To question private/indep schools 'extra time' in exams

They were exaggerated - they were represented as being significantly higher than they actually were. That’s what exaggerated means. (If they were just wrong, some could have been higher and some lower. The use of the word exaggerate means they were wrong in the higher direction.)

The cause of the exaggerated figures may well be a calculation error - OFQUAL haven’t explained that bit properly yet but presumably will when they publish fresh figures.

Funny that they didn’t check or interrogate the figures before they published them, but it must have seemed to fit a prevailing prejudice - which is evident on this thread - that “everyone’s at it”, so they didn’t check properly.

Very poor from a state regulator, whose pronouncements some take as gospel.

Not all children need to be tested in schools. Children with a consultant’s diagnosis (e.g. ASD/ADHD) wouldn’t need testing and children with an EHCP wouldn’t need testing. However, having these diagnoses doesn’t automatically qualify candidates for anything. There has to be evidence that the candidates usual way of working is being transferred into the examination room. Exam access arrangements should not be a special advantage given for exams but a usual adaptation to level the playing field for the student.

They weren’t exaggerated - they were just wrong owing to a calculation error.

Turns out the data was totally wrong and exaggerated.

Figures are much much lower and OFQUAL has withdrawn the data set this week.

But look at all these people jumping on the band wagon to show their prejudice.

Turns out it’s the state regulator, OFQUAL, that is at fault here…

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jul/17/ofqual-admits-massively-exaggerating-number-of-students-getting-exam-assistance

My point is that independent schools take time to find which children may need extra support and then progress them to assessment and exam adjustments if necessary. Whereas in the state sector many pupils who might actually have undiagnosed SEN don’t always get picked up in the first place.

My daughter’s (indie) school had every child sit a very comprehensive proprietary computer-adaptive screening text for SEN (including dyslexia, processing difficulties, dyspraxia, motor skills and so on) in their first term of year 7 to identity any learning issues. I’m not aware that most state schools do this (though they may, I don’t know).

Several kids in her class are in the school precisely because they have diagnosed ADHD/ASD/dyslexia/dyspraxia/etc., but are just managing enough that they don’t need extensive learning adjustments as long as they are in a small supportive teaching environment where they can cope with the setting.

Being a dyslexia assessor is expensive - buying and storing the test kits, renewing the Assessment Practising Certificate every three years, doing mandatory (costly) professional development each year. Even the paper forms can’t be photocopied - must be bought from the test kit companies.

I’ve also heard of people sharing the name of exams access assessors who are prepared to alter test results.

A dyslexia assessment report cannot be used for examination access arrangements. It used to be the case, but not for many years now.

This makes sense, I’ve heard people sharing the same name.

i also wonder if it’s assessors way of justifying their high fees. They get paid a lot, kid gets extra time, parent happy and makes referral, school gets kid into the secondary if choice. Winning all around.

Private school parents will pay for their children to get assessed. Some children will genuinely meet the criteria. Other children will not, but the assessor will stretch the issues the child faces so they do meet the criteria. There are some private assessors where you get what you pay for.

11+ must be different. It’s quite the battle to get any access arrangements for SATs unless the child has an EHCP.

We aren’t at GCSE yet by for the 11+ you literally have to do a left eye tear and quiver slightly and you get extra time at our school. It’s ridiculous.

also reminds me these numbers are averages… so some schools could have much higher???

Anxiety = rest breaks and a smaller room, not extra time.
Students with a diagnosis of autism automatically get extra time.
Students with a diagnosis of dyslexia do not automatically get extra time at school, although they do at university.
The rules are incredibly strict. Most assessors would not risk their practising certificate by artificially lowering the scores on the tests for extra time/a reader.

Now that’s a radical (good) idea. I suppose though that some candidates would just drone on for ages creating volume not quantity

Have to say I did find the 40% a pretty startling figure. I don’t think it can be accounted for by higher actual SEND incidence as the national proportion of pupils in independent schools is still relatively low, and the identified SEND rate between state and Indy is not actually that different.

i do know lots of disadvantaged state school pupils whose dyslexia, DCS, Autism, ADHD , etc been ‘discovered’ until further or higher education. Those were the ‘lucky’ ones who didn’t just drop out at 16!

I'm not surprised by the data. A lot of parents of children with special needs feel that the smaller more individualised environment an indie can provide will help their kids and will find a way to manage the fees if they possibly can. Obviously not everyone can but some families can manage it by compromising their lifestyles.

Totally agree 26.5% in state sector is BS. One in four kids … really?

Also think indie is BS. Indie should be c25% max and state 10-15%, mostly because people DO move their kids into private because of additional needs.

Biggest driver of non-need is parents seeing other people have extra time and then demanding it themselves so their kid doesn’t lose out. anxiety seems to be the biggest reason around here.

tbf though, if I thought it would buy me some time for a better grade I’d tell everyone I had anxiety too.

Honestly this generation is utterly stuffed, all the expect is exemption after exemption .

Agree, I had a scholarship to a pretty good independent school and was there a few years doing well in most subjects but inexplicably results were quite mediocre in others. One of the teachers suggested that given the pattern of errors I was making, (I won't bore with details) this might be dyslexia, so they arranged an assessment by an educational psychologist within a few weeks and the report was back a couple of weeks after that showing that was indeed the case. I was tested again as an adult, before my professional exams, with the same result. It might not have been picked up in many settings because by any measure I was doing quite well already. But as you say, smaller class sizes, and a willingness to fund the relevant tests directly if a student needs them certainly help.

A diagnosis of dyslexia does not qualify a student for access arrangements. Every student in every school has to be tested within the two years before GCSEs and some dyslexic students don’t qualify for a reader, although most will qualify for 25% extra time.

I don’t see why exams have to have a time limit at all - it’s meant to test knowledge not how quickly you can write it down. Exams could just be a guideline time with access to leave quietly after a minimum time period / at half hour intervals (to not be too disruptive).

JCQ have always favoured rest breaks over extra time. It’s unfair on students who genuinely need that time to write/type and check their answers.

The rules on extra time are the same for all schools. The rules for having a reader are much more stringent than for extra time, and the rules for a scribe have been tightened since most students now know how to use a laptop. I know of at least one independent school that would not accept the results needed for examination access arrangements from their internal assessor. They paid for an external assessor who was prepared to artificially lower the scores so that more students qualified for examination access arrangements. Risky business.

Not bullshit just money.

My kids are in the independent sector. In Y2 every child is screened for Dyslexia by the school. If indicators are there school chat to you. If you pay for school fees finding £900 for an Ed Psych report is not a challenge.