Extenuating Circumstances Request Form

Use this form if serious, unexpected circumstances have affected your ability to attend, prepare for, complete, or submit course work or assessment.

Extenuating circumstances are normally circumstances that are:

• Unexpected
• Outside your control
• Serious enough to affect your study, attendance, assessment or submission
• Supported by evidence where possible.

Submitting this form does not guarantee that your request will be approved.

BSL First may refuse a request if the circumstances do not meet the Extenuating Circumstances Policy, if evidence is not provided where required, or if the request is made too late.

All formal extenuating circumstance requests must be submitted through this form.

Extenuating circumtance requests sent by email, message, Discord, social media, or directly to a teacher will not normally be considered under BSL First’s formal Extenuating Circumstances Policy.

If you cannot use this form because of an accessibility need, disability, communication need or other genuine barrier, please contact BSL First so we can provide an accessible alternative way to submit your complaint.

Enter details about yourself and your course.

BSL First will not normally accept the following as extenuating circumstances:

• Holidays
• Planned travel
• Work commitments that could reasonably have been planned around
• Forgetting the assessment date or deadline
• Poor organisation
• Lack of preparation
• Not keeping up with the course
• Routine childcare arrangements
• Minor illness
• Routine appointments
• Technical issues caused by not meeting BSL First’s technical requirements
• Choosing not to attend because you did not feel ready
• Changing your mind
• Misunderstanding the policy where the information was available

BSL First may still consider individual circumstances where there is evidence that the situation was serious, unexpected and outside your control.

Provide upload supporting evidence.

Evidence may include:

• Medical letter
• Hospital or appointment letter
• Fit note
• Death certificate or funeral information
• Evidence of emergency caring responsibilities
• Police report or crime reference number
• Court letter
• Employer letter confirming an unavoidable emergency
• Transport disruption evidence
• Screenshots showing technical failure
• Other professional evidence

Submitting this form does not guarantee that BSL First will approve your request.

Depending on the circumstances, BSL First may:

• Approve the request
• Refuse the request
• Ask for more information
• Ask for more evidence
• Offer a different outcome from the one requested
• Refer the matter to another BSL First policy
• Refer the matter to the awarding organisation where required

Extenuating circumstances do not automatically entitle you to a refund, fee waiver, free resit, extension, deferral, special consideration, appeal or change of result.