CEM and SEN how well do they go together ?

Advice on Special Needs and the 11 Plus Exams

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Sunshine 11
Posts: 247
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2012 7:29 pm

CEM and SEN how well do they go together ?

Post by Sunshine 11 »

I just wondered if anyone in a CEM area had any experience of obtaining any extra allowances. We are in a county where it is being introduced this year, lucky us ! to be the guinea pigs, although I think the new test may suit my daughter better than the old one which was super confusing, even to adults ! and very tutorable.

My DD has dyslexia and dyspraxic tendencies, not that you would know now, but it really affected her in infants. It took her ages to learn to read for example, now I can't stop her and she is well above average in reading (reading age 12).

She is no longer on school action but does still struggle in math and gets a bit of extra help from the teacher. She really wants to try for grammar,and now she has got used to working around her problems, her progress is immense.

However, I will be requesting extra time etc as I have an educational psychology report recommending this. I have been told by admissions they will need to review the CEM criteria specifically, so does anyone have any experience of CEM in this aspect from other counties ? also, is anyone else putting in special requests this year in Glos ?

I am not too hopeful as she is not on school action, but it is worth an ask and is evidence if we have to appeal
Sunshine 11
Que sera, sera
DC17C
Posts: 1197
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:34 pm

Re: CEM and SEN how well do they go together ?

Post by DC17C »

How is she managing in any school tests she does- ie does she get extra time for these? If not then I think it may be hard to get it for the 11 +. I only ask as I went through it with the 2012 11+ as I always suspected DS was dyspraxic but his reading and maths were excellent - so he did not need any extra time in school and it was only after the 11 + and the fact that he did not pass
that I decided to get an assessment done which put DS on the 2nd percentile :( .
Anyway armed with this information and his academic evidence we did appeal and he is now at Crypt and doing fine -he is having help with his handwriting but he uses his laptop for a lot of his work and this works fine. I did have a chat with the SENCO and was told they would monitor his progress and would only be able to get extra time for exams when he is older if he needed them when younger.

One thing that may be worth considering is that DS's report advised that DS may not need extra time but may need movement breaks to be allowed to stop and stretch and move around every so often and this could improve his concentration. This would mean sitting in a different room to not disturb anyone else. We did not know this until after the test and it is something that might have helped DS as he passed the first paper and did much worse on the second paper and did say his hand was sore from the writing.
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