Private school pupils more likely than state school to get extra time in exams

[LattePatty]

https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/lofqual-students-extra-time-exams-2024-25

Context: I have a GCSE age child in a state school who doesn’t need extra time and a younger child with SEN who probably will.

I heard this yesterday - 1 in 6 pupils get extra time in exams (which is more than I would have realised) and the proportion is HIGHER in private schools than state schools.

How can this be? I know there are some private special schools but the majority of private schools I know are academically selective. Are there really higher levels of SEN needing extra time in private schools vs state?

So what’s going on: Are private schools gaming the system? Are private school parents more able to pay for assessments privately? Something else?

We all know that private schools fees give the advantage of smaller class sizes and better facilities and maybe better teaching (moot point I think). But I certainly didn’t realise another benefit might be extra time in exams.

In an ideal world, yes, but we don't live in an ideal world.

I think people cannot expect anything from the state nowadays, including education in general, not just school supplies. Overlays do not cost as much as a ramp so it's much easier to sort out.

They really are not https://www.crossboweducation.com/schools/reading-rulers-and-coloured-overlays/Coloured-overlays-for-visual-stress

For a school, it's an additional cost of course and they need lots of them and it is a hassle to remember who needs what and always have them to hand, that's why your senco guarded them. But it wouldn't be a huge burden on parents except the most disadvantaged ones to buy the exact colour for their child and replace it when it wears out.

As I said, we're not living in the times where people can rely on the state (contrary to the hype in the news and on MN).

I was simply amused by the overlays that cost a tenner a set mentioned in the context of a discussion on the perceived unfair advantage gained by private diagnoses that cost hundreds and thousands. That PP had a point anyway.

As Justputsomeyoghurtonit explained, they are quite expensive and have to be prescribed. Is it even possible to buy them as a consumer? I've not been able to buy purely mechanical medical supplies online even with my hospital letter documenting the need. I have to go back to the hospital for them.

The one time I tried to buy coloured paper online, the vendor didn't send the colour I ordered. And this wasn't even for something mission-critical. I wonder why parents don't trust online vendors for the mission-critical overlays their children need?

As PP said, you cannot possibly know who has ND, not everything is diagnosed as there is no need sometimes or in many cases no resources or the condition may be borderline and nearly miss diagnostic criteria but manifests when the person is tired or stressed. It's not all black and white.

I have never had any ND diagnosis so "technically" I'm NT, but I wear sunglasses most of the time as I'm hypersensitive to sensory stimuli and direct light and some colours may be literally painful.

One time is not enough stats but people may chose to do whatever they want, of course.

Wow. Children “trotting off to Harley Street to buy diagnoses because they are geese but their parents think they are swans”.

I can never work out why (hopefully very few) private school teachers choose to work in the private system when they have such contempt for the children and parents who use them.

Who knows if all people who say they are teaching staff on here actually are.

If anyone was still in any doubt, yet more revelations about private schools gaming the system:

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/private-schools-gaming-system-exam-help-8vg87km97#:~:text=More%20than%20half%20of%20pupils,claiming%20they%20suffer%20from%20disadvantage

Concessions are not handed out like sweeties. They are needed. Don’t blame private schools for getting their pupils the concessions to which they are entitled; instead look at why state schools aren’t getting appropriate help for their pupils. And, yes, it is because of funding and staff availability, which is for the government to sort out. Level up, not down.

I am opposed to private schools in general.

But given a lot of SEND patients will take their children out of mainstream school and put them into private, is this a surprise?

This!

DS1 in a well-known public school. He is LH but in primary school was taught to write with his RH- as a result he writes laboriously and gets hand cramping when writing under pressure. For eight years he ran out of time in every handwritten exam he took. He repeatedly asked for additional time but the school said on each occasion that he was doing well enough not to need adjustments. So he made the best of it.

It's just one anecdote and a very marginal one at that. If he had had fewer other benefits of good teaching etc his GCSEs could have been far worse- as it is, they were pretty good, and we did not choose to press for adjustment but kept a watching brief, ready to step in with a request if he seemed to be really struggling.

I do think that, if the school were gaming the system, or looking for ways to lower the threshold for extra time, they could have done so in his case. They didn't.

I thought we'd stopped forcing LH kids to write with their wrong hand in the fifties, sixties? What timewarp was your DS's primary school stuck in?

I'm of the view that "correcting" lefthandedness is a form of abuse.

He was at a 'Good' CofE primary in a Hampshire village. I think they just failed to identify him as LH as he can do lots of things interchangeably. Not trying to cure him, just not recognising the issue, and putting writing difficulties down to a prematurity impact on his fine motor skills. So they gave him hand gym exercises to improve his right hand rather than switching to LH.

I paid over £500 for a private assessment for my daughter, as the NHS process of obtaining a diagnosis appears to take years. I presume more parents in private schools pay for private assessments.

A key factor is many independent senior schools will have a level 7 qualified assessor on the staff team. They will undertake diagnostic assessment of pupils referred by teaching colleagues and/or parents. Assessment is a critical part of life in the independent sector. Pupils are assessed in a summative way far more than would be the case in the maintained sector. As a result pupils who underperform in examinations are identified quickly.