son had his mobile phone in GCSE biology

He will be disqualified, end of , if the school follow correct procedure. The only question is from how many papers.

I think it's very easily done for some children
My dd could quite easily do this - she's pretty disorganised and just getting used to having a mobile at all.
Fortunately she's been leaving it at home
Of course sympathies are with the OP and her son.
I think you're being a bit evil unkind EvilTwins

And what do you make of the head's wife teaching, hmm? Good practice? Worth 12 K a year?

Every cheat in the country would be claiming scattiness if it could get them off the hook, so it can't be allowed to.

I taught in one. Left there in 2004 - so 11/12 years ago. I think you're wrong.

Apologies, I misread that post and thought it was referring to a post, not a private message.

womaninasack thank you for that comment. No, I'm not bonkers, that was said by the head teacher of an outstanding school. Fab isn't it, that that sort of ethos is regarded as outstanding. I am so very grateful that we were able to remove our child from the school run by that woman and that Ofsted reported was running an outstanding school. The 60 odd staff who worked for her thought she was a shocker yet did nothing.

I invigilated 11/12 years ago. I have made that clear and that my experiences of it are not contemporary. I do think the perspective then was better though. I also think that a lot of people on here have no idea of what London schools or other educational establishments are like.

Bakeoff - how would you know whether it was bullying - do you have access to mumsneedwine's private messages?

I know exactly you what bullying is thank you. Did you see the email I was sent ! No ? But you still feel free to comment. Weird behaviour.

"Weird bullying" You say you're a teacher? You don't seem to understand what bully actually is.

The ratio of invigilators is one to 30 students in the rule book. Many schools have an extra invigilator in large exams to act as a runner/ take kids to toilet/ matron. Generally there is at least two invigilators at the school I am working at even if it's not strictly necessary.

The children at the state school I am working at have been as good as gold. Clearly they have been well trained. I just hope their good manners rub off on my year 8 son.

I managed to cut my hand nastily by moving a desk. I did not realise it was a folding desk and my hand got caught. I had to go to matron and get a plaster. I don't think I can criticise a student for being an idiot.

Let me tell you a story about our local private school, Beaufort. I'm a PhD Biologist . We visited the school and the heads' wife was teaching Biology. I looked through several of the children's books and they were simply wrong. Pages of stuff that was wrong. I asked her about where she'd graduated from etc. Turns out she had about 4 GcSE's.

We walked out .

Eldest DS just started at Balliol. From a state school, of course.

Apple, sleep well. I've just finished marking 122 papers for Monday and a bit tired. I've also ignored a message from the Beaufort - I'm not engaging in weird bullying. I hope your son gets a fair hearing and its a warning. Tell him it's done now and he needs to concentrate on rest of exams. Let us know what happens and if want any advice please let's know. X

notquitegrownup2

A voice of reason. Thank you.

Of course it's possible to forget you've got a phone in your pocket if - as I think the OP said - you don't normally carry one.

Quite a lot of the sympathetic posts are from people whose own kids are currently doing GCSEs. If this happened in one of my DD's exams I'd still feel a lot sorrier for her schoolmate cocking up than for the momentary disturbance to my PFB.

Anyway OP I hope you find out soon what the sanction will be and that you DS is able to complete any other exams he may have. Maybe this painful lesson will sink in and stop him coming unstuck in some other way in future.

That's one school. Not all state schools. Stop talking shit.

Then she was a shit head. Funnily enough, private schools have them too.

Yep. At my daughter's state secondary, outstanding, that's precisely what the Head teacher said. "This is a comprehensive school, and theft is normal at the age of these girls, it always happens and there's no point worrying about it unduly". She said the same about assault, intimidation and pyromania.

Yep. I am one of those people who says these things happen. There's a huge difference between malicious and scatty. Even at exam time. With notices everywhere. And the OP knows he's going to suffer, just doesn't know how yet. We adults don't even know how to turn off a mobile at a theatre yet, no matter how often we're asked.

Hope my daughter didn't think 'how inconsiderate, child next to me has just vommed all over the floor (and it's not getting mopped up very quickly) when she sat a recent music exam. And then sat next to it for 35 mins.

Fingers crossed his case is treated with leniency OP.

beaufort it's not "teachers in state schools", though, is it. It's the teacher at the school your DD went to. Theft is taken seriously in the school where I teach, and all the schools I have taught in. We excluded two boys this year for theft of property. At the same time, we would follow the rules to the letter IF a child was breaking rules in an exam.

Invigilator ratio is not 1:30, no matter how "sparky" the kids are.

The invigilators reporting the phone doesn't necessarily mean the school think theft is fine, Beaufort? . Your kid's state school experiences sound horrendous, but are hardly representative of state schools in general.
Not in my experience anyway.

I can see how he forgot. You only hand your phone in, if you know it is in your pocket. If you don't usually take it in and have done so as a one off, and have been revising for the morning, it's quite possible to forget that you have changed your routine, and therefore to watch others hand theirs in, without remembering that for this one exam, you have to do the same.

I am a secondary teacher and yes, I remind every student of these rules every time we prepare for exams, and I remind them why they need to triple check their pockets for every exam. I will remind all of my students again tomorrow, but I know that one day, someone chaotic will forget.

(Actually I got to the end of one of my own GCSEs a hundred years or so ago, reached into my pocket for a handky and felt a wad of revision notes, stuffed into my pocket that I had forgotten. I hadn't used them, had no intention of cheating and wasn't discovered - but even a well motivated, intelligent and scrupulously rigorous in following the rules person like me can have a lapse of memory.)

You sound like a lovely supportive mum. Hopefully your young man will learn from this mistake, be a little more sensible about listening to reminders in future, and go on to appreciate too, that you can make a genuine mistake, but recover and move forward.