Not given extra time - below expectations

[Spud90]

DS is year 7, gets extra time and awaiting ADHD assessment and I just got his end of year report yesterday. All good apart from science which is one of his favourite subjects and one he normally excels at. His GCSE predictions based on SATS are 6-8 and they’ve put below expectations. I was surprised as his online homework is always between 80 and 100 percent.

I’ve emailed and asked if he was given extra time and had a voicemail from head of science who said he is a significant number of grades below where his predictions are, basically just scraping a pass. She said he got 19/40 and 21/40 and was struggling with recalling facts but also applying them and will be put in set 4 in year 8 which is borderline foundation/higher. She didn’t mention extra time at all.

I’ve found one of his exams in his science book, the one he got 19 on. He’s only answered 24 questions and he does extra time with a green pen but there’s no green pen so clearly he hasn’t been given extra time.

He did well in all others except PE and got exceeding expectations in his favourite subject and a couple of non favourite subjects. However, he wants to do science at A level so it’s one of his focus subjects.

I’ve emailed again but obviously they’ve broke up today so I’m not expecting a reply. Is being in a lower set going to affect him? I’m going to email the senco when he goes back and mention it to them but I emailed them a month ago about his extra time too so feeling a bit frustrated.

It is frustrating, but there is still time for DS to a) be given the extra time in future, and b) move up sets. Far better for this to happen now than in Y11 as there is time to iron out problems.

Have you asked DS if he had extra time? Some teachers don’t always have pupils use a second colour.

Emailing the SENCO is a good idea. If you don’t get a satisfactory reply email the member of SLT responsible for SEN.

Yes, that’s a good point. It’s still early days.

I’ve asked him but he’s not sure. It was a couple of months ago now but he did say at the time one or two teachers hadn’t given him any but one was a substitute. It was the senco that gave him the green pen and told him to use it so it’s always in his pencil case. Plus with extra time he will finish the whole paper or very close to all of it.

Before the next exams could you role play with DS asking/reminding teachers about his extra time? That way, even if DS doesn’t receive it for what reason (and he should do, I’m not saying he shouldn’t) then you can follow it up at the time.

Yeah, I’ll definitely do that next time. After he said the substitute didn’t give him extra time I asked him why he didn’t say anything and he said he put his hand up but he ignored him and told them to do their work. He said the substitutes are very strict and he’s quite a quiet kid 😔we will try the role play though.