Exam supervision costs

[TranquilityofSolitude]

DD is in Yr13 and has A levels shortly. She suffers from anxiety and emetophobia and finds exams very challenging, which is frustrating because her exam performance is rarely representative of her actual ability.

School have been very supportive and have promised to help in any way that they can. Last year, for AS exams, she was allowed to sit in a smaller room for exams with up to 20 others. Although this was preferable to sitting in the main hall, it was not ideal because they tended to put any student feeling unwell in the smaller room, which is challenging for someone with emetophobia. In addition, some of the students in the room required extra help - readers, for example - so it was not very quiet.

DD is receiving treatment from the GP and also a CBT practitioner. They have suggested that DD would benefit from being alone with an invigilator rather than in a room with up to 20 others. School have said to DD in an email that they can arrange this but that she will need to pay £275. Is this normal? Obviously we will pay if it will help DD but I just wondered if this was a standard charge. Has anyone else encountered this?

[BoneyBackJefferson]

MrsGuyOfGisbo
"I think teacher's Ts and Cs say they cannot be required to do invigilation, hence need for outside resource."

As far as I am aware teachers are no longer allowed to invigilate due to the possibility of cheating occurring.

[peacheshoney]

As far as I am aware teachers are no longer allowed to invigilate due to the possibility of cheating occurring.

I think this is it, they certainly inviligate for school's internal exams

[TranquilityofSolitude]

Just coming back with an update. Today school sent an email to say that they would meet the cost of the invigilator if DD was able to share a room with one other student. This is fine with DD - in fact it may be better than being entirely alone with an invigilator. I am wondering if the other family involved responded with surprise to a request for payment. DD thinks one of her teachers may also have intervened on her behalf.

Many thanks for your opinions and support.

[sandrawinnie]

My daughter also has emetophobia. She is 14 and is suffering daily panic attacks as a result of this. She is barely eating in case she gets food poisoning, can no longer go out with her friends or to sleepovers and has an intense fear of ill people, so going to the doctor's is in itself quite challenging. This is an extremely debilitating condition and is so much more than just a revulsion reflex. TranquilityofSolitude I would love to hear if you have any tips for helping my daughter. She has been referred to CAMHS but that is going to take weeks and gp doesn't recommend any medication. I hope your daughter's exams go well and she gets the help she needs to perform to the best of her ability.

[peacheshoney]

Why are they worried about vomit in an exam, it seems a bit far fetched! I mean I have a phobia of spiders, but it doesn't mean I get special treatment inb an exam!
And all this anxiety stuff! All teenagers are anxious, it is the adolescent condition, and at exams a 100x more so.When I was a kid you just got on with it, pushed through and you were ok usually.there was none of this pussyfooting around and medicalising a perfectly normal condition

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

There is a lot of anxious parents transmitting anxiety to already hyped up teenagers. Instead of encouraging them to work out strategies to cope with normal life stresses and buod resilience, medicalising them is doing them no favours.
I invigilated a roomful of 100+ awesome teenagers on Friday. Doubtless they were all anxious and would have all benefited from the special treatment of a room of only one or two, but demonstrated really mature behaviour. That's what will be an enduring skill, not endless special treatment for imagined pathologies encouraged by parents.
And only on MN could 'emetophobia' be a thing... We all hate vomit!

[Runningtokeepstill]

Well you have to distinguish between the anxiety we all feel in difficult situations and the totally crippling anxiety that can make it hard, in some cases impossible, to participate in "normal" life.

I'm quite old, and when I was growing up there was very much a "pull yourself together" sort of mentality. It didn't stop young people having mental illness or severe stress reactions. But when they did, they were likely to lose out.

I was in the last year group that could leave at 15 with no qualifications. So the children who were stressed, on the autistic spectrum, had ADHD or any condition that is now more recognised could just be chucked out of education. Many of them wouldn't be in the exam classes anyway as they would not have had support throughout their childhood. I don't really want to go back to those times.

[noblegiraffe]

I invigilated a roomful of 100+ awesome teenagers on Friday

I expect there were a few other awesome teenagers in other rooms who for various reasons couldn't be in the main exam hall but who nonetheless deserve the opportunity to do as well as they can.

One lad I teach will be sitting exams in another room due to anxiety. It's not the same as exam nerves. He has worked really hard this year, despite, at times, struggling to come into school and he should do really well. He's no less awesome than the others.

[TranquilityofSolitude]

Believe me, we have tried everything to "build resilience" etc. Thank you to the posters who recognise that this is something far beyond the normal anxious feeling about exams or normal vomit revulsion.

MrsGuy I too would have been sceptical once but mental illnesses are real. Living with a teenager with anxiety is difficult - you will be fortunate if you never have to find that out. If only it were as simple as an "anxious parent transmitting anxiety to already hyped up teenagers"! I would never have described myself as an anxious parent.

Sandra your DD sounds like mine - the fear of eating in case you catch something; the panic attacks; the horror of ill people and the inability to enjoy teenage life. I'm sorry that you are also in this miserable boat! I have to say the best thing that has happened to DD in terms of treatment is turning 18 and getting out of the remit of CAMHS. I'm sorry if that isn't what you wanted to hear but it has been so much better since DD could be treated as an adult. Otherwise I would say that the thing I wish I had done differently is not to have tried to push on and pretend that things were normal when they patently were not. I wanted to think this was all an invention and an attention-seeking behaviour but it has proved much more serious. I am from a boarding school and 'stiff upper lip background' and that really hasn't helped! I wish I had taken DD more seriously in the early stages and not tried to sweep it under the carpet. It sounds as if you are doing much better than I am in that regard.

[MatthewWrightIsThick]

I'm glad that it's been sorted. I hope it goes well for your DD.

I'm surprised at some of the ignorant comments on this thread although not that surprising when you see the names ...

[TranquilityofSolitude]

Thanks, Matthew :)

[Northernlurker]

Glad this got sorted

[NynaevesSister]

This thread shows why mental health services for children are in such poor state.

OP I am also quite old and would not want to go back to those days at all. Our eldest was hyperactive at a time before it was called ADHD and people would often say oh well ALL children have a lot of energy don't they? My little Johnny etc.

But any parent with a hyperactive child knows it is SO much more than too much energy (and they have a lot!). It's also seeing in their eyes when suddenly your little one is 'gone' and you know they are going to flip out of control and there's nothing you can do about it. She was a danger to herself not other people - she would just thrown herself repeatedly at a wall for example. Or just rampage through her room destroying everything.

But repeatedly people like MrsGuy would say it was just lax parenting. Nothing a good bit of discipline wouldn't fix ...

[mummytime]

As always just popping in to say: CAHMS varies from place to place and in some areas it is quite/very good - and certainly better than adult mental health. Actually what they offer depends on what they are required to offer by the local commissioning group.
So locally CAHMS even offers evening appointments, and does some continuation of care for over 18s. Adult mental health starts with self referral for things like internet counselling.

But I'm so glad the school has backed down.
There is a crisis of mental health among young people.

[NicknameUsed]

Well said Runningtokeepstill

You sound like my MIL peacheshoney. Telling someone with severe anxiety to pull themselves together and get on with it is like telling a deaf person to listen to some music. You clearly have absolutely no idea about severe teenage anxiety or severe anxiety in general.

for those of you with teenagers going through this.

[MatthewWrightIsThick]

It's sad that teachers can hold such scathing views towards parents who have children with mental health issues.

[NynaevesSister]

I expect that they are the same people who don't understand why someone with depression doesn't pull their socks up.

Unless it happens to them personally it doesn't exist.

[catslife]

Am please that this has worked out for the OP. This sounds far more reasonable to me.
In answer to other people's concerns simply having a diagnosed condition (be it mental, physical or a learning disability) does not necessarily mean that pupils will be granted access arrangements. This can only happen if the pupil would be significantly disadvantaged compared to others without that condition. The rules for extra time for example have been tightened up significantly over the past few years and schools need to prove using tests that these arrangements really are needed.
Sandra if your daughter is starting her GCSEs then at some point you need to contact the school so that they can start assessments to see if your dd would need access arrangements. If she hasn't started Y10 yet, there is still plenty of time to put these in place. If she starts Y11 in September the assessments need to take place asap and I would highlight this with the GP and CAMHS. Having said that there are no guarantees, I suspect the OP has had a difficult situation with putting her dds support in place for several years.