[senco-forum] Use of Digital Recorder in A level lessons - Urgent help and advice needed for student with dyslexia

Hi Everyone,

I need some advice regarding the use of a digital recorder in lessons.  I am
the SENCO in a secondary school and in September a young lady joined our
Sixth Form from another school.  The young lady has dyslexia, mild cerebral
palsy and experiences problems processing information.  Our EP has carried
out a number of assessments on her and found that, in terms of her reading,
number work and spelling, she is functioning on a level similar to that of
an eleven year old.  Our school has strict entry criteria for the Sixth Form
and this young lady has worked extremely hard to meet the criteria, given
her disabilities. 

She needs a great deal of support in class but is such a determined and hard
working student.  She is studying four A level subjects; Geography, English
Lit., Sociology and General Studies.  In order to help her with the
development of knowledge and understanding, her father purchased a digital
voice recorder for her to use in her lessons. This was on the advice posted
on many of the Dyslexia related websites. 

Before the student started using the recorder, I instructed her to ask the
teacher at the beginning of each lesson for permission to use it. This is
what she does. Teachers have been informed that they can keep the recorder
on their desk and pause the recording whenever they wish to do so
(especially if they are reading the riot act to young Johnny who is
disrupting the lesson).  Teachers have also been told that, if they were
unhappy with the way the lesson went, and they want to delete the whole
lesson, they may do so.  If the teacher can also ask the LSA to operate the
recorder and the teacher just has to indicate that she wants it turned off
and the LSA will do this. The young lady fully understands that teachers do
have the legal right to refuse to have their lessons recorded and she is
more than happy with this arrangement - anything she can get in an audio
format is of great use to her. 

Following a lesson, she uploads the recording to her computer and saves it
as an MP3 file.  This is labelled, e.g.  Chaucer, Chapter 4 Lesson notes.
She then plays these back when working on her homework and when revising for
class test and exams.  This way she can access the information much easier
than trying to read notes.  Also, all the time she is trying to write up
notes, she is too busy concentrating on her writing and spelling and is
therefore, not gaining an understanding of the points being made.

Initially, all of her subject teachers were happy with the arrangements and
regarded the use of the recorder in a positive manner.  However, one of her
teachers (Head of English) has objected to her using it but has not said
why.  This objection has not been caused by the young lady misusing or
abusing the use of the recorder.  It is simply that the teacher objects to
her using it.  He has now told the other members of staff in his department
that they must not allow her to use the recorder in any of their English
lessons.

This has created a very awkward situation.  As SENCo, I regard the use of
the recorder as a 'reasonable adjustment' under the DDA (1995) and believe
that the rules for use that we have put in place are very reasonable for all
parties.  All of her other subject teachers have no objection. 

 Disability Equality and the DDA state that it is our duty to ensure that
reasonable adjustments are made so that pupils have access to the curriculum
and information.  In a audio format, the student can access the information.
However, I fully appreciate the fact that teachers do have the right to
refuse students recording their lessons. 

Can anyone offer me any advice on what I should do in this situation?

Christine