Hello all,
I've posted in Chat as I assume more people will get to see this post and I think it's very important.
It's come to my attention that some - maybe all, who knows but definitely my child's GCSE papers have been printed in black and white instead of colour.
My child has their exam papers printed on colour paper because they have dyslexia and they also take their exams in a separate room. This isn't a new thing in education and there are a number of students at our local school who have the same set up.
After taking the English GCSE last week my child remarked to their friends that the exam would have been easier if the photograph for the big mark, creative writing question had been in colour rather than black and white. Turns out that the standard printed papers were all in colour and the papers printed on coloured paper were in black and white.
Obviously the school have been informed and the exam board (AQA) contacted about this now, but if our child had not made this comment to friends we would still be unaware this had happened.
In a paper like English this sort of error is bad enough but imagine if it was maths with colour coded graphs or geography with maps.
I would like to stress that this is not the schools error, but the examining board who sent out black and white test papers.
I just wanted to alert any parents out there who also may have a dyslexic child taking exams to this potential issue - or any teachers who may not be aware of this potential issue.