To think school have to make adjustments?

[bingbangbongding]

Hi, DD11 has her SATs next week.

She is autistic. Diagnosed last year.

She's been in contact with the SENDCO over the past few weeks after advocating for a space where she can be alone as she finds it hard to understand questions unless she reads them out loud. Obviously she will disrupt other kids if she does this.

Admittedly I haven't been involved (my mistake) as she was updating me every step of the way.

Last night the class teacher emailed me that they would be unable to meet her request because (paraphrasing) they had run out of teachers/assistants/rooms to accommodate everyone who requested or needs adjustments.

I've checked the gov.uk site and it simply says 'children are entitled to adjustments' blah blah, not 'entitled to adjustments if the school can accommodate'.

DD usually scores very well on exams but is so stressed out over the SATs. It doesn't matter that we've told her that they are a measurement for the school there's a lot of self pressure. I think the schoo think 'she's doing fine, doesn't need the adjustment'

Can I push this? I have emailed the teacher to express my disagreement over this approach and suggested that we can provide an independent (my friend does exam invigilation and will sit with her).

Advice needed. Please.

Tell them you won't send her in if they don't accommodate. Does she have an EHCP? My eldest 2 do and it states they must have certain accommodations in exams. Maybe you need to consider getting an EHCP?

Under the Equality Act 2010 the school have a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments. They've had plenty of time to consider this and bring in an additional person / find a room. I'd be asking for an urgent meeting with the SENCO and head, before contacting the governor with responsibility for SEN. Good luck.

They need to fix this. It's unacceptable. As above, I'd say that you will bring her in Tuesday and stay until they confirm they have a private space she can use. If one is not provided, you will take her home.

You have to be realistic though. Not all schools physically have space. SATS can be an absolute logistical nightmare. Arrangements should mirror normal classroom practice so it might not actually be possible. I've taught year groups where 1 in 3 have had some sort do SEN and it's about trying to do the best by all children. The school hopefully isn't just being awkward for the sake of it.

It's all very well to say it's unacceptable but if they don't have the staff they can't conjure them up from nowhere. Which other child should lose support to benefit another?

It's a horrible situation for you and the school but they can't work miracles. My friend who is a HT has been advertising for support staff since September and has only had 2 applicants. There is a child in desperate need of a 1 to 1 but no one is prepared to do it.

I'd also argue thy noon on the Friday before they start on the next working day is really far too late to be having this conversation. If you were that worried, this should have been discussed a month ago.

Have you got evidence that she has sat other tests this way? They may want proof that it is necessary first

what do you want them to do if they dont have the staff or the rooms? Build another functioning adult human in the workshop over the weekend? extend the school? Be reasonable

No she's never say tests like this before. With her SATs in year 2 she didn't have a diagnosis. So no evidence that she's sat one on one.

She doesn't have an ECHP, I see how that is a problem. I will try to get one in place as she is approaching high school.

I have advised that I can provide an independent person. A person with a DBS and who is an exam invigilator.

I have already mentioned that they emailed me last night to say they couldn't accommodate her. I haven't raised this on the last day, I thought this was in place prior to this. They came to me to say no can do.

I work in a school so this is coming purely from my experience. Whilst I do understand the stress your DD and you just both feel, the school also have rules to follow and if they have students with EHCP who have been identified as needing exam arrangements as part of that they have to have priority. And like another poster mentioned, normal way of working will come into it. The school should have a record of this being a normal requirement for your child or past exams being completed in this way. Space and staff are valuable commodities in schools and it is horrid to say this but not everyone can have their own space necessarily. I'm sorry OP. Definitely push for it in future and chase it up as for GCSE all things like this need to be applied for months prior to the exam externally...

As someone who had 'reasonable adjustments' at school, they have to accommodate as long as they were given sufficient notice. You need to fight them on this. It is irrelevant whether they are out of staff or don't have enough room, they need to find it. When I sat exams at college, everyone else went to a completely different exam location. I stayed on campus in a computer room on my own with the invigilator. Do not let them fob off your daughter.

What happens normally in the classroom when she has to read something, eg a maths question with several,parts, or a piece of text to use in history or geography. There will have been a number of practice SAT papers taken in school, what was the arrangement then? Either she has managed to do this previously in a classroom setting by reading out loud quietly to herself , or she doesn’t actually have to do it and what she is expressing is some anxiety about the SAT tests.

With respect, why should the OP's child not have her needs accommodated when other children will have? It puts her at a material disadvantage and it's illegal.

Apply yourself to local authority for EHCP needs assessment. They might refuse to assess, but your daughter meets legal threshold so ignore any nonsense they use to refuse, don’t bother with mediation and just fill in appeal form. If they refused the first time they will concede when you appeal.

Then your daughter will be assessed by educational psychologist and this is the time to look at things like exam access arrangements. Secondary is going to be much more demanding than primary, get things moving asap and advocate for your daughter in future.

https://www.ipsea.org.uk/asking-for-an-ehc-needs-assessment

It all depends on what has been done up to now.
Schools do continuous assessment all the time and SATS prep.
If your child has had
sensory breaks
extra time
different room
scribe
in the run-up to these exams then they'll make access arrangements.
Same with GCSE - it isn't the diagnosis, it's the precedent (what has always been done in class for internal exams) that counts.

Folks are correcting terms of time scales and staff/space. HOWEVER your daughter is entitled tonwork in whatever way is most accessible to her. If this means she reads out the questions to a room full of students then so be it. If that irritates others then the school will have to act to solve - and by this I do not mean by telling your daughter to shut up. They may not have a separate room/person but they could put up a screen to separate her into a corner for example so she is still visible to the teacher but sound carries less...

But do please talk to the SENDCO at her allocated secondary sooner either than later. It is likely if she has no 'paperwork' now she won't be handed over properly to them which won't help her start. Talk to them about EHCP and the best way of applying in your area.

You would need to provide evidence of her exam concessions. Just because she has a diagnosis it doesn't mean she is entitled to a separate room

The precedent has to start somewhere.

This should have already been worked out and decided weeks ago. All these kind of arrangements will have been planned in school sometime ago.
Why is your 11 yr old having to ask for this herself!? If you think she needs it you should have made a request months ago. If school thinks she needs it they’d have already done something about it. These kinds of arrangements are usually for children with recognised needs not given out on the kids say so. I am surprised that, with her diagnoses, school have not thought that she might need it.
This late in the day though they will be really struggling to change what they’ve arranged. Where do you suggest this other person magically appears from. The fact that she usually does fine in tests will be suggesting to school that she doesn’t need this adjustment, she’s never had it before and managed just fine.

Agree with this.

I work in a school and am also a parent and can totally see both sides. It’s so frustrating if something cannot be accommodated and without the correct paperwork etc there isn’t necessarily legal recourse for it to be provided and of course this is devastating if a child is expecting it and it is their normal way of working. If it is their normal way of working or they have documented special consideration then of course it needs pushing as the school should be providing it.
However, (and I’m not saying this is right…just the result of years of underfunding) the amount of pupils in my school that have special arrangements in place such as readers, separate rooms etc has increased by tenfold since I started teaching 13 years ago. This is at a time when there are less classrooms available due to increased cohorts having more classes running simultaneously and rooms having to be repurposed and also decreased staff available due to budgets and inability to recruit. None of this is helpful but in most cases of the school says they cannot accommodate they probably have exhausted every possibility.
Looking at the situation in schools in my local area, I am so worried about how even children with statements/EHCPS will continue to get their entitled provision as schools are haemorrhaging staff without being able to replace them. And whilst I know it’s the schools legal duty to provide it, we seriously are not far away from the point where this is going to become impossible. And honestly, we are also not far away from some schools not being able to provide enough teachers to teach. It is a shocking and disgusting state of affairs for our education system to be in and I feel so sorry for all the parents and children currently in the system!

She didn't ask for the adjustments herself, the SENDCO suggested that she would be able to have adjustments. She did say to DD that it would hinge on a discussion with the class teacher and the head and DD has badgered for that decision for a few weeks. They said they would email me when they had decided. Which was last night:

Yes she has had to leave the class a couple of times in mock exams, although has never started the exam in a quiet space. Even yesterday she took her mock grammar paper and completed it in the SENDCO's room as she was feeling overwhelmed.

Thank you to whoever posted the ehcp link above I will apply for one for her.

Slightly off topic, but why are schools struggling to get support staff these days? Until fairly recently if schools advertised for TAs and support they were inundated because although the pay is appalling, the hours do fit if you have young children.

This is very good advice.

We applied for an EHCP for DS ourselves. It's been hard work, and an uphill battle with the LA who have been resistant and tried to block our every step but we have appealed, complained, made a huge fuss in order to get them to listen to what DS needs.

Sorry you're struggling OP but without the EHCP in place I'd say they have no legal duty to accommodate your daughter. They have obviously used the resources they have for the children that have them in place. SATS are meaningless anyway so personally I'd be taking her out for a lovely day trip instead of her sitting them and sort the EHCP out in readiness for secondary school.