GCSE Special Consideration

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Does anyone have any experience of applying for special consideration for GCSE exams?

We have had a close family bereavement just before half term, and right in the midst of DDs GCSE exams. She won't be snake to attend the funeral because she has 2 exams that day.

I told school when it happened so they could keep an eye on her and was told that we may be able to apply for special consideration for the remaining exams.

Does anyone know the process? What do we need to do? Will the fact that a special consideration has been applied have any negative effect on uni applications etc?

You need to contact the school's exams officer asap. It allows for a few extra % points credit but that is not shown on certificates so uni would not know.

Thanks, school have said they will liaise with the exam co-ordinator and let us know.

I know someone who has gone through this in similar circumstances - their mum died suddenly at Easter. Child is sitting the exams and hasn’t missed any. They get special consideration but it is only a miserly 5%, which is the most extreme category. I don’t know what happens if they miss exams. There was talk with the school about sitting just one paper per subject and extrapolating final grades from that, but they’ve gone down the route of sitting all papers.

I think Special Consideration would be back-dated to the time of the actual bereavement. However it's only a small number of marks that are added on depending on the closeness of the relationship to the person who died. It can make a difference in cases where you dc is close to a grade boundary so it is worth applying for.
It isn't listed on the certificates and the paper isn't marked any differently to the others. The percentage added on and the reasons for it are kept confidential.
If your child needs certain grades for sixth form then this will be taken into account if they are changing schools.
Unlikely to have much significance for university unless they need to resit English or Maths as all results need to be declared. However the school would help with this as there are extenuating circumstances.
www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/access-arrangements-and-special-consideration/regulations-and-guidance/a-guide-to-the-special-consideration-process-2018-2019

We're in this boat - my DDs' gran died 10 days before the start of GCSEs. The school is doing all the work for us in applying for consideration though, both for DD1 who is doing A levels and for DD2. 5% can mean a grade up or not so it's worth pursuing.