Special Consideration

Criteria for eligibility can include:

• a temporary illness at the time of assessment - where possible a student still needs to sit the exam/assessment.
• a recent bereavement in the immediate family - this is parents/carers and siblings
• domestic crisis at the time of assessment 
• a serious disturbance during the examination - such as a fire alarm
• an unexpected accident or physical incident occuring durin the examination

Criteria that is NOT ELIGIBLE can include:

• long-term illness - diabetes, asthma etc
• a bereavement occurring more than six months before the assessment
• domestic inconvenience - moving house for example
• misreading the timetable and/or failing to attend the examination at the right time and in the right place
• misreading the instructions on the question paper
• conflicting personal arrangements, such as a wedding or holiday, on the day of the examination
• not submitting any coursework or non-examination assessment at all
• missing all examinations and internally-assessed components or units
• failure to cover the course because of joining the class partway through

Students/Parents/Carers can not make a Special Consideration directly to the exam board, this has to be made by the centre/school.

Where appropriate, the school will consider the circumstances and submit an application for Special Consideration to the relevant awarding organisation on the candidate's behalf.

As part of the application the centre/school will need to provide the exam boards with detailed information and evidence. 

If something has happened that may have affected your performance, please contact your Head of Year /Pastoral Support detaling:

• Student name
• Exams affected
• Reason
• Provide substantial evidence - this can include photos of the perscription or medication providing we can see the students name, the medication name and the date of issue. We can also accept any medical documentation from consultations or hoispital discharge documents. 

Please note that a special consideration application MUST be made within 7 days of the exam taking place, therefore please be proactive in providing the necessary information and evidence as soon as possible. As you can imagine, during the Summer Season we have nearly 6 full weeks of back-to-back exams and the workload is greatly intesified during this time. Therefore, a timely notification and receipt of evidence is crucial to getting applications submitted on time. 

Important information: Special Consideration is not automatically granted.

The decision to award Special Consideration rests with the relevant Exam Boards. The school must submit applications in accordance with the awarding body's criteria and within the required timescales.

The amount of adjustment, if any, will depend on the circumstances and the relevant awarding body's regulations. It is also important to undersatnd that the amount of adjustment is rarely enough to increase a students overal grade. 

Taken from Chapter 3 of the JCQ: A Guide to Special Consideration

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5% – This is the maximum percentage and will be reserved for the most exceptional cases, such as:

• terminal illness of the candidate;

• terminal illness of a parent or carer, brother or sister;

• death of a member of the immediate family within three months of the examination;

• exceptional and disruptive crisis or incident at or near the time of the examination, such as attempted murder against the candidate.

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4% – Very serious problems, such as:

• life-threatening illness of the candidate or a member of their immediate family;

• major surgery at or near the time of the examination;

• severe disease (e.g. cancer);

• very recent death of a member of the extended family;

• life-changing injury occurring at the time of the examination;

• serious crisis or incident at the time of the examination, such as severe assault or a serious accident;

• admission to hospital for a mental health condition or eating disorder.

NB ‘Very recent’ is defined as within one month of the examination(s) taking place. The centre must be satisfied that there has been a material and detrimental effect on candidate examination performance or in the production of coursework or non-examination assessment.

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3% – A more common category (more cases will fall into this category), including:

• recent traumatic experience, such as the death of a close friend or distant relative;

• recent illness or injury of a more serious nature;

• flare-up of a long-term medical condition, for example Crohn’s disease;

• flare-up of a psychological condition or a mental health condition;

• deterioration of a candidate’s disability;

• broken limbs;

• physical assault trauma before an examination;

• recent crisis or incident;

• witnessing a distressing event on the day of the examination;

NB ‘Recent’ is defined as up to four months prior to the examination(s) taking place. The centre must be satisfied that there has been a material and detrimental effect on candidate examination performance or in the production of coursework or non-examination assessment.

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2% – This is the most common category (most cases will fall within this category), including:

• illness at the time of the examination;

• mild depression being treated;

• broken limb on the mend;

• concussion;

• effects of pregnancy (not pregnancy per se);

• extreme distress on the day of the examination (not just exam-related stress);

• 2% for the last examination taken in a day when a candidate has been entered for three or more examinations timetabled for the same day and the total duration of those papers is more than 5 hours 30 minutes (GCSE Level 1 and Level 2 examinations) or more than 6 hours (GCE and Level 3 examinations).

(Where extra time has been used following formal approval, this should be included in the total duration of the examinations when applying for special consideration.)

(Supervised rest breaks must not be included in the total duration of the examinations when applying for special consideration.)

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1% – Reserved for more minor problems:

• ongoing noise during an examination;

• illness of another candidate leading to minor disruption in the examination room;

• stress or anxiety for which medical advice has been sought and/or medication has been prescribed;

• hay fever on the day of an examination;

• minor upset arising from administrative problems, such as the wrong question paper initially being issued.

Where the request for special consideration fails to meet the criteria, it will be rejected with a clear reason for doing so.

 

For GCSE, AS, A-Level and BTEC Level 3s - the exams team get notified of an acceptance or rejection of an application but NOT the tariff awarded. For BTEC level 2s - the exams team get no notification of the status of the application. 

If accepted the tariff will be awarded prioir to the student reciving their results on results day. Therefore, what they recieve on their Statement of Result will include the special consideration adjustment.