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?

I used to get an achey arse during long exams. Maybe I should have asked for extra time.

Exam boards are cutting back on extra time
allowances and offering rest breaks only in a lot of cases. Rest breaks should be taken away from the desk - if that’s not possible it’s with papers closed. I’m not sure they add much good thinking time though by the time you’ve got adjudicators chatting to them!

What was the assessment called that the teacher did?

Rest breaks are entirely different from extra time and as such your OP is based on an entirely false statement, and I suggest you ask for it to be deleted (and if desired repost with the correct scenario).

Try working in further education - it's not unusual for 80% to 90% of my groups to have some exam concessions. Yes, there're lots of learners who need them and benefit from them but I think you'd be surprised how many don't use them or really need them (my favourite bugbear is coloured paper - it's amazing how, when it's not available, they do just fine!).

Rest breaks will make very little difference to the mark a student gets, as they can't look at the paper during the breaks. So it won't artificially inflate grades.

Tbf kids today do a lot less writing by hand than we used to and their hands probably do hurt more

The two aren't mutually exclusive. I didn't always use my accommodations because sometimes I didn't need them. For example, multiple short questions are easier on my hand than lengthy derivations requiring multiple pages, so I wouldn't need the break.

This really surprises me! My children are dyslexic, dyspraxic and hypermobile, but having been on all the dyslexia facebook pages it has become clear that it has become so hard to get extra time and other access arrangements! I'm seriously worried my children won't qualify for access arrangements. I feel sad this school is taking the piss!

Or they are eligible for extra time due to their processing speed etc, but they 'complete' the exam in 10 minutes; e.g. they cannot answer the exam questions at all. Some people are forced to take exams again and again when another type of assessment would be so much more suitable.

Note. The OP's DC did not in fact have extra time. A very inaccurate OP that completely misrepresented the situation.

Sigh. Snowflake generation. It also sounds like the school are keen for their students to have additional time, presumably because it helps to improve their results.

I get an achey hand when I write because I don't write much any more and probably have the onset of mild arthritis in my hands. I won't be allocating more time to writing Christmas cards.

My daughter is hyper mobile and excessive writing causes her wrists to ache. She had extra time / rest breaks in her exams but this was only after a hospital consultant provided a letter to confirm her hyper mobility. The school would not have agreed to this without the letter.

Sounds like the school want to make their results look better.

My sons maths teacher let the maths class cheat on their gcse mock exam papers last year. Not that I'm telling anyone as my son obviously did better than he would have.

I blame the system not the OPs DD.

Totally ridiculous. OFSTEAD need to sort this out, but nowadays they won't as everyone has an issue nowadays.

to be fair, rest breaks make sense, but should be given to all. I remember I had an english A level paper in the morning and a history one in the afternoon at one point - both 3 hours long and obviously involved a lot of writing - my hand was like a crab at the end of it and I felt sorry for the history assessor trying to decipher what I'd written by the end. Really it's a bit mad kids aren't allowed to type papers in 2022.

DS gets to use a computer for his exams but he doesn't get extra time and he doesn't get spell checker or anything like that.

In his school (in all of Scotland?) you can choose to use a computer if you want to.

That counts as a special access arrangement but I don't know if it gives him that much of an advantage. I guess he can make changes faster to an essay. He's pretty hopeless at typing.

I think for today's kids it's not unreasonable that they can type rather than write by hand if they want to.

That would require one computer/laptop per year 11 pupil (and spares), it would take ages to print as it must be done one by one and signed by the student, they would also need to be at least 1.25m apart if not sharing desks, if sharing desks they need to be further apart or have dividers.

The school my son will attend has around 340 children per year group, they don’t have 340 computers!

Isn't it just, like a growth industry

I find this whole concept interesting…

When I was in Uni I was allocated an extra 25% time allowance during exams due to a chronic Heath condition I had.

My condition in no way at all affected my ability to perform in exams.

I questioned it and they said because I had a disability then I was immediately entitled to extra time in exams and longer deadline periods for my assignments.

I never took the extra time in exams and I handed in my assignments on the same day as all my peers because in my eyes my disability did not warrant any kind of special treatment.

I just found it bizarre that a disability meant automatic allowances without any need for individual assessment to see if the allowances were justified.

A rest break, which is what op's child got, is not extra time. It is time away from the paper to rest her hand. If you were to sit an exam now you would most likely need a breaks to rest your aching hands. Without that you would presumably not write as much or as well as you're capable of. Why shouldn't younger people be afforded the same?

The JCQ have really strict guidelines in place around extra time. The OP's daughter didn't get extra time, just a non advantageous break away from the exam paper. Probably lasting minutes.

Lots of people have issues which are thankfully being addressed earlier than for previous generations, so lots of people require reasonable adjustments. Nothing ridiculous about it

Charley50, I'm well aware that this might be the case for some students - after three decades of teaching, you do learn a little bit about cognition and processing and how students work - but I was referring to those students who had exam concessions at school, get given them at college but don't need or use them and then gleefully inform me and their peers that they don't need them. Every year.

And, to be honest, unless you teach English in an FE setting in one of the most deprived parts of the UK like me, you really can't comment on my particular experiences, can you?