To be concerned that more than 50% of my child's year group have special access arrangements for exams?

[burblin]

Last term, out of the blue, I got a message from school saying my year 10 daughter would be granted extra time in exams. This is because she had previously told a teacher that her hand sometimes hurt when writing quickly during assessments and that she felt like it was slowing her down because she kept having to stop to stretch her hand out. So, without telling me, one of the teachers formally assessed her and, on the back of that, applied for the extra time, which was granted. When I queried it, I was told that more than 50% of the year group have some sort of access arrangement. My daughter told me that as all of her friends were getting it for achey hands, she felt she should have it too. Aibu to be a bit shocked by this? Surely its perfectly normal to get an achey hand when writing quickly in exams? Is this how access arrangements are meant to be used?

No but I don’t blame your daughter for levelling the playing field in these circumstances

It's not leveling the playing field though. If I was to do exams now, I'd need extra time but I do have a diagnosed disability that means it's harder to do exams.

It seems odd that the OP's daughter has just got extra time on her (daughter) say so.

I thought there were strict reasons to get extra time - eg dyslexia or other diagnosed conditions. Seems very strange to get it for achey hands.

it's bizarre that they did this without talking to you...

Im surprised that achey hands is a reason for extra time without an actual medical condition or disability.
My son is in a special school and gets extra time because he is actually disabled.
Sounds like the school are working the system.

and they normally needs some sort of evidence and reports etc. it's not as simple as "My hand aches"

And also, extra time, isn't actually always "Levelling the playing field" - giving a perfectly capable student 35% or more time can actually be detrimental. it makes them doubt their answer and change it etc

I would expect the student to actually get 'rest breaks' in the case of 'achey hands'

What kind of school is it if you don't mind me asking? One of my friends is a special needs teacher who visits many schools and says some independent schools are notorious for this. Another leg-up for the well-to-do?

Sorry, yes, it was "rest breaks" rather than extra time - I just think of it as extra time, but I guess it's different.

My daughter has some disabilities (dyslexia, Tourette’s and FND) and I had to fight tooth and nail for access arrangements for her.

I had to provide evidence/diagnosis letters and her school/college had to provide mitigating circumstances and justify each adjustment they made for her. www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/access-arrangements-and-special-consideration/ had to approve them.

I’m surprised achey hands would be accepted given the hoops we had to jump through

Sorry, x posted with the rest breaks post.

Rest breaks are completely different to extra time.

Kind of - but they do also give students 'thinking time' that can be used to plan answers, remember more points, etc. So there is also a small element of extra time built in, even if it's not meant to be (and even without being able to write anything down or read further questions - most people have read the questions at the start on essay exams, and have an idea of what they're going to be writing about)

Access arrangements doesn't just mean extra time and rest breaks though does it? There are loads of things which mean you nedd something diffent in order to access the exam.
We have kids with anxiety who do their exams in a smaller room to minimise the stress of big exam halls.
Students with some physical disabilities or broken arms/fingers etc who have scribes for written exams.
Our exam hall was up down some stairs so any the one or two students a year who used wheelchairs were in a seperate room, along with anyone on crutches with broken legs/sprained ankles.
Students with english as a second language used to get a translation dictionary from their first language.
Dyslexic students who do have more time but also can get coloured exam papers or those sheets to put over the booklet to make the page look blue.
And we have had one with particularly difficult dyslexia who was in a seperate room because he had all the questions read out to him and then his answers were scribed.
A student with bladder/bowel problems who was disregarded from the seating arrangements to be close to the toilet.
A student with sight loss who has an enlarged paper.
Most of them did not get extra time and its not something I would worry about

I wonder how many invigilators they're going to need to keep track of the rest breaks?

Honestly? Idk. Does she have a condition?
I had extra time. But I can't rest my arm on a desk in the same way most people would (severe break and it also affected my ability to hold a pen). So I had extra time for achy hands but the achy hands were because of the funny way I have to hold a pen, not general achy hands from fast writing.

Rest breaks are completely different.

The underlying problem is the mismatch of lengthy handwritten exams with modern habits.

I say this as someone who also needed rest breaks in order to retain a functional hand at the end of the exam...

I did law exams and the entire group would've had to have these arrangements - 8 days of 3 hour exams, my hand was almost rigid by the end of it. Nobody had extra time for it - that seems very bizarre to me.

I would think that the school lacked discipline and was failing to set boundaries for the children. The School is basically teaching them to make excuses!

and yes, I spoke to my GP, and have been officially diagnosed as having... a hand. No relevant medical condition, but the symptoms were sufficient for the extra breaks - without it I get a very impressive paralysed claw instead of a hand and cannot hold a pen, or do anything much with it

This started in independent schools. A detailed study of 2016's exam cohort revealed that 14% of pupils in independent schools had special needs, compared to 16% in the state sector. In the independent schools, 20% of pupils received extra exam time, compared to 12% in the state sector.

The independent sector defended the difference by claiming better resourcing, better diagnosis and better responses to pupils genuine needs. Make of this what you will, but OP's post suggests state schools have taken notice and are catching up with getting extra time for as many pupils as they can.

It's not just modern habits. The muscles of the hand simply aren't made to work for long stretches, which is why when you write for any length of time, it hurts. I agree though that modern habits like doing all homework on a laptop, or phone use definitely do not help, but I had the same back in the 90s when we handwrote all our work!

I think you are mistaken. Or her school is not implementing properly.

My daughter has dyspraxia and gets extra time due to the slow handwriting. But only because another learning difficulty was also identified. The handwriting alone wasn't enough.

There's always someone who can exploit the system that's designed to level the playing field. In my year we had a guy who got extra time and permission to use a laptop to complete his exams. By his own admission it was an advantage because he could type faster than most people could write, plus he could use a spell checker. (This was in the 90s at least so no risk of cheating via the internet, I think a dial up modem line would have been noticed!) I remember in one exam I glanced up and he was playing pool on the laptop because he'd finished before everyone else.

yeah this should be getting reported to the local learning authority…it’s shocking practice to improve the school’s grades unfairly.