Colleagues

 

Just had a quick look in the archives and this is the response Nick gave in 2014 – I think it has been further discussed since.

 

Regards

 

Michael

 

From: nick lait [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: 25 April 2014 13:44
To: Lauren McLachlan
Subject: RE: Urgent Advice Needed - Centre 33507

 

Dear Ms McLachlan,

 

Thank you for your e-mail message.

 

A candidate can only where ear plugs for an examination where he/she has a medical condition which is known to the centre.  It is not acceptable for a group of candidates to be wearing ear plugs in an examination.

 

The candidate would be disabled as per the Equality Act 2010 and would thus have a substantial and long term impairment which has an adverse effect.

 

Prior awarding body approval is not required and Form 8 would not be required.  However, your SENCo would need to justify why a candidate was wearing ear plugs in an examination.  Your SENCo would need to confirm the candidate’s disability to the Inspector.

 

Yours sincerely

Nick Lait   

 

Nick Lait

Head of Examination Services

JCQ

Sixth Floor, 29 Great Peter Street, London SW1P 3LW

E-mail: [log in to unmask]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Joyce

I emailed Nick about ear plugs last year or the year before and I remember he wrote back to say no – sorry I cant find the correspondence. However I seem remember that there wasn’t actually anything written down anywhere, either in the ICE book of the orange AA book, and so I decided that I would take what he said as ‘advice’ rather than a rule.  That’s the logic I have used since in deciding to ignore his advice! With the Head of Learning Support we have decided that a student can use ear plugs as long as they can confirm they can still hear a fire alarm or instructions from an invigilator to stop writing and end the exam. We probably only have  afew students each year who we allo to use ear plugs and that is normally because they appear hyper-sensitive to any noise and we’d be fighting a request for an individual room otherwise.

I will be a bit stuck if someone else provides you with wording from Nick as I suppose I will have to take notice! J

 

Sarah

 

 

Hi

 

I know this question has been asked before and I’m sure the answer was no, but we have a parent who wants to know if his daughter can wear earplugs in her exam.  I told him that exam board regulations prohibit the use of ear plugs but he wants to know the exact reasons why.

 

I’m sure someone previously had asked Nick Lait about this and wondered if anyone had any precise wording from Nick that I could use in my email to this parent.

 

Thanks

Joyce

 

Regards

Joyce Forster | Examinations Officer

Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College

Vane Terrace | Darlington | DL3 7AU

T: (01325) 376452 | E: [log in to unmask] | W: www.qeliz.ac.uk

 

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