Extenuating Circumstances
Our Faculty have adopted the guidelines for Extenuating Circumstances as set out by the Paediatric Critical Care Society (PCCS). This guidance is for all Faculty of Children's Nurse Education courses regardless of whether they are accredited by PCCS or not.
Extenuating Circumstances Claim Form link - before completing this form and returning to your Course Lead; you must first read all guidance as set out below:
Guidance for Extenuating Circumstances for Faculty of Children's Nurse Education courses
This guidance should be read in conjunction with your Trusts study Leave, learning contract and/or extenuating circumstances policies. Where there is conflict in the advice given, your course lead will clarify which guidance you need to adhere to.
What are Extenuating Circumstances (EC)?
EC occur when something totally unexpected happens which prevents you submitting/presenting your PCCS course assessment on time
The following PCCS guidance has been developed utilising existing guidance whilst recognising the challenges of undertaking academic study alongside clinical work and other life pressures. The guidance aims to be just and fair.
In general EC are:
- Exceptional
- Outside of your control
- Can be corroborated by independent evidence
- Occurred shortly before the assessment in question
The types of circumstances which might fall into this category are:
- Serious personal Illness (this could be physical or psychological illness)
- Illness or death of a close relative/dependent or person with who you had a close relationship
- Serious Injury due to an accident (or injury to your writing arm)
- Breakdown of a long term relationship/ Divorce
- Damage to property which affects your work
- Jury service
- A serious and unforeseeable disruption to public transport (such as heavy snow, industrial action)
Types of circumstances not normally considered as valid:
- Minor illness such as a cough or cold (unless prolonged and corroborated by a GP’s fit note)
- Work got destroyed due to computer malfunction, water spillage etc
- Poor time management
- Events that were known about BEFORE the start of the course such as family holiday, marriage, house move
- Computer issues (work should be backed up on a separate drive or stored in a cloud)
- Transport problems, other than detailed above, you need to plan to arrive on time
- The above lists are not exhaustive and provide an indication only of circumstances which would and would not normally be considered as valid reasons for granting EC
Procedure for applying for EC:
- We encourage all students to have a dialogue with their course lead throughout their course and during the lead up to assessment hand in /presentation.
- If a problem is identified early it can often be solved without resorting to EC
- For written assignments any application for EC has to normally be submitted to your course lead a minimum of 7 working days before the submission date. After this, unless something out of the ordinary happens the assumption is that your work is almost ready for hand in and therefore applications for EC are not normally accepted
- For presentations, OSCE’s etc EC are considered up until the day of the assessment
- If you are not able to submit and think that your circumstances warrant EC contact your course lead immediately explaining why you are unable to submit, if necessary providing corroborating evidence (such as a GP’s fit note, police report of a crime at your home, court letter for jury service)
- You should be provided with a receipt email within 24 hours (Monday –Friday), if you do not receive this contact your course lead.
What happens after you have asked for EC?
- The course lead will consider your application with the course team and if applicable Unit manager
- You will be notified of the outcome of your application for EC within 5 working days or within 4 hours for late notice presentation OSCE requests.
- If you request EC, but then choose to submit the assessment on the due date your application for EC will become void
If EC Is granted:
- You will normally be allowed a maximum of further 4 weeks (from the original date of submission) to submit your assessment
- Your submission is considered as a first submission (and your mark is not capped)
IF EC IS NOT granted:
- If you do not submit your work by the due date you will be logged as non-submission for that course.
- If you do not submit your work on time, on re-submission your work will be capped at the minimum pass mark.