Does anyone know- can pupils/parents ask to see marked GCSE paper?

[shelsco]

Weird question I know given that results time is way off! DS is dyslexic and complaining of running out of time in exams/tests but school won't allow extra time because they don't feel they have any evidence of this apart from his complaints. He has run out time in all the past papers that he has done at home but he has only sat one paper in timed conditions at school so they don't have this evidence and feel time won't be an issue. He sits one GCSE this year (as do all of his year) and I wondered if he would be able to see it afterwards as if he had run out of time it would count as valuable evidence towards next years GCSEs. I found something on WJEC website saying pupils can apply through exam officer under the 'Access to Scripts' arrangement but I can't find anything for OCR, which is the board for his exam this year. Anyone know?

Yes you can usually (but not always) get a script back from any exam board for a fee, obviously after it has been returned you can't get a remark.

Don't know about actual GCSE papers, but does he have end of term exams this term as he must be in y10?
Can they allow him extra time in some of them, maybe saying he needs to change pen from black to blue after normal full time, so they can see the differences?
I know they are tightening up generally on extra time though.
Would a word processor but normal length time help at all? That may be easier to get.

Email the SENCO and be really insist any that you want him to do/redo the requisite tests and do it now.

Extra time cannot be applied for at the last minute, DD1(Y11) and also dyslexic had hers organised before she started Y10.

She finds it really valuable and I really hope the rule changers won't stop her getting it at A'level.

You should be able to get it back, but it is the school that make the application so you need to talk to them. At our school, parents have to pay.

There is a deadline but it is quite a few weeks after the exam results, so fine to waiting until back in school in Sept rather than trying in the holidays.

All the rules and dates are here:

www.jcq.org.uk/Download/exams-office/post-results-services/post-results-services-june-2014-and-november-2014

However it will have to be the school who applies.

Thanks, I'll have a look.
What tests do you mean Nocomet? He failed school access arrangement test as they do a reading comprehension test and his comprehension is good. it's his cognitive processing that is really low. According to JCQ guidelines this year it is so low that he would qualify for the minimum of evidence to paint a picture. It says school can trial extra time and use that as evidence when someone has no evidence of prior need but really low cognitive scores. The example is almost identical to DS (except example had higher scores than DS!). Problem I have is the school is adamant that if he had a need they would have already picked it up and even though he is actually running out of time in class they don't think it warrants trying out extra time. Although they are contravening all the guidelines and acting illogically (almost as if to prove a point!) it seems that I can't do anything about it. No-one really wants to know. JCQ won't talk to parents, all helplines etc just seem vague and tell me to do things I've already done.
I've asked for him to have extra time in end of year exams and they said no because they think it would him an advantage as anyone would improve with extra time!! I couldn't seem to get it across to them that his friends wouldn't because they had already finished in the given time whereas he had not! I'm thinking my only option is getting back this year's GCSE and using it as evidence that a) he ran out of time and b) he misreads questions due to slow cognitive processing.

Was the school test administered by a SENCO or an Educational Psychologist?

If it was the SENCO, then, if you can afford it, get an independent Educational Psychologist Report.

Whilst schools don't have to accept it, it would give extra evidence to back up your position.

I can't answer the question you posed, but I can give some advice as a dyslexic. You need to work out how much time you should spend on each question and stick to it, it is always easier to get the first few marks on a question than the last few. Not a perfect solution, but it does help to maximise the marks you can get.

It was an independent assessor who carried out the test but she was qualified to highest standard possible without being an ed psych and has all qualifications JCQ require. DS also has an Auditory Processing Disorder diagnosis (also done this year) carried out by leading specialist in the field who has written supporting letter. School has officially accepted report of external assessor but, although it strongly recommended extra time,they just won't do it. I realise they don't have to accept report from external assessor but there should be something to ensure they adhere to JCQ guidance. I can't afford to pay for Ed psych assessment but have told school if they have any doubts they are welcome to arrange another assessment. Obviously they can't afford it either!

Good advice lonecat, thanks.

It is fairly typical for candidates to run out of time when in the run-up to exams in Years 10 and 11. One of the things teachers usually/should practice is working under timed conditions - carefully reading the instructions on the paper, the amount of time to allocate to each question, planning the answers etc. And most candidates do improve greatly over the two year course.

You may realise why the school cannot use your independent assessment report if you refer to the current regulations, section 7.3.5, (page 84).

[to find this, google JCQ access arrangements and click the link at the bottom of the first page to download the .pdf "Access Arrangements and Reasonable Adjustments 2013-2014 (standard PDF version)"]

What has tightened up very much this year is the amount of evidence required - not just low test results - from within the school to complete the pen portrait. See page 87, section 7.6.1, for information required, especially the parts highlighted in yellow.

JCQ is doing formal inspections of schools with regard to access arrangements, and they are inspecting the evidence the schools hold to back up the access arrangements requested. As I understand it, there HAS to be evidence from (at least some of the) teaching staff to support the assertion that "the candidate has cognitive processing difficulties which have a substantial and long term adverse impact on their speed of working". Standard procedure is for the SENCo to contact the candidate's subject teachers for their written observations on the candidate.

The problem is he is running out of time when his friends aren't! So it isn't common within his class. The external assessor has all the necessary qualifications outlined on page 84 of the JCQ document. She works for North Yorkshire council and access arrangements are part of her job. I did investigate this and apparently if the school add her to their list of approved assessors it will be accepted. I was under the impression that she was already on their list to be honest as they accepted a report on my younger ds earlier in the year from her and have given no indication that it wouldn't be acceptable. My son did have a report from a behavioural optometrist (done 10 years ago) with similar findings, although at the time I put it down to visual stress rather than dyslexia. He also has a diagnosis of APD which states that he has significant processing difficulties so their is plenty of evidence to suggest he does have a lifelong and substantial impairment. However, until it started impacting upon his learning I didn't pursue it further.
In today's mock exam he failed to answer the last 4 questions because he ran out of time. I would think that has had a substantial impact on his results. I have read the JCQ guidelines thoroughly and according to them the school should trial extra time in order to build a picture of need if the need has not been apparent previously but his processing scores are extremely low (which they are). On page 87 it says if cognitive scores are below 84 then only the minimum of evidence is needed and it lists examples. We have evidence from each of the examples including failure to ever meet an English target at secondary school, inexplicable inconsistent results, self reported difficulties with time constraints, failure to achieve at the expected level in a recent Controlled Assessment, a teacher reporting failure to get on to extension work despite hard work and natural ability. Most of our evidence has come from the school data and report comments but the school don't accept them. It isn't that they can't paint a picture it is they won't paint a picture!

Can definitely ask to have copy if his marked paper via school. You have to pay a fee I think. Not much though. You need to challenge schools interpretation of the rules about extra time/ rest etc.

We have which is why we are now wondering where to go from here. I'm also questioning their decision to make a final decision rather than to keep monitoring a week before the mock exams. surely the mock exams would have been a great time to gather evidence and find out whether he has a need or not. Why decide on the basis of teacher opinions only when they could look at timed exam papers and have far more conclusive evidence one way or the other? And it seems strange to me that the teachers apparently say there's absolutely no evidence of need when DS has told one of them every time he has run out of time. This is an indicator that his cognitive speeds are affecting his learning so why did the teacher not note this, especially when JCQ guidance says in cases of very low processing speeds where there is very little other evidence pupils self reported difficulties count as evidence. Sooo frustrating.

Hi Shelsco. You can ask for the chance to pay to get his paper back. It might be helpful and informative for you and your son, but it won't count anything towards applying for extra time in his other GCSEs. This application is done by the SENCO, using statements from staff about his typical method of working in lessons, backed up with copies of class work, so the exam paper will be useless to you for that purpose. Still quite helpful in other ways.

I was hoping that if we complained and tried to get an external view of the situation via the Government Ombudsman it would help our case. According to the JCQ guidance this yet, it says that when there is no evidence of prior need because of a late diagnosis the staff should trial extra time over the course of a year to build a picture of need. If extra time is routinely offered and used then it is counted as acceptable evidence when processing cores are in the lowest category. The reason I wanted to see the paper was to prove that the need had affected learning and therefore required monitoring. It seems so unreasonable that ds has evidence that fits all the JCQ guidelines but school cannot see that a previously high achiever can possibly have aneed. they are convinced ds will meet his targets but his recent experiences are showing the opposite.