Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assistance is available for children with dyslexia and learning difficulties to support them during key stage 2 assessment.

Statutory key stage 2 national curriculum assessments are intended to assess pupils’ abilities in a fair and comparable way, with as many pupils as possible able to access them. They are designed so that most pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), including dyslexia and other learning difficulties, can participate but some pupils may require extra assistance.

Access arrangements are adjustments that schools can make to support specific pupils during the tests, as long as they are based on normal classroom practice and do not advantage or disadvantage the specific pupil. Assistance available to support pupils with dyslexia or learning difficulties may include one or more of the following: additional time; a word processor or technical aid; an adult to act as a reader, scribe or prompter; and rest breaks.

Guidance on the specific types of access arrangements available to schools was last published in January 2017, and an updated version will be released shortly:

www.gov.uk/guidance/key-stage-2-tests-how-to-use-access-arrangements.