GCSE extra time/access arrangements

[cakeallday]

My DS (non-SEN as far as I know!) is in year 11 in a mainstream school and was assessed today for access arrangements for needing extra help in GCSE exams. We were informed of this yesterday out of the blue by the school. Upshot is he has been recommended for extra time in exams.

Previously to this, concerns were raised in year 9 by teachers about his comprehension, but shortly afterwards they changed their minds and emailed to say he didn't need assessing. I've not been told of any problems since.

Apparently today's test is due to the year 9 concerns which I didn't know they still had. They were unable to tell me why it's taken until now to assess him, other than 'Covid caused a delay', and couldn't give detail on why he was being assessed. Am I right to feel aggrieved that if we'd known, we could've made sure we'd got to the bottom of it and supported him better with his studies, but now we've wasted 18 months? Or is this a common situation and I should just be grateful he's hopefully going to get extra time?

I think you should be pretty grateful they have been on the ball enough to assess for extra time without you pushing for it.
However I would be making sure you understand the basis for their decision (e.g. slow processing or slow handwriting).

@TeenPlusTwenties thank you, very good points. This is all new territory to me so I have nothing/no one to compare it to.

Surely access arrangements or no access arrangements you know the general level your son is working at, where gaps in knowledge etc are anyway? So if there were some significant areas you would already know what they are?

Maybe ask for a meeting/telephone with the school to find out more?
What have his predicted grades been?

I've never been told of any gaps in progress and his target grades are ok. Sorry not trying to drip feed, I'm just baffled. Yes, I will request a meeting, thank you. As of yesterday the SENCO had no info for me, only that DS has been 'on a list' since year 9, but perhaps they know more now he's been tested. I hope so anyway!

Some schools are very active at trying to work the system to get extra time - it doesn't mean they would have met the criteria for support more generally. Both my DD's got an extra 25% for different reasons

My dc was diagnosed with dyslexia - slow processing at the beginning of yr 12, so did her gcses with no extra time / laptop. She's super bright but never fulfilled expectations in written work. It's rubbish that some dc's SEN go undiagnosed for so long, I'm not sure teachers really understand how dyslexia works in a bright student. My dc was labelled as 'lazy' and 'daydreamy' and her teachers were stunned when they found out she was dyslexic. There's so many stories of some dc falling through the gap and not being diagnosed til later in secondary. In 6th form the extra time and laptop made a huge difference.

Hi we are another family here whose child was diagnosed in y12 so managed to get equivalents of 9 x A* and 2 x A without diagnosis . The standard ALIS testing they carry out in y12 is what threw up an incredibly spikey profile and the fact he was intelligent meant his SpLD was masked. He then went on to have extra time in 6th Form. However he has just had an Ed Psych report done for uni and it has flagged even more issues than we realised.

I think actually for the school to have spotted it prior to GCSE is great news for your DC.

Interesting reading - thank you for your replies. DS is bright so perhaps that's masked whatever issue he has all his life. I'm waiting for the school to tell me what they think it is, let's hope it's before another 18 months has passed

You might not mind, I really wouldn't.... but really school should have got your consent for this type of extra assessment if it was done by an outside professional? Do you remember signing anything back in Y9? It just should not have come out oft he blue like this, consent issues aside.

Crumbs It probably won't have been done by an outside person. SENCOs are trained/certified in executing the tests required to measure things like processing speed.

I wouldn't have minded - but yes, it was an in-school SEN practitioner.

@SeasonFinale - interesting to hear your similar story! My dd did v well in her gcses too without extra time / laptop too but life was such a struggle for her and I wish I'd pushed harder for a 'reason' why she found it so hard. She read v early, has excellent spelling and is great at languages so I never thought she could be dyslexic but slow processing is a funny old thing and it's clear now that a high IQ masked her issues. Luckily she changed schools at sixth form who noticed her writing was incredibly slow & she was tested after that. I wish that she'd had a diagnosis earlier though - her confidence has improved but is still not great.

I would say be pleased, it might be a bit of a shock to happen out of blue but some people go to great lengths to try and ensure their children get the time they need. Dyslexia is a difficult thing to diagnose as it takes various forms - some children can be great readers and be dyslexic and there is also verbal dyslexia. I think bright dyslexia often goes under the radar as children are normally high achieving but can have spikey profile. So my daughter is top set maths but dyslexic so finds eg the word problems part of maths more difficult as it takes her time to read the questions. Her school have been incredible but no guarantee she will get extra time as it depends on teacher feedback.

I'm often the person in school who drives this. I do quite a lot of timed assessments with students and it's often me who picks up that a student is slower than expected. That's enough to trigger the SENCO doing an assessment and may result in extra time being given - it's not necessarily because students are dyslexic.