ANY SCHOOL EXAM OFFICERS LURKING HERE, NEED URGENT ADVICE RE gcse's

tillycat123

I need some advice please, my son has been told he cant resit his English Language GCSE this summer because of a school F up.

Long story short - Year 10 school sent him on work experience for a week causing his to miss a controlled assessment. No mention of it for the rest of the year not being complete to him or me and seems to the schools knowledge either. Year 10 English was not able to be certified as they sent it all off saying it was incomplete and because of this your forfit the right to a June resit with the exam rules.

Its only now they have gone to submit his June retake they have been told his January exam was classed as a resit and this year will be a full year certified.

I've called AQA - They have said school need to ask for a late entry award and a 0 for the section of missing work. School say exam board telling me rubbish and they have been told they cannot do this and tough luck basically for their huge mistake and trying to blame him for not working hard enough.

Can anyone help me here, who else can I contact to try and get this sorted. As far as I'm concerned this is a school admin error that is about to cost my son a pass grade. I've contacted the head as the exam officer at school was so rude to me, told me not to tell her how to do her job when I tried to tell her the info the AQA chap had told me to write down and tell them word for word what to do. Head is as useful as a chocolate teapot, still not come back to me almost a week after I complained to him.

Thank you!

Spendless

My first thought. Do you know the name of who you spoke to at the exam board? Could he/she e-mail or write to you with their suggestion, that way you could give written proof of what they've told you to your child's school and school can take it up with the right person if they've been told something different?

Hopefully someone will be be along shortly who works in this area and can give you some help.

Claire212

I am not an exams officer, but an invigilator. So just general advice really.

Exams Officers can sometimes miss valid parts of regulations as they have to go through so many, and are usually really busy at certain times of the year, and in my experience are NOT always right.

Unfortunately your son needs to sit his exam at a Registered Centre, and they are the only people that can register him as a candidate.

Your problem is with the Exams Officer. You need to put your concerns to the school in writing formally. This means that they MUST reply to you with-in 28 days. Emails count and this is usually quicker. Make sure you copy the head into the email.

Hopefully they will start to help you, and at the worst case senario he can be entered in June.

Ask the school for their centre number in your letter and copy their reply to the AQA. AQA should get back to you personally.

Not a great help. But hope you get there.

[Deleted User]

I am an exams officer but I have to say OP that what you're saying doesn't make any sense to me. Are you sure you have the facts exactly right?

Since the whole year group would have been taking English it seems strange that he was the only one affected by missing the controlled assessment. Did he do work experience at a different time from all his peers?

Are you saying that he was supposed to sit his English exam at the end of Year 10? Did he? If he wasn't being entered early then the entry would have just been made for June 13 and the coursework would be being dealt with now - the deadline is 7th May. I'm sorry I can't be more help but

"Year 10 English was not able to be certified as they sent it all off saying it was incomplete and because of this your forfit the right to a June resit with the exam rules.

Its only now they have gone to submit his June retake they have been told his January exam was classed as a resit and this year will be a full year certified"

This statement doesn't make any sense i'm afraid. I suggest you go back to the exams officer and explain that you don't understand what has gone wrong and please can he/she explain it to you. It is a very stressful time and he/she will be under a lot of pressure at the moment but remember it isn't their fault. If there has been a failure to complete coursework that is down to the Head of English and that may be where you need to go next. Ask someone to explain what the options are for your son.

.

pollypenny

I think you need to be asking the head of English why the missing assignment was not noticed earlier.

Surely his teacher would have reviewed progress with the with the whole class from time to time.

My classes would have their own record sheet on their folder, so that each could see their own progress. Obviously, I used my mark book to monitor progress.

It seems extremely unfair that your son should lose out.

tillycat123

Thank you everyone for your replies. Just to clarify. Year 10 in January 12 was a written exam, then speaking and listening and 5 assessment that I guess had to be submitted this time last year. They filed the 5 assessments as incomplete with AQA as there was only 4. So year 11 that he is now, everyone sat again written paper in January 13 and speaking and listening + the controlled assessments are just about to be filed for the year.

As year 10 was incomplete it stops you haveing the right to a resit in June this year as year 10 is incomplete year 11 will be the first complete year, the time when hes actually mature enough and prepared properly to give it a good go.

I spoke the someone in the AQA entries department who told me the school needed to put in a late award for January requesting a 131A and may need to put in a blank entry for section 3 the controlled assessments instead of saying incomplete.

I went to the head after the exam officer was of no help and made it quite clear she was not going to waste anymore time on this. This was last Thursday and hes not come back to me. Just a message left for me 2 days ago from the deputy head say its still a no!

I have it in writing from the school in an email from the head of English stating the reason he has lost the re sit is because he was on this blessed work experience and missed the assessment! Not all students had this extra work experience, parents had to arrange it themselves. Lots didn't bother, we did and this has happened. So only a few kids in the year would be affected.

I'm sure the head would have just pushed this back to the exam officer to try again and to be honest with her horrid attitude to me I would not be at all surprised if she didn't even bother to make any further calls.

The late entry department at AQA is where she needed to have called, I've tried them myself and they wont speak to me because I'm not a school.

I feel so helpless here......

tea_lover

Do you know any of the other students affected by this? It may be worth speaking to their parents and seeing if they've had any more joy getting things sorted.

tillycat123

No, I don't the only other one I know of scraped a 'C' in the January 13 exam so would have no need for the resit in June anyway, so there would be no alarm bells for the parents.

whitewing

Perhaps get your local MP involved?

DollyDabbler

There will a "late entry charge" if you offered to pay this, then it may be that the school would enter him. Your next step would be to write to the Governors.

pollypenny

[QUOTE=

Not all students had this extra work experience, parents had to arrange it themselves. Lots didn't bother, we did and this has happened.



I feel so helpless here......[/QUOTE]



The problem may well stem from this, Tilly.

As it was an extra work experience, which you had to arrange.

However, I wouldn't give up, especially if it is the crucial C/D borderline.Involve the governors.