VI & Aspergers - Resources and Adjustments for 11+ ?

Advice on Special Needs and the 11 Plus Exams

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Tahu
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 2:02 pm

VI & Aspergers - Resources and Adjustments for 11+ ?

Post by Tahu »

Hello! I am so glad I found this forum, I hope someone here can help me. I am very sorry it is a very long post, not the best first impression I know , but I have so many questions. Our case seems as complex as they get :-?

I have a son who is visually impaired registered blind. He has some vision in central field and with a SEN statement is thriving in a mainstream school , top table for all subjects. In addition to VI, he also has Asperger's (high-functioning type of autism) , hypersensitivity to sound and mild dyspraxia. He will be sitting the 11+ exams next year , but we do not live in an area with grammar schools at the moment and it is very difficult to find any information , because nobody here seems to know.

I would like to find out what adjustments would be available for my son to be able to access the tests. Is there a list published anywhere?

For exam preparation are large-print sample papers available to view or purchase? I bought the NFER practice papers and while my son can just about read the question papers with lots of straining, the answer sheets are just impossible for him :( white text on pale pinkish-red background ... tiny text and boxes... :(. Magnified photo-copying doesn't help either , contrast is lost and my son can't cope with pages bigger than A4 anyway. Are there any exam preparation resources available for VI children to familiarize my son with the layout and to make sure that he can access them?

Also, I have a lot of questions about the organization of the exams on the day. Would any parents of children with special needs share how it goes? Are parents allowed to help the child to their seat? Who looks after the child if they need the toilet or need to be taken out of the room for any reason? My son will not be comfortable with strangers and will not be able to navigate independently in an unfamiliar environment. I have lots of other concerns. What if he drops his pencil? He will not be able to find it :( Are the desks big enough for a writing slope? What happens during breaks between exams?

We will be applying at foundation schools in different LEAs, as we don't have grammars here. Who is responsible for putting in place the adjustments? For example, my son needs a writing slope. Who should provide it - us, the home LEA, the school LEA or the school??

My son's current school are very good and do for him things that are not in his statement , but I understand that it is very important for all required adjustments for tests to be mentioned in the statement. We will have an educational psychologist assessment and ask for changes in the statement based on that. What should I be asking the E.P. to emphasise in the report specifically with a view to sitting the selective tests? We had an E.P. assessment done in the past, but there was no mention in the report of e.g. extra time for exams because I was told 25% was automatically given to ALL children with statements , so no need to mention it in the statement specifically! This may apply just for our LEA , but I don't know ... , and in any case we will be applying for schools in another LEA and from this site I see that we have to apply for extra time separately. What else can we reasonably ask for?

If my son is allowed extra time, how does this work? Will he be in a separate room from the other children? What if there are other children with different extra time allowed? Are they going to be timed individually? Seems very disruptive and confusing for everybody... How does the NVR test work with the separate sections with breaks in between? Is extra time for SEN children taken while the other children are having a break??

Sorry I don't know if what I am asking makes sense. I am so confused.

Thank you all for any advice you can give.
Snowdrops
Posts: 4667
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2007 5:20 pm

Post by Snowdrops »

Hello Tahu and welcome to the forum.

I'm sorry I can't help you with your question but wanted to reply to let you know the boards are a bit quiet at the moment as everyone is busy with Christmas but someone WILL come along and answer your questions, in the meantime it would be helpful if you could tell us which county/area you're applying for as this will affect the answer.

You're looking and asking questions in plenty of time which is good and everything can be in place by the time you son sits the exams.

Keep checking back and someone will be along before too long I'm sure :D
Image
Tahu
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 2:02 pm

Post by Tahu »

Snowdrops, thank you for your reply. We will be looking to relocate to Berkshire or Kent, but for various reasons it is not possible to know yet. We are looking at co-educational grammars west and south of London. Slough, Kent, Bexley? We don't know yet where we will be moving , but I thought that the legal requirements for adjustments would be the same for all LEAs, am I wrong?
Tahu
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 2:02 pm

Post by Tahu »

Slough is my personal preference based solely on schools, because without haveing yet seen any schools in person, Slough Grammar seems like a very good choice for our son for reasons of specialism, and also based on their SEN questionnaire on another well known website that has school reviews (I don't know if it is allowed to mention it). Slough Grammar have said that they have experience with severe visual impairment and also Asperger's.

But for other personal and professional reasons Kent would be more likely.

In short, we don't know yet, so I need to be prepared for either :-?
SSM
Posts: 646
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 12:09 pm

Post by SSM »

Talu,

Different LEA's have different rules as to what allowance is made for children.

Your case is also very unusual. I would suggest that you contact the Educational Dept of each of the LEA's you are interested in and discuss the situation with them.

For example, when I enquired about extra time for the Kent test for my dyslexic son, I was told that he would only be allowed extra time for the written piece, which is only looked at at Headmasters appeal.

It might also be worth contacting the schools to see if they will be able to meet your sons needs.

You could also trying posting in the relevant area sections lower down the page.

Sorry to not be of much help.
Tahu
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 2:02 pm

Post by Tahu »

SSM, yes, our case is unusual :( I contacted our LEA, but they clearly had no experience with SEN children and selective schools and could not help me, without saying as much. I did not want to contact the other (potential !) LEAs before I had some clarity for myself - I have found that with various authorities it is best not to ask questions to which I do not know the answers myself first :lol:

I was planning to contact schools directly further down the line, after March allocation day . I thought if I call them while they were still dealing with admissions for 2010 , that wouldn't look good. But we definitely have to visit the schools before we even start to talk to them about whether they can meet my son's needs - no point wasting their time if my son doesn't like the feel of the school in the first place.
KB
Posts: 3030
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:28 pm

Post by KB »

Agree with all the above! that different LEAs have different rules & you need to make sure the schools you apply to can meet your son's needs before deciding which LEAs you need to speak to.
We are different in this area because the schools rather than LEA admnister the 11+. However the rules are not the same as for national exams such as Sats, GCSE etc. My children all have 25% extra time for these but not for 11+.
Recently introduced the multiple choice answer paper for VR & youngest was allowed a member of staff to mark down the answers for him. Would be suprised if your son wasn't allowed this so you could practice in this way if he cant cope with the answer paper.
I doubt they would let parents in to the exam room/take him to the loo but it might be possible to negotiate for him to meet the memeber of staff responsible before hand or if he is at a local primary by then for a TA to accompany him for example (if they were willing of course!)
It sounds like you have a huge task ahead of you - very best wishes with it all!
chad
Posts: 1647
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2005 1:49 pm
Location: berkshire

Post by chad »

HI Tahu,

I have had a good experience with aspergers at Slough Grammar.
Is it ok if I PM (private message) as obviously there are some details I would not like to be on the forum.
[img]http://sl.glitter-graphics.net/pub/748/748895c3fyugpiju.gif[/img]
Etienne
Posts: 8978
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:26 pm

Post by Etienne »

Dear Tahu

It's not one of the areas you mention, but the following gives an example of how one local authority deals with the issue of reasonable adjustments for the 11+:
http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/assets/conten ... _Entry.pdf
Etienne
Tahu
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2009 2:02 pm

Post by Tahu »

KB, it's interesting what you say about the 25% extra time for other exams. Maybe that's what the school and LEA meant when they told me about the 'automatic 25% extra time', since there are no selective tests in our borough, only SATs, GCSEs, etc.

If they allow a TA to mark the answers, then how does this work for multiple choice questions, since for example the child has to be able to see the answers for some verbal reasoning questions? For some of the codes questions where there is a bunch of letters, it would really be very slow to have to read out one letter at a time, and some of the answers can be eliminated very quickly based on groupings of letters. They would really have to provide an enlarged answer sheet for my son, or the answers would have to be shown on the question booklet, in large print, and then he could pick the right answer and tell the TA to mark it on the answer sheet. Has this ever been done?

Chad, I would really appreciate it if you could PM me. I was planning to contact you myself, I have already read some of your posts on the Berkshire forum.
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