GCSE English Lit and Language review of marking

That’s a great result! What were your grounds for appeal after the re-mark?

Oh wow! That's amazing - @namechanged221 - so glad it changed. You must feel vindicated (and richer - how much does an appeal cost?)

So we finally got our appeal back after the initial review of marks was returned unchanged.

DS has gone up by one grade from a 6 to a 7

Still nowhere near his mock grade or his other gcse grades but a positive result .

We now don't have to pay for the appeal either.

I honestly don't know... but I will be contacting the exam board today as well as seeing what school come up with as a solution.

“There's a problem with another subject where I just asked for a copy of the paper but not a review... got that tonight and half of it is missing. Which would explain the mark being so much lower than expected.”

Do you think the school failed to scan in half a paper to the exam board?

I think you need to keep going here on both fronts. Possibly too many exams in your school and not enough exam officer staff, but you are doing the right thing pursuing this not just for your DD but for future cohorts.
Processes need to be in place to do this whole process properly, from start to finish.
Ask for the policy on exams etc as well.

I guess if the school fails in its duty to stick to deadlines, is there still a right of appeal? That they would have to pay for?

There's no point complaining to ofsted until you've exhausted the complaints process at the school - which you should absolutely do.

I'm so sorry to read your update @OhCrumbsWhereNow. After your DD's journey through school (both travel-wise and in terms of the educational experience) how incredibly infuriating to have seemingly been blocked from what should be a very straightforward process. I'd be fuming too, not just because it may have cost you and your DD the peace of mind of knowing those papers were fully and fairly marked but also because of the lack of communication from the school.

Hopefully the exams officer is contacting everyone and anyone who may be able to help get this situation resolved but if there's no update from the school during the morning, I'd be inclined to make a formal complaint to the school. Your DD is fortunate to have a parent who advocates for her so effectively. Given the school is choosing to disregard your DD's access to scripts and marking review requests, I would be concerned there may be other students out there who have missed out on college places or are now facing resits but whose parents aren't such effective advocates and so have been swept under the carpet.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow what the actual-
that is NOT ok. So sorry- fuming for you and her

Fortunately they are fine and hopefully will be for the future as they are only focused on music and the universities they are targeting only care about audition performance and not academics.

But school has been an enormous struggle with very little support, and the missing content (if it definitely is missing) cost them the top grade, and she was very upset with her English scores having worked very hard to do as well as she could.

The anomaly between the 6 in one paper and the 3 in another has weighed on her mind.

So yes, I could shrug and say ah well, it doesn't make a material difference...

Did your DC miss out on an opportunity due to these grades?

I am feeling very terrier-like at the moment.

I would go to both the governors and to I Ofsted.

Whether you can do anything about the re-mark at this stage…I can’t advise. But you do have an email trail…

I am just speechless and devastated to be honest. And no idea what I can even do. Deadlines have passed and now I've found half a paper missing, and no submission of requested reviews.

I have at least now got my own copy of the papers. DD got full marks on the easy 1 and 2 markers in English Lang, but only 14/40 for a 3 page essay. Her dyslexia is fully on display in all its glory, but can't help feeling that is still very low for the things she was attempting. But I guess I will never know if she just got an examiner who couldn't be bothered working out what she was saying.

DD signed the form to ask for the papers to be submitted, that she accepted that they could go down as well as up or no change and that we were prepared to pay for them to be reviewed.

I followed up with at least 4 emails asking for confirmation that they had been submitted, asking for confirmation of submission in light of impending deadline and confirmation of when we would get outcome post deadline. No response.

I went a bit nuclear last week and the result was that I finally got copies of the papers this evening. And just saying that they didn't recommend submitting - one because it looked okay and the other because it was 6 marks off the upper boundary.

There's a problem with another subject where I just asked for a copy of the paper but not a review... got that tonight and half of it is missing. Which would explain the mark being so much lower than expected.

What???? By whom???

They took your money and didn’t submit?!?!

Indeed. I await the response to my “not awfully happy” email with interest.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow - did you DD sign a form and send it in and your countersigned to pay any fees and they just ignored it? How can they? It is not allowed if clearly instructed and consented and signed for by the student.

Absolutely fuming.

Looks like there was a unilateral decision not to send the papers in for review. Only just found out.

English language back no change. So we’re done.

Spanish was 1 off a 7 review moved it up
English language 1 mark off a 7 no change
History 3 marks off school decided against submitting

It’s a shame, DC was predicted 8 in Eng lang, but he felt the exams went v badly so in a way I was relieved he got a 6 which was required for his A levels. Had a tiny fear the review could lead to a 5 which would be a problem for his courses.

It was a disappointing set of results for him but he is v happy in his new sixth form and appears to be taking things much more seriously. I think he might just have learnt a hard lesson.

All the best everyone, especially those grappling with resits 🤞🏻🤞🏻

That is good news.

My DS got grade 5 in English and Literature. 3 marks from grade 6 in English. Teacher said - marking is honest, do not need to re-mark . Tutor recommended to apply for re-marking. After two weeks of waiting, result arrived. Son got grade 6. Not perfect, expected grade 7 but better than 5.

Still waiting AQA Eng language!! Anyone else???

From the review copy of the STEM paper we got reviewed, we can see that there were around 40 questions and almost as many different original markers, but far fewer different reviewers.

Although extra marks were awarded at review, an equal number were taken away, so no overall change.

Just baffled at how many times the marking scheme was misapplied, both in our favour and against, in a STEM subject.

No change to AQA Eng Lang here. DS got 2 grades below predicted, was 2 marks off boundary, school advised paper 1 harshly marked. Sent in 15th Sept.

Just adding for reference in case useful. Lucky for us doesn’t change anything for DS.