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How do extra time and rest breaks work in GCSEs?

26 replies

Greenlandscape · 11/07/2026 05:34

DC is in year 10.

I received an email yesterday from English Teacher with mock result; he also said he has send a form requesting an extra 25 percent additional time and rest break for all assessments going forward; and suggested I speak to other teachers to do the same.

I have enquired about this before with school before but didn’t get a response. I have been in touch with all teachers recently as I was leaving it to school and DC until I realised I couldn’t. I am very pleased the English teacher has requested this.

DC got a 3 for the English Literature Mock, a 3 for Maths and a double 5 for science. Last English Language mock which was last year was a 4. He said. DC target for English Language and English Literature according to SATS is 5.

How do rest breaks and additional time work in GCSE? I guess they just use it if they need to or don’t if they don’t need to; but how you do rest breaks?

OP posts:
TheFutureFreaksMeOut · 11/07/2026 05:39

I've just done some invigilating for GCSE exams and the extra time is there to be used if they want it. It's not compulsory and the student can leave with everyone else if they feel they've finished.

With rest breaks, they would put their hand up, ask for their break and then an invigilator would take them out of the hall for a walk around the school, usually 5-10 minutes, until they felt able to go back in and focus again.

The time they leave and come back would be recorded and given as extra time at the end, so they didn't miss out. So for example, if a child had 15 minutes extra as standard and also took a 10 minute rest break, they would be allowed 25 minutes extra at the end. They could also take as many rest breaks as they needed.

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