Challenging Teacher's Controlled Assessment Mark GCSE

Firstly Cav it was not a similar piece
of writing. In English as has been pointed out the assessments are all very different - someone may achieve an A* in an extended reading piece may not get one in a narrative piece. It is a different skillset.
The English department did get back to the OP and tell her that they have moderated and standardised the piece and the mark is correct.
In 16 years I have never had a parent question a CA mark - they have asked why low and what they can do about it, but not been accusatory about why precious did no achieve a high grade.
This is indicative of the biggest problems schools face today - that parents look to blame teachers when their child does not achieve.
I am not flippant Cav. I am a dedicated, hardworking and motivated teacher who strives to get all of her pupils to succeed. There are many policies in schools that teachers do not have time to read - people are employed for this job, teachers to teach, mark, plan and inspire. Even if the OP appealed the policy has no doubt been adhered to and the grade will still not change.
This is what you don't seem to get - the piece has been moderated by fully trained, qualified and professional people who want the best grades for their pupil. If it warranted a higher grade it would have been given one - both you and the OP are Coming at it from the wrong angle - which should be 'what can I so to help my son get a better grade with his next CA?"

I hope she does come back - I would like to know the outcome - of course it is still Easter hols.

I don't think the OP is coming back!

Like I said Clav, even if they did it would all be checked anyway. I see it from both sides because, as a teacher, I don't want my classes being badly marked. Partly because of the shit storm it creates for me in terms of my performance management if the kids don't achieve, but mostly because I've spent two years with those kids and I (usually) bloody love 'em and want them to be fairly and accurately rewarded for their work. I'm not claiming there are never problems, but it's rare. And if we think it's not the right mark we get it remarked so that it is.

I have just googled 'internal appeals policy for controlled assessments' and of course pages and pages of internal appeals policies from schools across the land came up - they are a requirement under the code of practice. Titchy is right that the grounds for appeal can only relate to the procedure used in arriving at internal assessment decisions and not to the actual marks although standardisation and consistency of marking is mentioned in the JCQ's suggested template. The op should check the policy at her dc's school as several schools state they will discuss/explain to the student/carer how marks were arrived at.

I am concerned at pieceofpurplesky's comment that, "the school probably doesn't have an appeals policy for CA", and other teachers involved in CAs who haven't referred the op to such a policy even if to simply explain what the grounds for appeal are. It's this sort of vague, flippant response that perhaps the op is unhappy with. Her theories of a personality clash aside, I would be upset if my own dc had been consistently receiving A/A* grades in coursework and previous exams only to receive a B grade for similar work in an important assessment. I am amazed that pieceofpurplesky hasn't come across a query as to assessment marks in 16 years at her school. Why was the op refused a meeting with the HOD to discuss the matter?

My comment was rather 'tongue in cheek' but thank you for your answer (fingers crossed my own dcs don't get many B or C grade exam markers when the time comes).

I'm not quite sure I've understood your question clav but I'll try to answer. As far as I know exam markers aren't graded on a curve - so there aren't raw marks and grade boundaries, just set levels of accuracy, quality of annotation, and deadline efficiency that are equated to each letter grade. So I get an A in marking one year to the next because I'm consistently accurate, annotate the papers clearly and relevantly, and meet my deadlines. It wouldn't matter if every other marker got an A that year or if every other marker got a C.

Markers graded A or B are automatically given an invite to mark next year. Markers who have been graded at a C will have to do further training and if they are cleared to mark they will have to send more scripts than usual to their team leader for checking. Markers graded at a D are not used again.

Markers who are going to be graded at a C or D aren't just left to it and those kids get dodgy marks. They'll have their stuff sampled, have their team leader on the phone advising them, have marks adjusted (so if they are consistently under marking by about five marks per paper, all papers get shifted up by five). If they are really not able to get reliable marks from a marker the exam board will take all the papers away and they'll beredistributed to other markers.

But do you get an A for your exam marking because everyone else gets a B, C or D? Yes, I do understand grade boundaries.

No assessment system that relies on humans marking a subjective subject (like English) will ever be perfect. But you can have confidence in it because statistically, it works. The vast, vast majority of marks are correct. And there is a process of quality assurance - there are checks in place throughout the marking process. Then, once the results are out, schools can recall papers if they think the marking is off, they can check them, they can ask for remarks. They can also get papers near grade boundaries remarked just in case they have been marked too harshly and the three extra marks would push them from a B to an A.

It does work. Honest. And despite my flippancy, I trust it.

If it helps, the exam board I work for grades our performance as markers, primarily based on our accuracy. I always get As!

The last post from Bosswitch confirms the fear I have always had about the marking of external exams. How can one possibly have confidence in a system like this!

That was meant to say "I've had a beer". The lack of a quantity makes it sound like I chug a crate of fosters before starting marking tempting which definitely isn't the case, I promise!

Mistakes in exam marking are far more likely to occur than in CA marking for a whole lot of reasons. I mark exams and CA. My own students' CA work gets much more of my time and effort (ten minutes average to mark and annotate a creative writing CA like the one this thread focuses on, as opposed to around 3 minutes for a similar length exam response). This is because there is a pretty generous tolerance margin for exam marking as opposed to the teeny tiny tolerance for CA folders - see my earlier post. Also, exam responses are impersonal, so I am emotionally detached and give less of a fuck if I'm a couple of marks out. I'm going to get paid regardless and know my marking is usually pretty good. My future pay grade isn't depending on the results of the papers in front of me. I am marking 460 papers in three weeks on top of a full time job and it's almost one o'clock in the morning and I have to get through 8 more papers before I can go to bed or I'll not meet my deadline. I won't be sat red faced in a moderation meeting next week having to explain any shoddy marking to my boss and colleagues if I am a bit out on some of my exam scripts. I've had beer. I've been marking for four straight hours and it's all blurring into one. Etc.

Clav nothing more can or will be done. Just because a parent thinks her precious deserves a higher grade does not mean he deserves one. According to OP the piece has been moderated - the school probably don't have an appeals policy for CAs as I have never known a parent react like this before - in 16 years. 99% of posters on here have told the OP the same thing

Clavinova the grade isn't known until everything has been marked. That's what pp meant by marking to a number. Some years 26 out of 30 will equal an A*. Other years that'll only get a B.

And there's no evidence that procedure hasn't been followed which is all an appeal could determine. The work was done in class. The original script is kept under lock and key. It has been internally moderated. It might be asked for by the exam board and I'm sure they'll supply it if so. That's it. End of. Everything has been done correctly. OP just doesn't like the result!

And yes of course plenty of exam scripts are remarked, but as a proportion of the total taken, mistakes are minimal, and usually administrative rather than marked incorrectly.

I don't know a great deal about exam marking but I think I was aware of everything you have just written. A student is awarded a GCSE grade not a number or percentage mark which is why I used the term 'grade'. If you accept that teachers/ex teachers (who I believe have to have recent teaching experience) make mistakes in their public exam marking then they are just as fallible in school as elsewhere. My own dc have had the occasional end of year exam papers not correctly marked (queried and amended in class when the teachers have gone through the papers). The Examinations Officer should at least be able to provide the parent with a copy of the school's internal appeals policy (so the parent can satisfy themselves that nothing more can be done) as the teachers on this thread don't appear to have any knowledge of such a document existing (and I'm certain that one does exist).

The English department have informed the parent the piece has been moderated. The examinations office will do nothing. as for examiners - you clearly know very little about exam marking. CAs are moderated in school and a sample selected by the board for moderation. Exams are completely different, marked by teachers, ex teachers etc and once all are marked the grad boundary is set - so you are marking to a number not a grade.

Ok, CAs not quite as easy as I had been led to believe then. I still think the OP should contact the Examinations Officer asap just to talk things through as the English department have refused a meeting.

A creative piece from an unseen title or a creative piece written, amended and learnt by heart? Genuine question.

'Children always think they have done better than they have' - and sometimes they are right! Why are so many GCSE exam grades appealed every year and the marking found to be at fault? Aren't the examiners and moderators recruited from the very same teachers who are supposed to be infallible at marking and moderating in their own schools?

Would the op's ds have known the title for the creative writing piece in advance? Had he written something very similar before and received an A/A* previously? My eldest is only YR 8 but from previous threads CAs seem to be about regurgitating something previously prepared. I don't agree with the personality clash but if the child's previous English teacher had been in the habit of marking his work too generously then the school would still be accountable and should offer a proper explanation - is there internal moderation of work throughout the GCSE course or just at examination time?

There must be an internal appeals procedure of some sort that also involves another member of staff unconnected to the English department - op should contact the Examinations Officer at the school perhaps if only to check that the correct procedures have been followed.

As others have said he ought to be concentrating on preparing for the exam now. Indeed it is so close to the submission of marks I doubt many schools would have the time to resit a CA. Certainly I am running revision sessions after school and all our folders have been moderated internally and filed. I couldn't afford the time for a single pupil to redo a CA now since the marks have to be with the exam board by 7th May.

I love teacher questioning threads. OP you have no grounds to complain, they have responded to you, the piece of work will have been looked at because you flagged it and questions asked.

Children always think they have done better than they have, lots of bright and able children get As and A* grades and then drop when they get a bit over confident or don't put as much effort in as they always do well.

Stop being so precious about it and suck it up, make your DC do it again. Teachers are professionals and they all want the best for the students , your suggestion of "personality clash" shows that you are not objective about this. Teachers may not like students ( and yes we don't like them all) but we don't mark down based on that, we all want our students to do well which is why moderation takes place so that "teacher talking" which is being generous does not happen.