16 year old anxiety- not able to do exams

[lu9months]

hi all my son has anxiety and depression and is under a psychologist and on antidepressants. he started back at school ok but hasnt been able toget in to do the mock exams which the school say they will use to base his gcses on. he feels like hes failed, and that he will never get back in after easter hols for further tests. im trying to support him. has anyone been in a similar situation? did anything help? and can the school mark him down if hes not well enough to do exams?

DS is in the as situation except that he's never managed to sit an exam or even a timed test on school premises since year 8 and he is is In year 11 now. He does have ASD and ADHD. I was always worried about how he was doing to take GCSES but he has an EHCP so so we had already started to discuss options including having a home invigilator before Covid .

Unfortunately his mental health is so bad now ( not due to Covid) that I don't think he is going to take any tests even with a home invigilator. We managed to get him to take his mocks at home but the school allowed us to invigilate. In the end the school could not read what he wrote so he got zero marks for most of them except maths for which he got a grade 8 because the maths teacher can read what he writes .
DS did at least realise he had to type his answers after that which he had always refused to do before so it was helpful in that way .

Anyway we have a school staff member booked to come to our house for all exam condition tests after Easter but it took a while to organise . if you are willing to pay for one they might agree to this . It is just the organisation of it . The SEN team organise all this for DS...

To be honest I don't think it will work for DS anyway . We had self harm incidents with him during the mock tests .I have come to the realisation that DS is likely to fail most of his GCSEs, despite being very academically capable, particularly in sciences. I think for DS his mental health crisis along with his SEN mean he will have to do things differently. His anxiety is extrem though. He can't listen to anything to do with his school performance without getting very upset and sometimes self harming. He has not even been able to listen to his current grades or levels he is working at. He has torn up most of his school reports since year 7 , even when they were food reports.

Your DS sounds like he is not as bad so maybe he can get through these assessments with a home invigilator but just be aware that if his mental health is very bad, not being able to take the tests is probably only part of the problem.

good reports not food reports !

@TeenMinusTests

It might not be equal but it is certainly fair.

My DD had an excellent attendance record from yR to Xmas y10. She would be in school if she could!

(After all, other people get exam concessions like laptops, extra time, scribes. That isn't equal either.)

I don't know what more you can do, but I hope you manage to get something sorted.

And re the bullshit about it not being far if your son has a home invigilator.

This answer with bells on

Would it help to break down what he needs to do, in order to make the task smaller. Would he find it easier knowing, say, he only needs to focus on getting in to do maths and history or something like that rather than the whole lot again? I'm sure school would support a reduced set of subjects at this point if that meant he'd get some in the bag.
I'd suggest as follows:

Subjects he has little or no mock evidence for- and then decide if they are "important" (core or subjects he might want to carry on) enough to pursue in the next set of mocks

Core subjects and those that he needs to follow, where his current mock grades aren't where they could be

Subjects where his existing mock grade will do, or is good.

To be honest op, the priority is getting your son well again. Exams can be taken for the next 60 years, providing he recovers.

DD became unwell in the GCSE years and didn't achieve her predictions. Very bright, never applied herself, made her 6fh form first choice and then fell apart as the pressure ramped up. She dropped out after the first term adding od's, and not eating to the cutting.

She fundamentally felt there was something wrong with her such as ASD and told the psychiatrist who did a full assessment that identified minor traits, but the surprise was that she identified ADHD traits and did a full assessment for that. DD was diagnosed with ADHD/ADD and absolutely turned the corner once medicated. So many dots joined up when we looked back over the years.

She manages her anxiety and depression well now OP- they are often co-morbidities with ADHD. DD got into a very bad place because the older she got the more she felt she was underperforming and it was her fault because she didn't knuckle down enough.

It might be worth speaking with the psychiatrist about it.

I meant to mention that she repeated Yr12 when she recovered and passed her A'Levels with flying colours but did very much need to recover and have some space to do so.

Firstly the school can arrange for exams to be done at home. I would offer to contribute to the cost and arrange for a health professional to write a letter to the school saying why it’s necessary.

However I would try and encourage your dc to sit the exams in a classroom at school with other students who need rest breaks or extra time. They will feel far better afterwards if they have managed to sit the exams and it will give them confidence to go onto A levels.

I think there are far more year 11s with anxiety this year as it has been so stressful to go back to school straight into exams. Tell your DS he is not alone. Tell him to try and put exams out of his mind and focus on revision and doing physical exercise every day plus meeting up with the odd friend.

I think this year the school might be able to give a mark in exceptional circumstances based on year 11 work so far if they have sufficient evidence eg mocks. However if your ds manages to focus on a daily revision routine and doing the exams he will feel a sense of achievement which will help his mental health.

My child's school are allowing home invigilation for the final assessments. Diagnosis of anxiety and depression. I have paid and I know someone kindly pointed out that under open access this should be free but I didn't want to fight the school after they agreed to allow it.

The school are also using classroom assessments and a teacher is coming to informally invigilate my child sitting these to provide more evidence for final grades.

Google ‘JCQ access arrangements and reasonable adjustments’ the regulations for invigilation at a residential address are on p64.
The decision to allow this reasonable adjustment should be made by the SENCO, not the HT - unless the HT is also the SENCO of course.

Have they considered letting him sit exams in a room by himself with unlimited breaks? (You say he has been back in, but can't see anything about isolated exams.) One of my friends had terrible anxiety and MH problems and this was the solution for her - she sat hers in a quiet room, with an invigilator and was able to pause her exam (not leave the room unless for the toilet) whenever she needed a break to calm down / deep breathing etc.

The school absolutely has to provide differentiated assessment environments for those with a medical need; what isn't fair is lumping everyone, including those with medical conditions, in the same room and expecting them all to perform to their potential. It's about equality of access and opportunity, not holding everyone to a standard that blocks capable students from accessing exams.

Would reducing the number of subjects even at this late stage help?

It is better to come out with 5 passes rather than trying to do 9 and cracking. Similarly better to come out with 3 rather than trying 5 and cracking.

It is such a balance knowing what to do for the best. Does he have plans for September? What does he 'need' for them? Or does he need a year out to get well?

I feel for you OP, its such a tough time. My teenagers school has run some online assessments- collected from school in a sealed envelope, opened on camera and the student does the assessment and submits, with the camera on them throughout. Seems no reason other schools can't do the same. Not only for children with anxiety but also those isolating.

Best wishes to your son and you.

My son is a year above yours op and we were in exactly the same situation this time last year. Due to anxiety and depression, he missed is mocks and was awarded a 3 across the board despite being predicted higher in a few subjects.

He could not face going to a large, busy college and luckily I was able to find him a place with a small training provider, studying a subject he is interested in.

He is in a much better place than he was this time last year, but the mere suggestion of him resisting the GCSE's from ourselves or the training provider seems to trigger the anxiety.

The option of functional skills has been mentioned as an alternative, which he feels he would be able to cope with better and would allow him to progress onto most apprenticeships. I just hope the training provider allows this rather than a GCSE resit which they seem to be pushing him towards.

If you need to chat op, feel free to pm me. Dealing with this can be a very frightening and lonely place.

@Pinkmagic1 thankyou. im glad your son is doing bettter. what is he training in? i had a meeting with the school today and they are still expecting him to complete 26th exams in 6 weeks after easter! cant see it happening

lu 26 exams? So after a whole year of stress they are expecting a full set of GCSE exams from all the pupils? Wow.

thanks all. the Head resolutely sticking to ' exams have to be done in school'. ive asked re increase time for exams but theyve said no apart from loo breaks. they have said he can sit them in a quiet room without other kids. but really i cant see how he can go from where he is now to doing 26 assessments in exam conditions. the school is only keen to prove the grades they give are valid , rather than worrying about 1 young person , even though they say they care

@lu9months

hes done all the work for the year but was too anxious to do some of the exams. teachers can use a variety of things to base their grades on as long as they show evidence. im sure if he missed exams due to ill physical health they would use alternative forms of assessment. ive asked them to consider zoom / remote tests for example.

I would ask the school if he can take his exams home under the supervision of a member of staff, either remotely or in the home. I know due to Covid this may be challenging, but it should be doable. They should make reasonable adjustments, but if he doesn’t take his exams that could mean he fails his GCSEs.

I think you need to take this through the school complaints process to the governors now to be honest. If these are external exams you'd be applying for special cons and access arrangements but sounds like the school isn't interested as it's all internal assessments. I wish I knew more about it to be able to offer better advice but in the first instance I'd collate info from this thread and write to the Chair of Governors and make it clear that you're taking further advice while awaiting their response.

*were external exams, not are.

26 exams is the normal number of exams for someone doing 10 GCSEs. There should be fewer this year eg 2 science instead of 3, 1 English lit, one english Lang etc. If the school have already done a set of mocks they should already have some evidence for your ds. I can understand that your ds would not get extra time unless they have a sen that qualifies. However you should be able to request rest breaks which are not the same as extra time. With rest breaks your ds would be able to leave the room to go to the loo or literally have a short break to de stress and then go back to the paper.

Have you had contact with the school's exams officer and SENCo? If they are as inflexible as the headteacher, I would suggest you contact the LA SEN team and speak to someone there. You should also find out what the arrangements are locally for children who are unable to attend mainstream school because of medical issues e.g. do they enrol at a pupil referral unit? Once you've found this out, it might be possible for you to learn more about the process locally and possibly have that influence your DS's headteacher.

@lu9months We're a month on, have you got anywhere with the school? I really hope they have shifted their position.

My DD has managed to sit 4 assessments for 2 subjects, exhausted after each one. But then it came crawling out of the woodwork that without more assessments than I thought I had agreed with the school she's likely shafted. Waiting for the deputy head to gather information and then call me. DD can't do everything wanted by half term, so either subjects have to give, or timescales.

just to feedback. after much negotiation, letters from psychiatrist etc. the school agreed that he was not well enough to sit exams. he hasnt been in at all this term. theyve agreed to use his dec/march mocks /coursework etc to grade him ( obv not as high as if hed done the assessments). hopefully will be enough to move forward - though whether he can re-engage with education i dont know. sad thing is he was predicted 7s 8s and 9s . but anything he gets will be ok- nothing we can do now.

I'm so pleased your school has seen sense, and lets hope they feel they can give some reasonable grades.
DD's school is letting her sit something straight after half term, so she just has something on Friday then a week on Monday.

Are the antidepressants helping him at all? 40mg fluoxetine has made a big difference for DD.

In the 25 years I’ve taught secondary I’ve had to predict grades for ill students loads of times.

Mocks/tests only form part any assessment. Every teacher knows exactly what level students are working at. I tend to go with those.