How are GCSE exam timetable clashes dealt with?

[mystery]

The school does some subjects with Aqa and other subjects with Edexcel. I read this can lead to exam clashes.

What are the rules about starting exams at an altered time, am pm session or date if necessary?

How does supervision work if exam is later starting that session or at the PM rather than the morning? And overnight? Overnight sounds awkward.

[piggys]

Clashes do happen; most of the time the subjects are scheduled at the same time regardless of which board it is - for example English Language will be on the same date and time for all students regardless of whether they are doing EDEXCEL, OCR, AQA and so on.

Where clashes occur, students are kept in isolation so that they are not able to contact other students who have already sat the exam. There are strict rules about internet access and mobile phones etc.

Does your dc have a clash?

[Amber]

Mystery, stop worrying! Your children's GCSEs are some years away yet.

I think a majority of children end up with some clashes. As piggys says, the group affected are kept in isolation to prevent them learning the content from others who have sat the exam. Sometimes it is only half an hour or so, but the rules about how many hours can be spent sitting exams mean that occasionally it is longer. My son had 2 hours last year. Isolation is boring but they end up having to actually speak to one another instead of having their noses in their phones. I have only ever heard of one overnight isolation where a child had to stay at a teacher's house.

[piggys]

Yep, overnight stays also occur on occasions. There was a 3-way A level clash at one of the schools I taught in a while back and a small group of 3 Year 13s had to stay at the Deputy Head's overnight! What fun they must have had.

[kenyancowgirl]

The rules have changed on clashes - if there is a clash, students are now only allowed a 20 minute break in isolation between them. There is still a total number of exam hours they are allowed to do in a day (memory says I think it is 6 hours) so there could be overnight clashes - although these are exceedingly rare. Exam boards set their timetables together to try and avoid clashes where possible.

[mystery]

Thank you all. Not worrying miles in advance - just needing to know whether in the particular circumstances I am looking at it could be an issue. Sounds from what you are saying there's a slight risk it could happen so I need to look into the exact rules a bit further as wheels turn slowly.

[Tinkers]

The boards seem to have the same subjects at the same time, so certainly for the more common subjects it shouldn’t happen. My DD has no clashes.

[scary mum]

None of my 3 ever had clashes although I was aware of a couple of people who did.

[Guest55]

The draft timetables are published a year ahead so schools can complain about severe problems.

[doodles]

Clashes do happen and the schools are well versed in how to deal with them. Saying that neither of my two DS (three years ago and this year) have had any clashes.

Please don't worry about GCSE's yet just enjoy now.