Applying Physical Education access arrangements

We understand ensuring access to physical education for disabled or injured candidates can be challenging. 

To support the guidance provided in the JCQ Access Arrangements and Reasonable Adjustments, our aim is to provide additional details and advice to centres. 

Two guiding principles underpin any consideration of reasonable adjustments or access arrangements:

• The needs of the candidate
• The competence standards being assessed by the qualification.

Reasonable adjustments ensure disabled candidates are able to demonstrate their ability. However, any adjustments must not compromise the competence standards of the assessment and all candidates must be able to demonstrate practical skills.

Once the course has begun, please carry out an initial assessment of your candidate(s) in their chosen sport(s) as soon as possible.

• At GCSE, if a candidate has access arrangements in place, these should be made available. However, it may not be appropriate to make all the extra time allocated to the candidate available for this task.
• At GCSE, AS or A Level, if you have a candidate who may struggle with the task e.g. they are partially-sighted, please contact us as soon as possible.

You may wish to use one of the following options:

1. Make an activity adjustment submission: If a candidate has a long-term disability you can apply to adapt activities on the specification by making an activity adjustment submission. We will work with you to produce assessment criteria. Section 1e of the Guides to non-exam assessment for GCSE and AS and A Level detail how to complete your application. Activity adjustment submissions must be made by 1 December of the first year of study for the course to enable the candidate sufficient opportunities to perform and develop with their approved activity throughout the duration of that course, using the submission form.
   
2. Propose reasonable adaptions/alternatives to existing assessments: Email our special requirements team detailing what a candidate can do and how activities in the specification could be customised to meet the assessment objectives.
3. Use objective measures to ensure fairness and comparability: Some practical activities use OCR performance tables as part of the measure of attainment. Using other, objective measures of a candidate's performance can help to ensure they are fairly assessed:

Example:

British Swimming operates a functional classification system which has 15 categories (S1–S15). At A Level, by providing evidence of candidate attainment in a classification at local, regional or national level, and evidence of where their classification places them in the context of national performance, a judgement can be made about what mark on the existing performance tables their best performance is equivalent to.

If your candidate chooses to not apply for adaptations, and therefore has no sport they can be assessed in, it is not possible to award them marks for this part of the assessment.

If a candidate is injured part-way through their physical education course, two options are available:

1. As described above, it may be possible to implement reasonable adjustments in order to enable them to be assessed
2. You can apply for special consideration using Special Consideration Online, accessed via OCR Interchange. Depending on how much of the course has been completed some enhancement to their overall grade may be possible. For candidates injured, but still able to complete their practical component, please submit applications for ‘Present but Disadvantaged’. For a GCSE candidate who has completed one, but not all of their required sports due to injury, please submit an application as ‘Coursework > Shortfall’.

In all cases, please contact the special requirements team as soon as possible to discuss access arrangements and reasonable adjustments. 

If a candidate can’t complete practical activities because they are already injured or have long-term sickness, they cannot be awarded marks for this part, although it may be possible to grant an exemption from the practical assessment for disabled students or those with long-term injuries. Please refer to Chapter 5.17 of the JCQ publication Access arrangements and reasonable adjustments for further details, and contact the Special Requirements Team at srteam@ocr.org.uk if you have any additional queries.

If a candidate is injured after you have completed all their assessments, but they are unable to attend moderation, please submit their marks as normal. The moderator may ask for medical evidence, and you will be asked to provide a replacement candidate on the day of moderation.

In both instances, you do not need to submit an application for special consideration.