Support for GCSE's, AS and A Levels

If you may need extra help for exams, talk to the school as soon as possible (before the course starts), this will usually be with the SENCO or the examinations lead.

The SENCO at your school or college usually needs to apply for it before the exams start. The deadlines vary each year, but it’s usually around January or February for summer exams and tests.    

The SENCO will need to show evidence that you need the extra support.  Ideally the SENCO will collect this information from year 7, including anything that has been passed on from previous schools. 

The final decision to apply for the support in exams is usually made at the end of year 9 or beginning of year 10, based on your needs then. 

These are some of the kinds of extra support that school or college can give:-

• rest breaks – these are always supervised
• extra time to take the exam
• a computer reader or an adult to read the questions
• being able to read aloud and/or use an exam reading pen
• having an adult to write things down for you or use speech recognition technology or a laptop
• a sign language interpreter
• practical assistant
• taking the exams somewhere else other than school
• Braille, enlarged or coloured exam papers
• making transcripts – where a child’s answers are written out neatly by an adult and both copies are sent to the exam board
• written or oral translations – these are for children without English as a first language who have been in the UK for less than two years
• the use of prompts – this is for children who find it hard to focus well without help