School won’t release GCSE Certificates from 2021

[DottyPeacock]

DD took her GCSEs last year. She was emailed her results to her school email address which she no longer has access to. School told us at the time they were hoping to arrange a presentation evening but couldn’t at present because of Covid, which was fair enough.

The school still won’t allow students to collect their certificates. They have said they will email copies if they are requested but won’t allow collection of original documents.

DD is at sixth form and now looking at universities for after her a-levels and lots of her friends are applying for jobs which they need certificates for.

Is anyone else in this position? I have emailed the school and they don’t seem to want to budge from this. It seems all other local school have laid on proms and presentations for their students whilst DDs school has done nothing, save for an email in February saying they were hoping to arrange something for this academic year.

Did you just find out about the presentation after you started the thread? That's a bit of a drip feed.

Exactly @DiamondBright , can you imagine the outcry if an MNer couldn't get a police response to a burgarly because they were too busy with the case of the delayed GCSE certificate.

Some posters live in a very different world 😀

@AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair Not a drop feed at all. I mentioned the presentation in my OP.

Well no you'd call 101 obviously. And it was only a last resort if the school wouldn't give their property back.

For anyone concerned, I have no intention of contacting the police!

I think my next step if I don’t get a satisfactory response from the school will be to contact the governors.

All she wants is her certificates. And I’m assuming from the responses, they are the only school refusing to give them out!

Quite frankly, if they haven't organised a presentation evening by now, it seems unlikely to happen before the end of this school year. And by September/October they'll be too busy with the next cohort of GCSE students. Sounds like a convenient excuse to me.

You did but it wasn't clear, at least to me, that the one was the reason for the other. I hadn't appreciated that the things were connected, I misunderstood and hadn't picked that up from other replies.

All she wants is her certificates. And I’m assuming from the responses, they are the only school refusing to give them out!

My Dd did exams (or not) in 2020, so she got her certificate last year. Those at the school sixth form picked them up there, those who didn't attend were allowed to collect them from school. Your daughters school definitely seem to be going about this the awkward way!

@MermaidEyes it really does seem like they are being awkward.

The school have only very recently stopped enforcing mask wearing and other Covid rules, long after government guidelines changed. They weren’t even allowed mufti on the last day of term ‘because of Covid’.

I completely understand they couldn’t arrange a presentation at the time, genuinely because of Covid, but it seems a bit far fetched to still be using it as an excuse.

Tell the school it's not up to them. My son's school was going to do a presentation (this was back in 2019) but didn't have enough interest so they just asked the kids to go in at a certain time on a certain afternoon instead.

They can't use covid as an excuse for not having people go into reception for a couple of minutes.

I would email in, saying that my daughter will be collecting them at x time on x day and I expect them to be available in reception. Mention that they cannot legally withhold them and it's up to them if they want to hold a presentation for those who wish to attend but that's not their decision to make.

I know schools try to withhold results if students owe them money but I think the ICO has made clear that isn't allowed from a data protection perspective. However, I am not sure what the situation is with certificates and how you get them from a recalcitrant school!

They weren’t even allowed mufti on the last day of term ‘because of Covid

Ha ha.

I guess invoking the school's formal complaint procedure is the next step if they won't hand them over say in the next seven days.

How ridiculous. DS graduated twice during lockdown. His 1st graduation certificate was sent to him in the post as soon as they postponed the ceremony. Same thing happened with his Masters certificate. The 2nd ceremony has yet to take place but it is happening. Not sure what they'll do about certificates at the event - possibly have a mock up for using in photos. As far as I know he's not been asked to take his certificate with him.
Your DDs school are being ridiculous holding on the the certificates. Even if they hold a presentation evening not everyone will attend.

Can a group of them all turn up and protest?

Get her to email the Head, and copy to Governers.