Special adjustments for GCSE's

[Katie172]

Hi, I am asking this one on behalf of my sister...her ds sat gcse's this Summer and was predicted to do reasonably well. Unfortunately he became unwell late last year and didn't properly 'pick up' ,suffering debilitating migraine three times a week until April which caused him to miss lots of time at school. He was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue by a paediatrician who wrote a letter to confirm. My sister spoke to the school and asked if there was a possibility he could defer gcse's until the Autumn but she was told that this wasn't possible and he should sit them and re-sit in November if necessary. My dn was told that he could have the 'special adjustment' of as many rest breaks as required in view of the diagnosis but in practice he worried about this as he felt it would disrupt others. My question is this-is it possible to find out if he could have taken the exams in a separate room enabling him to have taken the breaks to avoid the risk of disruption?
Thanks in advance
Katie

It would be possible to sit GCSE's in a separate room, but only

1. if the extra room Was available
2. the extra staff required were available.

Only the school could answer these questions.

My DD sat most of her exams in separate room. She has a scribe, so clearly can't be in space where others would either be disrupted or hear the answers.

November resits are no longer possible fro most subjects, so your DN would need to wait till next summer to retake.

What does he want to do next?

For many DC, GCSE results are only important for them to get to the next stage (sixth form, college, apprenticeship etc). I would say at this stage all you can do is open negotiations with where he wants to go, and see if they will take into account the lack of special arrangements.

DD sits her exams in a separate room to everyone else - this was sorted out by the exams office at school, and needed confirmation from her paediatrician as to her condition. So long as she starts each exam within (I think) 30 minutes of the official start time, she then can take as many rest breaks as she needs. It's more complicated with language listening papers, but her school have that in hand as well.

School exams office will be your sister's first port of call.

Many thanks for your responses....dn wants to study A levels in the sixth form at his current school and was on track before he became unwell...Thanks again, I shall pass all this onto her

Katie

Yes, he is entitled to rest breaks. He can be in the same room as other candidates, raising his hand to indicate when he was stopping and restarting. He can also be in a separate room, if this is preferable.

DD1 sat most of her exams in a separate room, because she was using a keyboard.

Our school seem to have three situations

• main room, all candidates with normal exam timing and conditions

• smaller room for those with extra time, so they are not disturbed when others leave exam room and they still have their extra time left, and

• individual rooms.

They all need their own invigilators and that is quite a cost for the latter option, so usually candidates are allocated the small room unless there is a specific reason like a reader or scribe required or something else which warrants an individual room.

Isn't it a bit late to be finding all this out? And why didn't your sister insist he had the rest breaks, or at least find out what the arrangements would have been so he wouldn't have felt he'd be disturbing the others?

The exam concessions are for the future. For this exam your DN could try the special considerations. This is to do with being seriously ill on the day of the exam, bereavement, other unforeseen circumstances. See whether your sister could get a letter from the GP to support this. However it might be tricky given it was known for a while. Did he actually complain of fatigue and being unwell on the day of the exam, is it recorded?

There will be information about this on the exam board website.