is this legal? AQA scrapping DDs result and forcing a resit for the whole year

More likely someone didn't bother to read the specification - nothing to do with understanding

They probably didn't bother to go to the (free) training course either.

It's not a complicated system. Two of the four modules have to be taken at the same time as cash-in. What is hard about that?

Oh dear I'm sorry to keep posting ,I just feel so upset for people caught in this situation .
Even the exams officers .

I hate the idea that the system is so complicated that parents can't be expected to follow it and that some schools can't seemingly either .

I'm sure the last thing schools want is to be caught up in all this ,paying for resits and their reputation being at risk if it becomes open knowledge if they've made an error of this magnitude .

but it must be the individual schools error ,if it were the exam board all schools would be affected and there would be an outcry in the press .

Not that any of this helps the children affected .

And ,for what it's worth ,have today spoken to friend in South Hams whose son is in similar position ,she's been told it's the Government doing away with the resit culture .
Her son has been told he has to resit and that if a lower grade results it will superceed his earlier C .

And the Governors may not be able to alter the situation and will undoubtably close ranks and support the school but I think they should be made aware of the situation .

If I hadn't contacted AQA about my son's AS certificate I would never have known that my son hadn't lost the certificate and that the school had forgotten to cash it in .
Schools are very reluctant to admit mistakes and with the exam system being so complicated and changing they can rely on parents not knowing what's going on and fob them off .

This phone number from AQA website

Exams Office Support

        0844 209 6614       

If it were me I think I would contact them and expain that the school has told you that the resits are a result of AQA changing the rules at the last minute and that you're trying to clarify the position .
Make sure you expain that the whole year group is affected and ask if school can appeal to AQA .
They may just refuse to talk to you but you may get some info .
Otherwise or instead I think I'd contact my local MP - because this is someone's error ( school or AQA ) and the students suffer .

Why are you worried about contacting AQA ? Perfectly reasonable to check what school have told you ,and even if AQA won't talk to you I think they should have the feedback and try even harder to make sure schools aware of rules which seem to get ever more complicated .

Contacting AQA certainly can't do any harm and it may help if the school have messed up, which appears to be the case. There are contact details on their website web.aqa.org.uk.

I would second contacting AQA ,they helped me when school were telling me DS had lost certificate and eventually I learnt they had not cashed in .
It's a bit tricky because they can't really give info to the parent but they can talk to school once you've alerted them .
And I found it helped once the school knew that I was talking to the exam board .

It's the school's screw-up.

Sounds like the HoD didn't cash in in June.

So yes, as others have said, in order to be awarded the qualification, she would need to fulfil the '40% rule' which is, to take 40% of the qualification in the June of the academic year in which it is awarded.

Hence the re-take, plus a repeated CA, I suspect. And yes, most recent (rather than highest) grade counts.

I have three students in Year 11 doing the same as they missed an exam in Year 10.

But to have the whole year doing this is an almighty balls up by either the HoD or the exams officer (or possibly both).

If I had ballsed up in this way, I think I would throw myself on the mercy of AQA. Have the school tried that?

COuld you call AQA yourself (you will need the school's exam number) and see of they will consider 'special circumstances' - they won't, of course, but it might prompt them to get in touch with the school and find out what the heck they are up to.

AQA have been really brill at supporting us throughout the first year of the new specs.

If they haven't fulfilled the specification requirements, I don't see what the governors can do.

Talk to the governors for a start? And if she does have to re-sit it. Is there any way you could get her one on one tuition and perhaps, with the extra support, it might even get her a higher grade?

In Science, we can only cash in CAs in June. But they are only worth 25%. So you need to take one examined unit as well, worth at least 15%. And it will count! So if it is a re-take exam, and you do worse, then it's tough and the June mark will count.

For AQA, there are two ways of doing Core Science. We do an exam worth 35% in January, plus the CA and another exam worth 40% in June.

Or you can do B1 (25%), C1 (25%) and P1 (25%), plus the CA (25%). You need to do two lots of 25% at the end of the course.

I think it's sort of like the Arsenal Offside Trap .

I actually glaze over, too, every time I try to get my head round it, but basically, you must submit 40% of the assessment in June 2013, if that's when the GCSE is being awarded. It can be either the exam, or some/all of the Controlled Assessment, but must be at least 40%.

So if the student is entered for a qualification awarded in June, but doing early exam entry in January, with a possible re-sit, you need to not cash in any controlled assessments before June, so they can be the 40% regarded as having been taken in June (even if you actually did them in year 10 & then stuck them in a filing cabinet for a year).

If you do cash them in, they have to sit the exam in June in order for that to be the terminal 40%. Which is not what you want if they've already hit target in January.

Clear as mud. I think.

This sort of thing is why my HOD gets paid lots more than me - properly understands it!

could someone please explain this 40% rule to me . I keep reading it but cannot understand it.

A school local to me forgot about the 40% terminal rule & buggered up all year 11's English grades. HOD fell on his sword over it, in fact, & resigned.

It's an almighty cock up by the school, almost certainly (not that that helps your dd, but if you felt like opening a can of whupass you certainly could.)

Agree with TFM that school should go out of their way to help with revision etc.

I am assuming 30/50 for the CA.

How can her coursework be worth 60%?

OK, the grades assigned to individual components are a red herring. It is about the total UMS. In order to achieve a C, the total for all her three exams plus the CA need to exceed a certain threshold.

It should be fine. Her school should bend over backwards to provide revision classes, and about half the marks come not from knowing stuff, but being able to demonstrate certain skills. These are common through both Core and Additional Science, and she should do better in this part this year than last.

vicar I'm so sorry this is happening to you and your daughter .

I have no advice I'm afraid but IME schools do make these sort of mistakes but they are very loathe to admit to them .

I had a terrible time getting DS's AS physics certificate .
School kept telling me he'd lost it ,but when I spoke to exam board they told me it hadn't been cashed in .
School told me they'd cash it in during next round of exams but again nothing appeared .
Eventually we did get it but school had to write a letter to exam board and they made some sort of exception allowing it to be cashed in even though it was after some cut off date .
And the school were furious with me.

Again that sounds very bizarre too. My DD is in Y11 and for a variety of reasons, missed a lot of education in Y10. She did edexcel core science. She achieved a mid B on her controlled coursework, the highest UMS mark of a C in biology, an E in chemistry and a U (higher tier so F grade UMS points)in physics. This gave her an overall high D. She is retaking chemistry and physics next month (to satisfy the 40%) rule. She will only need a D and an E (or even 2 high Es) to achieve enough UMS marks (because the controlled coursework and biology results are banked) to achieve an overall C. If she manages 2 top UMS mark Cs (she's doing foundation tier resits) she will achieve an overall B.