Hi everyone
During lockdown, it became clear that my daughter was struggling to understand her online work and needed extra support from us. In October 2020, this culminated in her taking an overdose. We thought hard about contributing factors and we let the school know in January that both dyslexia and ADHD were likely.
CAHMS wrote to the school asking for allowances for potential organisational and attentional deficits. The schools own internal assessment recommended that she was assessed for exam access arrangements in Year 9, but this never happened.
We asked for reasonable adjustments - but the school said it was too late (it wasn't), and when at our request the contacted JCQ, they asked "Should a child get extra time solely on the basis of a private dyslexia screening with scores under 85?"
We feel this didn't put across the full story; in addition to the dyslexia report (which showed extremely low scores some areas - not just under 85, but infact several 65 and a couple of 50s - and it was a full report not a screening); the school's own assessment put her in the bottom 4 % for processing and the school itself recommended she should be assessed for exam access arrangements which never happened.
My question is, is them knowingly denying a kid with potential dyslexia and ADHD extra time grounds for a GCSE appeal? We have since had confirmation of both diagnoses and she is now on medication. She ran out of time in all her exams.
She is academically bright - and likely to get high grades anyway, but I feel that should deny her the right to have extra time she may have been entitled to.
I know in the scheme of things, GCSE's don't matter - but it feels as if the school missed both conditions and then because they missed them refused to make allowances for them.
Would be great to have some advice on what to do, or whether I should just let this one go. The results matter to her.
Thanks so much
Charlie