Psychoeducational Assessments for Hastings School Madrid Students
Hastings School is one of the most established British international schools in Madrid, founded in 1971 and now part of the Cognita group. The school serves more than 1,400 students aged 2 to 18 across six campuses in central Madrid, spanning Chamartín, Arturo Soria, and Conde Orgaz.
With the English National Curriculum leading to IGCSE examinations, and a Nexus sixth form offering both A Levels and the IB Diploma Programme, Hastings represents one of the most academically demanding pathways available to international families in the Spanish capital.
For families whose children are showing signs of dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, ADHD, or autism, the question of how to secure a formal diagnosis, support classroom planning, and prepare for examination access arrangements becomes one of the most important decisions in their child’s education.
Why an Independent Assessment Matters for Hastings Families
Hastings is one of a small number of Madrid schools delivering both A Levels and the IB Diploma at sixth form through its Nexus programme. This dual sixth form pathway means that any access arrangements process at Hastings may need to cover JCQ for Cambridge International or Pearson Edexcel A Levels, and IBIS for the IB Diploma, in parallel.
Families who only assess for one route find themselves repeating the process or facing administrative complications when their child’s pathway changes during sixth form, which it often does as students refine their university plans.
A single comprehensive psychoeducational assessment from an independent, HCPC-registered educational psychologist solves this.
The 20 to 30 page diagnostic report produced by Global Education Testing Madrid is anchored in DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 criteria, which means the diagnosis itself carries internationally recognised clinical authority.
The report is then tailored to whichever combination of examining systems the Hastings student will face, with the recommended access arrangements presented in the formats JCQ and IBIS specifically require.
About Hastings School and Its SEND Provision
Hastings School operates a dedicated Special Educational Needs framework supported by a Special Educational Needs Coordinator and a full-time bilingual psychologist on site.
The school’s own published position is that it has the infrastructure and professional staffing to accept children with mild special educational needs and learning difficulties, with limited capacity for moderate cases. The school explicitly does not accept students with severe SEN. This is a clear and honest framework, and it sets up exactly the structural reality that international families need to understand.
The full-time bilingual psychologist and learning support psychologist at Hastings provide observation, screening, classroom intervention, and consultation with teachers. They identify children who are struggling and recommend in-class support strategies. These are valuable services and they form an important first line of support. But school-based psychology is positioned as classroom-facing rather than diagnostic.
The formal diagnostic process, which produces the written report needed for exam boards to grant access arrangements, sits outside that scope by design. This is the case at almost every international school in Madrid and it reflects the international standard for how school-based SEN provision and independent psychoeducational assessment interact.
The Gap Between School SEND Support and Formal Diagnosis
When a Hastings family is told that their child shows signs of a learning difference, the natural next step feels like asking the school to formalise the diagnosis. The school’s bilingual psychologist is on site, knows the child, and is qualified. Why not let them produce the report?
The answer comes down to two structural requirements set by examining bodies. The first is independence. The Joint Council for Qualifications, which governs access arrangements for Cambridge International and Pearson Edexcel IGCSE and A Level examinations, requires that the psychoeducational evidence supporting an application for accommodations comes from an educational psychologist who is independent of the school the candidate attends.
The same requirement, expressed differently, applies to the International Baccalaureate Organization’s Inclusive Access Arrangements process administered through IBIS. The reasoning is straightforward. Independence removes the perception that the school assessing the child also has an institutional interest in the outcome of the assessment, the resulting accommodations, or the examination grades that follow.
The second requirement is the qualification of the assessor and the format of the report. JCQ requires that the assessor holds either the Specialist Assessment Practising Certificate from a recognised UK awarding body, or registration with the Health and Care Professions Council as an Educational, Clinical, or Counselling Psychologist. The report itself must follow a specific structure with named subtests, standard scores, percentile ranks, descriptive interpretation, and recommendations linked to the access arrangements being requested.
Four Things Every Hastings Family Should Know Before Assessment
These are the four issues that matter most when arranging an independent psychoeducational assessment for a student at Hastings School Madrid.
1. The assessment must be conducted in the student’s language of instruction
For students at Hastings, the language of instruction is English. Cognitive and academic assessments administered in English produce results that reflect a child’s true ability to function in their English-medium classroom and English-medium examinations.
Many children at Hastings speak Spanish at home, or English at home but a third language with grandparents or relatives, or any combination of the three.
A standardised assessment carried out in Spanish, even by a fluent bilingual examiner, will produce results that conflate language acquisition with cognitive ability, masking the very learning difference the assessment was designed to identify.
Global Education Testing Madrid conducts all assessments in English, the child’s language of instruction, with the full clinical battery normed for English-speaking populations.
2. Local Spanish assessments do not satisfy international examination boards
A diagnostic assessment produced by a Spanish-trained psychologist, written in Spanish and referencing Spanish educational frameworks, will not be accepted by Cambridge International, Pearson Edexcel, the College Board, or the International Baccalaureate Organization for the purposes of granting exam access arrangements.
The format expected, the named subtests, the standard scoring conventions, the diagnostic frameworks (DSM-5-TR and ICD-11), and the qualifications of the assessor (HCPC registration or SpLD APC) are all specifically international standards.
A Spanish neuropediátrico report, however clinically accurate, sits outside the system the examination boards recognise.
3. Single-issue screening is not enough
The most common mistake international families make is arranging a single-condition screen, often for dyslexia, when the underlying profile is more complex. Dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, ADHD, and autism frequently co-occur. A child with ADHD often shows literacy difficulties that look like dyslexia until the attentional profile is properly assessed. A child with high-functioning autism may show executive function difficulties that are misread as ADHD.
Single-issue screens identify whether the named condition is present and stop there. A comprehensive psychoeducational assessment evaluates cognitive ability, working memory, processing speed, reading, writing, mathematics, attention, executive function, language, and adaptive behaviour, producing a complete profile that reveals the actual structure of the child’s learning differences and the interactions between them.
4. Independent assessment protects the family across every pathway
The Hastings student who is assessed independently at Year 9 or Year 10 carries the diagnostic report into IGCSE access arrangements, then into A Level or IB Diploma access arrangements at sixth form, then into UCAS applications, university disability support services, and onward into adult life.
A school-based screen does not travel. An independent diagnostic assessment from an HCPC-registered educational psychologist follows the student internationally, opens accommodations at every stage of education, and protects the family from having to repeat the process at every transition.
Hastings Examination Pathways and Access Arrangements
Hastings students sit IGCSE examinations through Cambridge International or Pearson Edexcel at the end of Year 11. Access arrangements at this stage include extra time, supervised rest breaks, the use of a reader or scribe, the use of a word processor, prompter, and modified papers. The application for access arrangements is submitted by the school’s exams officer to the relevant awarding body, supported by the independent psychoeducational report.
At sixth form, Hastings students choose between Cambridge International A Levels and the IB Diploma Programme through the Nexus pathway. A Level access arrangements continue to follow JCQ standards and require evidence dated within the last two years before the start of the examination series.
The IB Diploma Programme administers its access arrangements through IBIS, with documentation requirements that overlap substantially with JCQ but include specific format expectations around the way diagnoses, scores, and recommendations are presented.
What a Global Education Testing Madrid Assessment Covers
A comprehensive psychoeducational assessment from Global Education Testing Madrid runs to 20 to 30 pages and covers the full clinical picture relevant to a child’s education. The cognitive battery includes the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Fifth Edition or the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Fifth Edition depending on age, producing measures of verbal comprehension, visual spatial reasoning, fluid reasoning, working memory, and processing speed. Academic functioning is assessed through the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test Third Edition, covering reading accuracy, reading comprehension, reading fluency, mathematical problem solving, numerical operations, spelling, and written expression.
Phonological processing is assessed through the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing where dyslexia is suspected. Handwriting and motor coordination are assessed through the Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting where dysgraphia is suspected. Attention and executive function are assessed through Conners rating scales, SNAP-IV, and Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function. Where autism is suspected, the assessment battery extends to include adaptive behaviour, social communication, and behavioural observation tools.
The report itself produces a formal diagnosis under DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 frameworks, with each recommendation linked explicitly to the access arrangements being requested and to the examination boards the child will face. All assessments are delivered by HCPC-registered educational psychologists, and all reports are formatted to meet JCQ, IBIS, and College Board standards in full.
The Next Step for Hastings Families
Hastings School families considering an independent psychoeducational assessment for their child should arrange it well in advance of the examination series that requires the access arrangements. JCQ requires evidence to be dated within two years of the start of examinations, so a Year 9 or Year 10 assessment supports IGCSE accommodations through Year 11, and a Year 11 or early Year 12 assessment supports A Level and IB Diploma accommodations through Year 13.
Global Education Testing Madrid has worked with Hastings families across multiple year groups, delivering assessments that produce the formal diagnosis, the comprehensive clinical picture, and the documentation required by every examining body the student will face during their time at Hastings and beyond.