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Secondary education

Withdrawal from GCSE exam

77 replies

Kelly1115 · 05/09/2015 08:57

My son's school messed up one of his gcse exams last year, long story but about 12 children decided to withdraw their children from the exam after being assured by the school that by doing this the subject will be deleted from the childrens' record even though they had a mark for coursework. Yesterday and to my shock I received a phone call from the headteacher stuttering and all apologetic saying that those children have received a mark because for some reason it seems they weren't actually withdrawn as we were promised and my son (who is an A* student) now has F in this particular subject! The headteacher thinks it's due to a clerical error and they are talking to the exam board but with the way this whole was handled by the school from the start I think there is a lot more than meets the eye. What is even alarming is the school only found out about this yesterday despite GCSE results coming out about three weeks! We are in despair and don't know what to do. Has anyone been in a similar situation and can offer any advice?

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BertrandRussell · 05/09/2015 09:02

Surely the result would have been on the candidate's result sheets?

PowderMum · 05/09/2015 09:18

Why are you in despair - that seems like an over reaction.

FuzzyWizard · 05/09/2015 09:22

Did you withdraw before or after May 15th?

BertrandRussell · 05/09/2015 09:23

What were his other results?

Kelly1115 · 05/09/2015 09:27

We are in despair because GCSEs are important when it comes to uni admissions and an F will look bad even if everything else is A/A*. We took the decision to withdraw my son from the exam, wrote to the school and had it acknowledged. Can't understand what went wrong!

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Kelly1115 · 05/09/2015 09:29

He doesn't have any other results at the moment - he's only just started yr 10 but the school made them take this particular GCSE subject in year 9.

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FuzzyWizard · 05/09/2015 09:29

Was it after May 15th?

Kelly1115 · 05/09/2015 09:32

We withdrew at the beginning of May, again in accordance with the school's advice. The problem ps with the subject started just before Easter when their teacher disappeared and the school didn't really know how to deal with the mess he left behind. We were told we could withdrew up the date of the exam which is exactly what we (and the other 12 children) did.

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Kelly1115 · 05/09/2015 09:33

No sorry, it was beginning of June not May! My mistake

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Charis1 · 05/09/2015 09:35

You are quite correct that an F will bring down his average a LONG way, and it is the average GCSE grade that matters, not the number of them, aside from getting the EBACC

You are also correct that if your son had submitted coursework, then he has entered the GCSE.

FuzzyWizard · 05/09/2015 09:38

If by beginning of May you mean May 1st then the school have clearly made a mistake as coursework is submitted to the exam boards for a May 15th deadline and they shouldn't have submitted any if your child had withdrawn. If it was May 8th to 12th then it's possible to likely they had already submitted the coursework in which case I'm not sure how withdrawing a candidate works, or even if it's possible.

Charis1 · 05/09/2015 09:38

The problem ps with the subject started just before Easter when their teacher disappeared and the school didn't really know how to deal with the mess he left behind

complete typical "story" - a teacher is worked into the ground to beyond human breaking point, walks out, and of course the whole situation is their fault. Not the fault of the managers who overloaded him to the extent that his health, maybe even his life was in fdanger, not the fault of the government who have driven the whole education system into ruins, but the teacher who in the end couldn't perform the miracles that werre expected.

There is one or two of these in most schools, most years, often its the best teachers who collapse under the strain. - doesn't that tell you something?

Kelly1115 · 05/09/2015 09:39

But the school told us that if we withdraw from the subject before the exam then the whole subject is dropped and it won't show on any records, please don't tell me that they got even this wrong!

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FuzzyWizard · 05/09/2015 09:39

X posts. I'm not sure if it's actually possible to withdraw from a qualification after work has been submitted for final assessment.

YeOldeTrout · 05/09/2015 09:39

average GCSE matters when and how?
I thought even medical schools had a threshold like Xmany As & Ymany A*s, not "average".

Charis1 · 05/09/2015 09:41

The average is the only measure that counts in the end.

YeOldeTrout · 05/09/2015 09:42

counts how, Charis, can you be more specific? In admissions to 6th form? In admission to A-level English? To employers?

Kelly1115 · 05/09/2015 09:42

Charis1 - this may be the case and the school never actually told us what went wrong but at the end of the day this has affected the children and their results due to no fault of their own.

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BertrandRussell · 05/09/2015 09:43

It is absolutely not average GCSE that matters. The F will look odd, but if the rest of his results are very good, presumably the school will explain the anomaly on their bit of the UCAS form?

Charis1 · 05/09/2015 09:45

It is absolutely not average GCSE that matters

yes it is

W00t · 05/09/2015 09:48

Capped best 8 average is what counts. ( though I don't know about med degrees).
I don't understand how he has an F rather than an X. School can withdraw from entry up until day of exam, and he cannot have sat any papers.

Fatfreefaff · 05/09/2015 09:49

Sorry but I don't think an F in one subject makes the slightest bit of difference. My daughter's whole group failed a particular IT based subject because the teacher misread the spec and the school argued with the exam board for 2 years. She got into vet school so don't worry about it.

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FuzzyWizard · 05/09/2015 09:49

Charis- that's just not true... Perhaps for admission to a specific uni or sixth form they prioritise average grade but lots of other things matter too. For example if a child got 15A and 1 C in maths they have a brilliant average grade but at my school could not do Maths, biology, chemistry, physics, psychology or ICT at A Level. A child with 10 B grades including Maths and English could study any subject they wanted. Some universities look at total GCSEs, some look at number of A-A, some want the average, some look at the average of the best 8. It's just not true that the average is all that matters.

W00t · 05/09/2015 09:49

Anyway, he's done this subject in y9?
Wtf? Y9 entry will no longer count in performance measures, so what on earth are the school doing?

FuzzyWizard · 05/09/2015 09:51

He will have an F because coursework (controlled assessment) had been submitted in May and he was "withdrawn" from the exam in June.

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