DD not given extra time in gcse exam

[Hairyfairy01]

DD took her first gcse exam, having been assessed and granted extra time. This extra time was not provided on the day. To be fair to the school they have admitted that it was their error. They are going to put in a special circumstances form. As I understand it the maximum 'extra' they can provide is 5% - but this is in really extreme circumstances ie death. Realistically does anyone work for an exam board and could give me an idea on what will happen? An additional 1 or 2%?

Fyi. If you don't get your 25% extra time then you are short of 20% of the time you should have had.

80mins standard plus 25%=20mins = should have 100.

Only get 80 means 20mins out of 100 short, ie 20% short.

She's only 14, taking her first ever GCSEs and was selectively mute for the first 2 years of secondary. She did speak up when she was shouted at by a teacher collecting the exam paper for 'cheating' as she continued to proofread believing she had extra time. This is huge for her. However they clearly took no notice. My dd then spoke to an ALN teacher about it who confirmed to her that she should have had extra time, then told me. I raised it with the school who admitted to 'human error'.

I'm an invigilator. If we have a query re ET or another SEN we flag it straight away. I even go to the SEN head if needed.
However by the time we've done 3 x formal type mocks I think all the SEN invigilators could tell you every SEN requirement of the pupils.
Did she have mocks? Sounds like a very badly trained invigilator.
Just as an aside for future exams one of my pupils has flash cards to say what she needs rather than having to ask. I've finished and don't need ET/can I have a rest break etc. would this help her in other exams.

I'm an invigilator and can't see this is common ...at our school student would raise hand and tell us, is check it paperwork and if a dispute escalate to exams office immediately who would cross reference with SENCO team?

Print out the confirmation from the school for each exam that the 25% extra time is granted, she can take it with her and give it straight to the invigilator so that the next exam won't cause the same problem.

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Absolutely this

She would have to hand in at the start and collect at end of each but that's easy enough. This itself would also prompt several "second pair of eyes" checks and the team would soon know the score, as generally invigilators by nature are paranoid as fuck about checking everything to the 8th degree

My DD school didn't believe she was taking a different GCSE exam for a subject having transferred schools earlier that year

But very very luckily she knew one of the invigilators (a friend of mine) who obviously believed her and bothered to sort it out in her role as an invigilator

God I'd feel awful if that invigilator was me

My DS was given extra time for all his exams but he never needed it

Thank you chickenpieandchips. I believe she had a mock exam in her classroom. This is the first time any of the students have had extra time (another of my complaints to be honest). I can't understand why they didn't investigate it when she raised the issue as her paper got collected. It's a big school, with a lot of movement of kids coming and going, so I wouldn't necessarily expect them to 'know' which children had extra time and which didn't, they all sit in the same hall. But I guess what is done is done. The exam person that rang me was very apologetic and has also apologised to my dd in person. It just seems such a shame. She worked so hard over the Xmas holidays for this exam.

If she's only 14 can't she just retake them again at the usual age of 16 if she feels she hasn't done as well as expected

To be fair, I think she did. I appreciated her owning the mistake and apologising profusely. I don't blame her personally but the whole system seems a bit odd.

So this was just a mock then ?

I'm confused

Not a GCSE which normally takes place May / June ish ?

Plus why is she taking it age 14 not 16

Apology or not the invigilators shouldn't dismiss any pupil like that when they have a query. Surely they have a list of all students with extra time

What a complete chaotic mess

She can retake it in the summer, end of year 10, however she will also have a lot of other GCSEs then (they do things a bit differently in wales). She was also hoping to get a high C on this paper which would then allow her to take the higher paper in the summer and aim for a B grade. I suspect she will have to do the foundation paper again now if she hasn't got a C. However I guess it is lucky it happened on this exam, and not others that are 100% exam based at the end of year 11.

25% extra time does not translate into 25% extra marks!
We always note what extra marks a pupils get in internal exams during that extra time (green pen used which is just we can tell) and it is never more that s couple of marks in my subject MFL -sometimes actually fewer as they have second thoughts and change correct answers up incorrect.
Extra time really is a waste of time in most cases but parents are increasingly demanding it.

Fingers crossed she does well

Did she manage to answer all the questions at least ?

Was she just going to use the time to read over it ?

I'm not sure if they checked when she raised it, but basically she didn't have a tick by her name when she should have done. That was the 'human error' but all accounts.

In Wales some exams are taken in year 10. So English lit in year 10 and English language in year 11. Some can actually be taken in year 8 (Welsh second language), but let's not confuse thugs even more 🤣

You'd think someone would stay with her whilst another person double checked

Thank you. Thankfully she did answer all the questions. She planned to use the extra time to proof read her work for spelling, grammar, punctuation etc. I'm delighted that she at least finished all the questions and I really hope she gets her C grade purely as she has worked so hard for it.

My dd had to fight for her extra time in her exam on Wednesday, she’s been assessed by the school as needing it and should have been placed near the back of the hall with the other pupils getting extra time but she wasn’t and the invigilator refused to believe her. She insisted, the invigilator went to check and yep she was allowed the extra time.

Ill be checking with the school again when it comes to further exams.

it does seem to be a bit of a problem

When he gets his exam timetable actually ask how his extra time will be added. We generally have ET people in classrooms and everyone else in the hall!

I'd be laminating a message for her to put on the desk saying she has extra time as well as informing the invigilators at the start of each exam by showing them the laminated information. They can't talk so once she has sat at her desk to put her hand up or walk over to the invigilators abd show at least 2 of them

Also note on there that a mistake was previously made that should never happen again

Get someone to sign and date it as well. Maybe the person who called you to apologise

I face get her to write it on headed paper and laminate it

In fact

@backawayfatty1 schools normally assess for extra time in year 10.

DDs (private) autism assessment also had a WISC V assessment with it that showed her Processing was comparatively slower than her other areas and she didn't require testing again. So although she is predicted 9s in order to reach that potential she needs the extra time alongside a smaller room. This was backed up by the fact that she has struggled in normal class tests since year 7, had panic attacks, not had time to finish longer essay style questions although what she is able to answer is faultless but the autism gets in the way of performing to the best of her ability. It is her normal way of working - where possible and normally just for full school testing to be in a small room and she often goes back at the end of the school day or in her lunch break to complete end of unit tests with what would be the extra time.