Testing times

It's GCSE results day, and the TV news is wall-to-wall with happy, smiley teens ripping open envelopes and hugging each other. My eldest doesn't do such drama; he figures that they'll turn up in the post in a day or two if he doesn't go in this morning. Meanwhile, I'm composing an email to school for Cactus which, among other things, will need to cover the sort of accomodations she will need for tests and exams.

Misophonia wasn't such a problem in school until a couple of weeks before the end of term, when she had a test under exam conditions. Seated near a couple of breathing, sniffing, pencil tapping classmates in non-silent silence she found it impossible to concentrate and came out of school distraught that she had flunked the test. And badly. This year she has a few early GCSE exams, with the bulk of them to follow next year. The worry in this house is palpable. You could cut it with a knife.

My challenge is to persuade the school to make adjustments for a condition they've probably never heard of. Adjustments that are going to contradict some of their countless and inviolable school rules (which is making me think about the scene in Harry Potter where Filch the caretaker scales an enormous ladder to nail up yet another new rule at the behest of Dolores Umbridge). Absolutely no headphones allowed. Pupils caught using mobile phones will have them confiscated, to be collected in person by a parent. No leaving the classroom without prior permission. No performing spells in the toilets.

And we will all need to agree what adjustments are reasonable. Noise reducing earbuds so she can still hear the teacher but with the edge taken off. In-ear headphones so they're not obtrusive and don't attract stares and questions. Perhaps an MP3 player for music and white noise rather than her phone, because I am certain that she would use an entire month's data allowance and drain the battery by lunchtime, leaving no way for me to contact her if I was running late to pick her up. And over-reliance on a confiscated phone is going to be no help at all.

Then there's the teenage mortification at being different, or being allowed to do things that others are not. And let's not even start on the potential for bullying. Misophonia already carries a dreadful paranoia that people are making triggering noises on purpose - what if they actually do?

Of course, the school will probably be wonderfully understanding and accommodating and our worries will be unfounded. And if they aren't, I'm a battle-hardened veteran now and prepared to go full Tiger Mother if that's what it takes. It won't be the first time.

But for now, these are testing times.