School taking 6 months to look at report and then rejecting it - WWYD

[londonmummy1966]

This is a WWYD really and I'm posting here for traffic as I'm hoping there will be some teachers who can advise.

I had a report prepared (at significant expense) for SEN DC in advance of GCSEs and sent it to the school 6 months ago. It had a number of recommendations including but not limited to extra time. Head verbally acknowledged receipt at the time and said there were a couple of issues and that she'd get back to me. Heard nothing until today when we were told school had sent it to the Joint Qualification Council saying that they didn't agree with one of the findings in the report and that they have therefore been told to ignore it. So now DC has to have a retest. Obviously we'll have to suck it up to a certain extent (as school will be paying for the retest) but I cannot see why it has taken them 6 months to tell us that they don't agree. Also the sole example they have given is based on what they have now admitted was a misreading of a situation which could have been dealt with if they'd let me know what their concern was - a 3 minute phone call would have done the job. Or are they not allowed to discuss the report with parents once they've had it sent in?

I just don't think I can let this pass unremarked and am wondering if it would be a good idea -perhaps once dust is settled on the retest - to flag it up with the Chair of Governors if only to make sure this never happens to anyone else.

The JCQ guidelines say that schools should not accept reports for access arrangements unless from a specialist with whom they have a working relationship. It is not uncommon for external ed psychs to say as a norm 'must have extra time' yet none of the scores meet the criteria. Additionally, irrespective of any report or diagnosis, there needs to be a history of need, ie, thataccess arrangement needs to be a normal way of working. It may be that the school have entered the scores on on line jcq acceptance system and computer has said 'no'. The jcq come amd inspect and can pull that child's EAA or even all children's EAA.

Thanks @flyingarcher - I spent the last 2 years asking the school for an edpsych recommendation and they have been unable to provide one...

The actual issue - sorry I hope this isn't a drip feed is that DC is not very good at comprehension if they have to read silently but well above average (86th percentile) if they can mutter to themselves. The school said that the only part of the report they don't accept is the edpsych's recommendation for a separate room for exams - which would cost them money - so DC could read questions aloud in exam situations. The sole reason they have put forward for this is that they do not believe DC would have passed the entrance exam for this (selective) school if they couldn't mutter to themselves during the entrance exam. However, DC sat the exam in a separate room where they could vocalise the questions etc. When challenged, the teacher who has rejected the report said that they were unaware that DC had sat the test in a room by themselves A two minute conversation with me would have clarified that fact for them.

That is totally daft. There is no paperwork for them to do. It is tricky finding rooms and my exams officer does turn a funny colour when I say a separate room but we do it even if it means moving loads of students and lessons. What they don't want to spend money on is another invigilator because he would have to have one to himself. You could start flinging about the Equality Act. You'd think they'd want better results. Go to the head and get grumpy. This is the first suggestion that JCQ give as an access arrangement for reading comp difficulty.

@flyingarcher thank you - I agree I am sure it is the invigilation cost that is the issue as this seems to be the only issue they have with the report but another pupil has their own room so I can't see that they can give to one and not the other.

Having challenged school on the entrance exam example, they have now come back and said that some tests at the start of term were taken in class and were fine - I'm actually quite embarrassed for them as I now have to go back and say that actually, had they checked with the Head of Year who organised them, they would have discovered that they were also sat in a separate room as the HoY thought it would be a sensible plan to have these as a performance benchmark against the (far worse) test results last term when she was required to be silent. I'm really at a loss now to know what more evidence they are going to need.