mitigating circumstances

Hi, im just after some advice for my 15yr old son, he is currently in his last year at secondary school and has exams coming up, in May he suffered a spinal stroke which caused paralysis from the chest down, he is making a good recovery and went back to school in August which amazed everybody, the question I have is how do we go about applying for mitigating circumstances as he is struggling with his study and did very poor in his mocks

Reply 1

gdunne42

Original post by lewisloo

His school special educational needs coordinator should be able to assess his needs and determine whether any reasonable adjustments are appropriate to help him during the exams. Although his condition will have hopefully improved even more by the summer, reasonable adjustments need to be agreed and applied for soon. If he is still affected e.g. by medication or pain at the time of exams so that he can't perform to his full potential then the exams officer can apply for special consideration where he may be awarded an increase in marks. This can be done closer to the exam period. You should note though that the examiners won't consider compensating for time missed from school. If he is applying outside his school for sixth form/college then speak to his current school about contacting them to explain he might fall short of his full potential.

Thank you

I'd agree with what gdunne42 said. You need to agree as soon as possible what reasonable adjustments he might need to be on a level playing field with other students for the exams themselves (as the deadline for applying for some of them (e.g. 25% extra time or a scribe) is 21 February and the evidence to apply needs to have been collected by then).

If he has a particular issue on the day of an exam then an application for special consideration can be made. Special consideration applications have to be made for each individual exam that is affected and can only be made after the exam has happened. It does not cover missing part of the course owing to sill health but circumstances that prevent you performing to your best on the day of the exam.