Number of kids getting extra time in exams MASSIVELY overstated

[noblegiraffe]

Ofqual are withdrawing their statistics on how many children getting extra time and other accommodations in GCSEs and A-levels because they've admitted that they are completely wrong. It's something I know has been referenced quite a few times here so I thought it worth flagging.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jul/17/ofqual-admits-massively-exaggerating-number-of-students-getting-exam-assistance?

"The new analysis suggests that the actual proportion of students receiving access arrangements – including 25% extra time in exams – is now broadly in line with the proportion of students with special educational needs in the school population."

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ofqual-withdraws-access-arrangements-statistics

Severe dyslexia, exceptionally poor working memory, low processing speed compared with spatial, NVR and VR scores, ADHD and hypermobility.

No anxiety at all.

Child has had access arrangements since they were 7, and primary were on the case in Y1 as there was such a huge difference between verbal ability and ability to read or write.

Oh, from your post I thought there was no explanation for the poor performance in maths exams. It seems like there are quite a few explanations.

Once again slow processing on its own is highly unlikely to meet the threshold for extra time. Also, yes I agree with you that some students are missed as I mentioned before often girls in particular don't get diagnosis till they are 20+. But we shouldn't just screen for slow processing as that's not very helpful. You might have no SEND but have slow processing in Y7, maybe you need to read more out loud, with parents at home, and can get better across the years. Whilst schools need to do better on offering extra support to students and families even if there is not SEND, it doesn't mean everyone should then get extra time, or a scribe etc.

As PP have mentioned some schools do screen (just maybe not obviously) often with Y7 tests etc. Some children not in school or moving a lot may get missed but hopefully in class teachers will spot things. What would be better is making sure there is up-to-date, inclusive training during PGCE and also after, so that teachers can refer students onto SEND team etc. Maybe screen for other issues e.g ASD, ADHD, but slow processing on its own won't do much.

So the other obvious reasoning for many with Maths is that if you type exams, Maths may be the only one you d

Thanks for not letting me edit MN 😡

... you don't type. My DS had a remark and when straight back up to his true grade

Did school not pick this up over the many end of year exams, mocks etc and ask the SEN department to assess?

Once you have ruled out things like not bothering to revise etc it should have been the first thing to look at.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow

No...they didn't

And it's supposed to be a "good" school

Another PP's son is in the same position.

"Good" means fuck all.

Our local state secondary is "good" yet it only gets 20% of kids to 5 x GCSEs at grade 5+ . So, no actually it's pretty shit!!

SEND is an utter mess in most schools, but that is very definitely a failure by the staff who should have been flagging it.

DD ended up in a Y11 maths class specifically for kids who should have been getting higher scores than they did with a teacher whose specific focus was on working out why and trying to resolve the issues whether they were SpLd, anxiety or 'can't be arsed'.

For those in current Y10 or below, worth flagging with teacher, SEND and exams officers and asking for assessments.

Personally I think there is a significant issue with low to middle ability, well behaved children being lost in the system in large schools. I’ve seen this with my own son but also with my brother back in the 90s.

My son attends a large comprehensive (300 children per year). He is quiet, very well behaved and doesn’t shine academically nor in sports. When I arranged to speak to the head of year 11 about some of my concerns, she’d never heard of him. He got stuck in a lowly set for English from year 8 onwards (partly because he struggled to engage with online learning in year 7) and has since had his English learning disrupted by badly behaved kids. He also had very little homework set and absolutely no feedback on English work from school. His mocks were peer marked so we have no real idea how accurate the grades are.

Despite his mocks being lower than CAT scores and his achievement at the end of year 6 (no SATs due to Covid), nothing has ever been flagged.

He was struggling with maths but I was able to help with that based on my background. We spent most of year 11 targeting the grade 4 and 5 level questions and eventually reached the point where he was getting 80-90% on foundation past papers. With a few more months he could probably have moved on to the higher paper but we ran out of time.

Now my son does not have high innate intelligence and I have no idea about his processing speed. He won’t be going to university and will no doubt not end up in a high powered job. But I can’t help but think that he is being let down by the education system. It is hard to see other much higher achieving children being given extra time, potentially pulling up the grade boundaries and making it even harder for him to get the 4s he needs for college.

I’m sure that I will be told that I’m ableist and don’t care about disabled children. My son is lucky to have very supportive parents but plenty don’t. I wonder how many others are just lost in the system.

This.
iIf we are going to give extra time for for ‘slow processing’ (and if there are robust evidence-based reasons for this -another story) then we need screening of all pupils, not just those whose parents are switched on and play the system -and there are many -I worked in a school where that really is happening now.
When JCQ visited the SENCO was ‘ unavailable’ -and no-one else had access to her records.
And they didn’t gave the muscle to insist, so just left.
School has a huge number of kids on access arrangements because the parents see the advantage and play the system. It is fee paying, so money talks.
It is a bandwagon.

@GCSEnerves Sorry it's not pie, someone who can get (likely through lots of hard work, extra hours of revision at home etc) a grade 8 or 9 is not the reason why your son (who seems like be should have gotten better support) found it hard to get a grade 4 or 5.

One person who deserves extra time to make sure that the exam doesn't mean their hard work and skills - leads to then being disadvanatged in an exam where they should likely get a Grade 8. It would still be bad if those kids then didn't get extra time and so got a 6 or 7, not because of lack of revision etc but because they didn't get extra time or a scribe or a seperate room. They deserve as well as your son to have access arrangements that ensure they can perform to the best of their ability (whether a 9 or a 4). Many kids get Grade 6,7,8,9 - they aren't to blame for another kid getting a 2. I'd the paper is harder or easier - grade boundaries reflect that. Many children with no extra time or access arrangements 'pull' the grade boundaries up as well.

I’m not disputing that these children shouldn’t have their extra time. I’m just concerned that it isn’t being applied consistently across all schools and irrespective of parental input.

Of course it isn't! There is massive wealth + education (of parents) discrepancy across state schools. As an example I know of some who can get 100K+ raised through PTA activity and others which struggle to even get a PTA.
Schools in the leafy suburbs with catchments consisting of £1m+ houses and professional, educated + affluent cohorts will have better resources to be able to screen/identify issues early on. They will be the schools with a more stable teaching staff so concerns are raised, taken notice of and action taken.
Schools with more limited resources, a more transient (supply) teaching staff, and parents with lower education/lack of engagement etc won't be able to identify as easily.

None of this should be a surprise.

A comment on Maths.

Someone is capable of doing e.g. grade 6 questions but has slow processing:
They would be put in for the Higher Tier paper and would only need to get about half way in the paper to answer those grade 6 questions (as the second half is grade 7,8,9 questions.

The ones who need the extra time for maths are those doing foundation tier, capped at a 5, aiming for a 4 / 5, or those doing higher tier but aiming at 8/9.

Maths is an outlier.

This ^ ....in a nutshell

But extra time there is probably the least of your problems. If your child is in a school where they don't spot a child who blatantly needs extra time, then the standards of teaching probably aren't very good either.

It just seems to me to be a fundamental unfairness that children who are disadvantaged by being at a crap school are now further disadvantaged by the rise of extra time in higher performing schools. This is no surprise but it is surprising how callous and uncaring some people are about this. As long the playing field is levelled for their child, who cares about the rest.

I think you'd need to demonstrate the 'rise of extra time in higher performing schools' given my OP was about how the only available figures were horrendously incorrect.

Poor teaching affects far more than those who may benefit from extra time who don't get it though.

I am a Maths teacher. I can put your mind at ease that in over 20 years of teaching, not a single pupil has told me that they didn't finish their exam. Exams are not designed to be restrictive in time. In saying this, they cannot go on forever. Any pupil I know who receives AAA qualifies for it through a diagnosis. It is not for a teacher or exam authority to argue a medical diagnosis and the likelihood is that said pupil will have needed support throughout school. I think people would be a lot less judgemental if their own child had a learning difficulty, severe mental health condition or physical disability. Giving a pupil extra time, does not mean they suddenly acquire knowledge. If they do well, they clearly studied and knew their stuff! Please be kinder. After all, they are still children.

But the point remains is that the majority of people on this post are defending their child getting extra time for "slow processing", batting against there being a national system of testing for "slow processing" and then calling those of us who question why there isn't a national system of testing for "slow processing" as ableist!

As @GCSEnerves says, the kids at crap schools (albeit graded "good") are even further disadvantaged by sharp elbowed parents getting concessions for their Oxbridge holder offers (and the grade boundaries thereby being raised)

It really does beggar belief.

If you're worried about the private school parents pushing up grade boundaries for your kids, they're probably not sitting the same exam so won't affect the grade boundaries for your child at all.

And if they're Oxbridge offer holders, they are very, very unlikely to be affecting the grade boundaries for Johnny who needs a 4.

Sharp elbowed parents aren't just at independent schools are they?

What kind of concessions?

I don't think that is true.

I see no problem whatsoever with their being a national screening process - however I think it is very unlikely to happen as it would not be deemed a good use of resources.

Schools will argue that all teachers are trained in SEN and will identify the children who need assessing given the significant costs attached to both assessors time and the tests themselves.

What most of us whose children have access arrangements are angry about are the people on this thread who want their exam results rubber-stamped to say they had extra time or a laptop. Or those who think it's unfair that not everyone gets access arrangements.

The rules and guidance are all freely available online, forums like this have entire sections dedicated to SEN. A lot of us have been battling schools and councils and the system since Reception and find it hard to understand why people would only start asking questions in Y11 post exams.