What is the protocol if a DC is ill on a GCSE exam date?

[SpellItOut]

My DC has an undiagnosed health issue that causes spells of nausea, lasting anywhere between a day and a week. We’ve been round the houses with referrals etc over the last couple of years to try to find out why, but have no diagnosis. School attendance is roughly 85%. Exam days don’t seem to be a trigger, we’ve got through EoY exams and mocks with next to no absence. But we have to plan for what happens if they are ill for a GCSE exam.

I will check with school, but I wanted to get an idea first - I report their absence, but do the exam board need a doctors note? I gather the board will extrapolate the grade from the other subject paper(s), is that correct? Genuinely worried this might wreck their chances.

Yes, you need a doctor's note and the school will need to apply for special consideration, presumably with evidence of the existing condition.

I don't think there is a guarantee that the exam board will accept it though? It's probably worth a call to your school's exam officer to come up with a contingency plan!

ETA- some boards may take data from eg: paper one from English Literature, if it is paper two they are missing from and will double it (this happened to one of my students last year). Some may not do this. They won't do anything if both papers are missed though is my understanding, unless it is a blanket across exams illness (eg a student relapsed with leukaemia and they did award grades based on mocks in that scenario)

My daughter missed one of her exams last summer and was given a final grade based on her first paper and mocks.
She did ok.

As exam staff.... talk to your schools exam officer very very soon! There is stuff they can do if prepared. Involve the SENCO as they will likely be the adjustments sign off anyway.

Realistically though he needs to be prepared to take the exam if he possibly can. If he isn't contagious with it then he can still attend school, and still sit the exam - potentially with 1 to 1 supervision and a bucket/accessible toilet. He can have meds available if needed during g the exam etc. But this needs to be planned ahead to be fair to everyone.

I think it depends how incapacitated someone is. My DD was pretty ill with temp and flu symptoms for a week of her GCSEs (it was quite a few exams). She went in dosed up with meds, sat exams, came home and slept for hours and hours till next morning. She did drop a grade in one of her favourite subjects but she's doing it at A level so the GCSE grade doesn't really matter anymore. We did go to the GP to get antibiotics in case it was bacterial and could be improved. She was ill for a week but could function, just far from her best. I'm sure the school exam officer will know the best protocol.

Ps. I would not have sent her to school on a normal day feeling that bad.

You need to talk to the exams officer.

our x hook has told us that they need to be contacted by 8am on the day of the exam and a Drs letter will be needed

Dd got norovirus for one of her exams at GCSE time. There was no way she could even leave the bathroom to go to school. It went round the entire class. They took a grade from her teacher I think for that portion (from memory the exam doesn’t count for everything but times may have changed!).

Can you ask the gp to prescribe antiemetics to use if necessary? There are plenty out there which should help.
As other posters have said if they aren’t contagious they need to take the exam if at all possible

Thanks all - have got my finger out and emailed the head of year (don’t know who the exams officer is). Have been guilty of wishful thinking that he’ll feel fine throughout but need to be realistic and prepared!

You can buy anti sickness tablets from the chemist

@hellobaby24 yes thanks - GP appointment next on the list, at a minimum as a review of the situation in case we need a doctors note but yes, will be pushing for any medication that might help get us through.

This happened to me.

I was genuinely just vomiting and vomiting. Yes doctors note, and the school ask for special consideration.

the exam board usually just work from your other papers in the same subject.

I am worried about this with DS who has epilepsy. If he has a tonic clonic in the morning he is likely to be very sleepy and out of it the morning of that day, we generally send him to school and he's fine later. If he has an atypical absence during or just before the exam though he can sometimes not understand anything spoken to him for an hour. He's likely to need assistance in the exam (he will be doing GCSE Maths and probably Foundation English, possibly Biology and some BTECs which are less problematic) including maybe a reader.

I don't think they 'just' double it. I think they look to see how people who did similar in the paper that was taken achieve in the missed paper. This allows for one paper being easier/harder than the other.

Actually I think this is bad advice as a general statement. Special consideration for being ill whilst taking the exam gives a small uplift of 2%-5%. So if student is definitely going to underperform because poorly then missing the whole exam may be preferable.
(Not an expert)

I had wondered about this too. I understand that the official advice needs to be ‘attend if you possibly can’ but I had heard that the special consideration uplift was marginal.

Hi OP

Get EVERYTHING documented in full - consider a timelines and photograph/ get copies of everything. Dr note as absolute minimum.

DS smacked his head on a bench falling downstairs in the middle of his GCSEs and ended up with a concussion that lasted several weeks. I was terrified it wouldn't get better (it did, but slowly).

He needed special consideration for all exams after that and missed at least one IIRC.

Hope all goes well.

Illness at the time of the exam is 2%

To get 5% it would need to be a terminal illness.

All the information you need is here: https://www.jcq.org.uk/knowledge-hub/a-guide-to-the-special-consideration-process-2/#chapter-2

Worth getting checked for low blood sugars as a child mine would drop low and the only symptoms I had was nausea followed by a migraine if I didnt eat. I had a letter from the GP to have glucose tablets and drink in longer exams as this was a trigger. Also as a teen my migraines rarely caused headaches but the nausea was awful. It was only as I got older that the actual head pain came after the nausea.

I'm finding it hard to work out what consideration they'd apply to an acute episode of a long term illness - they mention IBS but AIUI a flare up of that would be days or weeks long and not interfere with consciousness like DS epilepsy. Migraine is closer but I have those myself and I would probably not go to an exam if I had a really bad one but if it came on during an exam I would probably push through as much as I could.
DS couldn't carry on - he'd either fall to the floor unconscious or would wander around the exam room repeating himself.

That would be for them to decide based on the evidence provided

I have no particular issues with how the rules might handle my DCs situation, but have just read the guidance that @MrsHamlet kindly posted, and was by the minimal consideration of massive detrimental situations - we’ll give you a 5% uplift if you were recently the victim of a murder attempt?! WTF?! The upper limit of 5% for special consideration seems pretty brutal.

I have experience of this. My DD was very ill during the two weeks starting from half term. She missed the whole week after half term of her GCSEs, from memory a paper of each science and a geog, maths and an English language paper.
The school advised her not to even try and sit the exams that week (she couldn't have as was too ill but was so worried about not getting any results so we did ask). The school notified the exam boards and they looked at what she had got in the papers she had already sat and then looked at what similar candidates got in the papers she had missed and award her a similar mark. I think the school also applied for the illness uplift for the last few papers she insisted on sitting the following week (she was worried about people judging her for not trying).
In the end DD got a good set of results that she deserved after all the work she had done up until illness struck.
Interestingly despite having seen a Dr several times and being on medication we couldnt get a doctor's line as it is our healthboard's policy not to give these for exam absence. I offered to pay but they said no. I was worried about this but we were not asked to produce one and the exam boards (a mixture) must have all just relied on the schools submission.
OP I hope this helps reassure you but hopefully you won't need this route. It's a distant memory now but it was all very stressful at the time. Results day was nerve wracking but all OK in the end.

Thanks @Squishability - the exams officer has been in touch with similar info but it’s good to hear it actually working out that way in practice! They’ve also said that I won’t need to be scrabbling around for a doctor’s note, that they have the background and will therefore support the application to the exam board if it’s necessary. It was a very calming letter actually! Still waiting to hear anything about getting to see the GP, mind!