My son missed 4 GCSE exams due to being ill.

[NoahFeilding]

My son has been very ill for the past week now, this has effected his ability to go to school to do his exams. I have contacted the school yet I have not heard back from them since Friday, even though I have been calling them everyday since then. I am very worried that this will hurt his ability to go to collage, and with the school not calling me back is their any other way he could do it when he is better or could I could contact someone else so that he could still achieve a good grade in them as he has missed four of them. Please let me know.

Only Maths and English Language are available as November resits.

Yes this. Often pondered why they didn’t offer Science in Nov too since it was always considered core subject, but they don’t of course.

Some of the links above are out of date.

https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Guide_to_spec_con_process_2023_24_FINAL.pdf

https://www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/access-arrangements-and-special-consideration/other-documents/estimating-the-missing-mark-when-a-candidate-is-absent/

He can’t sit them on other days; they’re gone. Did school not provide this information in advance to you? Ours did, and they’re pretty rubbish. Special consideration is submitted at the end of the series so you have a couple of weeks to get your evidence together, but without GP attendance and medication you will be unlikely to be successful. As pp’s have said, the maximum is 5%. Where there are multiple components, he will be awarded on the components he has sat. If he has missed them all, he will get a U grade. English and Maths are available to resit in November, but this isn’t much help in terms of getting on the college course. It is practically impossible to resit a full suite of GCSEs thanks to Mr Gove but there are level 2 alternatives.

5% will never be awarded for ill health, this is the max awarded for eg death of a parent in the week before exams.

Do you have evidence of him being ill? Has he missed all of one subject or different subjects?

What has been the matter with him?

Our school were clear. You come in to sit even if ill. One of DD course mates was having to leave the exam to vomit.

I'm sorry your son's school haven't been good at keeping in touch with you. As other posters have said, I would email [email protected] or .com or something like that.

My son has also been ill and has missed a similar amount of exams. There is a lot of information on this thread that is very different to what we've been told by his school. They have been very supportive. Emailing and ringing. I had pre warned them if it looked like my son would miss a paper. We've been told that we dont need a doctor's note and have been sent the 'self certification form for students who have missed an examination'

My son is in hospital now as his symptoms over the last few weeks came to a head. I've no idea what will happen with his remaining exams because even though he should be out by next week, he won't be well enough to sit through an exam without considerable support.

@Sonispoorlytoo have a word with the hospital education service. They are likely to have systems in place to provide extra support for students sitting exams.

Thank you @catndogslife . I emailed school last night and someone has got back to me already about getting something sorted. They've been amazing.