Hi

Depends a little on the age of the pupil but there is some training and guidance within access arrangements both ks2 and gcse which may be useful directly or adaptable for your age range. The fundamental challenge is getting scribes to scribe mistakes !

Sonia

The rules for exam access scribing are the best starting point for this. We move our pupils to this approach as fast as possible so they build the required skills and the scribe becomes merely an extension of the pupil as they record their ideas.

We also work hard with our TAs to ask them to only record the pupil's work and not add to it or improve it in any way when acting as a scribe. This is hard but really important if teachers and parents are to have a clear picture of the pupil's skills and knowledge.

We are also using voice to text software such as Dragon with increasing frequency as this builds more independence.

I agree that the JCQ Access Arrangements and Reasonable Adjustments book is the best starting point, I use this as the basis of my staff training. It's also important to liaise closely with subject teachers and Heads of Departments, especially English, over the use of scribes and the impact on SPAG marks. Students automatically lose all SPAG marks when using a scribe unless they dictate all words letter by letter and/or punctuation. Teachers need to be aware of this as it makes a huge difference, especially in English. In one paper 16 marks are lost by using a scribe, this had a huge impact on one of our more able students and meant he could never achieve his target grade. We are very strict on our access arrangements from Y7 onwards so that staff and students are aware of what can and can't be done, especially as TAs are usually used to perform this role and students can't understand why they aren't guiding them towards the correct answer as they would do in class!

I may be able to help. Watch this space.....