The Student Room Group

Urgent extra time for Ucat exams and senco

So to sum it up I was recently diagnosed with combined ADHD and anxiety and depression. I've been. Trying to get extra time since about July 2024. I've never had it before but in my defence I was always shy in front of teachers and really anxious I couldnt speak to teacher propperly. Anyways I would often run out of time in exams and write slowly my family noticed it when I was younger and told me to apply for extra time but due to anxiety I never did. Now I'm 20 and resitting my a levels and I got the ucat exams coming up. My resit centre wrote a letter to ucat for extra time for me and I told them what I wanted and rest breaks for my conditions which they agreed to do I gave all the medical evidence etc. ucat are now saying they need my college to say the extra time recommendations that they made in the letter have been put in place but since they haven't yet as I haven't had a senco assessment ucat have said my resit centre can just write it's pending a senco assessment in their letter. But my resit centre is refusing to do anything they are saying they can't say anything without senco assessment for extra time. They already made recommendations for extra time and rest breaks to ucat but they aren't amending the letter to write it's pending a senco assessment and without this ucat aren't approving me for extra time ive tried so hard to convince the resit centre quoting the disability anf equality act etc but they aren't amending the letter because they say they have protocols to follow and need to wait for senco assessment. I told them I'll do all the tests they need I just need this letter amended to say I'm waiting for a senco assessment so the recommendations for extra time and rest breaks haven't been put in place yet but they aren't doing it what should I do as the deadline for extra time application is this Sunday for Ucat. As a result of this situation my stress and anxiety and depression has increased massively.
Original post by Anonymous
So to sum it up I was recently diagnosed with combined ADHD and anxiety and depression. I've been. Trying to get extra time since about July 2024. I've never had it before but in my defence I was always shy in front of teachers and really anxious I couldnt speak to teacher propperly. Anyways I would often run out of time in exams and write slowly my family noticed it when I was younger and told me to apply for extra time but due to anxiety I never did. Now I'm 20 and resitting my a levels and I got the ucat exams coming up. My resit centre wrote a letter to ucat for extra time for me and I told them what I wanted and rest breaks for my conditions which they agreed to do I gave all the medical evidence etc. ucat are now saying they need my college to say the extra time recommendations that they made in the letter have been put in place but since they haven't yet as I haven't had a senco assessment ucat have said my resit centre can just write it's pending a senco assessment in their letter. But my resit centre is refusing to do anything they are saying they can't say anything without senco assessment for extra time. They already made recommendations for extra time and rest breaks to ucat but they aren't amending the letter to write it's pending a senco assessment and without this ucat aren't approving me for extra time ive tried so hard to convince the resit centre quoting the disability anf equality act etc but they aren't amending the letter because they say they have protocols to follow and need to wait for senco assessment. I told them I'll do all the tests they need I just need this letter amended to say I'm waiting for a senco assessment so the recommendations for extra time and rest breaks haven't been put in place yet but they aren't doing it what should I do as the deadline for extra time application is this Sunday for Ucat. As a result of this situation my stress and anxiety and depression has increased massively.

You say you've been "Trying to get extra time since about July 2024" and that your resit centre "need to wait for senco assessment". Who is supposed to be performing the SENCo assessment? Is that down to your resit centre to organise, or is is something you're having to arrange yourself, perhaps privately?

Assuming is down to them, have they told you when the assessment will take place, or why it is taking so long to organise? The assessment itself shouldn't take long, so I have to assume that either this simply isn't a priority for them (or perhaps you aren't), or that their SENCo officer is so overworked that they have a significant backlog of assessments to perform.

It sounds like you've done all the right things so far, in terms of "quoting the disability anf equality act etc", and it's not clear why they're being so intransigent. If they have arranged for an assessment to take place (and it just hasn't happened yet), it's difficult to see why they aren't prepared to say that.
Reply 2
Original post by DataVenia
You say you've been "Trying to get extra time since about July 2024" and that your resit centre "need to wait for senco assessment". Who is supposed to be performing the SENCo assessment? Is that down to your resit centre to organise, or is is something you're having to arrange yourself, perhaps privately?
Assuming is down to them, have they told you when the assessment will take place, or why it is taking so long to organise? The assessment itself shouldn't take long, so I have to assume that either this simply isn't a priority for them (or perhaps you aren't), or that their SENCo officer is so overworked that they have a significant backlog of assessments to perform.
It sounds like you've done all the right things so far, in terms of "quoting the disability anf equality act etc", and it's not clear why they're being so intransigent. If they have arranged for an assessment to take place (and it just hasn't happened yet), it's difficult to see why they aren't prepared to say that.

Hi it's something they are organising but I have to pay for it
Reply 3
Original post by DataVenia
You say you've been "Trying to get extra time since about July 2024" and that your resit centre "need to wait for senco assessment". Who is supposed to be performing the SENCo assessment? Is that down to your resit centre to organise, or is is something you're having to arrange yourself, perhaps privately?
Assuming is down to them, have they told you when the assessment will take place, or why it is taking so long to organise? The assessment itself shouldn't take long, so I have to assume that either this simply isn't a priority for them (or perhaps you aren't), or that their SENCo officer is so overworked that they have a significant backlog of assessments to perform.
It sounds like you've done all the right things so far, in terms of "quoting the disability anf equality act etc", and it's not clear why they're being so intransigent. If they have arranged for an assessment to take place (and it just hasn't happened yet), it's difficult to see why they aren't prepared to say that.

They haven't given me dates or anything I've sent so many emails to etc. at first they didn't believe my evidence so I sent them the diagnosis reports and told them I can authorise them to speak to my GP and clinician to which they then realised I was telling the truth. They accused me of making up the reports but then I proved them wrong.
Original post by Anonymous
Hi it's something they are organising but I have to pay for it

Original post by Anonymous
They haven't given me dates or anything I've sent so many emails to etc. at first they didn't believe my evidence so I sent them the diagnosis reports and told them I can authorise them to speak to my GP and clinician to which they then realised I was telling the truth. They accused me of making up the reports but then I proved them wrong.

OK. If they were suspicious of the evidence you provided, then this might explain why they're dragging their feet. The fact that they're organising an additional evaluation suggests that they're still not entirely convinced. That being the cause, I suspect that they're adopting an intentional strategy of delay until it's too late for you to do anything about it.

Given that you own efforts have not resulted in any movement on their part, your only strategy now is one is escalation. So contact the head of the exam centre (if you've not already done so) and explain the urgency of the situation. If you've already done that, contact the governors. If you've already done that (or you're not happy with their response), contact the Department for Education. Or your MP. Or anyone who might have sufficient influence to actually get something done. They'll all tell you that these things take time, or that there's a formal complaints procedure which must be followed, but you need to make it clear that you simply don't have time.

What a horrible situation to be in. :frown:
Reply 5
Original post by DataVenia
OK. If they were suspicious of the evidence you provided, then this might explain why they're dragging their feet. The fact that they're organising an additional evaluation suggests that they're still not entirely convinced. That being the cause, I suspect that they're adopting an intentional strategy of delay until it's too late for you to do anything about it.
Given that you own efforts have not resulted in any movement on their part, your only strategy now is one is escalation. So contact the head of the exam centre (if you've not already done so) and explain the urgency of the situation. If you've already done that, contact the governors. If you've already done that (or you're not happy with their response), contact the Department for Education. Or your MP. Or anyone who might have sufficient influence to actually get something done. They'll all tell you that these things take time, or that there's a formal complaints procedure which must be followed, but you need to make it clear that you simply don't have time.
What a horrible situation to be in. :frown:

thanks so much I've contacted the head of the centre and the centre itself so may times via email and whatsap and phone call but just keep gettingleft on read I'll try sending an email from my mom to see if that helps

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