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!

Ask to speak to the Head of Science rather than the actual classroom teacher. They will be the one responsible for sending the coursework off.

He shouldn't have asked. He should have had the responsibility to put his exam first. I'd like to see the EC1 for that "oops singing"

No way would one of mine have been allowed to do that. The op should have drummed exams first into him long before now.

And Since he was allowed to reschedule, he should have been on it like a car bonnet to make sure the teacher rescheduled. His responsibility to remind her. He asked for the change.

On the other hand your son also needs to take some responsibility for not chasing it up with his teacher sooner.

Really? He's a kid. He sounds very responsible. The teacher otoh has not communicated to him. This is poor. I hope you get it resolved.

If you don`t want to phone, make an appointment. If a parent turned up to see me, I would not be able to see that parent on that day due to commitments, but if they rang I could let them know when I am available. However, this may be a 'time is of an essence' meeting so ring and state this is urgent and you need a meeting ASAP.

Chemistry teacher myself and I cannot believe that some of the responses are putting this on your son!! Absolutely appalling that the third controlled assessment wasn't completed and that no one picked up on it, I cant believe neither the teacher, the head of science or the exams office didn't notice. I would be on the phone first thing Monday morning wanting to know what the hell is going on! And tell your son he has absolutely no responsibility beyond asking if there will be a resit opportunity, poor kid.

I'd be very surprised if the teacher sent the results off incomplete, that really doesn't happen. As a pp pointed out, lay is largely performance related and a mess up like that would have considerable consequences.

Not to judge your son but are you absolutely sure this is the real version of events? Are you absolutely sure that the teacher hasn't organised catch up sessions etc that your son hasn't attended. It could be that the teacher has put these on and, for whatever reason, your son has prioritised the show and now it's falling back to the teacher's responsibility. I do have sympathy on both sides here as your son should never have been allowed to participate if there was risk of clashes with his GCSE work, on the other hand he made the choice to participate knowing he would have deadlines. The teacher can only do so much chasing before it becomes futile and she has to give up.

Contact the school, but more from a 'surely not' perspective rather than a 'you have allowed this to happen perspective'. The teacher may have used a previous assessment or something and there may not be an issue. Once you have the full story you can start to sort it out. If the school has messed this up then absolutely create a massive fuss - the exam board would be interested to hear about it for sure.

Once again though, it's the same story. Students being expected to learn to prioritise at such a crucial point in their lives, they should be given chance to practice this way before they need to be able to do it. So many schools put on these shows that seem to take precedence over everything else and the students see it as the most important thing. Of course the arts are important, but definitely not more important than GCSE exams that can only take place at a specific time in the year.

*pay

But the teacher OK'd it

He explained there was a clash beforehand.

It's not like the teacher then said "no it can't be done" and he went ahead and picked the performance anyway.

He was told it was fine and could be rescheduled. Both things were important to him and as far as he was aware, it had been arranged that he could do both.

Very harsh to say he shouldn't have even asked. He did a very grown up thing pointing out the clash and trying to ascertain whether it can be worked around. He was told it was fine and would be rescheduled for him.
Kids don't stand a chance if people are genuinely this cold and harsh over asking a question and then going ahead on a teachers say so!

OP- I would hope in this situation, the teacher has reviewed his overall marks and knows he will do fine without this piece of work. Just ring and find out what's what.

He should have been reminding the teacher every lesson. He clearly didn't do this.

Or else he's told his parents half a story. Which he might well have. He's a teenager.

I think there must be a piece of information missing here - suggest you contact the school (possibly Head of Science) and ask for clarification in a non-confrontational way.

Obviously you know your son but are you sure this is how it happened? It's just that when I was 15 'the teacher said I could do it laaaater' would have been a classic fib to my parents if I'd skived off something important. However - I was a complete shit and you know your son!

Either way it does seem to me that the school must have some kind of obligation to ensure that students sit assessments without obviously forcing kids to sit at desks.

Bear in mind. This is a total of 8.3 marks he's potentially down. It's not great, but it's not catastrophic either.

Another chemistry teacher here. Outrageous from the school. It is not up to your son to sort! As others have said straight on phone Monday, ask for clarification. They should have a set of back up marks. If not, I worry this school is not doing what it should and this will be the tip of the iceberg!

Thanks for all the responses - Mumsnet Never Sleeps!

I'll ring on Monday and find out what's what. In answer to people's queries there were supposed to be 3 controlled assesments done, they were all for Chemistry, DS has definitely done two of them and I'm as sure as one can be that he's not lying about what happened. He's a conciencious soul and wants to do well, which is why he's in such a tizz about all this

As for his priorities - the school makes a huge deal out of it's drama productions. Music and the performing arts are given a lot of weight in the curriculum. They did 3 evening performances and day time shows for all the feeder schools. I did think it was a mad time to do it just before everyone starts their exams - they were all totally knackered by the end! Music is DS's main subject. It's what he hopes to study at University so he's pretty heavily involved in all the band shenanigans.

As for being slow to chase it up - the last assessment was supposed to be last Thursday. Monday was a bank holiday so he gave it 3 days and then asked Miss what was going on. They don't tell the kids when the deadline for submissions is so he didn't know it was looming.

It doesn't sound like the extenuating wossname would apply here - it was a drama not a crisis (Ouch) - so he'll just have to throw everything into the main exam and hope for the best.

Not harsh at all.

Assessed piece of coursework vs. extra curricular band practice.

Can't understand why a 16 year old couldn't have seen the priority here.

Anyway, big lesson for the future.

PS. I totally loved music, drama and arts and do think they are important. I would be saying the same thing if it had been assessed music examination vs fun science gig that wasn't assessed.

It's about the assessed part.

Another science teacher here. I would've extremely surprised if the school had allowed your son to have a mark of zero. At my school, as a pp said, we have been chasing up the missed CAUs since Feb to ensure everyone has a mark. It is not in the school's interests to let it go with him not having a score as results are everything!

It is likely he will have done CAUs in year 10 that will have been submitted. Or done one that he has forgotten about.

If I were you I would call the school and ask to speak to the head of science. Tell them your son is concerned that he missed one of his CAUs and ask for clarification of what has happened.
I am sure this is a misunderstanding.

Music teacher here. We don't schedule school musicals for this time of year precisely because there are too many clashes (and we're marking coursework, too!).

OP I would just email the teacher asking for clarification that your DS has the correct coursework marks sent off, and that he hasn't missed anything. CC Head of Science.

Oh, and to the PP who said that only core subjects matter, music is a core subject on the national curriculum.

I totally understand why he did the music rehearsal. Good kids do what they're told by teachers, as they trust them.

Just to be clear - it was an actual performance not a rehersal - and his actual teacher actually told him he could reschedule. Actually.

Thanks for all the info. If he's already done 2 out of the 3 then he should have some kind of a mark so not as bad as I thought, at least he's not going to drop the whole 25% ... I'll ring on Monday in a "Just asking" mode and find out ...

Hope they manage to sort something out for him op.

Me too! My sister is a Chemistry teacher so we'll never hear the end of it if he flunks! [Grin]

Just sending sympathy, as another parent who has to manage conflicts between within-school music and within-school academic commitments for DS.

School productions are not really 'extra curricular', in the sense that they are organised by school, scheduled by school, and time off from lessons is organised within school by the music / drama departments. It's not like e.g. DS playing in his county music ensemble (for which he has had individually authorised absence from school, but which is not organised by school, or even DS playing in the various school ensembles that take up lunchtimes / after school.

School production absence should be negotiated between the departments concerned, so tbh the Chemistry department should have known that your DS would be absent on that day (in our case, all such absence is published in the school calendar at te beginnibng of the academic year, but then the production is in december so it's probaby easier), it's not something that an individual pupil would be expected to request / negotiate. On occasion, I have had to send the odd 'are you absolutely sure?' e-mail about some particularly ropey scheduling, but it is definitely something that is staff not pupil responsibility.

On the controlled assessment, DS actually did the first of his right back at the very end of Y9, when they embarked o the GCSE course. Is it possible that your DS did not register that something up to 2 years ago was one of the assessments, and the most recent was just a final 'catch up' one for pupils with poor marks?

This either sounds like a spectacular balls up by the school or you/your son haven't quite understood and it's actually all fine. Fingers crossed for the latter, if it's the former kick up a spectacular fuss as your son has done nothing wrong IMO.

The most likely explanation has been given below. There are 3 possible opportunities for a CAU. Most schools offer two or three. Often 2 for separate sciences because of time constraints. If he scored highly in one of the previous two, then the third was unnecessary. The 25% comes from a single CAU.

I'd contact school and ask them what they are doing to do to arrange for ds to sit the practical.

Totally agree if he was given the information - you have to complete it by the 5th he could have made a decision between the 2 subjects. But he did the right thing by asking a teacher how to solve the clash and made a decision based on the information received and the experience he needs for his future study.

He's 15yo and a pupil. He doesn't know how the system works.