What have they said? The guidance doesn’t seem at all wooly to me, the senco just needs to fill in the application form to request the phone access, evidence your diabetes, and confirm that you will be supervised 1:1 when you use your phone.
He wants him to have it in a box across the other side of room and put his hand up to walk over to check it and not stop clock
The problem he is saying that if an exam invigilator came him . He has his mobile phone on his desk. I've said he can turn his app off. The latest conversations are now that it has to go in a clear box on the desk and he has to put his hand up and wait for an exam invigilator for him to look. Or he can buy some monitor that isn't a phone instead.
Surely it’s not reasonable to want your son to have his mobile phone out on his desk during an exam. Someone could be texting him exam help that he’d see in his notifications. He does need within signal range and somewhere he’ll feel vibrations for alerts but they need to make sure he isn’t cheating too! Thats why they have to watch him 1:1 whenever he uses the phone.
I can tell you as a T1 senior high school teacher and senior examiner with an exam board that it is normal that a T1 candidate who gets readings from a sensor on their phone, in exams, should have their own invigilator either in the exam hall or in a smaller room, who sits with the candidate’s phone very near by. To do otherwise could potentially risk the exam performance of the candidate. So special considerations MUST be made.
Hi @JanieMac - we are having an issue with our son's school refusing separate invigilation and insisting he must take the exam in the main hall. But this causes him severe anxiety about alarms going off or having to draw attention to himself. As a result, in his recent mocks he has turned all alarms off and ended up extremely high throughout as he doesn't want to treat himself publicly or draw attention to himself. Any advice on how we might address this with school? Their position is that all other T1s manage in the main hall and that they see no justification for separate invigilation. Any thoughts gratefully received, I'm worried sick about the whole thing!
Someone has posted a link on here regarding this.
Forgive my T2 typo early in that post.
Give them the info on the importance of not treating all T1s the same, but also get a letter from his diabetes doctor. Print out these posts for the doctor for context. It amazes me that the Sch would ignore the basic info given to them and be so arrogant that they think they have it right. Perhaps his diabetes doctor would make them pay a little more attention. Don’t give up. Don’t take no for an answer. Be relentless and keep nagging. Remember that emails are a record of the conversation. Even the no replies.Thank you so much for replying @JanieMac I'm very grateful.
It's been really hard. We did make them aware of his needs and requested adjustments early, but they didn't do anything just kept saying that other T1 diabetics manage in the main hall so 'not to worry'. For the Year 10 mocks, they refused to act on our reasonable adjustment request for separate room and invigilation on the basis that they had to 'gather evidence' for the JCQ by proving he needs special access arrangements. They also encouraged him to put his phone on vibrate which meant he was missing critical alerts and made him feel even more self conscious. I filed a complaint but the head only called me to ask if I would withdraw it, he didn't offer any solutions. So I'm waiting for the outcome of the complaint. But I have an awful feeling they're going to stick to their guns on this one based on the experience I've had so far. I know the Equality Act is clear about not disadvantaging disabled pupils, but they seem to be using the 'JCQ says it's a centre decision' as the justification for not providing our request. They also said a separate room could give him an unfair advantage, and that 'they'd love to provide different access arrangements for all parents who request them but they can't'. We have supplied two letters from his medical team at the hospital that recommend separate invigilation for him, but they just responded to those saying it was a centre decision not the hospital's decision. It's really affected how he's performed in his mocks. He has a habit of 'hiding' anything to do with diabetes when in public, so if he's in a room with others, he doesn't manage it.
Thank you for taking the time to respond - I’m very grateful.
