Extra Time

Advice on Special Needs and the 11 Plus Exams

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mm23292
Posts: 446
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:57 am

Extra Time

Post by mm23292 »

I understand the deadline for Bucks 11+ is some way off yet, but am keen to understand what the process is. I can see previous threads discussing various aspects of this, and am hoping to clarify a few points.
Our daughter has a long term health condition, which has affected her general health and school attendance over the years, as well as issues with visual processing, tracking etc., for which she has ongoing visual therapy. An EP report was obtained about a year ago, which although identified her as having a very high ability profile, also identified her as having slow processing speed.
For example, her reading age is 4years+, comprehension and VR scores are consistently 135+, (EP and in-school cat tests) yet her reading 'speed' is slow. This obviously manifests itself in various ways, notably with tasks that require any aspect of visual processing speed. Her NVR and mathematical ability has measured at 140+, and working memory 141+, so her mental agility with maths is exceptional, but reading and visually tracking a page of text...is just so slow.
She has been given extra time in school for all internal exams, since year 3, and we would like to request this for the 11plus this Autumn.
Does anyone know what would be the best evidence to provide for this? Is school information usually sufficient, or should we obtain another EP report, or would a behavioral optometry report suffice? Or perhaps we should provide both? I know they must be current reports, so our existing reports would not suffice.
Also, it has been mentioned that given her high ability profile, extra time might not be granted, but surely any measure of processing speed, has to be taken relative to other aspects of the child's profile? Any info or personal experience with this, would be much appreciated. Thank you.
PerpetualStudent
Posts: 527
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2016 10:52 am

Re: Extra Time

Post by PerpetualStudent »

Hi mm23292,

I hope someone with more knowledge and experience of this will come along soon. I see from https://www.thebucksgrammarschools.org/faqs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; that the head teacher usually makes the request to the Special Access Panel. Does your head teacher have no experience or guidance they can offer?

Good luck,
PS
mm23292
Posts: 446
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 10:57 am

Re: Extra Time

Post by mm23292 »

Thank you, I noticed that too, which was confusing as the SEN contact at school, had not implied it was something that was requested via the HT, unless this is a new requirement. She did say that being of higher ability would probably make it less likely that she would be granted any concessions, as all the requests they usually make, have been for lower ability profiles in general. This doesn't seem fair, as I would have thought that any allowance granted, is to enable a child to perform in line with their respective abilities, and not to discount it just because they are deemed able regardless. Thanks for your response, I will take it up with the school again.
Trufflesnout
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Oct 03, 2018 3:09 pm

Re: Extra Time

Post by Trufflesnout »

Hello - we have been through the 11plus process with SEN, but in a different borough (Bexley); we applied for (and were granted) additional time. We live in catchment, but just outside the borough boundary (and my DC attended a primary outside the borough). As I understood it, in Bexley, if you were in borough, then the HT typically makes the application; if out of borough, then you can choose for the HT to do it, or to make the application yourself (and you include a letter of support from the school outlining what adjustments are currently in place, and will be applied for in the SATs, in addition to the Ed psych report etc).

In terms of whether extra time is granted, I think (from our experience in Bexley) that it is granted where academic ability is high, but speed of processing is significantly lower. In our case, the Ed Psych report showed a very spiky profile (very high in Perceptual Reasoning and Verbal Comprehension Index), but extremely low in speed of processing.

Good luck with it all..
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