To think a local newspaper should not print full exam results

[petal2008]

Our local paper prints all the schools' a level and gcse results in their full glory, or not, as the case may be.

This is great for the A star pupils etc but I feel a bit sorry for those students who didn't do so well.

Not only have they possibly got the disappointment of the results but also the residents of the whole city and local villages seeing them as well.

Maybe you sign some sort of disclaimer with the school for them to disclose the results to the press, I'm not sure. I remember giving permission when my DC were at school for their photo to be published.

I just think it's not necessary.

Gosh I didn't know they could publish grades. Our local paper just says how many each child passed e.g. Mary Smith 4.

They always have an article for each school saying how well they all did and then they usually have more detail for the really high -fliers e.g. "John Twobrains celebrating his 4 A and an A is joined by Neil Nearlyasbright, Betty Beamingfromeartear and Oliver Oxbridgebound who all got straight A or As"

But they certainly don't detail every child's grades.

(Thank goodness as if they did I am sure our nosy neighbour would have had her magnifying glass out to read even the tiniest print so she could comment on DDs less than spectacular grades!)

This has been common practice in local papers for at least 30 years! How did you not know about it?

I did know about it but think it's very unfair and completely unnecessary.

Efferlunt - it's certainly not common practice everywhere. I've lived in 8 different areas of England and my current location is the first one I've lived in that does this. Everywhere I've lived the local paper only publishes league table type info and percentages.

Firesidechat Yes, school, pupil's name and results for each subject. But, as I said, this was the 70s, no-one gave a shit about kids 'self-esteem'

I always thought you had to sign permission slips for things like this too.

I've certainly had to for photos with both my DDs (one in primary, one in high).

I've also fostered a young person whose photo or name was not allowed to appear in the local paper for fear of their parents tracing them.

Our local paper just lists by school, subject and grades. No names

Actually, thinking back, our paper doesn't list individual grades at GCSE, just how many people passed. So it would be like "googoodolly, 10, johnsmith, 8" etc. No grades or subjects unless you were one of the kids "featured" in the articles because you did so well.

For A-levels, they listed grades but not subjects.

I took my O levels in the 70's and don't remember this at all and my children took their exams in the same area and I'm sure they weren't printed either. Perhaps we lived in an area which doesn't do this.

It's a big thing for the local paper - parents and grandparents may buy extra copies. Local papers are on their knees, run by one intern and her dog, stuck in offices churning out press releases, so anything that helps... it's seriously worrying, public scrutiny of courts and councils is rapidly disappearing as local papers dwindle.

And the information commissioner says it's fine (although schools should take any objections seriously).

I can't believe people haven't heard of this. It's very common in Manchester.

For example, the Manchester Evening News at some point soon will read..

School Name, then list all the year 11 kids in this format:

Bloggs, J. 6(3)

Where the 6 is the number of GCSEs attained, and the number in brackets is how many of the attained were A*-C.

It's not right at all, is it?

Mine were printed, as were all the other schools. That was in 97 & 99. Dont see a problem with it. No disclaimers were signed.

They are public exams, so the results are in the public domain. Local newspapers have always been able to print the details - they did in my day too, back in the early 80s.

It is up to the individual paper how much detail they print. No signatures or permissions needed. A levels are the same, degrees, I think, are private exams, so Unis only publish stats.

Well if you don't live in an area where it happens, you wouldn't know.
Its an awful thing to do.

All I meant, MrsDavidBowie was I didn't know that places didn't do this. It's always been the norm for me.

Of course if it isn't done where you love you won't know!

Happened to me here in deepest, darkest Cornwall way back in 1998. Normally things get introduced down here years after it becomes normal up country so very surprised to hear that it doesn't happen everywhere.

Here we go, a local paper in 1908 publishing the full names and addresses of all the children getting local scholarships to go to secondary school (in the bad old days before free universal access), and which school they went to.

This is for ordinary, local secondary schooling, not Eton.

Education was seen as a community thing (and the scholarships provided by a local trust), rather than the individual, rights-based approach we have now.

This has always happened in my local area and it gives full name and how many A to C. So if someone does less well it will say they got 0 A to C for example. Lots of parents check the other kids results to be nosey and compare!! Schools never ask permission.

I can see why people aren't comfortable with it, though.

I'm surprised that permission does not need to be given actually. There must be some cases where safeguarding is an issue, and publishing even a student's name and school name could lead to them being traced.

There is no issue with confidentiality or data protection:

ico.org.uk/for_organisations/guidance_index/~/media/documents/library/Data_Protection/Practical_application/publication-of-exam-results-by-schools-dpa-guidance.pdf

Sorry, early post.

But each school can choose. So if there is an issue parents and school can agree not to publish.

But without a good reason there is no reason not to publish... not even to save embarrassment.

They always used to do this in the days before official league tables.

So for me in the late '70s it was Limited Town School:

15 O levels: One freakishly gifted kid destined for Oxbridge and possibly a number of Daily Mail articles featuring case histories of dysfunctional families;

13 O levels: Two other geniuses, slightly less gifted than the other one and stung by that but in the long run, better adjusted;

10-13 O levels: Some exceedingly clever children who probably took some of the exams in the previous November but we're fudging it and counting it now because it looks good and we can;

8-9 O levels: Very clever children;

5-9 O levels: clever children who will always feel insecure because of the
competitive nature of the school;

5 or below: Sigh. We tried to get rid of them.

I'm not saying where I came but my mum cut my exam results out of the paper and I have the yellowing clipping.

When I became a local paper reporter it was one of the few reliable methods of selling papers and keeping us all in a job. The other ones were court appearances and planning applications.

That was a long time ago. People forget.

Get over yourself.

It could only be worse if the exam boards made mistakes in grading. But I've done very detailed research, and I can't find any instance of that happening, thank goodness.

I always thought it was this way and I finished a long time ago. I don't see the problem really.

This has happened in all places I've lived and never considered it an issue! Ours were full name, grades but not subjects.