GCSE dd back in hospital for 5th time. What info are we supposed to be providing for grade allocation. School being vague.

[C0ttonClarice]

Dd has had a shitty couple of years. Bright but battling SENs, illness and hospital admissions. I just don’t know what we’re supposed to be providing info wise for exams.
. HoY says she puts any email from us on a spreadsheet and that is it. Is that definitely all we need to do? I don’t know if or what we’re sharing is right.

So sorry you’re all having such a shitty time! I don’t think schools have been given much advice this year regarding extenuating circumstances. In normal years the most a child gets for extenuating circumstances is 5%. So not very much at all for quite hideous situations.
This year is further complicated as schools need to provide evidence that your daughter has achieved a particular grade. Do you know what evidence they have and what they are using for the rest of her cohort?

Evidence of diagnosis, appointment letters, a letter from the consultants describing the symptoms and disadvantages she would experience during the assessment period (pain, tiredness, loss of concentration, risk of a medical event happening during the tests, etc, etc).

Sometimes it'll be enough to get special consideration, sometimes it'll be enough to get extra time, rest breaks, a quieter room, etc. In all, though, it's better to provide everything you possibly can than try to keep it to a minimum; also providing them in pdf makes it far easier to handle the volume of detail (separate pdfs for each letter best of all).

Oh, and make sure everything goes to both the HoY AND the SENDCO. Apart from the possibility that the HoY doesn't really understand the process, they can (and do) get ill or caught up in incredibly urgent things - usually child protection related - and, because they are human and intrinsically fallible, they can forget to add something to a spreadsheet.

Sending the information to both people with a 'this is evidence for special consideration and additional arrangements for x child during the assessment period' makes it clear what it is being sent for.

Having it on record with SEND also means that if she goes somewhere else for 6th form, it's easy for it to be transferred to the new place, which makes it easier for the next batch of qualifications. The procedure is that the new place requests the file transfer upon enrolment and any SEN and/or Safeguarding information gets transferred as well as the standard school file; doing it this way ensures that the records aren't accidentally not updated when a HoY leaves the school.

That’s really helpful. So is there a deadline for all this?Getting really stressed. They haven’t asked for anything specific.

@Scr1bblyGum

That’s really helpful. So is there a deadline for all this?Getting really stressed. They haven’t asked for anything specific.

Try and have it all with them for the first day back at school. The SENDCO will already working on it right now (or at least should be).

Hi the JCQ guidance is that evidence of grade should be over the same work for the class/cohort. However there is a BUT. That is a big BUT that when there is good reason that the grades cannot be over the same pieces of work then other pieces can be used to evidence a grade instead. So if your DD has work at the grade you expect her to get you should speak to the school about whether they are prepared to use those pieces as her evidence.

Special consideration won’t apply this year as that is for events on the day of the exam. Eg sudden illness. Long term conditions don’t fall under special consideration. @SeasonFinale is correct above and gives good advice.

@DustCentral

Special consideration won’t apply this year as that is for events on the day of the exam. Eg sudden illness. Long term conditions don’t fall under special consideration. *@SeasonFinale* is correct above and gives good advice.

They do if it's a condition that can suddenly flare up - such as sickle cell, diverticulitis, severe asthma, etc. It would be discriminatory to say it could be applied to, say, appendicitis, but not to a sickle cell crisis, for example.

And it's useful to have the information all with them (the phrasing quickly indicates that the parent is aware this constitutes relevant details for examinations/assessment, not just a' by the way, she's got an inhaler' type of information) for GCSE, as the information can be passed on and used to substantiate circumstances for A Level (We are often asked for form 8s for example, not because they haven't been told of kids' needs, but because already having one completed for GCSE makes granting of concessions/arrangements easier for A level, for example, or just in putting into place further support that might not have been available in the same form for GCSE).

It's one of those things where it's handy to give as much as possible rather than worrying about bothering the staff, thinking it'll probably be alright on the day/week assessments are carried out - and is also useful for non GCSE related things, such as day to day support or subsequent examinations post Covid.

@NeverDropYourMoonCup of course. Those are still ‘on the day’ events. As far as I’m aware no ‘special consideration’ will apply this year as that is a process used in normal years for issues on the day of the exam. Therefore won’t be used this year as there are no actual ‘exam days’ is what I meant. To be fair though I’m on Easter break and I’m refusing to read exam board or JCQ updates until I’m back so if anything’s changed this week I wouldn’t know.

In many ways I think assessed grades work better for children whose long term conditions would not fall under SC as it’s looking at the year as a whole which I feel is a better picture of a child’s ability rather than a 1-2 hour performance on exam day.

I would notify Head of subject departments as they will take responsibility for their grading within department and the exams officer as they have to sign grades off as accurate.

There is no special consideration this year as no exams. Instead there are teacher assessed grades where teacher states grade student working at. It’s up to school to decide what is used fo assessment purposes- eg mocks online tests pieces of homework but they need to tell you basis for decision and if student had been off sick before or during that assessment and it’s impacted on grade that needs to be taken into account... look at sept of education website - there are numerous documents detailing how grades are to be determined this year and info about how to appeal if you are not happy....

sorry to hear this @cottonclarice - we are in a position where my 15 year old is too anxious now to sit exams in school, and the school have said he can't sit them at home, and that if he doesn't sit them he will receive lower marks than those who do, even though he is bright and predicted good grades. I have a meeting with the HOY and sons psychologist tomorrow (will have to pay for report) and want to ensure they have all the details of his issues on file so we can appeal if he doesn't get his grades. there are plenty of other ways they can assess.