If your child is in hospital, can school really refuse to let them sit the exam on another day?

[QuintessentiallyQS]

My son had an accident (Long and complicated story, involving toilet bleach in his eye), and went to minor injuries, and dh was told he needed to take him to an eye specialist for 8.30 am the following day for a check up and a closer look, and gave him a letter to take to school because he had several end of year exams.

The school told them that he had to come and sit the exams, as he would not be able to sit them another day. He could do his exam at home but it would not be marked.

Can a school really do this if a child is injured and has to go to hospital? Son went straight to school after seeing the eye specialist, and sat two exams with an eye patch and in pain, but missed out on taking his maths paper. So he will not get a maths grade.

I am beginning to have second thoughts we made a right choice about his school.

This is just one aspect of rigid nonsense we have experienced in this year.

Dcs' before anyone starts...

My dd went to a grammar school- she missed a couple of school exams because she was having her picture taken by the local paper (long story, but it wasn't school related, so it wasn't that they wanted the publicity!). She did them when she got back- no big drama.

It sounds a horrid, inflexible unfriendly school.

Does it really matter? He will presumably have some sort of maths grading for his work during the year, and the lack of an exam grade will make no difference whatsoever to decisions about, for instance, setting for next year. Presumably the teachers know his ability at maths, they don't need an exam grade to enlighten them.

I don't understand why it matters so much to you that he sits the exam . You've said he's very able, does it matter what he gets in an internal exam at aged 11 or 12?
I understand why you can't take exams after the other pupils (unless imed. after and you've been in isolation) but don't understand why you feel it's so important he sits them.

It matters in the grand scheme of things at this school as there are many issues we are not happy with.

The school is very inflexible and seem to favour their own cohort that came up from the junior school, in many ways.