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!

Usedtobefeckless I am impressed by your attitude, the default in this sort of situation is usually for the parent to kick off and blame only the teacher.

I don't think non science teachers quite follow the rigmarole involved in ISAs. They can't easily just wheel out, resit after resit. Each one is a whole new practical and set of papers that have to be trialled, perfected and

(Oops) ... and delivered under a certain set of conditions, making sure not to help too much or too little. Then each set need marked to a very rigid set of criteria (with some seriously tricky and odd questions this year), internally moderated then finally submitted. The workload across a Year group is horrendous.

Thank god they are no more

My sister used to be an A level Chemistry teacher ( She's back in the labs now - less homework! ) So I know what a faff it all is - DS has several science teachers, hence the confusion - I'm not looking to scapegoat anyone ... Sometimes shit just happens! Although if there is another production next yeat DS is going to give it a miss unless it goes out at Christmas!

I would say what's done is done but he still has a chance to get an A or A* in his written exam and that is worth 75%. Yes unis look at grades but if he gets a B overall instead of an A that will be fine and it is possible to still eat an A hink.

Sorry mistyped- it is possible to still get an A I think!

Good luck to your son in his exam. I can't believe a teacher thought 'he would sort it'. Why would he? How would he? And like other teachers I find it beyond shocking that this wasn't chased up sooner. Given all of that I'm thrilled to hear he won't have anything to do with that department in future.

What about the "lost" one? Did they not even try and look for it?

Apparently when the last teacher left ( Last year ) The new one couldn't find any of the assessments he had done with the class ... DS has always had a bit of a chequered history with Chemistry as he misses one class a week because it clashes with his instrument tuition. So he's always scrambling to catch up. He really likes Biology and Physics but I get the slight impression he'll be glad to see the end of Chemistry. Anyway, good news that he can still get a reasonable result if he cracks on. I'm trying to keep everything pretty mellow at the moment as the poor soul has had an awful case of hives since Monday. He thinks it's dodgy cheese but I reckon it might be stress - he's had a completely mad few weeks with all the after school / lunch time revision and the show. I want to dial everything down a bit and get him back on an even keel before they go on study leave.

More things that make me angry in this then. The issue of 'lost' coursework needs raising at a higher level. Your son should not be disadvantaged due to their ineptitude.
Further to that (and something to insist on for the next two years) is his instrument tuition. There is no way our school would accept a year 10,11,12 or 13 missing the same examiner lesson every week. They have priority for arranging lessons and get them fixed to before school, break, lunch and at a push registration, tutorial, PD or Private Study. The other years rotate so that they shouldn't miss the same lesson every week. If one of my year 11 was missing my subject every week I would be complaining to the music department.

I still think the buck stops at the school. I'd want this investigated. I appreciate nothing can be done but 'Miss' seems to be covering her arse and missing so much study time as well as an assessment due to clashes with another subject should not have been allowed. I also think as the parent, it would have been wise not to accept the chemistry/instrument clash.

The more I think about this the angrier I get. This school needs to address how it manages productions and peripatetic lessons.

There are also proper procedures to follow if coursework is lost. The students shouldn't be paying the price for the school's ineptitude.

Controlled assessments are secure materials. Some schools are too quite lax about the security of them, but losing a whole class set is not great.