Aaargh! Chemistry fuck up - what to do?

[UsedtobeFeckless]

Right - long story short ... DS has his GCSEs in a couple of weeks and apparently 25% of the Chemistry marks ride on three practical assessments which they are supposed to have done already. DS missed one of his due to being part of the band in the school musical extravaganza thing - he told his teacher he couldn't be there and she said no problem, she'd reschedule it ...

He found out on Friday the tests have already been sent of for marking. He's panicking and I'm well pissed off with the school.

Is there anything we can do at this stage or is it just a case of resigning himself to a worse mark. I want to take it up with the school - she told him she'd let him know when he could do it then posted the fucking things off without giving him a chance. It's really unfair!

(and yes, I have worked for an exam board)

OP, do you know which exam board? My DS is taking GCSE chemistry this year (AQA board) and tells me has has taken two ISAs, but only the better mark counts towards the GCSE. If it's a similar situation with your DS and he got good marks in the ISAs that he did take, the situation might not be as bad as he thinks (might not be bad at all if he got very good marks in the ISAs he did take). I would contact the school first thing Monday to clarify the situation.

It may depend on what route your ds has taken - he may be doing AQA Science A, Additional Science and Further Additional which would need three ISAs, not necessarily in each of the three Science areas (you could have all Biology based for example) but would result in a triple GCSE qualification. Either way, ISA marks have to be submitted today (May 7th) so it will probably be too late to do another ISA now. But it's 25% of one GCSE, still perfectly possible to pass with a decent grade.

Are you absolutely sure he's telling the truth? If so, then contact school in first instance.

I feel bad for your son.
I am always surprised schools put on relatively pointless shows and insist on acres on art coursework at this time of year.
Core important subjects are more important.
Speak to the school though as there may be a workaround.

It will be fine. School can arrange another practical and send his off sedately with a cover letter. But get on to them Monday to sort it out.

The school will have it in hand. The results are more important for the school statistics - no teacher will risk their job on a competencies measure.

There are reserve ISAs.

I shouldn't worry too much . My DS is still banging out coursework for computer science which won't be completed let alone marked and moderated until half term. I've never known a school yet that managed to get course work in on time sigh

Aqa chemistry teacher here. Aqa controlled assessment had to be submitted last week. You need 1 per GCSE. So if a double science student (core and additional) 2 Ida's, for separate sciences it's 3. Lots of students miss 1, it is school's responsibility to catch them up. I have spent the last 3 weeks with my colleagues preparing the coursework to send off, identifying any students with weak or missing scores and getting the off timetable to sort it. This is normal. Your son is not at fault, but he may have forgotten ones he did in year 10 as these may count depending on how his school administers the tests. You /get need to find out if he has had enough pieces submitted. If not enough, a almighty shit storm to be created on how they could allow this to happen as it is their responsibility. I would be very surprised if he has been entered without a full set of controlled assessments though. As to how it could be resolved if he has been entered without enough controlled assessment, I don't know. It's a question for the school exam officer. Good luck

As a chemistry teacher, there is no way on earth that the marks will have been sent without him having a complete ISA. The teacher's pay next year will depend on the results so we don't make those mistakes. I suggest you simply ask what mark and grade have been submitted for the ISA if you want to check.

Mine did two ISAs so I expect they sent his first practice one.

Can I just ask when the assessment is meant to take place? I often have to reschedule stuff at uni and if its been more than two weeks since the original date I go to the lecturers myself/ email them to make sure they remember to reschedule (8/10 times they have just forgotten). I would assume the same thing would be done in high school - did he not think a lot of time had passed and to go and check with the teacher himself since the end of year is so close?

Hope you get it sorted OP.

My DC do aqa and they do two ISAs with just the highest scoring one counting.

I'd definitely ring the school on Monday. At our school, every pupil sits at least 2 of these coursework exams, and we then pick the best one. It could be that your son did well in the first one, so the teacher decided not to bother chasing him to do another one.

I had a pupil moaning at me all last term about sitting another piece of coursework, because he'd missed one in January due to illness. It took me ages to get it through to him that there was no need, because the first one he'd done in October was good enough.

Who did the teacher say she would reschedule the test to and do you have this in writing?

To be honest, extenuating circumstances forms are for illnesses and close family deaths - not musical performances. If you and your DS were that worried the priority should have been with sitting a CAU and not a rehearsal for a performance (for a feeder school). I don't think you can be angry with a teacher for making the choice that a rehearsal was more important than a set piece of coursework for GCSE level.

It's most likely the best mark was sent from a practice test.

I hope your son gets it sorted.

But he needs to reassess his priorities from here on in.

I'm not a science teacher but have dealt with lots of GCSE coursework before - sending off any student's marks as incomplete is very very rare and never happens as an oversight, only after repeated and strenuous attempts to fill in any gaps. There's no chance a teacher would look at the marks, say "oh this kid has 0 here" and just shrug it off! No chance at all. So there must be a way this has resolved itself, maybe as PPs say due to tasks done earlier etc.

Why the hell are so many people suggesting he needs to get his priorities right?

He pointed out the clash to the teacher. He was told it was fine by the teacher and could sit another day. The teacher appears to have forgotten and sent the rest of the class for marking.

On what planet is that him not having his priorities right? Had the teacher said he needed to choose one but couldn't do both that's a different scenario, but that didn't happen

They only do multiple ones so they can submit the best mark. If he already has an excellent mark then I wouldn't worry. That's what you need to ask - is his CAU mark appropriate for him?

CAU are a bit of a ball ache to schedule, so if I had, for example, a B grade student who already had a mark that should be high enough for an A or A* (grade boundaries change each year but are relatively consistent) I would be discussing with my HoD whether to bother doing another one. It takes at least 5 hours to do and often requires coming off timetable (teachers and pupils) which is not popular at this time of year.

Different subject but another teacher with coursework sent off... This is a huge part of our job, we have big spreadsheets with everyone's predicted grades, targets, achieved grades (on our assessment) for coursework done etc. If your DS was off target because of a piece of coursework not done, it would have set off huge alarm bells. The teachers care - both because we care a lot about our students results because we're teachers and that's the whole point really! And because we will get a huge bollocking and pay cut if the results aren't as predicted. So it's not a "ooh it just slipped my mind" kind of a thing! Maybe in the olden days, but teachers are super accountable now.

Find out the exam board. Ocr has a later deadline. We are submitting marks tomorrow but there is still time.

Which exam board is he doing? When you say he needs three do you mean one for biology one for chemistry and one physics or that the teachers get them to do three for each subject and pick the best mark?
I think you need to contact the school to clarify what the situation actually is because at our school there is no way we'd have got to Friday having a student with no mark at all there. Especially if the student is usually in school and a good student which I assume yours is if he's doing triple science.
On the other hand your son also needs to take some responsibility for not chasing it up with his teacher sooner.

@katkitkat

Because it was a marked piece of work for an examination as opposed to an extra curricula activity.

Teachers should not have to be rescheduling practical examinations due to extra curricula choices regardless. They have enough on their plate as it is. The student should have realised this and excused himself from band practice.

kitkat exams first ( and this was coursework for an exam) and extra curricular fun second.

That's the rule in this house. He shouldn't have rescheduled an EXAM. He's 16 or the guts of. He needs to wise up - and fast.

Teachers should not have to be rescheduling practical examinations due to extra curricula choices regardless. They have enough on their plate as it is. The student should have realised this and excused himself from band practice.

Then it was the teacher's job to say this. They didn't though, they said "no problem, i'll reschedule"

This is absolutely the teacher's fault (assuming all info in the OP is correct!)

I wouldn't ring the school, I would take a day off work and go and see them, until it's absolutely clear what's going on and what your son needs to do.

I can't really get my head around this. On the face of it, this is a massive cockup by the teacher, and I am reading all the responses saying that it was your son's/your responsibility with a face. I had no idea that it was my responsibility as a parent to do so much of the detail of exam submission. Useful to know but I am really amazed by it. I think your son did well to identify the clash and ask about it at 15 tbh.