Will DD likely be penalised for this

[curiousitygotthebetterofme]

DD(15) sat a GCSE exam yesterday, which she prepared so well and worked hard for.

She is aware of all the exam hall rules including that you can’t bring mobile phones in with you.

Yesterday, she had her phone with her but forgot to leave it at the school reception until after the exam was finished.

She was not using her mobile phone during the exam nor did she attempt to. The phone was also switched off.

It was in her pocket and it fell out onto the floor and invigilator seen it happen.

Her head of year rang me yesterday to inform
that they are obliged to report it to the exam board and that they could very well take marks off her or disqualify her.

I feel sorry for DD as she worked so hard for these exams and she has been quite distressed over it all and the possibility of being penalised. It just slipped her mind but she knows to be more aware for future exams.

I get that exam boards have to follow procedures, but surely the fact she wasn't actually using the phone will work in her favour?

Public examinations do not.

Did I say that? could you quote where I did?

That must have been a mythical exam we attended last Thursday during the jubilee then. I just come on and make it up for the banter to MN.

The point is, she didn't go to the toilet, she didn't use it, so disqualifying her because her phone dropped on the floor is nonsense. As I've said above, there are numerous other ways a student coult cheat - writing, airpods, a watch.

But that’s really not the point though, is it?

I’d be very concerned if you were teaching my kids. Thinking it’s totally acceptable to have a phone on your person during an exam. Switched on or off.

Imagine if another student dropped their phone. In the same exam. But this time, the phone was switched on.

They can’t let of the student with a switched off phone but then disqualify the student with the switched on phone.

Honestly, please speak to your colleagues and the exam boards you use at your school about this subject. Hopefully someone can explain it in a way you understand.

Also, please don’t tell your students they’ll be okay having a switched off phone in their pocket during an exam.

I'm asking what issue a switched off phone in her pocket causes.

Because you can't prove it was always switched off, obviously.

Do they check everyone's watch, given that most weans have google watches? Or check that every wean with her hair down doesn't have an air pod in? or check all arms to make sure things aren't written on them?

In our school, yes, they absolutely checked things like that. We weren't allowed watches and we had our hands and arms checked too. Long hair had to be tied up as standard anyway, so that would deal with any "air pod" issue.

Yet you seem to think your centre doesn’t have to follow JCQ regs, so care to explain how your centre passes its yearly JCQ inspection if invigilators like yourself don’t even know the regulations they have to follow.

I am indeed.

And despite the keyboard gangstering and foaming at the mouth, I still am.

Imagine.

Given the official start times of GCSEs that doesn’t really allow for much invigilating then surely?

I would also suggest You update yr knowledge of the rules - watches are banned now - I would hate for you to be responsible for a student committing malpractice!

Is it just me, or do some of the posts on here remind PPs of the responses of teenagers themselves? As in:

It's a stupid rule
Prove it
S'not faaaiiirrr
Why should we?

And so on ...

It wasn’t the school holidays in NI.

I'm in Scotland.

I understand watches are banned, but I would like to see evidence of "invigilators" - usually members of the community - checking every pupil to make sure they dont have one.

This kid has made a mistake, and has been subject to the vitriol of MN, and it's unfair.

I don't think it's OK, but I think the vitriol is ridiculous.

Thanks for your feign concern about my profession, but I think I'll be OK.

I hope you've enjoyed battering an already stressed out teenager. Again I ask - would you accept this vitriol towards your own child?

Why are you so invested?

Everyone stop piling onto @minutesturntohours

It’s really simple, the way it was done when I sat Urdu was row by row we all had to raise our arms and show our wrists. Not rocket science.

I had mine, so it had to be handed to an invigilator who then completed an incident log.

I understand watches are banned, but I would like to see evidence of "invigilators" - usually members of the community - checking every pupil to make sure they dont have one.
Our students have to be checked into the exam by their HoY. They walk past the hoy and she looks them over. They're then checked again once seated and reminded of the rule. Anyone who has a banned item still on them can hand it in.

We've reported one candidate for a phone this year that I know of. It rang mid exam.

Thanks.

I never said it was acceptable, and I understand she broke the rules.

My question was what she actually did wrong, (apart from panic and miss the signs) because she didn't actually cheat.

I struggle with grown women piling on to a stressed out, anxious teenager.

If you can make it to the English Midlands for 9am tomorrow morning you’ll see the invigilators at my school do precisely that with the candidates for the German writing paper.

@minutesturntohours I think Scotland is still subject to JCQ rules and that includes start times.

invigilators will have been recruited according to the normal school recruitment policy and referenced and dbs checked. Obviously students aren’t frisked - they are told the rules and expected to abide by them with the understanding that penalties are in place if the rules are broken. Invigilators are expected to move around the room frequently observing the students. There are minimum ratios of invigilators to students. But you must surely know that.

students are expected to take responsibility also for their actions and if they don’t there are penalties- this is the way to ensure that is is fair for ALL students.

Scotland don't follow the same rules as the rest of the UK, as far as I am aware you aren't subject to JCQ rules so perhaps it is different. But again yes in my school in England the invigilator who is doing the register (as the announcement is being read) walks around and as they tick students as present checks for watches, writing on hands, labels on bottles, clear pencil cases and has quick look for anything sticking out of blazer pockets. I do the same when I come and do a second second attendance check. I do this for every single exam for every single room. We have SLT outside asking students to move hair to check for earphone etc and checking student IDS.

It is a harsh lesson for the OP's DD, especially if it was a genuine mistake (no reason not to believe it wasn't) but it's not the end of the world. Losing marks from 1 exam (the most likely outcome).hopefully won't stop her moving on.

I'm not sure about the debate about start times - I didn't invigilate over lunch times and after school for a laugh. Please also bear in mind that there are also several other exams that run aside the main exam as AAA becomes more and more common.

MN is so determined to batter an innocent teenager that they will discredit over anyone who dares to speak up in defence. It's sad to see.

I don’t think anyone is “battering an already stressed child”, @minutesturntohours - she isn’t on this thread. Her mum is, but I see no possibility whatsoever that her dd has been shown what people are saying.

I don't think anyone is "piling on" the child. In all probability it was an error, and one she may well learn a harsh lesson from.
If she were one of my students, I'd have told her to try not to worry, that she needed to move past it, but make sure she follows the rules to the letter from now on. I wouldn't tell her it will be fine, because it might not.

Equally though, I think it's important for people to understand what the issue is. The phone in the room is malpractice. That's what is "wrong".

Well, do you think people have been supportive, understanding and kind?

but its a ridiculous rule

you're not serious? ridiculous that students are not allowed phones in an exam room? what is the alternative? that students are disturbed by notifications, phones ringing? That they sit and look up answers as they're going along?

Wow @minutesturntohours you are a teacher (who has invigilated a GCSE exam) and yet you didn't know:
Students are checked for writing on arms
Students are not now allowed to wear a watch (as mentioned, a possible issue if there is no digital clock in the room, but the only way to avoid use of smart watches)
There might be more than 200 or even more than 300 students sitting in an exam hall taking the same exam

No one here is being nasty to the OP or her DD; we are simply stating the rules, which are clear, as they need to be. A phone in a pocket is a potential means of cheating, and as such, even if it is switched off, it is not allowed. I don't think it is a stupid rule - it would be relatively easy for a student with a switched-off phone to go to the toilet and google an answer or look up notes they had on the phone.

I was a teacher btw.