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Original poster

Gcse 2021 anyone appealing?

133 replies

Cleanmean · 12/08/2021 09:43

Dc has had a rubbish year, getting covid and being off school for ages (like many others). He's just got his results and is pleased but 2 of his grades are lower than his tracked grades and may mocks. He wants to appeal but I said it'll be impossible to appeal this year as teachers will have followed the protocols very carefully and there's less margins for error. Is anyone appealing this year and if so what do you think your chances are?

OP posts:
Original poster
Cleanmean · 12/08/2021 21:41

Hi squidly, thank you for your input. Do you think it's worth appealing under the grounds of 'unreasonable selection of data' as ds had covid during Nov mocks and sat his mocks weeks after everyone else without any of the revision and prep as he was very poorly with covid. His poor mark in those exams brought his overall average down massively. I'm hoping he won't appeal as I just can't see his teachers admitting they might have got it wrong especially as it's been reviewed by other teachers. Once he sees all his assessment marks he'll probably change his mind.

OP posts:
kackle · 12/08/2021 21:03

Hi Squidlydoo

Can I ask for an opinion

Subject one evidence used grades of 9,9,9,8 and awarded an 8

Subject two grades of 7,7,6,5. Awarded a 6

Special consideration was applied for. The JCQ and edexcel boards say evidence could be substituted. Our school have ignored this and say they have just allocated a couple of %

Yet if I read JCQ guidance etc it says substitute evidence for mitigating circumstances

Any idea if I have a leg to stand on. I think our school haven’t substituted evidence and my daughter has lost out

Cheers

Squidlydoo · 12/08/2021 19:21

I’m in charge of TAGs at my school and would say there is a very very slim chance of a successful appeal. Work will not be remarked. The only grounds for appeal is that the school has not followed its protocols correctly. Sadly mock exams and predictions will have limited bearing on final grades so this in itself will not be grounds.

Think carefully about appealing as grades can go down - and you don’t get to choose to accept the new grades

Misssugarplum12764 · 12/08/2021 18:47

If you go on the JCQ website there’s a very good student-friendly guide on how to appeal. It has worked examples of types of appeal, plus a flowchart of what to do. There’s also a word version of their appeals form template which I’d assume most schools are using.

I’d strongly suggest that students email/call themselves rather than parents (they have to fill in the form themselves) but also make sure they’re talking to the right person; this is likely to either be the deputy head or the assistant head for data/achievement rather than their classroom teachers.

Original poster
Cleanmean · 12/08/2021 18:23

Azpie I'm sorry to hear about the situation your daughter was in. My dc has something similar, off for over 5 weeks with covid during Oct mocks when they were told the mocks were not important but just being done to see the gaps in learning. He did his weeks after everyone else without any of the revision classes or prep as there were no online lessons bask last year. Those mocks weighted heavily in the final tag assessment. I've said it's up to him if he wants to appeal, he's pretty gutted. What a shit year.

OP posts:
AzPie · 12/08/2021 15:07

I'm going to encourage DD to appeal, some of her results make no sense compared to what she's been predicted for years. I had an email exchange with one of her BTEC subject teachers back in October who said DD was on a level 2 pass (as consistently stated on her termly reports) but with the final unit she expected her to go up to level 2 merit, well her result today was level 1 merit, I just don't get it. The worst is her English result, she's been predicted 6/6 the whole way through, today she got 4/3.

Her mitigating circumstances (hospitalized due to mental health and death in the family) were not considered. The other year 11's were given revision lessons to prepare for mini-assessments (so specific topics were revised/practice questions), she was dumped in the SEN department with no work and had to do her own revision with no guidance on topics. Most of her assessments were done at SEND, some days she had to chase down a staff member to ask them to get her assessment for her to do, it's like they just forgot about her Sad

Original poster
Cleanmean · 12/08/2021 13:33

That's a really good idea, I'll get him to email in. School have been very firm in communicating that the grades were double checked and are very unlikely to go up but could go down.

OP posts:
GiveMeDreamies · 12/08/2021 12:36

My DS is happy with his but his school have advised that the first step for anyone thinking of appealing is to contact them for a talk through of why that grade was awarded. Could your DS ring school and explain that he is disappointed with two grades and ask if the teachers could talk him through them before deciding whether to appeal or not.

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