Can any teachers give me some info on the extenuating circumstances sheet students write for GCSEs?

[D0ttySp0t]

My dd has been hospitalised 5 times( the last mid assessments)and has been battling a long list of crap alongside starting a heavy duty new medication. She has some sens too.She has managed to catch up and done all assessments but obviously nowhere near her ability. We’ve been told she has to write the extenuating circumstances sheet for the next wave and they just told her to put hospitalised. “ Hospitalised” doesn’t really cut it and I feel those without sens will be better placed to write out extenuating circumstances that better backs up their position.

Can anybody give me some more info re this?

This will be an internal form only for the school to decide whether to "upgrade" her grades.

Ask them to send it to you and you should be allowed to complete it. We only ask our students who are over 18 to do their own and even then it is sent home to complete.

Her SEN should already be accounted for when they assess her but her medical history would not be without the form.

I think explaining what the issue was, that it required hospitalisation and any other impacts it may have had such as making her tired, losing focus etc should be included in the form.

The extenuating circumstances form is incredibly simple in terms of what to put for the circumstance itself, far more detail is needed on how the teacher/leader has taken it into account when weighing up the evidence. The form itself (with some worked examples) is available on the JCQ website and although optional, most schools will be using either that form or a very similar alternative.

So, for instance, for a child I may well just write “hospital” in the circumstance column but then I’d go into lots of depth about how, for example, a certain set of assessments don’t represent their true ability and so we’ve used alternative assessments (e.g. from before the hospitalisation, or substantial pieces of class work) in their place.

These links will be what the school is using:

www.jcq.org.uk/summer-2021-arrangements/

I should add, the school will be all over cases of genuine extenuating circumstances like yours. One issue is that in the parent/student guidance it says that schools “will let you tell them of any extenuating circumstances that may have affected you” so schools have to give ALL students the opportunity to say this, on a school-based form. It sounds like they’re saying she doesn’t need to give lots of detail as they know about it anyway (in a good way)