help please - how to go about requesting extra time in GCSES - child refugee?

[mechanicalpencil]

Friend and son (15) are refugees. The son has been diagnosed with a condition that is responsible for causing severe fatigue. He also has PTSD and obviously English is his second language.

What are the possibilities of being able to get extra time in his GCSES? and how would he go about it?

I would like to try and help if I can but not sure the best way to advise going about it.

Many thanks

They need to approach the exams officer at the school/college to discuss access arrangements and what evidence might be required under JCQ rules. If for this summer the deadline will be fairly soon, so don’t delay.

Senco and exam officer are the people who will coordinate to arrange the relevant paperwork/assessment. The outcome can't be guaranteed but they will know what to do. You should be able to contact them directly via the school office.

Don't go through pastoral/HOY as the regulations are very specific and they don't know enough about external exam rules to promise any kind of special exam arrangements.

They may benefit more from rest breaks - this can help more with fatigue than extra time, which actually takes more effort

School have to evidence that any adaptions for exams are in line with the student’s usual standard way of working.

The senco should be arranging this, the deadline is basically now so hopefully they have done it, worth checking though - parents are necessarily informed schools have applied

Rest breaks much easier to get approved than extra time. Also suggest the use of a dictionary is approved if English not first language and recently moved here.

No support has been offered at all yet from the school so I will pass on this information.

Thank you!

Definitely speak to the school ASAP. Rest breaks are easy to get but in my daughter's experience, quite useless as you can't do anything during those breaks other than rest and you can't take them in the first or last 30 mins and they offen cause more disruption.

To get extra time the school will need to apply for it and the more evidence your friend can provide to support it the better. I paid for a private assessment and was very happy with the detailed report that they provided to the school.

The school need to have evidence of extra time being the normal way of working across different subjects and supporting information from teachers. An assessment then needs to happen for slow processing, handwriting etc. The rules changed for this year and it's now much more difficult to get extra time and some other adjustments as much more evidence is needed. Speak to the SENCO now, but its probably too late if its for this years exams.

To get extra time the school need need to provide evidence that it’s his normal way of working is extra time to the exam board if they are unable too he can be refused it. Like others have said rest breaks may the alternative he will be granted

It is possible to have extra time and use a dictionary if English is not your first language, but it depends on how long the family have been in the UK at the time of taking the exams.
The document you are looking for is here https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/content/research/AQA-ACCESSIBILITY-ENGLISH-ADDITIONAL-LANGUAGE.PDF filestore.aqa.org.uk/content/research/AQA-ACCESSIBILITY-ENGLISH-ADDITIONAL-LANGUAGE.PDF]]]]

If they haven’t already id be asking to cute right down on GCSEs to 5 or 6 to help him manage.

For those new immigrants

1. arrive UK less than 3 years for GCSE
2. who were not taught English in his originial country
3. Eligilabe to use dictionary in most of the exams, except Eng as far as I remember
4. 25% Extra time will be granted due to the use of dictionary

@catndogslife thank you so much for this

Thank you everyone for your suggestions!
He has been here for one year and seems to have slipped through the net at his school and is understandably struggling.

If he’s been here that little time I’d be telling school he’s just doing English, Maths and Science and leaving the rest (unless there are any he’s doing really well in). That common for students in his position.

It's not too late for the school to apply for extra time for him as I think the actual deadline is around March, but the whole process takes some time. His mother should speak to the school asap now.