Extra time in exams - how schools actually decide.

DS13 has dysgraphia and probably dyspraxia.
He is a laptop user and school have given him 25% extra time since year 6.
He has to change colour or font at the start of extra time which he gets for all tests- they have a test in every subject at the end of every topic plus formal year end exams which he takes in the computer lab.
At the last parents’ evening we were reassured he would definitely get extra time for GCSE and that I did not need to pay privately for dyspraxia diagnosis. He has a 7 page OT report from end of year 5 as his only diagnostic report. It is very detailed though!
Off the back of it he learned to touch type and uses his laptop for most subjects- maths is his downfall but I have just set up weekly tutoring with the retired Head of Maths at his school which should help!
Are school correct that he will definitely get extra time as he always has it IYSWIM?

EHE DC (or other private candidates) can approach the exam centre(s) they are sitting the exam(s) at if they feel EAA are required. The centre would then need to be satisfied the conditions are met, including evidence (although that can look different to schooled DC), and for those EAA which need applying for, the centre would need to apply. JCQ’s guidance mentions private candidates.

How is it decided for home educated children? I have no skin in this game but wondered if anyone can answer.

Where it's taught, (Scotland) there was an sqa coordinator, usually a depute head who liaised with the head of learning support and the sqa. It was a huge part of Learning Supports remit

Your posts are very clearly AI. You should at least own it if you are going to use AI.

If that’s what the supplementary guidance says then fair enough. As you say, in practice there will be evidence from most subjects.

If there is NWOW evidence for History and English but no other subjects, the student should only get extra time in History and English.

Not quite. A GCSE candidate wouldn’t need evidence from every GCSE subject. See example one in the most recent supplementary guidance document from JCQ. Although in practice, most will have evidence from all subjects. Evidence from History &/or English would be also sufficient for any other subject/specification requiring extended writing.

I have many years of experience gathering evidence from teachers for normal way of working (NWOW) and I’m not using ChatGPT.

Some teachers won’t tick the boxes on the forms to say it’s the student’s NWOW - so the SENCO or whoever is handling exam access arrangements needs to chase these forms up. JCQ don’t give warning like Ofsted - they do unannounced inspections and they will question the SENCO if available (not off sick with stress, for example). If the school doesn’t have NWOW evidence available in the files JCQ ask for, they can be closed down as an examination centre.

It is also subject-specific. If there is NWOW evidence for History and English but no other subjects, the student should only get extra time in History and English. Good practice is for students to complete mock exams with extra time and change the colour of pen they are writing in (or font on a laptop) to show how much they can produce in the extra time. These documents don’t have to be for every subject. In practice, a proforma with boxes ticked and a sentence or two from each subject teacher will suffice.

in most large schools, the SENCO doesn’t have time to do this data collection and it’s delegated to someone else. It doesn’t need to be the SENCO who fills out the Form 8. Some schools pay for an external specialist to do the testing, at additional cost to school, if the SENCO doesn’t have the correct qualification. The NASENCO qualification will not do.

JCQ tightened up the regulations over a decade ago to make sure students weren’t put at an unfair advantage if they had a private dyslexia assessment. It is up to subject teachers to identify which students are running out of time in exams. Autistic students should be given extra time for processing if their teachers agree they need it, and students on the pathway for autism assessment should have their processing speed tested using the tests the JCQ allow.

The system isn’t perfect and regulations are tweaked from year to year, so the person who has the most involvement with exam access arrangements should attend the JCQ course each year. It’s not necessarily the SENCO. The headteacher is ultimately responsible for making sure no student is disadvantaged or unfairly advantaged.

Also - children can and do get extra time for Y6 SATs.

An earlier dyslexia diagnosis can form part of the picture for evidence of need, but the student still needs to be tested using JCQ tests at the end of Y9 or later. They might score too highly for extra time by then.

I didn’t say it wasn’t a wider picture in @Adaaustem’s DC’s case. I was replying to the section of pp’s post mentioning slightly faster at maths and pointing out it isn’t unusual for that to be the case. Even where it is the case, it doesn’t mean the candidate can’t be eligible for extra time.

I disagree that the focus should only be on EAA and gathering evidence for that. Wider SEP needs to be considered, too. At this point in Y9 in some ways SEN support as a whole is more of a priority because there is still time to collate evidence to support EAA. It would be an incredibly poor SENCO who only looked at EAA and gathering evidence for that,

Sorry - are you using ChatGPT to write all your responses? There's a really odd dynamic to your posts.

It feels like it is unusual for what should be an able student to be so slow.

@Adaaustem it actually isn’t that unusual. It isn’t that unusual for DC not to need so much time for maths. It is why some may need extra time for some subjects but not all.

Your issues go beyond exam access arrangements. Request a meeting with the SENCO. Follow up with an email so you have a paper trail as evidence should you require it in future. The school must make their best endeavours to meet DC’s SEN. If you don’t get anywhere, go higher.

However, some of what you say is normal in many schools. For example, having homework and tests at the same time, differences in setting policy between subjects. Have you asked the school about their homework and classroom marking policy?

Have you looked at how to ease the homework burden? For example, not doing homework for subjects DC won’t take at GCSE. Not doing homework that is ‘filler’ type homework.

Thank you.
i dont think rest breaks would help- could hinder. Because its not a tired hand (or brain). We do break down some tasks at home (eg maths into the times tables). But with other homework we have to just push through even if its hours because shes so avoidant it wouldnt get done.

Unfortunately the school never has year end exams. Which does make the situation re class testing that doesnt allow extra time worse. Because

• tests are limited to mainly 1 lesson at most. I think 1 time in a double lesson.
• they dont have much notice of tests - up to 5-7 days at most. And that means they are still doing possibly a lot of homework for other subjects AND tests on same day for other subjects.
• i guess yes it would be more obvious if you have tests in may/June and all the results were 10% down and not 1 paper finished. Whereas what happens is its say oct and you get 1 test - not finished. You talk at parents eve to all teachers but just get its on radar later, later..
• homework isnt marked nor graded. .For geo (and maybe mfl) in class its more obvious as there will be printouts so you can see its half completed. (But obviously never any comment from teachers)

But what seems minor now will likely explode to a huge issues in next 2 years because we cant speed up homework so probably squeezing out revision time. And moving to longer exams and essays.

The school seem to not have allowed anyone extra time in tests until now. Which does seem wrong. The tests often tale up whole lesson so cant be longer.
It does seem to affect all subjects - even art. (So eng/maths/history/art/mfl etc)
And is i assume a processing speed issue. Her reading speed is probably ok.
Even affects doing cookery or other D&T. The cookery she does manage to finish as time is left for cleaning etc. But other d&t projects she hasnt finished them.
Affects homework too probably 2-3x as long to do maths. And art can take hours..
The only times it may not be an issue is say a spelling test or multiple choice science test. Perhaps because it can be less thinking/decision making and is pure reading and writing. I think that probably makes sense with how it developed through school.
(reception - Gifted reading ability chapter books before 5, but slow to write correctly and maths dropping in y1, some refusal to do hard work through the years in class. By y6 only doing 1 maths question a lesson. And needed a lot of help to do sats because they hadnt been doing the practise. Only 50% if that of the arithmetic paper getting done).

It feels like it is unusual for what should be an able student to be so slow. And yet they are slightly faster at maths than y6. Though in some ways more an issue or should be noticeable because they are able to answer all the paper whereas ‘lower achieving/ability’ cant answer it all anyway