pjsmum

Thanks all for very sage advice. A long time ago, before she even started school, and before we had heard of Asperger, we knew that she would not be able to cope with a mainstream school. Even though we lived about a hundred yards from the local primary, we decided to send her to a private school. This was due, in part, to class size: there were 36 in the local primary, 16 at the nearest private school. She was always 'different' from the other children, and we started to try to get a diagnosis of whatever it was at about age 9. Meanwhile, she was put in a scholarship class, did well and won a scholarship to a private senior school. We thought she was coping... Private schools are big on sport, and she hated that - someone suggested she might be dyspraxic, but the specialist we saw said she wasn't. Turns out she never slept. She was constantly tired, and stayed in bed nearly all weekend and every holiday. Once at senior school, she did well, but she was increasingly having what I can only describe as temper tantrums. If something wasn't right, she would rage for hours. I remember once her MP3 player ran out of battery on the way home... I continued to scour the internet and eventually came to think she had Asperger's, and she was finally diagnosed just before her GCSE exams. By this point, after 16 years, we had learnt various coping strategies at home. For example, we knew never to take her to a town centre, never to plan anything without giving her a detailed itinerary, never to leave home without all the things she needed to take with her (bags of the stuff), never to tidy her room, always to check where she wanted to sit in restaurants before sitting down. The list goes on. She took 10 GCSEs and got As in all of them. Then she began to fall apart. Perhaps because she finally had a diagnosis, coupled with the fact that she was studying Psychology, she became very anxious about the lack of control she had over her daily life. She hated the fact that she couldn't leave the school if she didn't have any lessons. She began counselling, and it became apparent that she did not actually learn anything in lessons - she would come home and teach herself what had been covered that day. Obviously, with the amount of work involved in A-level, this was too much for her. Despite her academic background, the school insisted that her 'potential' was limited because their Alis tests showed that she would only get Bs in the subjects she was taking. When we queried this, and reminded the school of her Asperger's, we asked if this might skew the results of this baseline testing stuff, but nobody seemed to know. The school called in an educational psychologist, who was the one who confirmed how bright she is, and said she should be achieving much higher than she was (by this time, she had taken AS level exams and failed them). There were suggestions on how to improve my daughter's life, such as not attending assembly, where she frequently had panic attacks, and suggestions on adapting teaching styles, which were implemented to a degree, but did not seem to make much difference. When it came time to put in a UCAS entry, the school stuck to their line about her potential, and refused to endorse any application that did not conform to their belief of her ability. Since they have to write a reference, we were kind of stuck. My daughter, meanwhile, was really confused. She had no problem in learning and understanding the work she was doing, but was unable to translate this into exam success. While we believed that this was because of a combination of things, such as her discomfort at the school, lack of sleep and problems with interpreting exam questions, the school, of course, saw it as a vindication of their position on her ability. As a result, my daughter did not apply to university last year, and has decided to take A-levels this year, working with distance learning colleges. While I'm somewhat concerned that this means an entire year spent largely in her room, I am incredibly proud of her determination to succeed and hope that it will suit her better. On the other hand, of course, we have to be aware that this system might not work either - the school might be right, and she might not be able to achieve good grades at A-level. In that case, we have researched other channels, such as the Open University, or the Harvard Extension college - but I really hope it will be possible for her to get in to a university where she will feel at home, and have the life she wants. Luckily, she has friends who are also taking a year before going on to further study, so we are doing the opposite of most other parents and encouraging her to go out. Often, she will just say she can't be bothered... So thanks to everyone who posted a reply here. I'm quite encouraged by the advice and hope that we are helping her. I would still like to know more about these Alis tests though. I can't believe that something designed to test 'standard' students can accurately measure non-standard ones.

Thanks for the quick replies. She is, in fact, thinking about taking an extra year following A2, but she wants to do home study (even more time spent alone in her room?), which she claims is more effective anyway - she has always said that she has to come home after school and re-teach herself everything that has been covered in lessons. She would then, hopefully, be able to apply through UCAS as an individual, rather than through the school, although the school would still write a reference. She is being very mature in realising that she is not as mature as others her age(!), and probably needs an extra year to sort herself out. It has been very confusing getting such mixed messages from the Ed. Psych and the school. On the one hand, she is obviously bright, but, on the other, she is not expected to do well. When we spoke to the Cambridge disability group, they seemed to imply that they would not offer lower grades, but might consider her ahead of someone with similar grades. They do have the special access scheme, but I'm not sure if that would be any help, given that her indifferent results so far already form part of her record. Thanks again

Does anyone have any information about the standardised/baseline testing that is done to 'predict' grades at GCSE and A-level? As I understand it, these tests are predictive against the norm, and since AS students are nowhere near the norm, it would seem to me that the results are not accurate for AS students. Specifically.... My daughter was tested and adjudged to be below average, despite her AS diagnosis and the opinion of educational psychologists that she was in the top 0.3% of the population for intelligence (Wechsler testing etc...). As a result of the predictions, she was not encouraged to apply to the universities she was interested in (because she stood no chance of getting good enough grades to get in). When she did badly at AS, this was seen as vindication of the Alis test, even though many other problems were being addressed at the time (sleeplessness, panic attacks, new teachers, changes in routine, irregular periods, depression). When we saw her tutors, they were adamant that she did not have much academic potential, despite 10 As at GCSE, an academic scholarship at the school and personal references from some of her teachers. They saw the Alis test results as 'proof' that she was nothing special, and suggested some of the 'newer' universities as being better able to deal with someone with her problems. Not impressed. Is there a chance that any universities look beyond the predictions during their assessment of candidates, or does she have to wait until she achieves brilliant A level results to prove everyone wrong and then apply?