One secondary school teachers

[SandyY2K]

I hope I'm not BU to ask.... if a student has an exam clash, resulting in them having to take two subjects on the same day, what system or measures does your school put in place to ensure the students remain isolated between exams?

Thanks

Depends if the board the student took was even JCQ regulated, couple of them aren’t. If the student left the room then the school has a duty to notify the exam board. No exam board worth anything would allow the student to take the exam that all their peers had been talking about over lunch etc. The school need to ask the exam board about what the options are for the candidate at this stage

If you post in secondary education for the attention of prh they may be able to offer better advice as they had a similar situation with their child last year

Prh advises on appeals as a legal bod so has a good handle on these things and gives sound advice

Would the names be read out?

When I’ve had this I’ve been informed by Exams Office of the students and I ask them to remain in the hall when dismissing the rest of the students. They are then either escorted from tge room or sit the second exam back to back depending on what it is / timings etc.

I've asked my youngest - they were doing their first exam in a classroom as opposed to the large Sports' Hall. The 3 of them with exam clashes were seated together at the front of the room, the candidate numbers on the desks were highlighted, their phones were taken from them before the first exam and they were asked to remain behind so they could be escorted out. There would have been no doubt as to what they had to do.

Essentially the candidate should have been under supervision- tge candidate should have been made aware of the clash and that a paper had been rescheduled- it would normally be highlighted on their exam timetable.

According to JCQ regulations a candidate who deliberately breaks a supervision (leaving the exam hall) would be classed as “loss of aggregation or certificate opportunity “ as outlined on page 40 of JCQ malpractice guidance.

www.jcq.org.uk/Download/exams-office/malpractice/suspected-malpractice-in-examinations-and-assessments-2017-18

DS2 had two clashes just before half term. He has ASD and ADHD. This is how it was handled:

He was given an exam timetable several weeks ago which made it obvious that he would be sitting exams back-to-back in two of the sessions.

Before the first exam started, an invigilator reminded him that he had another exam straight afterwards and please could he stay seated when the other candidates left.

Once the first exam was over and the candidates had left, he was offered a supervised break to stretch his legs or go to the toilet, accompanied by an invigilator. He declined the offer and chose to stay in his seat until he had finished the second exam.

From his exam timetable, he could see that on the morning of Tuesday 15th and the afternoon of Thursday 17th there was another exam immediately after the first. So he wouldn't have just left.

Sorry, I mean the morning of Monday 14th.
Tuesday 15th was French listening & reading, so all candidates were staying.

Lots of interesting replies. I'll pass them on to my colleague.

The 3 of them with exam clashes were seated together at the front of the room, the candidate numbers on the desks were highlighted, their phones were taken from them before the first exam and they were asked to remain

When I’ve had this I’ve been informed by Exams Office of the students and I ask them to remain in the hall when dismissing the rest of the students.

A page of instructions was attached to their notification of exam entry letter detailing the rules for isolation over lunchtime.

All the bolded are really good measures which I don't believe the school put in place from what she's told me.

I'll use some of them to help her put points together for the meeting.

Your friend needs to be clear what she wants the school to do - write to the exam board for special consideration maybe only taking the results from the exams he did sitb or the predicted results. Or just admit they stuffed up but nothing they can do about it now.

Also, how important is this subject? If they still have 8 or 9 good GCSEs and aren’t taking this subject further (unless maths, English or science) then is it worth the energy of a fight?

I would have hoped that the school would have done a better job of communicating to this student the exact procedure they and he were going to follow and I certainly wouldn't be putting any blame squarely on his shoulders. The problem though is that his 'clash' exam has been compromised by his not being in isolation and I don't know that the exam board can overlook that whether they deem it to be his fault or the school's.

How long was the student unsupervised for?

Your friend/ the student needs to be prepared for the fact that his paper may well be disallowed irrespective of whether the blame lies with the student or the exam centre. If they were unsupervised then the integrity of the paper hasn’t been maintained.

Please read the JCQ malpractice document I linked above.

Ultimately it is the exam board who will decide if his paper can be accepted/ sanctions imposed. The school will put forward his case to the exam board. I would give consideration to this fact when meeting with the school.

This is a screenshot from the document

SandyY2K

Sorry I have no idea why I put "went home".

Your friend needs to find the school policies on this and have a record of what was given to her child.

Ideally she should find out what the other pupils where told about this, so that it backs up her evidence.

Also she needs a very clear objective in mind for what she wants the outcome to be and be factual and not emotional in any meeting that she has.

I agree with Kitty that the exam board may not be able to accept the paper, regardless of where the responsibility lies.

What would be your colleague's preferred outcome? If that isn't possible, what would be the next best outcome?

Exam invigilator here and also parent whose dd was in this situation last year.
You don't say whether this was an A level or GCSE exam OP.
However the school where I invigilate GCSEs would have a list of "clash" candidates who would be seated together with other candidates taking exam 1 and in a different room to any candidates taking the exam that they would be taking that afternoon. At the end of the exam they would be collected by a member of the senior management team and kept in isolation i.e. away from all other pupils and supervised over lunch and separate toilets etc.
When dd had a clash last year at sixth form we were sent a letter about what arrangements would be put in place. The usual practice is that the longest exam is taken first so for dd this was the 2.5 hour paper and the 2 hour one was taken after lunch. Lunch was supervised and they also had supervised toilet breaks away from other candidates.
Schools have to apply to the exam board for permission to change the exam time for any candidate and they are allowed to do this provided that the centre (school or college) takes appropriate measures to ensure isolation of clash candidates. I agree with the others that this pupil is likely to be disqualified.

If the exams are on the same day the centre doesn’t need permission from the exam board.

My feeling is that the paper will be disallowed - in the screenshot I posted a candidate had left the hall in error and not spoken to students but his paper was disallowed.

The key thing will be how long he was out of supervision for but it sounds like he left the morning session and then came back for the afternoon.

I'm an exams officer. If the student left the room unsupervised between the two exams, then they were not kept in exam conditions and the exam board will not accept their paper. They can apply for special consideration but if the exam board conclude it was student error they will score 0 for that paper.
In our school we put a card on their exam desk saying "do not leave" but that is not part of the regulations.
Depending on whether it was GCSEs or A levels, there is a time limit on how many exams the students have to take on one day. E g. For GCSEs, it the total time is 3 hours or less,both exams have to be taken in the same morning or afternoon session. The school have no leeway on this.

How is it communicated to individual students that their is a clash?
They are expected to know their timetable, but letters are also sent with the arrangements that will be made.
Would the invigilator have list of clash students?
Yes, along with where they are, what subjects they're sitting and when, who invigilates them and who supervises them.
Would the names be read out?
No, but if exam seating arrangements are put out for both sessions at the same time others could theoretically work it out.
Would their be a list outside the exam hall?
Only for the invigilators and the exams department.
Would you say that the school has ultimate responsibility to ensure the student/s are supervised and do not leave the room?
Yes and no, the school has responsibility to ensure that they are isolated, but it is also on the student to say when they need the toilet or to get some air, also to not talk to people if they see class mates.