To want to take legal action

[Dawndonna]

against the half wit examinations inspector that decided, against the school's advice to not only wander into the room where my son was taking his A level, but to try to engage him in conversation in the middle of said exam. Half wit had been informed that ds has Asperger's syndrome and doesn't cope well with disruption and surprises. Ds has worked bloody hard for this exam knowing he needs an A to get into his chosen uni.
I am fucking furious. The email fired off to JCQ is extremely polite and extraordinarily clear regarding my requirements. Apology, letter to the relevant exam board etc.

You need to make a formal complaint against this man, he needs additional training or to be taken off this role. He can't do this to someone else. If your DS doesn't get the mark, you need a free resit. Or an apology and confirmation of what happened sent to the uni.

Why did he talk to your ds? What on earth did he have to say? V curious.

Prima if you have a look at the Jcq website it is very clear why pupils with autism require specific access arrangements. I am amazed that the inspector felt that it was necessary to disrupt this. Idiot.

Sorry this has happened to your son Dawn, I am sure you are genuinely upset but I am telling you the same as I would tell any friend and family in RL - litigation should always be your very last resort. Look at all your other options, any of them will be preferable. Litigation will never give you closure and what's done can't be undone.

Good luck, I hope you get it sorted and I am sorry I sounded harsh.

Shit, Prima now I feel bad. It is a knee jerk reaction and sorry for fatuous remarks.
And Thanks for being big enough to say sorry publicly.

It is hard, not trying to justify my being rude to you, but he's extraordinarily bright, and when you've spent so much time, eighteen years, trying to get coping strategies into place and fighting for every tiny little thing, it's harder. I have twin dds with AS too, they're sixteen, so I worry about them going through this too.

I can't see you have a leg to stand on legally IF the exam board allow this to happen BUT I am a bit shocked at conversation during an exam! Special needs or not I would think it would disturb anybody's concentration.

Formal complaint emailed. Very polite, very clear about what I expect to happen.

Was this an exam hall with other students? What did the inspector talk to him about? What did the invigilators say? Presumably this disrupted the other pupils too? It sounds very strange.

No Janey he takes his exams on his own. It was a written chemistry 'A2' exam. He can be disturbed by others coughing, writing, sniffing etc. He also has extra time as it takes him longer to both process the question and to write the answer.
The examiner started telling ds why he was there. Both invigilator and ds asked him to leave.

Oh, and invigilator stopped the clock, bless her!

Your poor DS :(

Would you not be better to teach your DS to deal with the adversities life can throw in the best way possible
That's got to be one of the most stupid comments I've seen! Can you explain to to us how we 'teach' our DCs not to be autistic?

Very sorry to hear that Dawndonna, it's hard to get your head round how ignorant people can be.

Why should he retake the exam. He was the primed for the one he took that day.

Really bad. How come inspectors can engage with those sitting exams. Sureley wait till the end? In my day it was very regimented and very quiet.

You are quite right to pursue this, for the sake of your son and other children.

My mum works as an invigilator and this is totally shocking. No one she works with would behave like this at all, most of them are former teachers and very sensitive to pupil's needs during exam time for peace and quiet.

This man sounds like a total liability so you are absolutely doing the right thing by complaining. I am impressed at your ability to keep your cool because I would be up at the school screeching like a fishwife (your way is definitely better!)

You could wait for the result and then appeal if nec. He may have done ok.

^^It's advisable to complain straightaway.

The question that jumps to my mind is why did he need to talk to your son? Did he think something had been breached?

I'll always remember the two teacher invigilators who stood in front of my desk gossiping during an exam! I was raging!!

I don't get this. Surely it is inappropriate to talk to someone doing an exam whether they have AS or not. What with the whole doing an exam thing.

Agree complain straight away.

If the inspector went into an exam room to engage the OP's son in conversation, what if there were other students taking the exam as well? It's possible that they were disturbed too. Of course, the OP's son might have been alone.

I back the OP and the school.

What on earth possessed him to talk at all - let alone when he'd already been warned against doing so ??!! I mean what did he say and why ..... just about the only reason for interrupting an exam like this would be if the pupils had to vacate the building for a fire.

Yes - complain. He sounds ridiculously arrogant. I just can't think of any purpose for this course of action at all.

Really hope your son gets a resit without any problem (am assuming the exam was disrupted so badly he couldn't finish and/or answer to the best of his ability) and that he gets the grade he needs.

You have my sympathy OP. My daughter has Aspergers too and did her exams last summer. The invigilators were a nightmare. She was authorised to have breaks away from her desk if and when she needed them. So they kept asking her every few minutes if she needed one yet. She walked out of one exam because she was so stressed by it and refused to go in for the next one. Some people just don't have a clue.

It's not uncommon for examination officers to talk to people during exams. It shouldn't have happened in this case, but it does happen usually.

Id make it clear that the school asked him not to go in, and who else was in the room with your son, so that the examination officer does not say that he was ensuring there was no inappropriate activity going on (ie cheating). That is a valid reason to enter an examination room, but if there are other people in the room with your son, it won't stand.

Sadly this happened to someone I went to school with who had AS too. I hope your son isn't too affected.

oh fantastic... [sarcastic]

do complain long and loud... all that effort to get help is exhausting... to have jeopardised by such an idiot is staggering.

I can imagine my son doing exams on his own... I hope he will have grown out of shouting stop sniffing/coughing/breathing/scratching/etc byt he time he is 15...

While the inspector may well have behaved poorly, I wouldn't have thought the school can advise an inspector to not enter an exam room. There role is precisely to ensure all
Exams (including those which take place away from the main exams room) are conducted correctly.
I am wondering now if the school raised suspicions by trying to ask him not to go in that room. They shouldn't have done that. Fair enough to say, the pupil in here has aspergers or some other difficulty but I don't see its the schools place to try to prevent an inspector carrying out their Job. I'm not defending the inspector if they stepped out of line but I do wonder whether the school are partly to blame. Trying to prevent him from inspecting that room might have raised his suspicions that maybe something was untoward.

How dreadful. I work in learning support and often invigilate students doing exams in separate rooms. I avoid clearing my throat or sniffing so I don't distract students. Nothing useful to add other than this is an appalling situation and I hope you get it sorted quickly