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%?

So how often in your working life have you needed to write an essay on the language Lady Macbeth uses to manipulate her husband in 40 minutes? Do you think that someone who can't write it as quickly as you should not be able to take an advanced course in fashion design? Do you think it is fair to get 90 people in a room and then automatically fail the worst 30% of them just because there were 70 people who were better (despite 'better' being a movable target and a different year with the same paper they might have passed)? Would you be happy if your architect calculated trigonometry in their head using their hands to remember how to do it rather than checking it on a calculator?

There are lots of things wrong with the GCSE system, children with genuine problems getting extra time is not even on my list. I mark continuous assessment work and the students have weeks to produce it, still some perform much better than others. Completing something as fast as possible is a very Western view of intelligence. Some cultures place a greater emphasis on the wisdom being in taking time to consider an issue and the possible implications rather than making a decision as fast as possible.

I can't check with my dc at the moment because they are all asleep. They did have exam concessions (not extra time @Sophie717373 will be pleased to hear) and I think they had a card on their desk going into the room with their name and number on which it stated what exam concessions they had. The had a chance to challenge the invigilator if it was missing or incorrect before the exam then there was the whole exam time to resolve the issue. I am not sure if these cards were collected in or remained on the desk.

They and parents were also told a few weeks in advance (by email) where they would be in which exam hall which also gave an indication of whether their concessions had been accepted- for example All those using a laptop will be in the assembly hall not the sports hall. Those having extra time will sit at the back of the hall in rows Q and behind etc. Your seat for the exam is in room XX seat YZ.

There are things the school can do to ensure that such a mistake doesn't happen again to your child or another.

Your paralympian argument pretty much proves my point.

Fortunately for most of us we are not judged by Olympian standards. Are you suggesting that some people just aren't capable of working fast enough to be useful? What should happen to those people? Benefits? Or another solution?

No it doesn't. They have the same chances as every other human to perform in their Olympic games with adjustments for their disability.

The same with exam access arrangements. Children with SEN can perform in their exams with adjustments for their disability/SEN.

I think you are one of the alpha parents at school who thinks your child is the best of the best at everything, top of the sets and it's not fair that Timmy has 25% extra time as an adjustment as my son doesn't need it and is still top. Well good for you, it doesn't make your child's attainment any less because someone else got exam access adjustments.

Total nonsense. The paralympics is a completely different event to the olympics. A similar analogy would be to have different workplaces for disabled people which is literally the opposite of what anyone should be wanting to see.

It's malpractice to take any unauthorised material into the exam room.

Exams which are interrupted by something like that are treated in a very specific way.

Yes, we had a fire alarm go off (thanks Chemistry department) during English Language Paper 1 a couple of years back. I was really worried that the students would get ‘out of the zone’ but they were fine.

Particularly for the extended writing exams with unseen analysis the extra time IS necessary for some - for example students with some forms of hyper mobility.

I’ve also taught a student who was severely visually impaired. His 50% extra time gave him just enough time to read extracts in braille and have diagrams etc explained for science.

Total nonsense. The paralympics is a completely different event to the olympics. A similar analogy would be to have different workplaces for disabled people which is literally the opposite of what anyone should be wanting to see.

I hope you, your children or anyone you care about never ends up with any medical issue that slows you down and if you do, I hope you are shown kindness.

Between all the threads lately about too many people having blue badges, too many disabled people claiming pip, too many people being diagnosed with neurodiversity, too many people having reasonable adjustments that have to be accommodated, and the whining some posters do on threads when they perceive a disabled person getting something they or their children don't get, I think some people would actually prefer that disabled people were given a separate work place.

I think some people on here and in general society would prefer disabled people didn't exist at all in public. Some of abuse I've had in public for needing extra time or extra space just to be able to meet my own needs makes me all too aware that some people really do think we shouldn't be allowed anything to make our lives easier.

God forbid that anyone with health problems get any kind of level playing field.

Yes they don’t lose time. It happened when I was invigilating once and we took them to a separate location to the rest of the school kept everyone separate with all the invigilators around making sure that no one spoke. No access to any phones etc as they were locked up already. Went back and completed. Put in for special circumstances and the 1% uplift.

was it a btec exam

That's really poor. I am an invigilator all our pupils with extra time have special cards made that sit on their desk. It is also highlighted on our attendance register.

They have admitted that these 2 things should have been done, but weren't.