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.

I worked at a private school that didn’t gather any normal way of working evidence. They just got an assessor in and put the scores through. It was definitely gaming the system.

That doesn’t make common sense. Several people on this thread have said emphasised how only students who have genuine need can get AA (to counter my ‘do private schools game the system’ question and say that isn’t possible).

But why would it be so important to make sure only those who need it get AA if extra time didn’t also benefit those who don’t have SEN and don’t really need it.

Things like large text I agree if you don’t need it it doesn’t benefit you. But extra time I think would absolutely be a benefit.

The schools aren't paying for the diagnosis. That poster meant that parents who can afford private school tend also to be able to afford private health care.

A diagnosis of dyslexia does not guarantee extra time.

There comes a point after which extra time won't help a child any more, and that point for non-disabled children is somewhere around the normal end of the exam. If a NT child with good eyesight and no mobility issues can't answer the required questions on a two hour maths paper in two hours, 2h 30m probably won't help them. The problem there will be failure to understand the maths itself.

Whereas a dyslexic child, for whom the letters and numbers tapdance on the page, will benefit from extra time, which they will use to decode the moving wordsearches called "the questions".

The risk of using undeserved extra time to cheat only really becomes an issue on the kind of paper where you are asked to answer any three questions out of six, and if you answer more than three, the examiner uses the marks from your three best answers to determine your grade. The non-disabled child could cheat by using undeserved extra time to attempt more questions and so hedge their bets. So that's why it's important to screen out chancers.

@muminherts yeah in my comments I meant parents often pay for private diagnosis, and a BBC panorama investigation found some of these test centres diagnose every single person who pays for an assessment

Extra time isn't always a benefit and so it's not quite right to assume it would benefit everyone. The exam access arrangements should be specific to the individual's needs, albeit some Sencos don't seem to get that. It's not a 1 size fits all. So as an example, it can be unhelpful to some people with ADHD as it can take away the sense of urgency which can aid hyper-focus, which in turn can be a good thing in an exam. Same with neurotypical children, where it could be more exhausting and lead to procrastination and timing problems.
That's quite a good example in fact of some of the misunderstandings about exam access arrangements.

Other exam access arrangements that can aid some individuals to get a level playing field, but would be unhelpful for most kids is rest breaks. Would totally ruin the flow and concentration for many, but can be vital for some to avoid spiralling or to walk off a need for constant movement.

Having worked in both settings, I’d say this is a true reflection of what I’ve seen. Private school parents generally have the means to pay for private assessments and diagnoses quickly and therefore get the access arrangements that might take others months or even years.

As someone who works in an non-selective indie, I can say we have a lot of children with SEN because parents and children have been let down in the state sector as there isn’t the capacity to help all children - just the most serious cases.

Proportionately, there probably are more SEN children in indie because parents have chosen that environment for their children as there are smaller classes etc. Parents push for the assessments and then the relevant support which the indie schools will accommodate

To coin an old teaching phrase, “it ain’t rocket science!”

It's really disappointing that some private providers are doing that.

1. Misdiagnosing a healthy, neurotypical child is harmful, putting them on a treatment pathway that they don't need.
2. A misdiagnosis of a child with a different condition is harmful. Diagnostic overshadowing means that a child with condition A can be misdiagnosed and treated for condition B, when they actually need the different treatment for condition A. Providers should be doing their due diligence to prevent this, not just handing out the diagnosis someone asks for.
3. It undermines faith in the diagnoses from all private providers. We are already seeing parents who have gone down the private route because they can see that their kids need help and the NHS waiting lists are years long, only to find that schools and other service providers reject non-NHS assessment reports as "unreliable". This is harming those kids.

A brief search shows at least one of the clinics lodged a formal complaint with ofcom https://adhduk.co.uk/panorama-adhd-uk-response/

I would be cautious about BBC info, especially in view of the current Panorama scandal.

I'm not saying unethical practice does not exist but for the regulated HCP this is a serious accusation, and the more so in case of prescription drugs.

People just refuse to get the point. It must be really enjoyable to bash the private school pupils and the disabled at the same time.

Private diagnoses are not universally accepted for AA 🤷‍♀️ We had NHS diagnosis for ASD, private in-depth occupational therapist diagnosis for dyspraxia and various state school assessments for SEN (writing speed assessment etc). The school still had to fight with the regulators and DS has never ever received what he was entitled to even based on NHS diagnosis alone.

I suspect that part of the issue is that private schools are more able to supply TAs, laptops, scribes etc. as a normal way of working. As this is a major hill for public schools to climb.

My mum worked as a teacher in a private school. The children would all trot off to Harley Street for a private diagnosis, and lo and behold, would be given extra time in their exams. It was extraordinary to see the entitlement in action. I remember her telling me about one student, who was bright, allocated extra time because of ‘slow processing skills’. Honestly, it’s a scandal waiting to erupt.

This. There are quite a few pupils diagnosed with dyslexia in DD's class at private school. None of them has extra time for tests.

No, they didn't find the centres diagnosed "every single person". Only the reporter was diagnosed.

One of my children is bright. She also has very slow processing which she currently (and increasingly failingly as the years pass) masks with a high fluid reasoning capability.

Perhaps your mum needs to understand that she’s not actually all that well informed, nor does she have the requisite training to diagnose any of it.

Agree with pp that independents are more proactive in picking up SEND and adjustment needs. DD is at an independent, and they do a comprehensive computerised SEND assessment as part of the entrance process - precisely to look for any SEND areas that a child might need extra help with that haven’t already been identified (eg. things like visual processing issues, dyspraxia, etc. that aren’t immediate obvious or necessarily picked up in the state system).

Even in a selective independent school there are always a lot of kids who have some degree of SEND (eg high functioning ASD, dyslexia, ADHD etc.), but they are able to compensate for it in various ways, so that they don’t meet the (very high) thresholds for getting an ECHP and extra help in the state system. Because they aren’t “bad enough” to trigger support in the state system, the parents are sending them private precisely because they will get better support in the private sector. I see this in DD’s school particularly in a lot of the autistic girls, who just wouldn’t get any meaningful support in the state sector because it’s so overburdened, and wouldn’t even be put forward for an assessment.

This is extraordinarily dismissive and uninformed.

The Joint Council for Qualifications stopped that years ago because it was giving students an unfair advantage when only those with parents who could afford a private assessment an unfair advantage. Everyone seen to be in need is given a standardised set of assessments in Y9 or Y10.

Utter bollocks. Just because we’re not rich enough to ensure our children only mix with the children of other rich people, does not mean we’re less invested in our children’s education. The privately educated kids I know have parents who dump them in flexi boarding when it’s not convenient for them to be around, and love the fact they get all their ‘prep’ (homework to those in the real world) done under supervision at school!

I work in an independent school.
why do we have a high % of kids with Send?

1. we have an excellent reputation and children who are being let down by the state system.
2. we know the children really well and have an efficient system for noticing issues and acting on them promptly. We screen them all every few years and hold regular year group meeting to flag issues- each child’s progress is discussed.
3. if I need feedback or evidence for a particular student I simply email their teachers and they will reply within a day or two.
4. once flagged parents will be invited in and if they wish to pursue a diagnosis can do so, privately if they can afford it.

It’s simple but requires robust systems and a great deal of time and effort goes into tracking and recording evidence.

Once diagnosed, needs are shared and implemented.

Obviously rather than expecting all schools to operate like this good schools like mine are being forced to close down or becoming less accessible.

This is very true. I have 3 pupils with EHCPs in my year 7 class, 1TA who does her best. Every lesson scraping together the 3 old laptops we share between several groups for them to use.