Extra time in exams needed

[mrsrockstar]

Hi all

My son is in Lower 6, is a bright boy, goes to an academic highly selective private school and has always done pretty well in his report cards. But when it comes to exams, despite sitting in his room working hard and preparing, he never does especially well. With L6 exams now taken and his marks below 50% across the board I called up the school to discuss. This has resulted in an assessment and his reading accuracy falls well below average meaning that he will be entitled to 25% extra time in his A-levels.

So .. grateful that this has finally been recognised and that he will now get some support - but disappointed that this has taken until now to be determined and that his GCSE grades might have been quite different had we known back then.
Because of Covid, his exams last year - the GCSE's - were written by the school and marked by the school. I assume there's no argument now to have those grades revisited?

Has anyone had any experience of this? Grateful for any thoughts or comments.

Thank you for reading.

No it won't be applied retrospectively.

Same with my dd, although she took 'real' GCSE exams.

She was diagnosed with processing/dyslexia at new 6th form in year 12.
Old school just thought she was lazy and being a typical teen, whatever that is.

I still feel gutted that she would have done better in her GCSEs if she'd had the 25% extra time & laptop she was awarded for A levels, and I do think it's reasonable to adjust a grade retrospectively, but unfortunately it's not possible.

However, imo school should include this info on their Uni reference/paperwork to show that GCSEs taken without diagnosis. This would hopefully allay any questions by uni if grades are lower than expetced, and also may stand your ds in good stead that he managed to achieve what he did without the extra time and any other adjustments - resilience etc.

No you can’t apply anything retrospectively. Covid caused a lot to be missed but at least now he’ll get it going forward.

My son was also diagnosed in L6. It is quite a common time apparently as testing occurs. Quite often brighter kids have managed to cope or mask until then and may have achieved high grades (or high enough grades) that teachers did not realise there was an issue.

As mentioned you can't apply for any adjustment retrospectively. However if with the extra time he goes on to do better at A level the difference can be explained by stating that the SpLD was a late diagnosis.

Interested in why it's only the school's responsibility? Why as parents did you not "spot" the issue. Teachers are not trained in diagnosing or spotting special educational needs. I was diagnosed with dyslexia because my parents spotted issues and sorted out the assessment.

Because

• parents aren't educational experts


• parents can only see their own children so have nothing to compare, whereas teachers see hundreds so should be able to spot children who appear to be underperforming


• because when you as a parent raise things the school fobs you off or worse doesn't give you full information of their screening results

My DD has also just been assessed with dyslexia and dyspraxia in y12 after we paid for a private assessment. We were fobbed off in both primary & secondary, though would probably have done assessment in y10 had the pandemic not hit.

Watching with interest!

Another one here with a DC getting a late diagnosis.
It all worked out OK in the end, OP. All shall be well.
If he is going to University, get the school to mention the late diagnosis and the affect on GCSEs in their reference. Beyond Uni, nobody cares much about GCSE results as long as it's a pass - you are judged on your latest results so A Levels and degree are more important.

Honestly, we were flagging DD2 up from about y2. We kept being told she was doing OK and 'not as bad as some of the others'.
In y6 she apparently passed their dyslexia screening, we suspect because one of the tests used her favourite topic.
In y7 they re-did the screening as told us she was below average in some things, but we didn't realise they were using 'below average' in a technical sense and actually 'below average' is a long long way off average. I only found out how low some of her scores had been when I wrote to ask for test details to support an EHCP application in y12.