Extra time

[UltimateLuxury]

This isn’t meant to be provocative but…

my daughter is sitting GCSEs at the moment and told me last night that 43 kids of 120 are getting extra time

This seems really high to me. The school, although fee paying, is very academically strong and doesn’t have large SEN numbers.

To be clear, my point is not that my daughter isn’t getting this extra time. However, it feels that maybe the pendulum has perhaps swung to the point that those that really do need the additional time may be being disadvantaged by those with softer requirements?

How is the decision made? Would be interested in views.

I can feel how keen you are for me to leave this thread- you have questioned why I am here several times now but you are not the thread police. This is a public chat forum and I can contribute to whichever threads I like, in whichever way I see fit, as long as I am not breaking Mumsnet rules. Notice that although I don’t agree with you, I haven’t asked why you are posting or hinted that you should call it a day. I must be doing something right 😉

Stay or go - why would I care!?
But if you are that worked up about this issue then do something yourself to challenge it.

Stay or go - why would I care!?
But if you are that worked up about this issue then do something yourself to challenge it.

I’m not sure why you care so much tbh! I’m also not sure why you keep making ‘suggestions’ of what I should do next (contact exam board etc). I’ve expressed my opinion on a topic and engaged in discussion, not asked for advice on how to take this issue further. I realise you have a vested interest in the system staying as it is, but kindly, please stop trying to shut down other voices through faux naive ‘signposting’.

I've not defended anything, let alone done it "full-throated". The other invigilators and I have just described what we are seeing in schools, and explained that we are given very little information about individual children and their requirements and how many other children have special arrangements in our own schools, let alone all the other schools. We don;t know how a particular student did in their prelims/mocks, how well they did last year, how that compares to the average. Also pointing out that "alternative assessment arrangements" does not always extra time. The student I worked with this morning had a purple question paper rather than a white one. That is an alternative arrangement - no extra time. The student I worked with last week was allowed to take supervised breaks where the break time was added on the end so yes they finished after everyone else, but the same time after all.

I have no skin in this game. My kids are all uni aged now and past the school stage. You have decided the system is flawed and it might be but I am seeing no evidence of that in the particular school I am in. And the other invigilators have said they aren;t seeing it either.

I am also an invigilator, and have been across several schools. I’m not sure what your argument is here. You are saying you don’t know the numbers / stats around how many kids have extra-time and don’t see a problem in the school you invigilate at, despite not knowing this. I would suggest if you don’t know the numbers / reasons / haven’t dealt directly with parents on this, then maybe you don’t appreciate the scale of the problem.

I’m bowing out now, but I do feel that the amount of extra-time granted, and who it goes to, is a huge issue.

If 30% of private school pupils have SEN that entitle them to extra time then they should receive it, as should children in state schools.

I have no idea what the percentage is of students with extra time in DS’s school. He doesn’t get it, but he is on the Special Arrangements list. I dare say there will be people on this thread who think we ‘bought’ this ‘privilege’. There’s never any point explaining because complete strangers are always determined to know better.

Exactly.

why Would you think I have a vested interest in the system remaining as it is? It makes absolutely no difference to me!
My dd was a private school and received extra time in those subjects where there was evidence of her chronic illness affecting her grades. Doesn’t fit with your narrative that all private school pupils pay for a diagnosis and then whoop de woo it’s extra time for everything.

This is my fifth year of invigilating at the same school. I always invigilate students with access arrangements. Extra time has always been around 10% and no change this year. Changes I have seen:
reduction in number of learners needing a smaller room
increase this year in number of learners using a word processor - most we have ever had.
Reduction in number of learners with a coloured paper
increase in number of learners with rest breaks.
Based on this very small sample size of one school these are the only ‘facts’ I have.

Exactly. I have no skin in the game either: Dd at uni and ds graduated five years ago.

This is my third year invigilating in the same school.

In my school, I am seeing an increase in children who require separate accommodation (so 2 or 3 of them in a classroom rather than sitting in the hall with dozens) or individual accommodation - me and the student only. The student I worked with last week told me, unprompted, that they had been so stressed out at the previous year's exams that they had vomited. In everyone's best interests that that person is in a room by themselves.

Conversely, I am seeing less people word processing answers, but then again I have been called in this year more for the maths/science papers where there is no essay style writing.

Having had a chat with one of the senior teachers, the school has had a change of management and they are taking a different approach to children who struggle academically and in addition need a reader/scribe/extra time. Like the child who wrote 3 sentences and was done. Previous management was of the opinion it was only fair to give the child a chance, let them sit the exam, and see if they can surprise everyone and pass, and was swayed by parental pressure to enter children for exams. New management of the approach that entering a child for an exam they are 90% certain to fail is in nobody's best interests, and that it's better to not enter them and allow them to take the exam the following year, also is less swayed by parents who "demand" that their child is entered for an exam.

What percentage of children who go to private school go because

• local state schools have declared they cannot meet the child's needs OR
• the LA named a state school that could meet their needs, but that school failed abysmally to do so OR
• their parents didn't even want to try state because it was clear the child would struggle in mainstream but likely wouldn't qualify for special school?

I would think that could easily account for more than 30% of a private school's intake, probably more, and it's likely most of the children in these groups would get extra time.

Have a look at the criteria for extra time. They are very wide and are definitely open to abuse

The problem with the Govian system is that he created an exam environment that was centred on people like him - people who are academic and good at in person exams. That's fine for people wanting to go on to do academic stuff but our education system should be broader and accomodate people with different ways of working. There is a lovely thread on here about DC who aren't academic but leave school feeling not very successful at all and go and do BTecs and all of a sudden are doing really well. IMO the iGCSE despite the inherent flaws at least offers an opportunity to look at more than just what is done in the exam room.