Possible cheating in Art GCSE - should I tell someone?

Of course there can be cheating teachers, just like there can be murderous doctors and shagging monks; the fact that something is forbidden and dangerous to your career does not prove that it never happens.

But your problem is that you have no evidence that it happened in this case, having only hearsay to go by. The only person who could (and should) make a complaint is the student whose work got altered: if she is not prepared to do so, then there is nothing to be done.

Year 8 Leslie, not 8 years old.

That said, I think OP should lay off. Hearsay only, she might well have got the wrong end of the stick and if what she's most worried about is her DC having help which she feels would compromise his or her artistic integrity - well, in three years time the teacher might have either changed tack or moved on.

I think you should concentrate in your own "DC" and your own life, you are sending around a feeling of lack of confidence and envies. Nobody should have time to be worried about what others do. There is not sense in what you write here.

You will probably disrupt the life of a kid and a teacher just because the gossip of your own kid. Why instead don't you teach your kid to use his time doing something constructive? instead of talking of bc's mothers, and teachers and supporting his feelings of envies?.
You should be teaching your DC to be the greatest he can be, not to grow up paying attention to what others do wrong. 8 years old?, what are you teaching him?

Pmsl

Yes- cheating does happen in exams - I'm sure we've all heard of cases where there is evidence of untoward behaviour. In most cases it is the pupil cheating and occasionally the lecturer/ teacher is found at fault.
But this 'case' is frankly laughable. There is no evidence whatsoever- just a couple of gossipy 12/13 year olds and a mother with too much time on her hands.

You want to attack a teacher's reputation and upset a child approaching tehir GCSEs based on hearsay from your Year 8 child? You're out of your mind.

Kindly keep you 'fury' to yourself. You know nothing about what's happening here and you could do massive damage in teh course of being proved absolutely gobsmackingly wrong.

And IF it really were happening they would never have talked about it in the first place. You need to back off or the only loser will be your DC

I think its bull, there is no way a teacher would put their life on the line like this and what teacher has the time to do their pupils work for them.

Your DC has misunderstood/misconstrued or the parents and DC she was with are winding her up, or talking bollox.

Remember they were retaliating against a discussion dissing this teacher. If they thought it was unfair negatively (because they like her) they may well have over emphasised why they like her (positively) to redress the balance of the argument.

There is so much that can have been misconstrued here.

You could just as easily have an unconfident youngster being told by the teacher not to worry because he/she will help. Teacher will only ever help within the rules but child (with renewed confidence) goes off to try to do her/his own work happy that 'miss' will help if she struggles, and she will, but only as far as is allowed.

sounds like a case of bf's mum and sibling showing off a bit, some parents like to think that their little darlings are favoured in the classroom, really don't think child involved has been given an unfair advantage as art is not a definite right or wrong answer as a subject such as maths would be

No. They would both deny it and you have no proof.

The problem you have is that if you put in a complaint, the teacher, pupil, and DC's friend's mother will probably all deny the allegation. And then it's going to be your DC's word against theirs. If you really want to get to the bottom of this then I think you should approach the mother, but in a friendly tone rather than accusatory. A whiff of you being pissed off and she'll clam up.

Perturbed - I recognise what you are saying, in that it is frustrating if a child gets help over and above that what is allowed.

However, having reported my DS's school for cheating, I agree with the above posters in that what you have is all heresay, it would be difficult to prove it within the school; as upatdawn states the school would close ranks if it was true. Unless you have something concrete to take to an examination board they are unlikely to even look at your claims.

I am sure teachers would have a problem with fraud... The point everyone is making here is you have no evidence of it. If you seriously want to approach the exam board and tell them 'my year 8 child said someone at another school got their art teacher to do their work for them' then fine- go ahead. Because that's all you can say. You've got no evidence whatsoever. You sound like a real busybody tbh

So- your yr 8 kid has come back from a friends house with a tale about friends sibling having a helpful art teacher (and as others have pointed out- plenty of types of support are perfectly legit)

I think the exam board would laugh their tits off at you quite frankly. You don't have a shred of real evidence of anything untoward. To me it sounds like classic older sibling trying to score points- 'oh you've got a rubbish art teacher; mines brilliant and has given me loads of help'.
Get a grip and a life.

a teacher can help a student in many perfectly legal and legitimate ways with an exam.. saying that they will do so (if they did say that) doesn't mean that they will physically alter the artwork.

and fallen is right in that there is too much hearsay involved to know really whether cheating has happened or not.

does the child involved, the actual student being graded, belive that the help they recieved amounted to cheating? if so, and if they are willing to admit that, then there may be grounds for investigation.

hearsay

noun

But help is allowed in art GCSE, that doesn't mean the teacher did the work for the student. It's exactly the same as a teacher in any other subject giving a student some advice on how to structure an essay for example. Tbh I would be more worried if a student was never given any advice on how their work was going and that lead to them submitting poor work.

I also agree with others that if you complain based on what you've said all that will happen is that anyone involved would deny it. To me it just sounds like what was said was taken out of context and all that was meant was that the teacher had been very helpful in pointing out what the student had to do to maximise her potential.

Perturbed - I think rather than being nasty to Fallen you need to read her reply more carefully.

Often we provide writing frames, clear step by step guidance to allow them to cover all the requirements of the specification that can be mis-interrupted by a student reporting back to his/her parent...unless you have clear evidence to accuse a teacher of 'cheating' and thereby putting their job, career and future in jeopardy then I would leave it alone.

this by no way means I agree with cheating but accusations without basis have ruined a lot of teachers lives

'relpies'?
Typing without checking.
replies

Go ahead and complain then, why are you posting? What are you expecting relpies to be other then yes, do or no don't?
Although you may find that OFSTED, the governors, the exam board and whoever else you choose to get involved will require evidence other than hearsay. And your real name.