Form 8 Assessment

[wondabar]

My DD is in Y11 and changed school a couple of years' ago. She is academically sound and we had no reason for concern until recently when she came back from school and said that she was going to receive extra time in exams. This was followed by a quick message from school to say that they had concern with her processing time. School have now sent me an email to say that she needs a JCQ Form 8 assessment and that it will cost £150.
Our DS who has learning difficulties has always had extra time at exams and we have never had to put him through any form of assessment to qualify for this and neither have we had to pay for this. He does have an EHCP but I have heard from parents of children at other schools who have the extra time without having had to go through this whole process.
The school have said that it is not guaranteed that she will get the extra time. Am I being cynical in thinking that the school are trying to make money out of flagging up concern with 20 or so students, whereby they will receive £3000 when the majority of the students will possibly not qualify for the extra time?
Now that it had been drummed into DD's head by the school that she will get extra time, she is expecting it. Does the school have a right to charge what they want for this assessment?

You have probably heard of others getting extra time without assessment because not everyone needs a form 8 completing. Only those applying with learning difficulties need a form 8, and those with learning difficulties with an EHCP only need a form 8 if they are applying for more than 25% extra time.

You have said yourself the school have said it isn’t guaranteed DD will be eligible for extra time so surely DD knows she may not receive it and shouldn’t expect it.

That seems quite strange.

My DD is dyslexic and DID qualify for extra time and use of a laptop. Her working memory score is 7th centile compared with 98th centile for VR and NVR.

She doesn't have an EHCP - but her SEN issues have been incredibly obvious since Y1 at school and have caused very significant and ongoing difficulties over the years. Staff at Primary picked up her dyslexia and arranged all the testing as soon as she was old enough for the tests to be reliable. She's been tested several times since with identical results.

The criteria have now changed from requiring only one standardised score under 84, to now requiring two. DD's processing speed is literally one mark outside the qualifying score... so it looks like she may well not automatically get the extra 25% time anymore despite having extremely obvious difficulties that have always led to her achieving well below her potential.

I would be very surprised that your DD had low enough scores in two areas to qualify and yet you/she/teachers have not picked up on this before now.

You normally need to demonstrate over a period of years that things like laptop use and extra time are the child's 'normal way of working' and it is almost never put in place just before exams.

I would be asking school exactly how they intend to swing this before parting with any money.

The relevant bit from the Access Arrangements doc is:

So as not to give an unfair advantage, Part 2 of Form 8 must confirm that the
candidate has at least:

• two below average standardised scores of 84 or less; or

• one below average standardised score of 84 or less and one low average
standardised score (85-89).

In either scenario, the two standardised scores must relate to two different areas of
speed of working as below:

• speed of reading and speed of writing; or

• speed of reading and cognitive processing; or

• speed of writing and cognitive processing; or

• two different areas of cognitive processing which have a substantial and
long-term adverse effect on speed of working.

An assessment of mathematical processing may be used as one of the two required measures for 25% extra time in Mathematics examinations only. The mathematical processing score must be below average. An assessment of mathematical processing cannot contribute to the evidence for 25% extra time in examinations other than Mathematics.

www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AA_regs_21-22_v11.pdf

Unfortunately it’s not uncommon for difficulties that warrant extra time &/or other access arrangements to only become apparent at this stage, or in some schools for them to only raise them now even if they were apparent previously.