For 48 students: 2 days of individual assessment and clerical work @ £300 per day = £600 (£12.50 per student).

Plus travel or overnight accommodation (capped at £50 per day) x 2 days.

Then a return visit to an East Berkshire school to 'mop up' new entrants to Years 10, 11 and 13, who had been granted access arrangements in a previous school, but for whom the evidence from previous schools was either too incomplete or too insubstantial to qualify for 'roll forward' applications.

Cost to the school for individual assessment:

For 15 students: 1 day of individual assessment and clerical work @ £300 per day = £300 (£20.00 per student).

Plus travel or overnight accommodation (capped at £50 per day) x 1 day.

Cost to the school for screening and individual assessment:

For 82 students: 3 days of screening and/or individual assessment and 1 day of clerical work @ £300 per day = £1,200.00 (£14.63 per student).

Plus travel or overnight accommodation (capped at £50 per day) x 3 days.

Cost to the school for individual assessment:

For 44 students: 2 days of individual assessment and clerical work @ £300 per day = £600.00 (£13.64 per student).

Plus travel or overnight accommodation (capped at £50 per day) x 2 days.

Cost to the school for individual assessment:

For 12 students: 1 day of individual assessment and clerical work @ £300 per day = £300.00 (£25.00 per student).

Plus travel or overnight accommodation (capped at £50 per day) x 1 day.

'Thank you so much Candy! It was a pleasure working with you! I really appreciate your efforts and efficiency.'

Assistant SENCO.

Cost to the school for individual assessment:

For 24 students: 1 day of individual assessment and clerical work @ £300 per day = £300.00 (£12.50 per student).

Plus travel or overnight accommodation (capped at £50 per day) x 1 day.

Cost to the school for screening:

For 127 students: One day of screening and one additional day for clerical work @ £300 per day = £600 (£4.72 per student).

Plus travel or overnight accommodation (capped at £50 per day) x 1 day.

Enquiry from an independent college wanting me to 'remotely' sign off their GL Exact results as evidence for Form 8 Part 2.  Politely declined. 

Cost to the school for individual assessment:

For 50 students: 2 days of assessment for Access Arrangements @ £300 per day = £600.00 (£12.00 per student).

Plus travel or overnight accommodation (capped at £50 per day).

At the request of the SENCO, telephone and email correspondence with two parents of students from Week 1, who were understandably disappointed that their children no longer qualified for access arrangements.  Kindly explained and resolved matters to everyone's satisfaction.

More enquiries from schools and colleges wanting to 'establish a relationship', simply to satisfy JCQ criteria to continue to act as an examination centre and not because they had any intention of using my services.  All politely declined.

Enquiry from a small, independent, faith school in the West Midlands.  JCQ have given them a deadline, by which time they had to have registered a qualified assessor, in order to continue to act as an exam centre.  Further questioning revealed that although they had been established for 23 years, not one application for access arrangements had ever been made, the reason being, 'Our students are too intelligent to need them.'  I tried hard to explain the nature and purpose of the regulations but they simply weren't interested.  Finally, they offered me a considerable sum of money just to use my name.  I declined, explaining as politely as I could, that I have no interest in supporting a school determined to evade their responsibilties to their students under current disability legislation.  I do get lots of this type of enquiry and I'm afraid that my response will be always the same.  So please, please, please, don't ask.

Two more full diagnostic assessments to complete.  Busy week!

Cost to the college for screening:

For 78 students: 1 day of screening and clerical work @ £300 per day = £300.00 (£3.85 per student).

Cost to the college for individual assessment:

For 34 students: 1 day of individual assessment and clerical work @ £300 per day = £300.00 (£8.82 per student).

Plus travel or overnight accommodation (capped at £50 per day).

'Thank you so much. It's always a pleasure working with you.' SENDCO.

We re-screened the cohort to find that 63% of students might qualify for Access Arrangements.  The results were marked, scored and recorded on the spreadsheet and emailed to the SENCO by close of play the following day.  As directed by the SENCO, we then individually assessed 91 students in 2 days, to find that only 42% of the whole cohort required a Form 8 Part 2 and/or a SENCO File note, which along with the updated spreadsheet, were completed the following day.  I felt extremely sorry for the SENCO, who on the basis of screening with EXACT and in preparation for my visit, had wasted so much of her precious time onerously completing Part 1 of Form 8s, that then proved not to be needed.

Cost to the college for screening:

For 161 students: 1 day of screening + 1 day of clerical work @ £300 per day = £600.00 (£3.73 per student).

Cost to the college for individual assessment:

For 91 students: 2 days of individual assessment + 1 day of clerical work @ £300 per day = £900.00 (£9.89 per student).

Plus travel or overnight accommodation (capped at £50 per day).

'Thank you for working so tirelessly to get through all the students.  Much appreciated.' SEND Administrator.