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.

I wanted to address some of the ridiculous points made by Nomama and Oneeyedbloke before but couldn't because I was so pissed off. Here it goes though.

Firstly, any parent can ask the school to remove their child's name from the list

Sure any parent can ask that their child's results are not published but that doesn't mean they're going to get what they want. It's not always easy to get them to agree to not publish them as demonstrated by justanotherpersonagain.

what harm does it do?

For vulnerable teens it can do plenty of harm as demonstrated by my own post and justanotherpersonagain's post. Is vulnerable teenagers been driven to suicide harm enough for you?

I actually work with vulnerable teenagers myself now and I can assure you that if they're results were published it would do plenty of harm that goes beyond simple embarrassment. I'm so glad I don't live in an area where crap like this is done.

exam results are a fact of life.

Sure they're a fact of life. That doesn't mean they have to be published for everyone to see.

What harm does it do to a child to have their results published?

Like I said before it can do plenty of harm. Is vulnerable teenagers being driven to suicide harm enough for you?

Oh yes, it is embarrassing for some. Well, tough. Life is embarrassing and the sooner you learn to deal with setbacks the sooner you will become a fully functioning adult.

I actually found this point interesting. I do agree that life is embarrassing and the sooner you learn how to deal with setbacks the better but why do you need to publish exam results in newspapers to do that? Are there not other, better ways?

Again not every area publishes exam results yet these teenagers still manage to learn to deal with embarrassment and set backs. They still manage to grow into fully functioning adults despite their results not being published for all to see.

I'm curious if there's been any research to suggest that these teenagers who have their results published flair better later in life than those who don't. I have a feeling though that there isn't a crap of evidence to support that however in which case your point is a bit redundant there.

Parents should be supporting their kids to deal with this rather than going into mock heart attack mode.

Yup parents should be supporting their kids but again you don't need to publish exam results to do this. Teenagers who live in areas where this doesn't happen still grow up to be full functioning adults who can deal with setbacks so I'm still unsure what publishing results achieves.

However do please continue to make fun of parents in their "mock heart attack mode" who simply want to protect their children from things that may be going on in their lives right now which you have no idea about. If it makes you feel better...

So you choose to ignore everything I posted about exceptions, law, data protection etc.. Just to focus on the bits you disagree with? As I said, there are exceptions, but they should never be the benchmark or become the norm.

And you are not the only one who works with vulnerable teens, again you just assumed that I don't because I have a different viewpoint to yours.

And just as my viewpoint is not disgusting, it is not ridiculous either. I just happen to agree with how the data protection act is interpreted in this instance.

What is the point of publishing these details anyway?

As a parent of children in/about to start our local high school I'm interested in seeing how the school is doing as a whole and am interested in the exam results, whether or not they're improving year on year, etc, but I only need this in general terms.

I.e. Maths - 15 A*, 13 B, 16 C, this is a 1.2% improvement on last year

I don't need to know that John Smith got 3 As, 1 B and 6 Cs

Justanotherpersonagain I'm so sorry

How on earth is this data protection? Exam results aren't personal info I wouldn't think

Totally agree, Nomama. First, all the kids in a class have a pretty accurate idea of who's good at X and who's no good at Y. When it comes to physical prowess, it's even more obvious, as it was with me when I was obliged to demonstrate , each week in gym, that I couldn't do a ruddy headspring. OK, bit different now maybe, but everyone will know who's good at games and who's got two left feet.

Knowing who is better at what is different to having your exam results published for all to see.

Now he has to deal with it.

Yup he has to deal with it. But again you don't need to have results published in order to face up to it and deal with it. You can do that yourself. Why is that such a difficult concept to grasp

What exactly do the privacy fiends want?

Not to have exam results published in the newspaper. It's not necessary. Plenty of areas don't publish results and the teenagers there still manage to become fully functional adults.

Seriously, bad exam results need to be faced up to, not hidden away from.

Sure they need to be faced up to. But nobody has actually explained how publishing results for all to see actually helps people to face up to them. You can face up to them yourself, you don't need to have them published for all to see in order to face up to them.

IMO they are two separate issues. What makes you think that just because we object to them being published means we'll be encouraging people to hide away from them?

You're not doing your child any favours by drawing a veil over their failures.

Again nobody is saying they should be.

That's up to the school/LA, Stinkle.

We publish broad details, grades by subject, but some of the more competitive schools publish the whole kit and kaboodle. As has been said further upthread, parents and grandparents have been keeping the yellowed pages of results safe for decades.

That's the government's view on it, Stealthpolarbear. It is not a data protection issue and schools have the choice on what/if they publish. Details of what they choose should be made freely available, omissions can be made.

Nomama you still haven't explained what publishing results actually achieves. Teenagers who live in areas where individual results aren't published all still manage to grow into fully functional adults who can deal with setbacks. AFAIK there is no research to suggest that people in areas where they are published flair better later on than those in areas who don't. So what's the point in publishing them?

I've still got the cutting of mine too . It's not all the details, it just says:

E Tiny 9 (3). Somewhere in the paper it explains that it means I passed 9 GCSE's with 3 of them being C or above.

Sorry I clearly hadnt read the thread which was very bad. Justanother I am very very sorry.
however in general people are funny about data protection, I remember a thread from someone complaining that thwir car's mot status was in thr public domain. Dpa covers personal information, not stuff like that.

You could have asked school not to print your results, as could anyone. Despite justanother's post, I know we would not have told any parent 'tough' and I find it hard to believe any school or LA would. The 'policy' does make allowances for parental decisions.

So now you're accusing people of being liars. Great.

fussy maybe I haven't because I don't think they serve any purpose beyond the obvious. They are the results of public exams, as such the information is required to be held in the public domain. Publishing them, in more or less detail, meets that requirement.

Individual schools get benefits if they have very good results - market forces at work in education.

You are conflating 2 issues - exam results and growing into adulthood. The latter is on no way dependent upon the former.

Nomama I find your attitude very upsetting and quite frankly, disgusting.

You can continue to make fun of me and my "mock heart attack" when all I want to do is to protect vulnerable teens and get this stupid practice stopped but it says more about you than it does about me.

Why can't you see that it doesn't matter if it's the norm or not? For things like this one incident is far too many imo.

And I am calling no one a liar. That is a ridiculously inflammatory thing to say.

I said what I meant, I find it hard to believe any school would do that! I meant no more than that. If you choose to read between any lines you are at risk of making an unjustified assumption.

Nomama you were the one who brought up the link between publishing exam results, learning to deal with setbacks and embarrassment and becoming an adult, not me.

Justanother I was not referring to you, you had not posted when I typed that. Please don't take general comments personally.

You mocked people who were against this practice as if they were being precious without taking into consideration that some people might have a genuine reason to be against it.

*It is still pretty humiliating isn't it?
Poor Smith, A. who only managed 2 GCSES, none of which were higher than a C. *

Floop I suppose I was thinking of it more from the point of view of A levels rather than GCSEs. These have just been reported in our local paper in the format N (M) where N is number of A leveles and the (M) is the number of AS. So, for instance, DDs mark is shown as:

5foot5s DD: 4(1)

Which is pretty much the same as everyone else's - even the high fliers who have got all A and A*. I think she would have been a bit dismayed if they had printed her actual grades which were - ahem - a little below what she had hoped for!

Individual schools get benefits if they have very good results - market forces at work in education

But publishing the results in general terms will still give the school these benefits. What extra benefits are there from publishing the full information.

From the scant information that's already been in our local press, I know that the high school my daughter attends has had one of the best set of GCSE results in my county and has improved on last year, but as a whole GCSE results in my county are down nearly 2%.

The results haven't been published fully yet (although we don't publish names anyway), but all I really need to know is that high school A got X, high school B got Y

fussy please don't be so revisionist. I did no such thing. You are 'interpreting' again. I know, you will now go and find a standalone sentence, which, robbed of context, will make your point. But such is the eternal problem with posting on forums.

I am the poster who has linked to the government policy, the data protection standing, pointed out that there can be exceptions made, etc etc. Information that people can use, rather than emotional outbursts and accusations.

Stinkle - that takes you back to the individual parents who like the details and a schoolboard that has made the decision to publish the details.

The full details have been published for over a century, I doubt the practice will stop soon.

You posted about the data protection act and how you can ask for your child's name not to be published, however these were your next two paragraphs:

"Seriously, apart from today's over inflated need for privacy or being the first to announce such information on Facebook, exam results are a fact of life. What harm does it do to a child to have their results published? Oh yes, it is embarrassing for some. Well, tough. Life is embarrassing and the sooner you learn to deal with setbacks the sooner you will become a fully functioning adult. Parents should be supporting their kids to deal with this rather than going into mock heart attack mode.

This is a total non issue - actually it is an issue, very much a 1st world, precious poppet issue!"

Basically an entire two paragraphs stating how the only reason not to publish them would be embarrassment or parents being precious and going into "mock heart attack mode"

Ah look! Yes I did, didn't I? But the topic of conversation at that point was one of data protection, and no one has asked about vulnerable adults.

Therefore, in context, my post was about all of those parents who want exam results to be protected because their precious poppets had not achieved as well as they had expected. Those parents, and those parents only.

For them this is a non issue.

What came after, came after. The thread moved on... as they do!

It's called a conversation and it moves on.

I think you're backpedaling actually. You said something silly and now you're trying to claim you meant something different.

Our local one used to just put names under headlines of number of GCSE A-C grade.

Actually I think it was quite nice. I got a few cards from people in the village that had known me when younger, but hadn't really kept in contact with. I'd never have told them, but they could see it for themselves. Dm still looks for children/grandchildren of friends in there and sends cards.