your DD, but she will be developing incredible skills that will benefit her in life.