I was planning special visit in the third week of July with another teacher. However she has now withdrawn and I don't have enough pupils to make up 3 hrs worth of examining time. I have 3 or 4 pupils that really need to take their exams this session as they are going away after the summer and I was also supposed to be doing a grade 7 violin exam at the same time. Grrr... I don't know what to do now, or what to say to my pupils

How much short are you? Can you take an extra exam for a laugh(!) to bump up times? Any other teachers around who may jump at the chance for a special visit if they know it is available? Might it be possible to delay the exam date a little to help get the word out that there is a special visit happening? Would the said teacher enter a couple of her pupils if you were willing to take the responsibility of organising it?

Local lady does a special visit round here and seems to end up having almost two days' worth most of the time, you may find there's a lot of interest if you can test the waters and advertise the possibility to local teachers.

Hope you manage to sort something out! What a pain. Don't know if it's possible, but might it be worth looking into asking the local exam centre if they have any gaps? I realise it's not normal for people to be slotted in later on, but if the board knows why this has happened, ie that it isn't your fault and you need the students to go through... I'm sure if they had gaps from cancellations you'd have a chance at getting some candidates in...

If you contact the Board they should be able to fit your students into an existing exam centre/date, I think.

Have you paid the entry fees? Would it matter if someone pulled out if the slot has been paid for?

No - I've not paid the entry fees yet, as for special visits, you don't have submit your applications until a month before the date you've asked for.

Oh, dear... You may be able to "team up" with some other teachers or a school, who may be having the special visit later in the summer - August or even early September. How many hours short are you? You ohly need 3 hours in total for special visit... I do sympathise, as I often organise visits...

hero

Oh. Well, I hope you can find someone to team up with you.
Can you request a special visit at ANY time, or does it have to coincide with the organised periods?
Just asking because I often have a half-days worth of exams.
And what are the requirements for facilities? I'm wondering if my teaching room at home would be OK. It's got a decent piano, but isn't that big.

Special visits - you need 3hrs worth of exams (and 1hr of jazz if you want jazz exams too within the same visit). You need a reasonable sized room with a tuned piano (!) plus a warm up room out of ear shot of the examining room. No - you can request vists at any time, so long as they're outside the examining period and you enter your pupils at least a month before the date requested.

I've emailed the board and have been told to just enter my pupils as I would do on the standard entry form and hopefully they will be able to fit them in. My only worry is that they'll give me the first week. My pupils are ready, but I'm not for my violin G7! (BTW I have 1hr 40 mins worth of exams, so unless I want to go through every grade again on a variety of instruments, I'd never make the time up )