My daughter has fallen sick during A level exams

[WishIwas21]

All,

Hope you're well.

My daughter has fallen sick during her A level exams and is unable to focus or revise. She sat 3/9 exams but I don't think she'll manage any of the others.

I don't believe she's fit to continue. Is anyone familiar with the rules around funding if a year 13 were to redo the year. She wouldn't be resitting the exam per se as she will only have managed 1 of 3 papers from each subject.

I'm in the midst of collating medical evidence for the school.

I'd be grateful for any guidance.

Kind regards,
Sidra

My DS was allowed to re-do year 13, as were others in the sixth form.

And I got child allowance paid for that year

It depends what is wrong with her.

There is no automatic ability to resist until next year and many schools don’t allow a repeat year so she’d potentially have to self teach and self motivate. What is the illness? Are all exams genuinely going to be affected?

I don’t have the answer, but just wanted to send you and your daughter a hug. What a stressful, worrying time for you.

This. It angers me how the system is so rubbish if anything happens in Y13.

Please speak to your exams officers. She can self certify for done and a doctors note would help, if she has sat some it's worth applying for special consideration - especially if she also has course work .

My dsd didn't sit her a levels due a very serious relapse of an illness.
She did one paper of one subject and we insisted it was marked . If your dad has done some of the exams you need to get on it quickly with getting as much supporting evidence you can...medical records, doctors letters, support from pastoral staff at school etc.
We provided a dossier of evidence and the exam board marked my dsd exam paper and she got a B .
It is worked out by assessing their grade in the one paper against the average for that paper and then the average of the other papers.
So if you got an A in paper 1 and the average was a C , then the you are two points above average and the exam board would reckon you would be 1-2 points above average in the papers you don't sit.
So if she has managed a paper in each subject and has evidence strong enough to support not sitting the others you can push for them to be marked and she may have done ok.
If she hasn't done all the subjects obviously she has to decide whether to go back to school in September.
My dsd went to a private crammer and sat the missing two subjects

shes sat three exam so far, was unwell for the last two. She’s been diagnosed with a chest infection and has a fever, and is in excruciating body pain.
Ive managed to get her antibiotics today but I fear it might turn into pnumonia. She’s in bed and can barely move so will miss two papers this week.

good idea.

The two exams being missed this week we actually want her to sit at a later date whenever the sixth form are able to accommodate. I hear that some papers are offered in November.
As a single mum I’m finding it so stressful.

You need to dose her up as much as possible and try and get her in. Can the school use her mocks as evidence towards the grade for the exam board? It seems like such a waste of a year to repeat it.

It doesn’t work like that. If these are actual a levels you have to present medical evidence showing the severity and then they use average grades to create a grade for the child. You can’t just sit the exams late.

I don't think there are any resits in November, other than English and Maths gcse. If she can manage a minimum number of papers, even with special consideration, her grades can be calculated for a missing paper but you need to speak to the exams officer urgently to clarify the rules and plan ahead not just be absent. Next week is a break so she can rest then. Does she have a history of pneumonia?

She can't sit papers that have happened this week another time and have them count towards her A-levels.

With mocks and school tests, schools can let students sit them whenever they like. But real external exams can only be taken on the exact date and time they are scheduled for (clashes excepted).

November resits are only for GCSE English and Maths. Her only option for resitting the exams will be next summer. There was a year or two where due to COVID A-levels were able to be taken in November but they were the years when the students didn't sit the exams in the summer, grades were based on teacher predictions.

Does she have underlying health issues? It seems odd that you would jump to the conclusion that an otherwise healthy 18-year-old would develop pneumonia. Might you just be catastrophising?

She cannot resit in November. You need To get her into school and get her to sit the exams and then send in medical proof for exemptions .

Every student receives 3 years funding post 16 to allow for hiccups.

She should be allowed to do Year 14. However if you get a medical note she may not have to.

If she misses 2 papers this week, it's half term next week so that's another week to recuperate. If she can manage to get in for her other papers after half term, they can extrapolate a grade for the missed papers and still award the A-level. This would require the exams officer at her school being kept fully up to date with her condition and having as much evidence of illness as possible to submit to the exam boards.

You need to keep in mind that lots of students get last minute panics and can try to find ways of avoiding the exams so you really have to follow the rules so that she can hopefully sit the required number of papers to allow them to then create an average for the missed ones. But you will need good medical evidence. It’s vital to follow the correct process and speak to the school urgently

What a stupid stupid system.

I agree - get her in if humanly possible

Re-sitting the year and places will depend. Is she usually a good attender? Do they have evidence of decent mock grades?

She can't sit papers done this series at later date - they're all over social media the minute they're sat so it wouldn't be far on those who sit the exam under exam conditions

She won’t be able to combine papers done now with papers at another sitting to achieve a grade.
She won’t be able to sit the actual missed papers later they can only be done on the scheduled date.
With proper evidence it may be possible for a grade to be calculated in subjects where at least some papers have been sat, you need to speak to the exams officer right away.

No A level papers are available in November, I'm afraid.

Please also consider that some universities/courses won't accept resits. They would be considered resits if she is permitted to take year 13 again and try again because she has already been entered for the exams and has sat some papers. Plus not all schools allow a year 14. Our school doesn't.

Any NEA/coursework would also need to be done again if they allow the year to be retaken. You can't carry it over or use the same work. In some cases you can also find that the curriculum has changed eg with English lit texts.

She really needs to dose up and get in to take the papers this week.

I taught secondary 25 years. I’ve never come across a place that didn’t accept resits. Especially for illness. Which would be in the contextual information on the UCAS reference.