post 11+ mid year sats taken a dive? will it scupper appeal?

[mystery]

Great. Hopefully it will be a satisfying journey for you both with, of course, some lows along the way!

Maybe he would enjoy working on some very big sheets of paper sometimes - space for him to think on - pictures, diagrams, whatever helps him get it.

Take each topic back to the basics if necessary too e.g. If he is slow at working out time differences he is going to struggle with a complex time problem. But if he gets method right, answer wrong this is still good - just more time needed on the basic arithmetic.

The current year 6 is the first to sit ks2 calculator free so he may need more emphasis on mental maths than his big brother?

[MedievalBabe]

Hi Southbucks3.
We had to go for appeal last year due to our DS sight. After Easter Y5 his sight started to deteriorate, starting with double vision, but he refused to tell us there was a problem as he didn't want to worry us. He was working out ways to cover the fact he couldn't see properly and stopped reading. We went for the annual eye test and they diagnosed double vision and referred him to the hospital for further treatment. Unfortunately the initial hospital treatment made things worse and everything became blurred.
We were helpfully told to rest his eyes and it will sort itself out, 8 weeks later and it's worse, 11+ is less than 2 weeks a way and no chance of any treatment beforehand. But he also wasn't telling us how bad it really was, so we were guessing. School had noticed that his work had started to plateau and his tutor had noticed he wasn't scoring as high as he had been previously. The advantage for him was that he was bright and was finding ways to work around the problem rather than giving up, but it did mean he wasn't checking his work or reading his teachers comment!

He didn't do as well as hoped so we knew from the minute the results came out we would have to appeal, but that was beneficial. DS started treatment and had to wear glasses, to make it worse they were temporary, adult, over the counter reading glasses so didn't look good. During his treatment we saw an Opthalmic surgeon and asked for a letter giving us his opinion on whether his sight would have affected his performance in the exam. In the consultation he verbally had said there was no way he could have read the paper and this was confirmed in his letter. We had been warned that it could take a couple of months to get a letter so having the extra time to obtain it was helpful.
We also started using a Kindle with him at home and we got permission to use it in school, which meant he was now able to keep up in Guided reading and join in with his group. This gave us further evidence on what he could and couldn't read, he was on the largest size the kindle would go and we presented this at the appeal. The Kindle was amazing for him as he changed overnight from a boy who was struggling to read to a child who could read and devoured books again.
Our appeal was successful and DS has normal sight again, but refuses to take his prescription glasses off as they have become a comfort to him. I hope this can give you some comfort.

[Guest55]

Southbucks3 - why doesn't he make his own problems up or adapt ones he's solved before?

E.g. start with an apple costs 30p - make up a problem.

Jane goes into a shop and buys 5 apples, how much does it cost?

Can we make it harder?

Jane goes into a shop and buys 5 apples, how much change does she get from £5 note?


Another strategy is have a number sentence e.g. 34 + 22 = 66 and make a question to fit that.

There were 34 people on a bus and 22 people got on, how many people are on the bus altogether?


Problem solving can be great fun

[mystery]

Yes - that reminds me to try doing something like that with one of mine for the type of problem she quite often gets stuck on. Thanks.

South bucks - hope you are feeling happier about future appeal evidence now. You have time to make an impact.

Do you have the option of a good upper in case it does not go your way? Your son is clearly able enough but no guarantees at appeals and all that.

[southbucks3]

The upper is good, like I said IF you are in the top fast track sets, but streaming is immediate, and you need level 5 to be there. The cats tests they do after 8 weeks, they reportedly ignore? However, as they just got a big kick up the jacksy from ofsted, hopefully the head will be pulling out all the stops to improve things? The kids are in the main lovely, it is a relatively small, locals school, and parents and kids form a big part of the local community, to a better level than the gs imo, so that is a huge bonus.

We will make it...up to/back to level 5...we must stay positive.

[mystery]

Yes you will. Work "smart" on the right things and you will.

[southbucks3]

Hello,

I am bumping my thread just to thank all the lovely people who gave us support.

Ds2 went to a specialist in January, and it was discovered his eyes are moving at different speeds as he reads, which means he ends up blurry by about every 8th word, has to stop, re-focus and begin again, this twinned with astigmatism (which he had glasses for, but prescription too strong) was really straining his eyes, giving him headaches, and slowing him down. He now has special glasses and eye exercises to strengthen the muscles in his right eye, but most importantly has discovered for himself what blurry is

He just this week sat two new mocks, maths and reading and in just under 3 months has gone up three sub levels He had rest breaks for his reading test (not extra time) as his eyes still get very tired, and start watering when he reads more than a few pages, as the prisms are great, but obviously forcing his eyes to do something they do not want to do. We have a follow up consultation next month. He has been practicing his mental maths, and I have been reading much more to him at bedtime too, as he struggles more when tired, but clearly it is his new prescription, twinned with the rest breaks that are the biggest change.
He is thrilled, and when he came joint top three in the reading test and got the results yesterday, he ran out of school and told me.."I am back" ...and was not embarrassed to receive a big up in the air cuddle!
Obviously he must not get lazy now, and has to work very hard on his eye excercises, to develop the muscles in his right eye.

Best of all for him, he can now go cross eyed....a trick that took lots of tears, head aches and hard work to master, but was the first excercise he had to learn to do....I never realised he could not!

So, should I have forked out for a specialist private optometrist a year ago? Well as the chap said "this has been allowed to go on far too long, and if it is not rectified quickly now he will simply shut down one eye"...not good! The local NHS available optometrist is good, but not specialist, we tried reading glasses, we tried coloured overlays, we tried using rulers, but nothing really worked that we'll, so the cost and three month wait fir the specialist became essential. Mostly he hid it so well, how could a child play sport so well, and do so well generally at school with an eye condition?

I never thought I would be happy to hear my son call across a hockey field "it's gone all blurry", and take a moment to re-focus, but like many people, men in particular, he had to admit to himself he was not physically perfect, and then he could move on...hard for a "jock", but as very very unsporty parents, perhaps hard for us to relate?

So I ramble on....Sorry...
We are definitely going to appeal now, who knows what the outcone will be, but even if we don't win, I am glad he was 11+ tested, and glad he had sats tests, because otherwise we may not have had so many alarm bells ringing!

Thank you again lovely people.

SB 3

[kenyancowgirl]

Good to hear southbucks3! My mum always reminds us of the story of when my sister finally got fitted for glasses. She walked out of the optician and got all excited "Mummy! Mummy! There's leaves on the trees...!" Both my parents burst into tears, so of course I did too...but it was an amazing day!
xx

[Marylou]

So glad to hear that things are on the up! Best of luck with the appeal - plenty of strong evidence there to take with you!