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Original poster

Aaargh! Chemistry fuck up - what to do?

163 replies

UsedtobeFeckless · 06/05/2017 23:50

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!

OP posts:
cantkeepawayforever · 07/05/2017 10:05

Schools [should] balance internal timetable conflicts all the time - DS, as both a sportsman and musician, has perhaps more of this type of conflict than is standard, but there have been any number of points throughout Y11 where there have been adjustments and balances between various competing in-school events. It is the failure to resolve this one properly, rather than the fact such a clash exists, that is surprising.

DoctorDonnaNoble · 07/05/2017 10:06

I think it's exceptionally surprising that a clash between a curricular and extra curricular event has happened in the last weeks before the exams. That IS highly unusual.

sanityisamyth · 07/05/2017 10:07

AFAIK he won't have met the criteria for being awarded a grade for his chemistry course if he doesn't have a relevant controlled assessment (ISA/CAU/CAT) as it is a compulsory part of the course. Regardless of how well he does in his exams, it won't lead to a qualification. Sorry Blush

cantkeepawayforever · 07/05/2017 10:10

DS had a potential clash last week (language oral vs needed for an interview panel) ... all resolved completely amicably.

Original poster
UsedtobeFeckless · 07/05/2017 10:11

Iamastonished - they've been doing the after school revision sessions too. The last Ofstead was Good. On the whole DS is really happy and well supported there. His projected grades are all As and Bs. This is the first time there's been a problem with a clash netween his music and any of the other subjects, they normally manage to work round each other quite well.

OP posts:
Welshrainbow · 07/05/2017 10:15

Given he only had three days to chase it up this is absolutely all on his teachers. I'm a little surprised at people saying he shouldn't have been doing another school sanctioned activity as teachers we do understand these clashes happen and rescheduling things like ISAs happens all the time, I've lost count of how many mop-ups I've done this year. I can't believe the school would submit a D grade and nothing else for a student targeted and A grade. That will really affect the teacher and the school if they do that for several students.
Something isn't right with this OP and TBH your son probably isn't privy to all the workings of his schools science sept and may not really know what was submitted so best thing is to contact the school first thing Monday morning.

Iamastonished · 07/05/2017 10:22

"I can't believe the school would submit a D grade and nothing else for a student targeted and A grade."

That doesn't ring true to me either. DD did her GCSEs last year and said that it was quite difficult to do badly in ISAs as all you had to do was do what the teacher told you to do.

Original poster
UsedtobeFeckless · 07/05/2017 10:23

He does have one, Sanity - it's just not a very good one! The department seem to have lost the other and the third was missed due to the events in my OP. So he will get a grade, just a worse one than he might otherwise have done.

It seems a bit pointless at this stage chuntering about the school chucking in random musicals when people should be revising - it's been in the works since last year - and I'm sure DS could have managed it better. What I wanted to know was what, if anything, could be done to improve things for him regarding this exam. It looks like the die is cast though, so he'll just have to make sure he does his absolute best in the exam itself.

OP posts:
DoctorDonnaNoble · 07/05/2017 10:28

It is important you raise it with the school though so he knows where he stands going in to the exam. It may even be the reassuring news that he'd done ones with ok grades that he's forgotten about.

jamdonut · 07/05/2017 10:30

Just wanted to say...school performances often count towards GCSE,s so it's not like he was having a jolly. My daughter was in school performances right through her GCSE and A level years without any exam clashes.
I can't believe it would have been forgotten about. There must be some explanation. Just get onto school and find out. Can you email the teacher?

FritzDonovan · 07/05/2017 10:40

I can't believe the school would submit a D grade and nothing else for a student targeted and A grade."

Shurleyshummishtake · 07/05/2017 10:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheGentleMoose · 07/05/2017 10:42

Did they lose everyone's papers?

ifeelcraptonight · 07/05/2017 10:42

There is no way this is the full story. It just couldn't be.

OP needs to get on to the school on monday. And dig to the truth of it. Even her son's calm acceptance by this am tells me theres more to it, never mind the holes so big in the story you could drive an artic through them.

FritzDonovan · 07/05/2017 10:44

Oops, posted too soon! Agree with above - if the school has been awarded good by Ofsted, teachers are going to be conscientious and ontop of things like this. I have never know a situation where predicted A and coursework D has not been questioned and improved where possible. Depts tend to do more assessments than needed and use the best. This is also why I find it difficult to understand how his only other assessment has 'been lost' and it hasn't been remedied. Hope you get to the bottom of it OP.

nakedscientist · 07/05/2017 10:48

Really surprised how many people are blaming your son.
Have they ever met a 15 year old?
I agree with this! He will be using all his energy to cope with the demands of schools and will not be questioning teachers in this way.

Oh he's so spinning you a line. grin bless his wee socks. Massive teen fudge happening there somewhere

I also agree with this OP, is he preparing you for a fall with his chemistry result? He may have decided chemistry doesn't matter anyway since he wants to do music at university. His priorities may be clear with teenlogic/teensplain!

notapizzaeater · 07/05/2017 11:31

I'd go in gently at first to see what they say - then if need be 'shout'

youarenotkiddingme · 07/05/2017 11:57

For those surprised at schools expecting talented students in year 11 to continue to to represent the school I can assure you it happens.

I recently had a thread on my friend behalf about her ds who was expected to represent school at whole day athletics events as he's a county champ in his event. He is also expected to catch up on missed work off his own back. When he did this but missed that a worksheet done during the maths lesson that day had to be completed by the Friday as homework (he'd got the work off a lad who'd finished the sheet in class and he had planned to catch up over the weekend) he hit a detention that the school made stand despite there being a revision session that evening for another subject that he asked to rearrange the detention to attend.

Ime some schools are taking the whole need to take responsibility for themselves to a point that they cannot actually get any compromise and are blamed for choices that go wrong despite them acting on available information.

I feel sorry for this years cohort of year 11's (and their teachers!) everyone is facing exams on a whole new curriculum they have had a year of teaching on with a grading system that is unknown.

SnapJack68 · 07/05/2017 12:07

Most teachers care more about coursework grades than the students do... there is so muxh pressure on us to send off the highest marks possible thay I really do doubt they have sent off a D Grade.

If you can email his science teachers today (don't copy in the entire senior leader team at this stage as there is probably no issue at all ) they are likely to be on email and get back to you to reassure you. Most teachers do prep on Sundays and so access emails

Your son should be able to get their email via the school email system that usually let's you searxh for the person you want to email by name

DoctorDonnaNoble · 07/05/2017 12:17

@youarenotkiddingme sports fixtures are often not timetabled by schools. Productions are.
It was our area's District Sports Day last week. Athletes meets are in the summer for schools. As a result, only years 7-10 are involved.

ifeelcraptonight · 07/05/2017 14:36

None of the final years U6 at DD school were ever allowed to compete in national champs in their sport because it was held last week.

So schools can stop it if they want.

There has to be more to this than he's saying.

sanityisamyth · 07/05/2017 17:43

Ahhhh that's a bit 💩 then :( sorry. Deadline was 5th may to get them submitted. Definitely full steam ahead for revision then! Good luck!

tinytemper66 · 08/05/2017 20:49

Any update OP?

Original poster
UsedtobeFeckless · 08/05/2017 21:12

Emailed a nice non-confrontational sort of infomation request and got a reply saying Miss wasn't in school today but she'd be in touch as soon as she was back.

Had another chat with DS who is now sounding slightly less adamant about what was said ( yellow sceptical face thingy ) I think they either found the missing first attempt and used that or decided to use the not-much-cop second attempt as any mark was better than none and they had run out of time to reschedule a third go.

It's a bugger but at this stage I don't see realistically what we can do except throw everything into the exam and hope for the best. I suspect there might have been crossed wires and both Miss and DS went away with different ideas about what had been decided. I'll find out more tomorrow, I hope ...

OP posts:
tinytemper66 · 08/05/2017 21:20

I wouldn`t be happy with that response. Did you email the Head of Science or the examinations officer?
Hope this is resolved soon.