Cambridge International and IB Access Arrangements for Thames British School Madrid Students
Thames British School Madrid is a Cambridge International School. The IGCSEs students sit at the end of Year 11, the AS and A Levels available in Sixth Form, and the wider Cambridge framework that shapes the Secondary curriculum all flow through Cambridge Assessment International Education.
The school added the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in September 2023, making Thames one of the few Madrid international schools delivering both Cambridge A Levels and the IBDP through Sixth Form. Pearson Edexcel is not part of the picture at Thames. Neither is JCQ, the UK-based regulator that governs most British school examinations.
This matters because Cambridge International for iGCSE and A-Level operates a different access arrangements regime from JCQ. The evidence Cambridge requires, the format it accepts, the qualifications of the assessor it recognises, and the score thresholds it sets are specific to Cambridge International. A report written for a JCQ centre may not satisfy Cambridge. A Spanish informe psicopedagógico will not satisfy Cambridge. A school-based screen by the Thames school psychologist will not satisfy Cambridge either, because Cambridge requires the evidence to come from an external independent assessor.
The IB operates its own Inclusive Access Arrangements process. The documentation requirements overlap with Cambridge International in many areas and differ in others, and we tailor our reports based on specific exam board requirements
What Cambridge International Actually Requires for iGCSE & A-Level Exam Accommodations
Cambridge International publishes its access arrangements guidance for centres rather than for parents, which means the requirements are not always visible to families until the school’s exams officer is preparing an application. The core points are these.
The assessor must hold either a Specialist Assessment Practising Certificate from a recognised awarding body, or registration with the Health and Care Professions Council in the UK as an Educational, Clinical, or Counselling Psychologist. Global Education Testing Madrid delivers every assessment through HCPC-registered educational psychologists, with additional registrations in Australia, South Africa, and the United States.
For learning differences such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, ADHD, and autism, Cambridge requires standardised psychometric evidence demonstrating the candidate falls in the below average range, defined as a standard score of 84 or lower, a percentile rank of 15 or lower, or a scaled score of 6 or lower.
Low-average scores are not accepted. The evidence must be current, ideally dated within two years of the examination series. The report must contain specific named subtests with standard scores and percentile ranks rather than general descriptive findings.
Five Families, Five Year Groups, One Question
- A Reception teacher raises a quiet concern at the parent consultation.
- A Year 6 child is being prepared for the transition to Secondary and the handwriting has not kept pace.
- A Year 9 student is reading more slowly than her peers and the SENCO has asked whether the family has thought about external assessment.
- A Year 11 student is five months from IGCSE examinations and the question of extra time is now urgent.
- A Sixth Former applying to Oxford has been asked by the university’s support service for documentation that satisfies a specific format.
Five families, five year groups, one underlying question: what kind of psychoeducational documentation does a Thames British School child actually need, and when.
The Reception or Year 1 family is at the beginning of the journey. A formal psychoeducational assessment is not always indicated at age four or five, but a baseline cognitive and developmental profile can identify emerging patterns that classroom teachers have spotted but cannot diagnose.
For younger children, the assessment runs across two consecutive days of approximately two hours each, rather than the single four-hour session used with students aged 12 and above.
The Year 6 family is approaching the transition into Secondary School at Thames, where the academic load increases sharply, the lesson structure changes, and the early steps toward IGCSEs begin.
Year 5 or Year 6 is a strong window for a comprehensive assessment because it allows three years of preparation before the IGCSE access arrangements applications and gives the SENCO time to embed any recommended classroom support so the child’s history of using accommodations is established by Year 11.
The Year 9 or Year 10 family is preparing for IGCSE examinations. Cambridge International expects evidence dated within approximately two years of the examination series.
An assessment in Year 9 or Year 10 sits within that window for IGCSEs at the end of Year 11 and is current enough to support the Sixth Form decision when it arrives.
The Year 11 or Year 12 family is at the most urgent decision point. The assessment must be completed and the report delivered with sufficient time for the Thames exams officer to submit the access arrangements application.
Cambridge International deadlines for exam access arrangements typically run several months before the examination series. The Global Education Testing Madrid turnaround of three weeks to deliver the report means a family contacting in October can have documentation in hand by tge end of that month.
The Sixth Former applying to Oxford, Cambridge, or other selective universities is in a different position again. UK university disability support services typically require documentation in a specific format, often the report itself plus an updated functional needs statement.
The same Global Education Testing diagnostic report supports Oxbridge admissions tests including the MAT, STEP, TMUA, PAT, ENGAA, NSAA, TSA, BMAT, ELAT, and HAT, and university learning difficulty service applications across the UK, US, Spain, the Netherlands, and other destinations Thames students reach.
Seven Things Thames Families Should Know Before Booking a PsychoEducational Assessment
Language of instruction. Thames teaches the entire curriculum in English. The assessment must be conducted in English to produce results that map onto the classroom and the examination hall.
Spanish reports do not transfer. A Spanish-language report from a local psychologist or neuropediatra will not satisfy Cambridge International, the IB, or the College Board, regardless of clinical quality.
Independence is non-negotiable. Cambridge and the IB both require evidence from an assessor external to the school. The Thames school psychologist’s work, however capable, sits inside the school and cannot fulfil this role.
Single-issue screening misses co-occurrence. Dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, ADHD, and autism co-occur frequently. A dyslexia-only screen will miss the ADHD that explains half of the picture, and vice versa.
Timing matters. Cambridge expects evidence dated within roughly two years of the examination series. A Year 9 assessment supports IGCSEs at Year 11. A Year 11 or early Year 12 assessment supports A Levels and IB Diploma examinations at Year 13.
The report travels. The same Global Education Testing Madrid report supports IGCSE access arrangements, A Level and IB Diploma access arrangements, College Board SAT and AP accommodations, UCAS applications, US and European university disability services, and postgraduate examinations including the MCAT, LSAT, GMAT, and GRE.
Cost and turnaround are concrete. The comprehensive assessment, including pre-assessment consultation, full testing battery, the 20 to 30 page diagnostic report, and the feedback consultation, costs EUR 2,650 or local currency equivalent. Scheduling sits at approximately 14 days weeks from initial contact, with the report delivered within three weeks of the final testing session.
The A Level Versus IB Diploma Decision at Sixth Form
Thames Madrid is unusual in offering both Cambridge A Levels and the IB Diploma Programme. The two pathways place different cognitive demands on the student, and for a child with a defined learning profile this is a decision worth making with evidence rather than instinct.
A Levels at Thames involve four subjects, taught at roughly four and a half hours per week each, with modular external examinations. The depth is significant. The breadth is not. A student with strong fluid reasoning but slower processing speed may perform better on A Levels than under the broader load of the IB Diploma.
The IB Diploma involves six subjects at three Higher Level and three Standard Level, plus Theory of Knowledge, the Extended Essay, and Creativity, Activity, Service. The cognitive load is broader, the internal assessment burden is higher, and the working memory demands across six concurrent subjects are real. A student with strong verbal comprehension and working memory may flourish in the IB Diploma where another student would struggle.
A psychoeducational assessment, by producing measures of processing speed, working memory, executive function, written expression, and reading fluency alongside cognitive ability, gives the Thames family an evidence base for the pathway choice. This is not the primary purpose of the assessment, but it is a meaningful secondary use of the same report.
The EAL Question
Thames British School Madrid serves more than 30 nationalities, with Spanish the most common nationality and many international families speaking three or more languages at home.
The school’s approach to English as an additional language is immersion-led rather than withdrawal-based, with in-class differentiation and teaching assistant support in Early Years through Year 4. For Thames families whose children are simultaneously acquiring English and showing signs of a learning difference, the clinical question is whether the difficulty reflects the natural lag of language acquisition or a genuine specific learning difference.
This is the question an independent assessment in the language of instruction is structured to answer. The cognitive battery measures reasoning ability in ways that minimise language load. The phonological processing battery uses controlled tasks that distinguish phonological awareness from English vocabulary. The academic assessment compares the child’s English literacy attainment against standardised English-language peers while interpreting findings against the developmental context of multilingual acquisition. Global Education Testing’s educational psychologists work routinely with multilingual children in international schools and differentiate clinically between language acquisition and underlying learning difference.
The Assessment Itself
The cognitive battery uses the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Fifth Edition or the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Fifth Edition. The academic battery uses the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test Third Edition. Phonological processing is assessed through CTOPP where dyslexia is suspected. Handwriting fluency through DASH where dysgraphia is suspected. Attention and executive function through Conners and SNAP rating scales. Visual-spatial processing through the Taylor Complex Figure Test. Emotional and behavioural factors through Rotter and clinical observation.
The assessment is delivered via secure video link. Students aged 12 and above complete it in a single four-hour session. Students under 12 complete it across two consecutive days of approximately two hours each. The 20 to 30 page diagnostic report is anchored in DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 diagnostic criteria, with each recommendation linked explicitly to the access arrangements being requested and to the examination boards the Thames student will face. Parent consultations and feedback meetings are available with real-time translation in virtually any language.
Where This Leaves the Five Families
The Reception family has a baseline. The Year 6 family has the documentation that travels through Secondary School and onward. The Year 9 family has Cambridge International compliant evidence ready for IGCSE access arrangements. The Year 11 family meets the exam board deadlines. The Oxford applicant has the report her university disability service requires. Five different starting points, one document each, the same report following each child through every transition that comes next.
Global Education Testing works with Thames British School families across the full year-group range, from Early Years through Sixth Form, delivering psychoeducational assessments that meet Cambridge International, IB, College Board, and international university disability service standards within a single document.