Exams and Access

Looking for the NatSIP Exam Access Guide?

The April 2022 Edition of Ensuring equal access to public examinations for candidates with sensory impairment can be found   folder here in the NatSIP Document Library.

Caireen Sutherland (RNIB) and Paul Simpson (BATOD) have been representing the SI sector at recent Ofqual meetings.

A link to the recently published guidance is here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/awarding-qualifications-in-summer-2020

NatSIP is pleased to publish the September 2019 Edition of our guidance document Ensuring equal access to public examinations for candidates with sensory impairment.

The updated version is available in the document library.

Available document:

NatSIP has today (2 October 2018) published the September 2018 Edition of our guidance document Ensuring equal access to public examinations for candidates with sensory impairment.

The updated version is available in the document library.

Available document:

NatSIP are pleased to publish, through working with VIEW and BATOD, SI colleagues at NatSIP working days and the examination boards, a new resource to assist education professionals identify and gain approval for access arrangements for SI examination candidates.

https://viewweb.org.uk/exam_access/activities/ex_0_0.html

This comprehensive online resource is designed to help SENCOs, specialist teachers of the sensory impaired and staff responsible for public examinations in schools and colleges to identify and gain approval for access arrangements for candidates with accessibility needs resulting from hearing impairment, vision impairment and multi-sensory impairment. The resource is based on the official guidance from the Joint Council for Qualifications and includes self-study units on the following:

  • the principles of fair access and reasonable adjustment
  • commonly used access arrangements and how to apply for them
  • case studies of individual students and their access arrangements
  • an overview of how exam papers are modified in terms of language and presentation for candidates with sensory impairment.

The resource also includes regular self-check questions and a final test which enables participants to print out a certificate of completion.

We are pleased to announce the publication of a framework for the allocation of communication support workers in education settings.

The aim of this document is to provide clarity to education providers on the role, skills and qualifications needed by CSWs in order to meet the individual educational needs and outcomes of the deaf young people they support. This work has been led by Martin McLean, NDCS, with colleagues across the sector.

The framework can be found pdf here in the NatSIP Document Library.

Ofqual published, on 10 February 2017, new information about access arrangements for GCSEs and A levels:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/access-arrangements-for-gcses-and-a-levels

On behalf of the Standards and Testing Agency (STA), which is responsible for the development and administration of the key stage 1 and key stage 2 national curriculum assessments:

They are hoping to get your input to help inform some of the guidance documents they produce which you are likely to have used. 

They are asking for informal feedback regarding the ‘Modified test administration guidance’ documents, which are designed for use alongside modified papers.

These documents can be viewed at the following links:

KS1 Modified test administration guidance

KS2 Modified test administration guidance

They would greatly appreciate any brief comments you may be able to provide about your experience of using the guidance documents. The feedback received will be used to inform future versions of the documents to make them as easy as possible for schools and other stakeholders to use.

If you have any comments you would like to contribute then please contact Jessica Mace at STA either by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or on 020 7340 8200.