Teach Secondary -Issue 15.1

Doing the right thing Asmaa Ahmed explains why reasonable adjustments for GCSE exams depend on more than compliance alone... H alfway through last summer’s exams season, a SENCo told me she’d found a Y11 student sitting on the floor of a corridor, clutching their exam paper like it might explode. Their allocated ‘small-group room’ had quietly grown from six students to twelve. The invigilator had changed at the last minute, and the fluorescent lights were buzzing louder than usual. The student had simply frozen. “ I know I’mmeant to do the right thing for them, ” the SENCo said, “ but on days like this, the system feels held together with duct tape. ” Most colleagues who have been anywhere near access arrangements will know the feeling. Schools want to do the right thing. They know what the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) and Equality Act demand. They care deeply about fairness. Yet come May and June, those ideals around ensuring equitable access for all collide with the very real limits of space, staffing and time. Intent versus reality Every school leader I speak with says that they’re determined to avoid putting disabled students at a disadvantage in exams. The trouble is, this stated commitment doesn’t automatically translate into enough rooms, trained adults or hours in the day. A mid-sized cohort might include dozens of students requiring readers, scribes, supervised rest breaks or separate spaces. Multiply that by overlapping timetables, and you’ll swiftly start to understand why exams officers age faster than the rest of us. The issue isn’t just one of capacity; it’s timing. Some schools begin identifying students for access arrangements early, collecting evidence fromY9 onwards so that students have time to practise adjustments until they feel routine. Others don’t start soon enough. When identification occurs too late, students end up being handed arrangements they’ve barely rehearsed. It’s like giving a violinist new notation on the morning of a concert. Consistency matters just as much as timeliness. Anyone who’s ever watched a nervous student enter a mock exam knows how fragile their confidence can be. When mocks don’t mirror the real thing, students are left with no chance to test the environment, or work out what to do when anxiety hits. Amismatch betweenmock and final arrangements can undermine all the preparation in the world. What do‘good adjustments’ look like? When access arrangements work well, students feel the benefit long before they ever set foot in the examhall. Their adjustments end up forming part of their ‘normal way of working.’ Extra time doesn’t come as a surprise. Rest breaks don’t feel awkward. The laptop they use in the examhall is the same one they’ve used in English for months. The best schools will go beyond the rulebook and think about sensory load, predictability and emotional safety. Many students with ASD, anxiety or trauma histories cope best in calm, low- stimulus environments. They need clarity around the room they’ll be in, who will support them and what happens if they feel overwhelmed. A familiar adult canmake all the difference between a student spiralling and one who recovers enough to continue. The logistical mountain Some schools offer walkthroughs or visual guides, so that students can picture the experience before it happens. I’ve previously had a SENCo tell me that she invites anxious students to practise opening the exam paper, filling in the front cover and even hearing the invigilator’s script ahead of time. “ If we can shrink the unknowns, ” she said, “ we shrink the fear. ” Behind the scenes, exam access tends to be something of an operational jigsaw involving SEND, pastoral teams, safeguarding personnel, subject teams and SLTmembers. When things goes wrong, it’s rarely because someone doesn’t care. More often, it’ll be because the system relies on a chain of humans working under pressure. “The quietest roomin the school is the one that holds themost fear” 32 teachwire.net/secondary