Amy Tucker has been an examinations officer for 23 years. She works at Barton Peveril Sixth Form College, which has around 5,000 students. The college offers BTECs, A Levels, GCSEs and vocational exams and is well known for its support for learners with additional needs. When they arrive at college, students get advice and guidance on study techniques and using technology.
Barton Peveril also runs workshops to help anxious students cope with day-to-day life both in and out of college. It recently won an award for its 'unwavering commitment to promoting emotional wellbeing and mental health support for its students'.
Those learners who start college without a GCSE pass in English or maths have to retake the examination until they get a grade 4 or better. It means a busy start to the autumn term as the Learning Support team collects information from schools, identifying those candidates who have access arrangement needs. Accommodations might include extra time, question papers printed on differently coloured paper or a human reader.
Requests for access arrangements must be completed by the middle of October ready for November retakes. These exams are high-stakes. Success in the November series means a student can concentrate on their Level 3 programme. If they fail, they will need to resit the exam in the summer series, and maybe the following year too. This can entail a lot of extra work, especially if the syllabus changes.
Navigating the complexities of access arrangements
Allocating rooms and making sure everyone is in the right place on the day with appropriate support where needed is a major undertaking. Candidates take several papers. While only a minority of learners require access arrangements on exam day, every subject is likely to have some who need accommodations. In the 2024 summer series, there were 4,658 exam papers (29%) that required at least one access arrangement.