Special needs and extra time

Ok you obviously have a massive grudge against this topic or you simply are one of those women who see their child as a perfect angel. My daughter is taking her Mocks at the moment and will soon take her GCSE's. she has 25% extra time because she is dyslexic. Now dyslexia isn't simply caused because someone didn't learn to read or write until later in life- that's just pathetic and makes you sound stupid. My daughter also has short term memory loss- and no this isn't caused by some random shit you'll come up with- this means she finds it extremely difficult to memorise big chunks of recently learned things. Some people with dyslexia do not always get extra time because it isn't serious enough. My daughter doesn't have an unfair advantage at these exams because of this extra time, it's simply there to give her a fair fighting chance. But you need to get your head out your arse- stop trying to diagnose your daughter with things and don't compare her to others. Your daughter may just not have worked hard enough or may have inherited your stupidity but it is perfectly normal to be under time pressure. I find it outrageous how close minded you are and your opinions disgust me, I know my daughter constantly puts herself down about how clever she is- when she doesn't realise just by getting into the school she's in proves how clever she is. You need to stop being so descriminatory.

Ha - silly OP, - and this is my response to that ridiculous report: starlightmckenzie.wordpress.com/2017/02/24/a-survey-of-teacher-prejudice/

This is a total zombie thread and was goady in the first place.

Spend you energy on complaining to the Guardiana me Daily Mail who've both published really ill informed and parent-blaming article biased on a really rubbish survey of teachers in the last few days

So is it fair that some people get special treatment with extra time, scribes, money for a laptop etc. just because they haven't learned to read and write or been brought up to concentrate on things that matter to them?

Are you fucking serious! Or just thick? My son has been brought up exactly the same as his brother, who is expected to get a's and a*'s in his gcse's, but there is something wrong with the wiring in his brain which causes his problems-dyslexia- not because he hasn't been brought up to concentrate on things that matter.

Sorry for the bad language but people thinking ADHD, dyslexia learning difficulties etc is because parents couldn't be bothered is so wrong.

I was a SENCo and I had the qualification, so I could assess. Nevertheless, the exam boards, as has been stated, do not hand out access arrangements on a whim.

I'm interested to know what a 'truly dyslexic' person looks like, because in my experience, dyslexia or a specific learning difficulty manifests itself in a variety of ways. I never worked in a private school, so cannot comment on their procedures, but can say quite categorically that the access arrangements I applied for, were for students who would have been disadvantaged without them.

Ouch OP!

My Ds is still getting shit about the fact he had extra time for his maths SATS and a scribe for his English SATS (8 months on) apparently he cheated and should not be in the highest sets at High school, Ds started to believe this and started to decline any support given in his new school until I pointed out that if he wasn't capable of being in these sets he would of been moved down by now. He will need exactly the same (possibly more) when he hits his GCSE's.

He just about scrapped in with the levels expected from him, he is actually capable of much much more but that was all the support he qualified for. I thank god someone somewhere sees my Ds as someone who needs support to succeed other wise he may as well go sit in a cupboard for the rest of his life.

Maybe both you and your daughter should spend some time with the Dc who are merely 'cheeky' and 'slow' at reading and writing so you can see there is a lot more to it than that..........on the other hand, no you definitely shouldn't.

Just be aware that the supporting evidence provided to grant special conditions in exams for GCSEs and A levels might not be robust enough to grant special conditions at university. For specific learning difficulties it absolutely must be supported by an assessment by and Educational Psychologist. A letter from a SENCO isn't enough.

It is all about bringing exam candidates up to a level playing field, and 25% extra time doesn't mean a candidate will be writing solidly during the whole exam.

Some students get to top universities with their specific learning difficulties undiagnosed. They will have worked extremely hard to compensate for their difficulties and reach a point where they simply can't keep working at the level required without some help.

At a first glance the special conditions granted might seem unfair, but in reality they rarely are.

Some really good responses here, which have saved me from getting a leeeeeeetle bit crazy mad at the poster. Do you think that we didn't try to teach our children to read when they were young...that we just forgot? That the phonics teaching thought thingy got mislaid whilst watching Downton Abbey? As for the fact that more children are diagnosed in private schools because their parents want their kids to be the next JK Rowling - that's pretty offensive. There are lots of reasons, which include: that if you are in smaller classes with more teacher attention it is more likely to be picked up, parents who are paying are statistically going to be likely (not more likely - just likely) to be focused on how their child is progressing, a child with difficulties may be moved into a private school as they are suffering in their previous school, they don't go to the local grammers, so many reasons. I'm only sad that there isn't more support and recognition for all children with SEN, as there are so many people, like the poster of this thread, who don't understand and therefore belittle the situation in it's many forms. My dd spent two years (yrs 2-4) crying every morning as she didn't want to go to school, getting anxiety stomach aches and then sitting in class panicking, unable to hold her pencil and in fear of being asked to read in class or ridiculed by her fellow pupils. For the record, this was a private school and one which focused on getting kids scholarships and had she been diagnosed before applying, she would probably not have been given a place. When we moved area we were lucky enough to be able to afford to put her into another private school as knew of one with a good rep nationally for good academics as well as good SEN provision (Westonbirt Prep/Senior) but I really wish that this was available across the board for every parent, as it really is so stressful, particularly when there are so many people begrudging the few (threatened, as recent news items suggest) playingfield levelers that there are.

My son has dyslexia and struggles to complete exams without extra time, but I don't see why other students shouldn't also get it, I think a system where everyone is given as much time as they need (within reason) would be good

Doh. Zombie thread... ooops.

OP you're talking crap. The standard grades haven't even been in existence for 4/5 years now...

Get back under your bridge.

I am grateful that the replies were polite, given the sensitive nature of the subject. There is a far more recent thread on this area, but contributions to that are ALL in favour of educational allowances, with not one opinion the other way - my judgement was that if I posted there, replies might be abusive given the strength of feeling (although, they might not). It is not nice being flamed/abused, so I didn't risk it ! THIS thread however, is on the same topic but with much more mixed contributions/more open debate, including the opening post which is open minded, so it seemed a better place to post my own opinion now that this is topical in today's press. I think mine is an opinion that some others would hold, yet hold back from posting. I can see that the purpose of an exam is open to debate - is it to test knowledge, or is it something more, something that might be of interest to an employer ? Perhaps it depends a little on the subject and level. I would contest that GCSE Maths and English, for instance, are in practice quite vocational in the way they are often applied. There are jobs where reading fast and writing, are not at all important/useful/relevant to productivity; but in many professional jobs, they are, and the English Language GCSE might be taken, at least in part, as a test of that. For an apprentice technician or engineer, again they are important. In truth many employers no longer trust exam results as much as in the past, and for professional positions will ask candidates to take a numerical and verbal reasoning test. This is still less common for other positions, but I know of one apprenticeship programme for technicians (friend's son just got through it) that does make them take its own assessment test (including reading some material very quick, then they are asked to rapidly write an essay on what they can recall of it, summarising it - not given much time - a good replication of real work) as part of the recruitment day. Other things were assessed too, including technical ingenuity, maths, and teamwork.

It makes me very sad that people like Paolo still have these attitudes to the extent they S resurrect zombie threads.

Paolo is of course very wrong. Exams are not meant to be representative of the workplace. They are meant to test knowledge of a particular subject. If children with certain conditions are not able to perform to their potential in an exam it is to the huge detriment of society. We might even lose another genius like Stephen Hawkins.

OP you are talking rubbish!

No-one is just 'given'anything, access arrangements ( if a pupil does not have a statement or EHCP) have to be assessed and approved.

Paolo It would be more helpful to start a new thread to comment on today's news article rather than resurrecting a zombie thread that is almost 6 years old.

When I was at school, these allowances and extra time didn’t exist. I don’t think that they should. An exam result is meant to be an utterly objective measure for an employer, of how good that pupil was at the reading, comprehension, and writing exercise that that exam comprises. So that if he takes them on and they face some very broadly and very loosely comparable task in an office, he knows how they will perform. If one pupil was given more time than another for the same exam, the comparison is no longer objective. The deadline in a workplace won’t be any different for the two pupils.

Today’s newspapers (10th Feb 2017) report that ONE IN FIVE pupils in private schools, and one in 8 in state schools, now get the extra time. Sorry, and I know some people who are parents of special needs children will not agree with this (but you are hopefully as politely tolerant of others’ different opinions, as I try to be), but IMHO no-one should.

Wow, that's shocking, MK. How weird of your 'friend'.

Those saying that you need an actual disability to get extra time are sorely mistaken.

One of my friends is very clever - 11A*s at GCSE, extra GCSEs in Latin and such subjects, wins prizes for writing etc etc. She used to be in all my classes when we were doing GCSEs, and would invariably finish copying from the board or answering questions before me.

YET, she gets extra time(even in MATHS) because "she's slow at writing". All she had to do was do an in-school test where they times her writing sentences, and now she has extra time. She has no disabilities, and no problems writing. I don't blame her for it, but it's irritating.

I don't begrudge anyone with actual problems like dyslexia/dyspraxia/a broken arm/eyesight problems, but it's just ridiculous to give extra time because someone never bothers to write at the same speed as everyone else in exams.

This girl was the best example, but it's the same case with many of my peers. In a chemistry A-Level exam I had last week, more people had extra time than didn't!

I hope it's not just my school, anyway. :S

cornsilks - everything you say is so true, although it should not be like this. Why aren't all SENCos properly trained even now?

LIZS - it really should not have taken two EP reports and lots of dosh to size up a handwriting difficulty. Class and subject teachers should notice. It really is the simplest thing for a specialist teacher to assess: a whole class can be assessed in one sitting, taking less than half an hour. If your son is very slow he should be allowed sufficient extra time to bring his handwriting speed within the normal range.