What happens if a student is sick?

[madameimadam]

Just a thought that occurred to me as DD has caught my hideous cold and has gone to bed early.

She’s got a big exam on Wed. I’m sure she’ll be better by then (hopefully) but it got me thinking.

What would happen if a student is really unwell but not to hospitalisation levels?? Just shivery, feverish, being sick, ‘should really be in bed’ levels on the day of an exam?

I’m presuming the answer would be along the lines of dosing up on Beechams and sucking it up? 😬

At the university I work at there are clear procedures for students to follow if they are unwell on the day of an exam. I'm sure it will be similar at your daughter's university. Students are not expected to sit exams if they are unwell.

What sort of education setting is it? I’ve always hated how colds are treated as not a big deal. I’ve felt way worse with a cold than I have with more serious stuff. I think it’s worth asking them about it but I fear that without a sick note she will still have to sit it.

Ah, thanks for the reply! Would that be the same case for an A Level though? That’s what she’s sitting atm. I suspect she’d just have to grit her teeth and get through it. There’s no way she’d want to miss it after all the work she put in and I’m sure she’ll be ok by then.

It just got me wondering - I’d imagine the invigilator wouldn’t want to be mopping up sick during an exam or keeping an eye on someone shivering away!!

If able to go then go and put in for mitigation. Only worth a couple of percentage points though. It's outside the control of college, same as GCSEs. Would be different if hospitalised emergency.

Very little can be done really. I had a student in hospital with sepsis a few years ago. She sat exams 1 and 2 but missed paper 3 (Maths GCSE)

The exam board took an average of the 2 papers she'd sat and awarded that score for paper 3. They wanted hospital admittance evidence though.

She won’t be the first student to have sat their exam with a sick bowl next to her…

I sat one of my uni exams shivering away dosed up on everything I could possibly take. It was an anomalous low mark and dragged me down to a 2:2 which is shit but not much you can do!

I would assume the same for GCSE/Alevels.

I had a student sit my exam (GCSE) with D&V. She was put in a room adjacent to a bathroom with a sick bowl on the desk. Bet the invigilators drew straws to see who got put in the room with her!

She must have done OK. Went on to take the subject at A Level.

I think yo could contact the university she hopes to attend, and let them know, they may accept extenuating circumstances. Get medical evidence and send that in. You have nothing to lose from doing so and it's just an email

Usually a separate room and bucket/s... when invigilating, the main halls also had supplies of an absorbent powder available in case of any individual having a fluid release incident.

Well, DD perked up, got dosed up on paracetamol and got stuck in. Just a nasty cold but I had the week before and it made me feel hideous. She’s completely fine now and is happy with how exams have been going. Nearly there!!