Was the

She did balance it out with positivity. She told her she scored 96% in the exam.

Doodling in class in her own book brought in for the purpose or on scrap paper wouldn’t bother me. On exams though it risks issues and suggests a lack of care. Especially if she’s been told (and getting almost full marks doesn’t mean she must care. Following instructions in a formal situation is important).

Be upset at your daughter
She was told - end of
Shoulder it all on her
The apple hasn't fallen far from the tree has it

It doesn’t, because she marked it positively and the child knows the actual mark. Then she took marks off for breaking a rule she was fully aware of.

And she still knows enough to get 96%. Why so concerned about the mark?how is it a power trip? It is a nothing consequence aimed to wake the child up. As a GCSE marker has said on the thread already - scripts with ‘doodles’ get referred to team leaders/senior markers for review. Too much of a risk. If I meaningless penalay now stops that happening, that’s in the child’s interests.

Well, she seems to have 'learned' that lesson. So well done for re-inforcing the rule. Guess you can let it go now.😀

Still curious to know how old daughter is. Notice OP hasn't actually ever said.

no need to fret, just good luck with that Turner Prize.

OP my daughter uses sketching as a way to self-regulate. She's allowed to do it in class because it's a need identified by an ed psych. She is on the list to have a diagnosis of ASD and while I'm not saying that's what your daughter has, if drawing is something that helps her deal with the stress of exams it might be worth putting something more formal in place.

Otherwise I can't get heated either way. The teacher is wasting energy by focusing on it imo but she is learning to deal with grumpy teachers/people and work to a brief. I wish the world did bend around individual personality/need but alas it doesn't.

She needs to learn where being ‘arty’ is appropriate, though.
She clearly has a problem with authority if she keeps doing it despite being asked not to, so punishment seems reasonable to try and get the message to sink in IMO

Yes, because an art teacher holds all the power in that judgement. My art teacher told me my drawing of a pig was lovely... it was a giraffe

as in the past she had been told not to draw in her excersize books for various different reasons but had never been reprimanded for defacing an exam paper so thought it would be OK.
I'm sorry but if she's old enough to be sitting an exam, then she's old enough to have basic common sense. 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

I’m a teacher. I have mixed views on this.

On the one hand, your daughter is doodling in her exercise books regularly. That will be making her books look an absolute mess, and her teacher will (unfairly) be held responsible if a member of SLT or Ofsted observe the class and pick up her book. It just doesn’t give the impression of pride in her work. I mean, if she ever gets a job where paperwork is required, is she planning to doodle all over that? Can she prevent herself when it’s really needed? Because it’s really needed in her school books.

On the other hand, I am really not a fan of punishments or behaviour solutions which have nothing to do with the reality of what’s been done, and bear no relation to what would happen in real life. 5% off an exam score is arbitrary, decided by the teacher, and unrelated to the doodle. Your daughter’s learning and performance in the exam got 96%.

Would the explanation at the top of my post change your daughter’s behaviour at all? Would having a piece of scrap paper to doodle on in lessons (maybe even after exams, although that wouldn’t be allowed at GCSE) stop her from drawing on her work, or would she still draw on her work? Can she be made to understand that drawing on your work is a bad idea, so that she’s motivated from within not to do it any more?

If she can’t, then maybe some kind of punishment-consequence is necessary, but again - my ideal teacher would relate it to the thing done. Stay behind at break time to erase/go over with white paint/stick cutout pieces of paper over every doodle to restore your book to its former glory, for example. Not a random 5% off an earned score.

However, with all that said, for your daughter’s sake, please don’t complain to the school about this or defend your daughter in any way. The teacher does and should have a choice to respond to this. I don’t think it’s the best response cognitively, but it’s a response that says ‘I won’t let this pass’, and that’s better than tolerance of something established as wrong.

If you go challenging the teacher over this you really will be ‘that parent’. The exam score isn’t going anywhere official. Instead, back up the point at home by reinforcing the real reasons why your DD should stop the doodling. Aim to find an alternative way of occupying her hands that’s acceptable at school and can pass the time. And when the time is right, find ways to encourage proper drawing and painting at home.,

'Greatful' and 'excersize'? You're not an examiner. Go figure.

Comparing something that would impinge on all the other students to something that none of the other students would notice at all is really pathetic.

If there is good reason to stop someone doodling then the rule is reasonable. but the reason she hasn't been docked in the past and the reason she wouldn't be docked on her GCSEs etc. is because doodling on the back of the exam paper does not harm anyone, isn't an unfair advantage, and doesn't impact the integrity of the test.

Enforcement of rules for the sake of it (and it's not even a proper rule, it's just something the teacher doesn't like her doing) is not a generally good thing. It's just officious.

Yes. I believe a fully functioning education system would follow each individual child’s passion. It might seem airy fairy but great world achievements were all accomplished by people who pushed ahead despite society telling them they were crazy. And sorry but this education system isn’t currently pumping out geniuses left, right and centre is it? So why not consider something different?

I would LOVE to hear your proposal and how that would work in practice and in real life.

Thankfully she has now learnt her lesson and will try and avoid.

if all it took was taking off a few marks, the teachers should have done it years ago.

YANBU. As you know, the drawing would just be ignored if it was the final GCSE exam.
FYI, my DC1 drew a picture of a whale on one of the questions in their A level Biology papers. They still passed with a good grade.

I haven't read the whole thread, so maybe someone has already mentioned it, but if anything written/drawn on a GCSE paper is deemed to be "offensive" then they can impose a sanction (eg 0 for that paper). Much safer not to doodle, just in case someone decides that clearly the doodle is a caricature of an invigilator and therefore offensive. (I suspect they only apply sanctions for very obviously offensive material, but who knows.)

The op is the DD and I claim my £5.