GCSE Controlled assessment cock up

[GCSEquery]

Can anyone tell me a GCSE controlled assessment will still be marked if a student inadvertently completed it in blue ink?

My son has apparently done this in his history assessment, and the teacher has left me a message that he wants to talk to me. DS thinks he will receive no marks and that the paper wont be put forward.

Is this likely? He was expecting an A or A*.

I'd like to be prepared for the conversation. I know DS should have read the instructions more thoroughly, and i reaslise that the papers scan less well in blue ink, but surely it isnt the end of the world?

WIBU to think that it is too much to disqualify a paper over it (if they do!), and that in any case the invigilator should have spotted it in class?

THis sounds barmy. But them education Is barmy these days - and I'm a teacher. It shouldn't have any effect on his results, but I have zero confidence that will be the case. Bureaucracy is ruining everything.

Why do you think the ink colour is a problem? Is that what the teacher said in his message? As the other secondary teachers have said-it isn't .

I would be more inclined to think it something different? Has your ds done a mock recently? Or could it be behaviour? I will be like this if the problem (if there is one) is about black ink! All CA are marked internally.

CA moderation samples get sent straight to the moderators, so there should be no need to scan scripts.

Even if they do scan scripts, we all know that blue shows up just as well as black.

The awarding bodies (boards) are not legalistic. They want to give the marks that are due and will bend over backwards to do so.

It's poor form on the school, though, to not do everything to the letter.

I reckon it will go...
School asks exam board. Exam board say fill in form X. School fill it in. All fine.

Hope so anyway!

So have you called the school back yet??

I mark History GCSEs. This isn't an issue. Exam papers should be completed in black for scanning. If it isn't, it's just marked as whitemail (the script is posted out).

Controlled Assessments are not scanned in anyway.

Thanks all. I haven't called back the school- I didn't get the message till 6pm. As it happened, I was at school for the parent evening of another child at the time!

No, he didn't mention ink in the message. However, I would stake my life on it that this particular child is telling it as he understands it. His behaviour is apparently excellent- it certainly was said to be a fortnight ago at his parent appointment. I don't think he has lied about it.

I will call him tomorrow and feed back. Isnt mumsnet brilliant?

Hi

Spoke with teacher this morning. Apparently he had been trying to teach DS and the rest of the class a lesson, and had intended to catch DS at the end of the lesson to say he wouldnt fail the assessment in practice. Events at the end of the lesson meant that this didnt happen, and he had been trying to contact me so I could let DS know.

In any case DS may have to retake, he said, since he got 15 out of 20, and depending on the outcome of the next assessment, he may not meet his
high target with that grade. I ended up feeling quite sorry for both of them!

Oh well, all's well that ends well!

Thanks to everyone for your quick input last night.

I actually agree with the teacher. I am in FE and I know that BLACK INK and more than one pen for exams is drummed into them for years.

But when they get to us they still do the 'meh' thing. It drives me crazy for 3 reasons:

1. They absolutely know better but refuse to take responsibility
2. If I miss it it can cause all sorts of issues
3. I have to provide black pens and I rarely get any of them back - so, on top of everything else, they steal from me too!

For those who say it is a ridiculous rule, well, maybe, but when scanners scan in black and white blues can disappear - and they don't scan in colour!

It is a rule for a formal exam, there are lots of rules for living, some are daft, some have reasons that are not immediately apparent. But if you are going to succeed in life it is worth knowing how to comport yourself on formal situations in order not to discommode yourself.

Basically, when I have to care more about your exam than you do I get pissed off with you, exasperated with parents who try to make excuses for you and furious with myself for bending over backwards to make parents happy after their offspring have gone 'meh' once too often.

Nomama - pissed off with invigilating for kids who can't be arsed and dealing with parents who think their kid's attitude is my fault!

Oh, Nomama, how I agree with you. If you are predicted an A* I would expect you to be able to follow a simple rule like colour of pen to be used. And I am fascinated by the knowledge that you can apparently retake controlled assessments to get a higher mark; no wonder the grades/ levels are so high.

Not redo, Goblin. Do another, completely different, task. An extra exam if you like. Results are high because teachers and kids work hard.

Get over yourself, Nomama. It was an accident. Even the teacher you "agree with" didn't agree with you.

I used to work in FE too, but never took that tone over an innocent mistake with 14-15 year olds.

They grow and learn.

Erm... I agree with the teacher in that students need to be more aware and to take responsibility.... I may have pulled the same trick on them too!

I spend lots of time in tests, mocks etc, reinforcing the black pen only rule, and - if you read my post properly - you will see that I provide black pens for all exams, despite the fact I don't get the majority of them back.

So I really am a bitch, making all those poor innocent lives a misery.

But never mind all of that, enjoy venting your spleen...

Oh and FE is 16 - 19 year olds.... with some schools in for a day a week, but we don't teach 14 and 15 year olds as a rule!

You can't retake GCSE History Controlled Assessments. You have to do a completely different task.

Secondary English teacher here. This is only a problem If the script gets called for moderation. I had one like this two years ago written in blue which was called. I just photocopied it and put the contrast on darker so the copy came out really black and sent that one in with a covering note explaining that the original was in blue. Never heard back from AQA and mark not contested so assumed that was fine.

I now invigilate exams having been an AQA senior examiner for many years.
1] In the school where I invigilate we ask, at the beginning of every exam, if everyone has a black pen and we have boxes of them available.
2] In 30 years of examining I never penalised a student for ink colour [colleagues who mark scanned scripts tell me that those too pale to be legible are hand marked separately].
3] Controlled assessments are done in school under supervision and could easily be copied out ib black.
4] if this is an official CA it most certainly should not be done again. That is cheating :(

1. Us too, that is why I carry black pens - and lose most of them
2. I have never penalised anyone, but I would be tempted to do as this teacher has, just to enure they think next time - and having to mark scripts separately is one of those time consuming/costly issues that occur when a student ignores the rules
3. Absolutely
4. Ditto

Most of the modern scanners can scan blue ink extremely well, even when set to black & white scanning, so while it may have been an appropriate rule a few years ago, it isn't necessary these days.

I never had a problem writing in blue, which I prefer, but then I write with a fountain pen, using an ink which is dark enough for scanning/copying anyway.