Daughter is being refused extra time even though she has ADHD

[YourAzureJoker]

I understand having adhd does not automatically guarantee extra time!

My daughter finished her A levels and is currently resitting at her old school. She’s expressed a need for extra time since she joined the sixth form. She was tested and it took ten months to tell her that she did not qualify for extra time. At that time, she was being assessed for ADHD and hadn’t been diagnosed yet, so she couldn’t refute it.

However, now we have done research and discovered that she could get extra time through the Form 9 as she has all the necessary evidence, as she trialed rest breaks during her exams, she had mocks with extra time, and her teacher was the person who even suggested she should be tested in the first place. We told the school about this, but they have refused, stating that her scores show that she can’t get extra time according to the JCQ guideline, but in the JCQ guideline for a Form 9, it states that those scores should not be taken into account for ADHD.

We’ve sent countless emails, which have been ignored. Am I right to believe she should be able to get extra time? She’s always finished tests last in school, and she would even come back at break time to finish them. I don’t get how her teachers were not advocating for this for her?
She ended up running out of time in her A level exams, which is one of the reasons why she’s retaking. I would appreciate some advice. Am I being reasonable? Is it truly impossible for her to get that extra time, and should we drop it as she’s not in the school anymore and is just sitting her exams there?

I’m going to call the access arrangement officer next week as I find it concerning that they’ve stated that my daughter can only get rest breaks again, but they’ve not asked why she did not find the rest breaks helpful and how they could accommodate her needs, as she complained that the invigilators kept asking her questions about the exams and were discussing topics that were not relevant to her during her rest break, which she found very distracting as she couldn’t refocus when she went back to the exam hall. She also expressed that she would want to be in a smaller room as she finds it distracting having to walk out of the exam hall just to be sat outside watching everyone write away and maybe ear muffs to create a quieter zone for focus.

Are these reasonable requests even if she doesn’t get extra time? Sorry for the rant

My dd is in the same position. Hasn’t ever finished an exam and her gcse results are 1/ 2 grades lower than if she was allowed extra time. On the nhs pathway for adhd but it’s years. Needing more time isn’t because she’s slow, she’s the opposite, but because she can’t leave a question alone to get to the next question. She’ll go over and over it, especially if she’s written a perfect answer, she’ll stop to get excited. It seems to be that if she throws chairs around, she’ll get extra time.

As of this year the JCQ are clamping down on additional time - significantly less students will be eligible for this.

Ah, that’s interesting. It seems my dd has missed the boat then. I guess this was always going to happen as we found ourselves in a situation where more and more people were getting extra time. What it has resulted in is exam results which no longer reflect the calibre of a student as some got extra time and thus completed more questions, and some didn’t.

As it stands, it is given when it is proven to be their normal way of working - it sounds like in your daughters case that would be accurate. But, as PP says, there is clamping down on extra time, simply because too many qualify for it.
You cannot request a smaller room, the school would need to deploy another exam invigilator which they most likely won’t do as its money… students with medical reasons sometimes qualify for this, such as diabetic, need to have their phone on them to check levels etc. If you could freely request things like this, all students would have their own room for exams!
The exams officer is best placed to discuss these things, or the school SENCO.

i completely agree as they didn’t even believe she could have adhd in the first place because she’s been quiet and well behaved the whole time there. It took less than a year for my daughter to be diagnosed less than a year perhaps you could go through the right to choose route? My daughter is the exact same she focuses on one question for too long while forgetting she skipped 4 other questions and then she struggles understanding what the questions are asking her so she has to re read it multiple times and struggles to remember the method to do a calculation and gets muddled up. She told me she has never had the time to even reread her answers or sometimes she can’t even think for one second before writing since she has no time and we looked at her script and she made so many silly mistakes because she didn’t read the question right. You still have plenty of time If she’s still in school. If teachers can see she’s struggling then they should be able to advocate for her to get extra time x

where I invigilate students who have rest breaks are accommodated in a smaller room as it can be distracting for other candidates if students are coming in and out. We generally have a room for students with rest breaks, diabetics and students who are extremely anxious. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask the school if they have such a room.
as pp have mentioned extra time may be granted if it’s the student’s normal way of working and evidence needs to be provided. I invigilate in a room where all students have access arrangements eg extra time, reader, prompt etc and during the two sets of mock exams we complete a sheet for each student with an access arrangement and note what they did or did not use. We ask those with extra time to switch to a different colour pen when the official exam time has finished and they are working in their extra time. This all helps with regard to proving a student’s normal way of working. I think it would be worth speaking to the exam officer in terms of how your Dd can best be supported.

Thank you @YourAzureJoker that’s kind. Thing is I’m not even sure there’s any value to getting the diagnosis any more, as you have found out, there isn’t any help available to those unless they’re on the extreme end of the spectrum, which our dds aren’t.
where she finds it frustrating is she’s doing exams with others who do have extra time, as it was granted years ago, who are finishing a paper and she’s handing hers in 80% complete. So even if she gets everything right, which she does as she’s super clever, she still can only get 80%.

that makes sense but it’s just the fact that we have the proof as she was even given extra time during her mocks, her chemistry teacher was the one who even referred her to get tested in the first place but the school is now telling me that there is no teacher concerns and that her test score shows she can’t get extra time according to the jcq guidelines but that doesn’t make sense when a form 9 exists. I do understand that a lot of students are getting extra time but it wouldn’t be fair to my daughter for staff to not even try and see if she could get extra time through the form 9 considering the fact she has all the proof needed instead of ignoring all my emails and then lying on the phone that they will see what they can do.

Awh I guess I’m being unreasonable, I’m sure there’s smaller rooms that have groups of people in. Perhaps, they could move her there. I will be contacting the exam officer as well perhaps to put down a notice for invigilators to not talk to her during her rest breaks.

Thank you for your response ❤️

Ok so the school are wrong. I work in a college with adult learners (as a Teaching Assistant), many of whom have come to us because the failed there exams in school. A small proportion will have done so because of a disruption to their education that no longer affects them (like cancer which has been cured). Some will have a diagnosed disability, but the VAST majority will simply not have done well in education with no explanation.

MOST of our learners do not have a diagnosis, they just struggle with things. Most of our access arrangements are given on the basis of myself and the teacher documenting what we do in class for the learner, and then an assessor coming and timing them doing a short piece of writing. The teachers should absolutely be able to gather enough evidence for your daughter to get extra time, unless there is some real discrepancy in what she is like in exams vs class, like severe exam anxiety.
https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/JCQ-Overview-of-evidence-requirements-25-26_FINAL.pdf
These are JCQ (Joint Council for Qualifications) rules on access arrangements. Halfway down the first page they are very clear about this.

You absolutely can request a smaller room, and the school should do their upmost to facilitate this, although they don't have to guarantee it, because obviously it does depend on the availability of rooms and invigilators.

Thank you, she did one set of mocks in year 13 with extra time and switched colours, she did tell me she forgot switch the colours in half of them but put down notes as to where she was supposed to switch colours. I come to find out that no one ever looked at her mocks and she even told them a few months after to look at it and they said there’s no point as her scores were too high (this was before she was diagnosed). There was only one set of mocks in year 13 as well. If they don’t consider the proof we have good enough then I completely understand but they haven’t even given us a chance to show it before shutting us down.

I will look into asking if she can be moved into a room like that as I can see how it’s distracting on both ends and they usually place her in the far right of the room as well.

Awh no problem! There’s a lot of value especially if your DD ends up going university or does an apprenticeship. Later in life, having this diagnosis will help support her in work for a lifetime and also she will have access to medication. Hang in there, I would for sure do right to choose to speed it up x

it’s very frustrating that they’ll be disadvantaged this much. My daughter was only 4 marks off a B and maybe if she had more time, she could have avoided those silly mistakes and wouldn’t have left questions blank.

Thank you for this I was suspecting it as I read the jcq myself and I’m still confused as to why they’re refusing to give it to her? When I call, they come up with excuses like having adhd doesn’t mean you’ll get extra time and they’ve said this to me multiple times and ive told them about the form 9 and the fact she meets the requirements and the only thing that she lacks in is in teacher evidence as she’s not in the school anymore and she doesn’t know what their opinions are. After being told she couldn’t get extra time in year 13, she went to her chem teacher and begged to be listened to as she knew she was gonna struggle for time in her actual alevels and her teachers and the sen department ended up doing nothing. Her business teacher has even said to me that she’s always the last one writing as well but she isn’t retaking business so maybe that’s not substantial proof.

What you’ve described doesn't sound like she would necessarily benefit from extra time but would benefit from rest breaks.
When she did her mocks with extra time, what difference did it make to her scores?

What is she doing to re-sit her A-levels? If she is just home studying, her teachers from last year should still be able to give evidence that she is not able to work as fast as other students. If she can't get teacher evidence that is probably the problem as there is no real way to evidence that she needs extra time in classes, if she isn't in classes. Is she totally self studying? They should still be able to asses her though.

I think you might be surprised how well people with ADHD can focus when they have a dead line / limited time.

You don’t have evidence that extra time is her normal way of working, this is the sticking point. ADHD alone does not mean a student automatically gets extra time, there needs to be an evidenced need based on normal way of working. Usually this evidence is built up over several years and mocks. If your DC is sitting exams but isn’t attending school then I can’t see how you can evidence need. I would ask to meet with the SENCo asap. You should definitely ask if they run a smaller room for students with Access Arrangements, also rest breaks (which JCQ are pushing to trial before schools give extra time) can be taken while sitting at her exam desk and definitely without interruption. The invigilator talking is so that the rest break isn’t used for ‘thinking time’, this isn’t a JCQ requirement but may be in the school’s policy.

This isn’t about diagnosis, but her normal way of working. This needs to be evidenced by her teachers. At my school, teachers fill out a form that details how they normally work in the classroom - so are lesson tasks/homework finished on time? What strategies the teacher is using day to day etc. The forms then go off to the exams team, who apply for the adjustments.
I’d keep on at them OP

This written better than I did!

Hi thank you for this reply. I totally agree with you as it’s very clear on the jcq that what she needs is teacher evidence and I’ve stated on other replies that that’s probably where she would fall short on as maybe teachers may not want to give evidence as she’s no longer in the school. My problem is the school automatically shuts me down when I tell them about the form 9. She doesn’t have years of evidence as it’s only been caught in year 12 and I’m sure her chem teacher must have stated some type of evidence to have referred her. She didn’t do her year 12 mocks with extra time and did not do so well in them. She had extra time in her year 13 mocks and did better than her year 12 mocks. It would definitely be better for her to sit in one place and maybe have ear muffs as she complains about noise. If rest breaks are better suitable and my daughter agrees that she would be happy in that environment with extra accommodations then I’m happy.

I’m definitely going to question them tomorrow but I feel like the least they could do is move her to a smaller room. Invigilators talking to her for that reason makes sense but it just throws her off when she comes back to her seat. From the fact she’s repeatedly told me she’s ran out of time in her exams from her GCSEs to now. With all the symptoms she’s told me as well. I assumed extra time would be the solution but from other people’s replies rest breaks sounds more suitable so I’ll do more research on this.

She’s at home studying as she was not allowed to come back in.

Sorry to ask this but can you explain how the rest breaks would be more beneficial? And she performed way better in her mocks with extra time. She told me she could finally write everything she wanted for each question and finish her conclusions which she couldn’t do before. Perhaps, I can help practice at home with her taking rest breaks in exam condition if extra time isn’t possible to see how she works in that environment as rest breaks were fairly new to her and were only given to her during her alevels.

She may have only been diagnosed in year 12 but they would know her normal way of working throughout the previous years - you do t have any evidence to support the extra time

My DD had extra time due to form 8

Also remember JCQ means nothing at university - this will need to be perused again once she gets there too

If she’s not going into school then it’s reasonable that the teachers can’t give evidence as they’re not teaching her are they?

I’m not a JCQ official so I don’t know how it would work but I would assume that the fact she was still in the school this year and the fact she’s been there for a few years they would still be able to provide evidence. If that’s not possible then I completely understand. I’ve stated what my issue is on previous replies. They have not specifically said why she can’t get extra time through the form 9. Everything they’ve mentioned to me relates to the form 8 which includes the test that my daughter did “amazing” in.

My AUDHd got extra time at uni. No questions asked.

You can ask for a single room for exam access, we asked dd got one. She also got them at uni no questions asked.

If it’s in the JCQ she can have extra time for ADHD she can have it. It’s not up to the school. They are discriminating. My dd got it. No testing for it. The school are being awkward. Don’t let them do this.

Thst was one year ago.

I’d phone JCQ