‘It’s a logistical nightmare,” sighs associate headteacher Kirstie Moat after taking me through the mind-boggling complexities of the weeks ahead. Her school, Harrogate Grammar, a state secondary school in North Yorkshire, is in the final throes of preparations for exam season and it is a marathon task.

This is not about teaching algebra, or Jane Austen, or the periodic table. She’s talking about special “access arrangements” – a range of adaptations for students with additional needs who would otherwise struggle to take exams – for GCSEs, A-levels and other qualifications.

The aim is to remove barriers and provide a level playing field, which seems laudable. The problem is that the number of pupils who have these arrangements has increased so significantly that schools are struggling with the practicalities.

“It’s grown exponentially since we came back after Covid,” Moat says. According to England’s exams regulator, Ofqual, in 2023/4 the number of approved access arrangements was up 12.3% on the previous year to 625,000, compared with 460,000 in 2019/20. In Scotland the numbers are also rising, from 62,515 requests for assessment arrangements in 2019, to 91,880 in 2023. In Wales there were 30,005 approved access arrangements in the 2023 to 2024 academic year, up 11.1% from the previous year. The uptick reflects the increase in anxiety issues and additional special educational needs since the pandemic.

It means students may be sitting the same exam, but they won’t be in the same room. Some will be in the sports hall – the kind of setting those of us...
[Short citation of 8% of the original article]