The Educator Magazine U.K. May-August 2026 issue. - Magazine - Page 42
It’s rarely the test that
trips children up – it’s
everything around it
By Asmaa Ahmed, former
primary teacher and mental
health lead, now Senior
Customer Success Manager at
The Access Group
expectations all place additional demands on working memory
and emotional regulation.
When that happens, assessment stops being a measure of
learning and becomes a measure of how well a child tolerates
stress.
Good intentions don’t always translate into good
experiences
Most schools are deeply committed to fairness. Adjustments
are discussed, documented and agreed. Teachers want children
to succeed. But fairness doesn’t live in a policy folder – it lives in
the detail of how assessment actually feels to a child.
Anyone who has worked in a primary classroom will have
seen how quickly a child’s confidence can unravel during
assessment, sometimes before the task even begins.
It’s rarely about the task itself. More often, it’s the small, easily
overlooked changes that tip things off balance: a different room
layout, an unfamiliar adult, a break from routine.
For some pupils, particularly those with SEND, those shifts
are enough to turn a manageable assessment into an
overwhelming experience.
That’s why assessment for pupils with additional needs so often
succeeds or fails on the environment around it, not the work in
front of them.
Assessment isn’t a neutral experience
In theory, assessment is designed to measure learning.
In practice, it also tests a child’s ability to cope with uncertainty,
pressure and sensory demand.
Primary teachers see this every day. A pupil who can explain
their thinking confidently in class freezes during a written task.
A child who engages well in guided work rushes through an
assessment and misses obvious answers. Another becomes
distressed, withdrawn or unusually disruptive the moment a
task is framed as a ‘test’.
For pupils with autism, ADHD, anxiety or trauma-related needs,
assessment conditions can amplify stress rather than reveal
understanding. Silence, time pressure and unfamiliar
An adjustment identified on paper doesn’t automatically
become effective in practice. Extra time, rest breaks or
alternative formats can still feel awkward or unsettling if a
child hasn’t used them regularly. Support can fall flat if it’s
delivered by an unfamiliar adult, or in a space the child doesn’t
recognise as safe.
In primary settings especially, the gap between intent and
reality often comes down to timing and consistency.
Adjustments introduced late, or reserved only for ‘important’
assessments, can feel more disruptive than supportive.
Primary assessment is about habits, not events
One of the strengths of primary education is that assessment
happens all the time. Through observations, short tasks,
quizzes, phonics checks, writing activities and informal checks
for understanding, children are constantly showing what they
know.
When adjustments are embedded early, they stop feeling like
adjustments at all. A child who regularly uses a visual checklist
doesn’t see it as unusual during assessment. A pupil who takes
movement breaks as part of normal classroom life doesn’t feel
singled out for needing one during a test. A child who works
with the same trusted adult day to day feels more secure when
that support continues.
The most effective support across schools tends to come from
predictability rather than perfection.
