Hay Fever and End of Year Exams

[louisea]

DTs are in Year 9. They are currently taking their end of year exams. Some tomorrow and some on Friday. They've already done quite a few earlier in the week and last week.

Both are suffering badly from hay fever. Would it be unreasonable to ask the school to take this in to account when marking their exams. I have written to the pastoral care manager to ask her to notify their teachers but don't know what to expect. They are both currently struggling to breath, have sore throats and are having trouble with their eyes. The teachers are opening the windows because of the heat which adds to their feeling poorly. We can't ask to close the windows though. That wouldn't be fair on the rest of the class.

I'm no expert but have never heard of hay fever being taken into account for exams, where would they draw the line when considering what illness might affect performance? What about girls with period pain or kids with a heavy cold?
I think the school will just expect them to take appropriate medication prior to the exam. Worth sorting out now as they will sit GCSEs in the summer too.

I have no idea if it can be/needs to be taken into account, but would suggest you sort out medication if it is something that they suffer from regularly. Although I realise this year is worse than normal. There are many different medications around, have you tried experimenting with different sorts? Only one medication works with DS2, the doctor has tried prescribing many different ones - he has hayfever so badly that within 15mins of coming into contact with pollen his face and throat swell up so much he can't see/breath. But with antihistamine, eyedrops, inhaler and nasal spray it is fairly well controlled, and wouldn't affect his exam performance.

Please sort out medication - a child with a condition such as hayfever can be really uncomfortable and it is a condition which can be easily controlled.

My eldest DD used to suffer v.v. badly - but she is fine right now, because we always start her meds in March..

I got this in my exams seasons and so does DS...it really is debilitating ...like having a heavy flu if it is really bad it can be coupled with asthma attacks ...I don't think anyone who does not suffer from it realizes how debiliating...sometimes I just wanted to lie in a dark room because that is all i could bear ...and meds can make you drowsy ...not very conducive to exam performance!

They are medicated to the hilt. Already changed meds last year. They are taking Piriton on top of the other anti-histamine. They were so bad that they actually didn't go in to school today. I'm hoping that they aren't penalised for missing the exams and are given the chance to do them next week.

What are the results used for?

If they are just to see how they are doing, then it is impossible for anyone to judge how much better they would have done without hayfever. But they and you will know and that is all that matters.

If they are used to in putting your DC into sets for the next year, it might be worth asking for it to be considered if they are borderline.

Try topical medication. Tablets don't work for me but nasal spray and eye drops do. You can get nasal spray for children which lasts 4-6 hours.

I use this which comes in a children version.

What are the results used for?

I think that the results are used for GCSE groups. They are fairly solid in the subjects that matter to them, so hopefully if they don't do well in a particular exam it won't matter. They are constantly being assessed so the teachers should have a fair idea as to where they should be placed without the exams.

They are already using eye drops but I WILL get them some nasal spray.

yy..... nasal spray is the ONLY thing my doc recommends for DD's hay fever - gets right to the source of the problem - keep going back to the doc until the symptoms are cleared (took us 2 years though..) - folks do not have to suffer forever.. and I don't believe the nasal spray makes DD drowsy at all...

All's well that ends well. Received a call from the school's examination officer. She's sending home the exams that they missed in a sealed envelope. The DTs will need to do them over the weekend under supervision and we'll return them on Monday morning.