Leading exam bodies Eduqas and WJEC have teamed up with Scotty’s Little Soldiers, to ensure future exam questions are written with greater awareness of sensitive content, helping to prevent grieving students from being re-traumatised during high-stakes exams.
This joint work builds on Scotty’s impactful Behind the Uniform campaign, launched earlier this year, which shined a light on the unique and often hidden challenges faced by children whose military parent – whether serving or a veteran – has died.
The landmark initiative between Scotty’s and Eduqas (England) and WJEC (Wales) is designed to reduce the risk of re-traumatising grieving students during high-pressure assessments by ensuring exam questions are created with greater care and emotional awareness.
Scotty’s is now calling on all UK awarding bodies to follow suit, urging a sector-wide commitment to creating assessments that are fair, safe, and mindful of the unique challenges faced by bereaved young people.
Shocking Statistics Reveal the Urgent Need for Change
Research from Scotty’s, involving 190 families, highlights the distressing impact of insensitive content in the classroom and during exams:
- 77% of children encountered lessons that directly related to their bereavement.
- 52% faced repeated exposure to upsetting content.
- Over 1 in 8 were confronted with distressing material in high-stakes exams such as GCSEs and A-levels.
- Fewer than 1 in 3 families felt their child’s school handled sensitive content with adequate care.
One young person supported by Scotty’s shared their painful experience:
“In physics we had to learn the effects that different bombs had on people, when I asked to leave I wasn’t allowed because I might have a question about it in the GCSE. My dad was killed by a bomb in Afghanistan.”
Building a Safer Exam Environment
To address this issue, over 100 Eduqas and WJEC subject leads have received specialist training from Rob Ilett, Head of the STRIDES education and personal development programme at Scotty’s. The training focuses on the academic and emotional impacts that triggering content can have on grieving students.
Rob Ilett said:
“Eduqas embracing change in how examinations are written will have a significant impact on grieving young people being unfairly disadvantaged due to their bereavement. We hope that other exam boards will follow their lead and make conscious efforts to reduce the chance that children and young people will be re-traumatised by triggering questions during high stakes examinations”
Sally Melhuish, Assistant Director for Assessment Quality and Design at Eduqas and WJEC, added:
“Eduqas and WJEC are proud to be working in partnership with Scotty’s Little Soldiers to make assessments more emotionally safe for all learners. As one of the UK’s leading awarding bodies, we recognise the profound impact trauma and adversity can have on young people. That’s why we’re taking meaningful steps to educate teams involved in the production of our assessments and qualifications.
With the expert guidance of Scotty’s Little Soldiers, we’ve strengthened our approach to developing inclusive and accessible assessments — ensuring every learner has the opportunity to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do, in a supportive and emotionally safe environment.”
A Call to Action for the Education Sector
Scotty’s is urging all UK awarding bodies to:
- Review their question-setting practices with emotional safety in mind.
- Collaborate directly with bereaved young people to understand their experiences.
- Implement robust content-screening protocols to reduce the risk of trauma.
This movement is being championed by Scotty’s Council — a dedicated group of bereaved military children and young people using their voices to inspire change. Their powerful animated film, “Scotty’s Time’s Up“, shares firsthand accounts of grief in examinations and calls for more compassionate assessments.
Thanks to Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund and the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust for helping to fund this work.
