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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to expect my DS school to award him full marks after school "lost" his exam paper?

36 replies

Onedeterminedmotherholla1 · 27/05/2016 12:46

I am in a bit of a quandry.... DS has just finished his end of year exams and was told by his teacher that his paper (and one other child) has been "lost".

DS thinks he has to resit it, but school has not contacted me to inform me of the issue, so I am letting it run its natural course for now (I don't want to go barging in as they may have an internal process for such mishaps).
It is one of DS stronger subjects, so ideally he would score circa 70% (we would hope) and he did put a lot of effort into the revision.

AIBU to expect that he should be awarded a high percentage, if not full marks regardless or should I agree (if the school tells me so) that he should resit?

OP posts:
AuntieStella · 27/05/2016 12:48

How old is he?

Yes, unfair to make him resit as they lost the paper. But YABU to expect him to be awarded an exam mark. Perhaps an approximate grade based on teacher assessment of his work through the year.

lastqueenofscotland · 27/05/2016 12:51

Yes yabu usually these things go on predicated grades? Is it an internal or exteral paper

44PumpLane · 27/05/2016 12:52

YANBU to expect that your son should not have to resist, YABU to think he should be awarded full marks when you expected him to get approx 70%.

I'm sure a teacher could asses the quality of his work across the course of the year to provide a grade.

Groovee · 27/05/2016 12:52

When the exam board lost my French paper, they marked it as a fail! The teacher had to appeal with my prelim grade!

nobilityobliges · 27/05/2016 12:53

Full marks! Hahaha. It's shit of the school, but he should be able to choose between resitting or receiving a predicted grade. I would find out what the predicted grade is and what his teacher thinks will be best for him.

RaeSkywalker · 27/05/2016 12:54

I think giving him the predicted grade would be fair.

MyLifeisaboxofwormgears · 27/05/2016 12:55

IME schools have awarded a mark based on predicted - but those were internal exams.
If they are externally marked exams the school needs to pay for a resit to take place - and issue a massive apology.

Original poster
Onedeterminedmotherholla1 · 27/05/2016 12:57

Yr 8. Work through year is / has been in the higher marks so far as he's in the top 5.

OP posts:
CaveMum · 27/05/2016 12:57

My school lost my GCSE home economics (cooking) coursework so I was awarded a grade based on the exam only and treated as if I had failed the coursework. I was fuming for years, even more so because the school didn't tell us until after the results had come out.

Balletgirlmum · 27/05/2016 12:57

I agree. He should choose between re-sit or predicted grade.

whatyouseeiswhatyouget · 27/05/2016 13:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

RainbowsAndUnicorns5 · 27/05/2016 13:09

he's in the top 5
How do people know this??
I've never been told by a teacher 'your child is 15th' or whatever Confused

Original poster
Onedeterminedmotherholla1 · 27/05/2016 13:09

What you see is what you get - Thanks, I will bear that in mind and let the schools internal process run its course.

OP posts:
Goingtobeawesome · 27/05/2016 13:09

Seriously, chill. He's year 8 and yes, he's probably pissed off but it isn't his GCSEs or A levels.

Original poster
Onedeterminedmotherholla1 · 27/05/2016 13:11

Rainbows and Unicorns - They tell you at parent evening. They also show you the scores of all tests throughout the term.

OP posts:
RattieOfCatan · 27/05/2016 13:13

I had the same thing as caveman happen. My IT teacher lost months of prep work a couple of months before exams, mostly excel spreadsheets designed by hand on print outs of Excel sheets (fuck knows why we had to do that!), she claimed that I'd never handed it in and school took her side. I ended up with a D in IT, one of my stronger subjects and my only grade under a C Angry

I stayed in the school for college, ended up with her as my form tutor. Part way through my A2 year they were moving office or just clearing out and her assistant brought my coursework to me, fully marked with the date of the marking written on it too Angry Angry Angry was too late to reassess at that point.

MargaretCabbage · 27/05/2016 13:15

My GCSE English teacher disappeared with all the coursework that my class had completed. They ended up giving us a mark based on predicted grades.

RattieOfCatan · 27/05/2016 13:16

Sorry op, s going to say do check with the school to see what is going on, not in an accusatory way, just ask and see what they're suggesting. Marks based on his attainment so far would be fair.

Mirandawest · 27/05/2016 13:18

When I was in year 8 or year 9, we had end of year exams. My English paper got lost. So I had to sit it again. Can't remember if it was the same paper again or not.

LouBlue1507 · 27/05/2016 13:35

Oh this bring back memories!

During one of my MOCKs in year 10, I was having an off day and really cba with the exam... I wrote one page during the 2.5 hour exam...
A few weeks later my teacher came to me and apologised saying they had lost some of my exam work (not realising I had in fact only wrote one page) and not to worry as they were going to give me a predicted grade of 'B' based on my work throughout the year BlushGrin Oops hehe!

AddictedtoSnickers · 27/05/2016 13:43

If the school make him resit then it's bonkers. It's only an internal test at year 8 anyway! If I ever were to lose a student's test (I haven't) but if I did or if a student is ill and misses an exam then you just put an estimate based on recent classwork or leave a blank or N/A on the end of year report.

rogueantimatter · 27/05/2016 13:45

Did the teacher's dog eat the papers? Were they perhaps lost in a house fire?

Shock at all the tales of work lost by teachers.

Although a friend of mine got a much later grade than he deserved in a Scottish-equivalent of an A2 exam as his teacher sent it in to the exam board late.

blueteapot · 27/05/2016 13:49

Rainbow when I was at school we were ranked in class order in every subject so I would have known exactly whether I was in the top 5 or not - in fact in a few of the classes we were sat in order and rearranged after every test! NI grammar school

AddictedtoSnickers · 27/05/2016 13:50

My guess would be a coffee spill ☕️

BertrandRussell · 27/05/2016 13:52

This happened to my dd- she was given a choice between the grade the teacher would have expected her to get and resitting it.

But it's a year 8 exam- I wouldn't bother too much about it if I were you.

My niece's school mislaid her whole GCSE art portfolio for 24 hours before a teacher who was off sick came back and said she'd put it on top of a cupboard for safekeeping because the year 7s were doing water colours on the bench where she left it........