A level contingency day - how likely?

[NCTDN]

Are there people on here in education who know the possibility of needing to use it? Just looking at holidays...

You are quite clearly told to keep it free. You won't 100% know you don't need it until your last exam. A paper might be leaked, there might be a royal funeral, there could be some sort of national incident. All unlikely but not impossible and not something we can plan now.

By definition it's for unexpected events. I can't remember it being used but that doesn't mean it won't be. Holidays need to wait until after.

The bottom line is, is your DC willing to miss a day of exams and take a gap year? They will need to keep up their subject knowledge, of course.

The chance that this will be required is of course very, very, very small. But if it happens, there will be no alternative.

It's not been used yet.

BUT if I was the examiners I would be looking out for an opportunity to use it because the longer it's unused, the more people will ignore it as a possibility.
I'd try and make sure it was used for a good reason at some point in the near future.

So I would make sure that they're around for it.

Chances of it being used are very small.
The consequences if it is needed and you are away are an Alevel grade way below potential.
That's not a risk I'd be taking. You may feel differently. Basically, you will score 0 if a paper is needed to be sat on that day.

It's not been used yet, and it's really there in case of some huge national event. It's very unlikely, but if it did happen, you'd need to forgo the holiday. It's probably rather less likely than having to cancel the holiday due to illness/bereavement, but not covered by your travel insurance!

It's unlikely to be used but it might be.

Are you really prepared to jeopardise your DC's A'levels just so you can go on holiday a few days earlier? If you are you're absolutely bonkers and you have seriously got your priorities wrong.

No one knows if a contingency day will be needed as they are there to deal with unexpected (ie currently unknown and unplanned for) incidents.

In my DD's year I booked late evening flights (9pm and we live 45mins from the airport) on national contingency day. My DD hates any kind of dissection of the exam so mum being there to pick you up and run for the airport appealed to her. Sadly she was 2020 cohort so we never got to take the flight.

I was debating booking a cheap flight (£20 ish) that could be cancelled if needed. There's no way I'd say to miss an exam, not for the price of the flight wondered if it was worth the risk.

If you are willing to cancel flights, that’s great.

If you also have free or refundable lodgings then I see no problem at all. More generally if you are committed to getting DD to her exams and willing to sacrifice if necessary, all of our posts are moot. You are simply playing the odds and they are very good.

It’s if there is a significant event eg death of monarch/extra bank holiday.
We took chance and booked for Saturday I think contingency was the Monday in 2024 but would have just forfeited the flights.