In exceptional circumstances, for students who are unable to complete an NEA unit in Year 10 as planned, you can request to defer their submission until January of the following year.
What is a deferral?
A deferral allows students to defer their submission until January of the following year if they are unable to complete an NEA assignment as planned for the summer series in Year 10 due to exceptional circumstances.
It will give more time than an extension and should enable work to be completed by the end of the academic year for submission in the next series (January).
This deferred submission uses the same set assignment that was intended for Year 10, for example, submitting the January/June 2025 assignment in January 2026.
When can a deferral be considered?
You may consider requesting a deferral for more serious and long-term situations. These include:
- A student whose personal circumstances change, impacting the completion of their assessment – In these cases, the student must have started the assignment.
- A student who has joined a cohort during Year 10 from another school – You must first consider if there will be sufficient teaching, learning and assessment time available for the unit in the remainder of the year before applying. It may be in the student's best interests to start the new assignment in Year 11.
- A centre’s Year 10 cohort which has been impacted by a disruption to assessment, for example a cyber-attack.
If your request for a deferral is granted, it will enable students to continue to work on their current assignment, up to the end of the summer term and submit it in the January series of the next academic year, which is not normally permitted.
In all cases, you must first consider if requesting an extension to the June series mark submission deadline of 15 May is sufficient – typically an extension of 5–10 days can be given, depending on the situation.
A deferral will only be granted in exceptional circumstances when there has been a significant loss of assessment time that cannot be mitigated by an extension.
What is the deadline for requesting a deferral?
You must request a deferral before the mark submission deadline for the June series, 15 May.
How do we request a deferral?
Before requesting a deferral, make sure:
- The student has been entered in the June series (when they originally planned to complete).
- Your head of centre supports your request for a deferral.
You’ll follow the same process as applying for an extension by submitting a request via Special Consideration Online, which is accessed via Interchange:
- Log into Interchange, hover over ‘Special consideration’ in the left-hand menu and click on ‘Special consideration online’. You will see the Special Consideration Online homepage.
- Click on 'Apply now'.
- Click the ‘Coursework’ option and then ‘Extension to deadline’.
- Select the series (June), candidate(s) and the unit you are requesting a deferral for.
- Enter an extension of 10 days (the usual permitted maximum).
- In the reason box, you must state you are requesting a deferral and provide a short summary of the circumstances impacting the candidate(s).
- Click 'Next' to review your application.
- After checking all the details are correct, click the declaration tick box and click ‘Confirm’.
- Your application will show as 'Pending'. We will contact you within 5 working days to request more information to enable us to make a decision.
If your request is approved
A confirmation email will be sent with instructions to withdraw the entry from the June series and enter the student again in the following January series. Your June entry fee will be refunded.
The deferred submission should be submitted to your moderator as normal if it is selected in the January series sample.
The deferral will be approved for submission in the following January series only. If a student is impacted by further disruption, please contact us for advice.
Note: Grade boundaries are set each series and apply to all submissions in the series, including deferred submissions.
If your request is not approved
We will work with you on the next steps for the student. This may include granting a standard extension for the series.
