Injury at school just before GCSEs

[Rhubarbandfennel]

Hello - just hoping to tap into some of your knowledge and experience here please. My daughter had something thrown at her in the playground this week which has resulted in a fairly serious eye injury. She's at the hospital every day to monitor and can't go to school due to the further risk to her sight and that she can't see properly. It will hopefully heal but may take several weeks, all a bit unknown, its an unfortunate injury. My main concern is that she's not disadvantaged in her upcoming GCSEs due to not being able to revise or attend school in this period. It currently seems as though she will hopefully OK to take the actual exams. She's predicted 8s snd 9s, wants to apply to Oxbridge. She can listen to things but not look at screens or past papers etc. It seems there is no provision for exam boards to take this injury into account, and that special consideration is only for things that happen or impact the student on the day. I'm worried her grades will fall due to this stupid and preventable accident - and there is no way of reducing the disadvantage she faces.
Any suggestions welcome - thanks!

Sorry to hear about your poor daughter, what a nightmare!

Rather than going the special consideration route (which as you have discovered is for "in the moment" issues), I would recommend going down the temporary access arrangements one instead. Her school can give her rest breaks at their discretion (without any medical evidence as I am guessing staff are fully aware of the incident and the repercussions without needing medical letters). You should also investigate getting a medical letter saying that she will temporarily require extra time as a direct result of the eye injury slowing down her ability to read text (the medical letter must include the idea of disruption to speed or processing, if it just says she will tire easily then that is covered by rest breaks). Medical letters cannot be over-ridden by a SENCO department, so if they say you need X (and it is a reasonable adjustment in line with JCQ guidelines) then the school has to let it / make it happen.

Obviously neither of these accommodations help in the fact that the run up of final preparation has been so adversely affected, but they can both alleviate the anxiety of having to go into time pressured exams not fully medically fit and to allow for any residual problems with her vision.

Good luck!

Second asking the school for temporary access arrangements. Extra time, a scribe and reader. Getting evidence of her needs shouldn't be a problem - I've known kids get access arrangements for much less.

In the meantime scour the Web for audio revision guides/podcasts/TV programmes.

And there are loads of YouTube revision videos out there. Most of them are from the pandemic, and are just teachers summarising key things for their classes. She can largely just listen to the ones I've seen.

That sounds dreadful. Your poor dd.

I would talk to the school and see what they come up with. However I'm not sure what is there for not being able to revise this close to the exams.
Yes, they can do rest breaks in the exams and things like that, and if that will help then do ask.
I don't know if there's an option for them to take mock exams in her situation, especially if she can not look at a paper (scribes can be awkward if you're not used to them) but if she got good mock results it might be worth asking about that.

There is no option for taking mocks into account. That was purely during covid for teacher assessed grades and is no longer possible.

@Rhubarbandfennel here is JCQ guidance for special consideration. Ask your daughters exam officer to apply for this for each exam she takes whilst she still has the injury. It might get her between 1-3% mark uplift at least.

https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Guide_to_spec_con_process_2223_FINAL.pdf

With regards to the exams themselves. Here is the document on access arrangements:

https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/AA_regs_22-23_FINAL.pdf

You need to speak to the SENDCo and exams officer.

When I was exams officer we had a pupil with a broken arm and he was given rest breaks and a laptop. Plus special consideration uplift as he couldn’t write.

Read through this carefully as whilst most is designed for ongoing issues of learning disabilities or medical conditions, some may be possible for your DDs sudden yet hopefully temporary disability.

I had one near blind student without was given 50% extra time, a scribe & reader plus a laptop with enlarged text to help him. He also got special extra large print papers and and models or graphs were 3D. It might be late for these due to deadlines but the exam Officer and SENDCo can advise you best.

Lastly, there is nothing to be done for missed revision other than trying to find audio options or asking school if they can assist in any way. My old school would have probably tried to get in some 1-1 sessions with subject depts to go over things audibly.

@AnyOldThings
Thanks, you are far more knowledgeable than me. I was being hopeful, as it sounded to me that this would be a case where it was justified.

My friend died a few years back, after a short illness, in the middle of her dc's GCSEs. He was offered 5% on the exams, including on the day she died, and he still had to sit them. I think that's disgraceful, and hoped that it would have changed.

Thanks so much everyone especially @AnyOldThings and @Serazias that's really useful. I'm seeing the school on Monday so I'll see what they say and make some suggestions. I'll be able to get medical evidence no problem so I'll get that too with specific recommendations. Thanks - I feel a bit less hopeless.

@Rhubarbandfennel my school is applying for special consideration for my friend's child because her twin brother tragically died 2 weeks ago. She will be able to sit the exams, but it has obviously impacted her revision. So it sounds similar.

GCSEs won’t necessarily cause her problems for an oxbridge application unless she totally bombs. What is she hoping to study at Alevel and degree? Her a level points will count more and hopefully she won’t be unlucky enough to get another injury in y13

Sadly it hasn’t changed. To be honest I’m not sure what a fair solution is for a sudden close bereavement like that. I don’t think 5% is enough but then how to make it fair is really hard.

When I was an exams officer I would have reiterated to the family that GCSE’s are not as important as A levels and that health and well being always come first. If they can sit one paper (25% of the mark minimum) then miss the rest through grief it’s also still possible to get a grade averaged out.

Ultimately GCSE’s can be resat and college/Alevel courses can be accessed without them under special circumstances so I’d say never to put GCSE’s on the pedestal where they don’t belong. They are useful, not essential at the end of year 11. They can be resat.

Very welcome. Just don’t panic. GCSE’s are not the most important thing when it comes to Uni and there is always ways around in genuine cases like your DD.