Student Support Centre

claireaclog

he is 13 and dosn't know pucuation, verbs adverbs, how to round, top heavy fractions. He is a slow reader. general knowlede poor.
What is SENCO?

bitsandpieces

A SENCO is a special educational needs coordinator. If your son's having a wide range of problems, an assessment would likely be a good idea.

Whatever the results, the school should be supporting you to help your son progress - if all they did was to suggest this company, that would be quite disappointing. Was it your son's teacher who made this suggestion, or someone else? Did they offer any other support or suggestions?

eira

Sorry-should have explained that a SENCO was a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator. Their abilities are very variable but I believe they now have to be trained teachers.

At 13 I would ask for a detailed analysis of his reading and numeracy skills. The support in secondary is not as extensive as in primary and you have to be pushy. The SENCOs have basic tests that they can use for reading but maths/numeracy is an under examined area. Once children are in KS3 relatively minor learning difficulties can cause major difficulties with the curriculum. Children need a reading age of roughly 9.6 years to access the curriculum at KS3

Other assessment sources are Educational Psychologists (although their time is strictly rationed) and some Learner Support Teachers go into secondary schools

Don't be fobbed off-if you're concerned ask for further advice. There are organisations that can help-eg Parent Partnership. To be honest resources are so stretched that schools will only pick up on the most obvious issues-usually the child that is a hassle in class

I wouldn't touch a catch all tution service with a barge pole. I had a look at the Student Support site and didn't quite understand what tests they were using or what qualifications the staff had

There are a number of sites that can help with literacy/ numeracy issues. The BBC has a wealth of material . If you go on the Times Education website there are resources on there that you can download. But the school needs to help with the specifics

devildog

I believe that as parents we want the best for our children and want to do everything in our power to help them, however that can mean endless rounds of tuition for the children and them being pushed and not being allowed to develop in their own time. Where I live there is a selective grammar school(11 plus system) and I have seen and heard about no end of children that have been coached to take the test or had hours upon hours of endless tuition thrust upon them in the hope they will pass the 11 plus-and for what? The children then struggle through their senior years!! My two both took 11 plus exams, one passed (the younger one) and the older one failed. They both attended the local secondary school and were allowed to develop in their own time. The older one left school with A grade A levels(includ a merit in one subject and a distinction in another) The subject where a distinction was awarded was the very same subject where I was told at primary School that it would always be my child's achilles heel. LOL. Let your children be themselves and learn in their own good time!!

Shinglekicker

My problem with this lot is the way in which they are trawling for business - I had it confirmed today that they are paying the school to send out and collate the reply slips. The accompanying letter requests that all reply slips are returned even if the parents are not interested - even though the school and Headteacher do not endorse the service and the excuse given is "so that we can be sure that you have seen the leaflet" - for a product that they do not endorse!? The school do not take that amount of care to ensure that parents get the normal, more important, letters sent out -so it is obviously worth their while, but surprisingly thgere is no mention in the covering letter signed by the Headteacher that the school has this financial link with the company. Equally worryingly there is no mention anywhere that I can find on the leaflet or the website of the Data Protection Act. It took my 9 year old all of a minute after reading the letter to figure out why I had a problem with the letter and the reply slip - and with no prompting from me. The whole situation just seems wrong. When I raised the issue with the school I was told that lots of people had completed the slip, so what was the problem? Baaa, baaa is all I can say - the herd mentality at work.

oldermumof2

I have just read through the posts about SSC. We received the flyer from school last term, and I have just taken a call from them (SSC). I make it a rule never to sign up to anything by phone if they won't let you go away & think about it!
The lady I spoke to said she would call again next week, which has given me the opportunity to speak to my son's teacher (who has offered to give me some material & direction to help my son at home) & read the interesting perspectives on this forum.
I think the important thing to realise from the outset is that SSC is a company & companies (in the main) are set up to make money. Their product probably offers exactly what they say but there is no need to feel guilty if it is not for you (either financially or educationally). There is plenty of free or low cost advice & material out there!

daveyjp

We have just received their letter and as soon as I opened it I was very suspicious - thanks to this our suspicions are confirmed.

The school letter is less than honest - stating parents often ask for advice on study programmes and they are providing info on this particular company. They then state the school in no way endorse the service!

It is stated twice to return the SSC slip so 'school know you have seen the leaflet'.

SSC are asking for personal info, yet there is no DPA statement on the form - a legal requirement.

Our form won't be signed or returned and we will be advising other parents to do likewise and we are requesting a meeting as a matter of urgency with the head and chair of governors to find out what the crack is with this company.

holidayaholic

It's funny how the wording on the school's letter seems very similar - ours reads exactly as above, which implies that the company provided the wording the school was to use in it's cover letter, that makes me very uncomfortable.

I'm returning the slip as my dd is worried about not returning it (her teacher is nice, but try telling dd that!) but have written inside "I do not wish to provide personal information".

Will stick to the workbooks and spending quality time with my daughter.

daveyjp

holidayaholic - you have a PM. Please act on it.

Anyone else who has had info and a letter ask your headteachers if they authorised the letter which came with the leaflets.

Shinglekicker - was it the school head who said they get a kickback payment or the company?

nut417case

I must admit, HARRY1 is right. Had I read this and done my research, I would've never signed up for the programme. I don't have any doubt that perhaps the fella selling me the item didn't go into major detail that I was actually financing this programme. I was so used to somebody offering me a credit check before finding out if it were in my means.
I feel like this needs to be offered and in the event that perhaps you don't qualify for the financing, then they would strike some sort of deal. Unfortunately when I purchased the programme, my son was leaving primary school, heading into Junior School. Thje salemans came by during the summer holidays. I didn't understand this as I had handed the sheet given to me by the school when it was still in session. My decision would have been easier to make had I been responded to in a reasonable amount of time.

My son who is 7 made use of the programme during the last weeks of summer holiday but once school got on, he was so occupied with his own school work, there was no way the ssc work could fit in. Moreso he was bored with doing so much work!

I only wish I had done more research.