son had his mobile phone in GCSE biology

Will he learn his lesson?

I don't think anything is beyond naïve teenage boys. I would hope that people who work in schools can tell the difference between out and out trouble makers and boys who are disorganised and naïve. The people who work there have, after all, spent five years getting to know them and so love to tell parents they know best.

Oh and Beaufort Belle, it might have been appreciated, but it could have lost the school the right to sit any further exams for any of its pupils. The rules are rigid. No flexibility allowed.

If I'd been a teacher at that school I woukd have reported you. The job of the invigilator is to apply the rules set out by the exam boards consistently, not to decide which rules should apply and which should not, according to your own ideas of common sense.

Having seen the lengths invigilators go to to avoid this - the notices, the announcements, the reminders - it's beyond belief that any student could sit through that and STILL not only have their phone with them but have it switched on.

As this happened so late in exam I think the other students are at minimal disadvantage. However, it will be part of the investigation,and if found to have affected them, consideration will be given. Kids winge a lot about having to remove all labels from water bottles, but as has been said, the ways to cheat are very inventive. Last year one of my year 9s wrote her revision notes on her thigh, high up,thinking no one would notice. I did and she was thrown out of class. Phones are such a big no no that I wish we could have detectors. There's always one that goes off- thankfully we take them all in (in named plastic wallets) and they are removed from exam room, so don't disturb anyone. And who usually texts ? Mum !!!! Don't !!!!

Nope. I did it on more than one occasion and Exams manager was grateful. I had work coming out of my ears because I dealt with the students (inner London demographic) extremely well and managed some very difficult situations, including fire bells going off because students did that where I was working during exams.

When I took professional exams about six/seven years ago a mobile phone went off at the front. The biggest disturbance was caused by the invigilator making a disproportionate fuss and yelling whose rucksack was it, storming up and down between rows of desks.

I made a complaint about that! It would have been better if the twit had just let it ring - well she did and created 5 minutes of chaos. That's what jobs should be lost over.

If I'd lost my job it really wouldn't have mattered. It was about £8.50 an hour and as a mature, educated woman I managed it as best I could with as much common sense as I could and funnily enough it seemed to have been appreciated.

Beaufort, 11 years ago phones didn't have many of the capabilities they do today!
A student once told me all the ways they try to cheat in exams, it was very enlightening. And scary.
I hope they don't come down too hard on your son OP, as his intention was not to cheat (obviously the examiners don't know that).

No, students being disturbed by a mobile phone ringing in an exam are not eligible for special consideration.

It's against the rules, which will have been drummed into the students. Why must the exam board understand that accidents happen, Winterbaby??
It didn't happen to anyone else...
Being disorganised is no excuse for taking a switched on mobile into a GCSE exam hall.

And then, Beaufort, you would have, quite rightly, lost your job. It is not up to individual invigilators to interpret the rules. If you'd taken his phone and given him a bollocking you would have been behaving in a seriously unprofessional way, and would have been in breach of contract. FFS.

No, you're quite right of course EvilTwins, and those last few minutes can be crucial for last minute checking or trying to finish. It is unacceptable that one student's thoughtlessness, albeit that it was unintentional, might have disturbed the others. I was only really thinking about the impact on the OP's son when I posted earlier. I wonder if the incident report will enable the other students to have consideration for the disturbance? I really don't know, but I hope so.

The school could actually be helpful and inform the examination board in writing that your son was not seen to remove the phone during the exam up to point when it rang, that the phone has been examined and there is nothing on it and that he is generally of good character and would never be expected to cheat in an exam or any other occasion and deserves to be given the benefit of the doubt.

That's what normal, humane people would do I believe. When I invigilated exams 11/12 years ago if this had happened I'd have taken your son's phone off him and given him a bollocking at the end of the exam.

The world has gone mad.

Am I the only one who realises the OP's DS isn't the only one affected here? All very well to say "there there, it's easily done" but this may well have affected other students who just happened to have the misfortune to be sitting near this child.

MN doesn't half annoy me sometimes. Imagine your own DC had been in an exam where a phone had gone off. Lots of year 11s have had a large number of exams this week. One of my yr 11s had three today. The last thing you need on a Friday afternoon in a biology GCSE is this kind of disturbance. And yet the vast majority of posters on this thread are wishing the OP's son luck and saying "ah well, these things happen"

Apologies about resits - I'm old and forgot it's only maths and English now (I blame the large gulp of champagne I had with my year 13s today). Although he could sit an iGCSE ! Good news is you should hear very early next week. Word of caution though -the joint exam board will make decision and it is possible to be banned from all boards and fail exams across all boards. I very much doubt this will be the case here. But students should never forget phones or backs of calculators, remember to remove labels from water bottles and take clear pencil cases. We drum it in to them and invigilators have to read the same instructions before every exam.OP go relax over weekend. It's done now and I think he will just lose this module marks and he can still pass with other papers. I hate mobile phones

I've known this happen several times. Obviously I can't guarantee what will happen, and the rules are clear, but if the phone was in a pocket, not discovered the student's hand, about 50% of the time nothing happens as a result of the incident report. The other 50% of the time, the marks for the individual paper are cancelled. I've known one student have their marks for the entire subject cancelled, but the student had actively cheated and brought notes into the exam. Exam boards do threaten to cancel all marks in all subjects, but I've never known this actually happen in 15 years teaching.

Only my experience,and not what the rules say, but hope things turn out OK for you - sounds like a very unfortunate moment of scattiness to me, certainly not cheating, and the boards do recognise that.

Oh what a situation :-(. Hope it gets sorted soon, do let us know x

Very easily done for some people despite warning after warning.

It's not something I would do as I was always over cautious when it came to sitting exams.. But my DH would be very capable of doing something like this - despite the warnings in place.

Accidents happen - surely we all understand this!??. Just as the OP/OPs DS understand there will be consequences..(which I hope aren't too harsh for her sons benefit).

Best of luck OP

I've had this happen as an invigilator.

Usually the worst case scenario is that the subject is failed. I've never known all GCSEs with that board to be failed as a result of having a phone. The fact that he handed it over will go in his favour, too - so he may be lucky and have only the unit marks discounted (or very lucky and get off with a warning).

A poster up thread is right though - no resits til the summer now. Thanks Govey.

If the final biology grade is made up of B1+B2+B3+ISA, he may well still have 75% of his marks available. A grade C is still possible even if the B1 marks are cancelled.

Students who have used their phone in the exam have lost all their scores across all the subjects with that exam board.

Students who were caught with their phone (switched off) just lost the marks for that paper and still got a reasonable grade.

With a phone switched on, it could go either way.

This is not his first exam. It's about half way through GCSEs. Students are in the routine now- what to bring, what not to bring. I know I sound unsympathetic, but what about the other 100-odd students whose concentration was disrupted by this child's phone going off? What about the distraction to them? It's not just one child who is affected by this.

I can see how a disorganised boy just wouldn't compute the notices / instructions in the lead up to the exam. My ds does some really daft things on occasion.

Thing is, and sorry OP, because you obviously already know this, it's not easily done. As previous posters have said, the schools display notices everywhere and invigilators HAVE to read the notice out. There is very little chance of a child doing this by accident. Sorry, but it's not easy, it's not a harmless accident - if it was, then the exam boards would not need to have such harsh sanctions in place. I'm not saying the OP's DS had any intention whatsoever to cheat, but it's not a simple case of it being "easily done".

This sends shudders down the spines of all mothers in the land. So easily done. I really hope he doesn't get disqualified. for you.