To think school should have done something about this cheating in exam

[Notrightbutwhattodo]

DS did end of year 8 tests a few weeks ago. Following one subject came home and told me most of his form had cheated in the subject they had done that day. Apparently they got hold of a cheat sheet from other dc who had already done the test. There was only ds and a few others who didn't cheat. Consequently the bulk of the class have aced the test but ds and co have not! This is definitely what happened as I spoke to some of his friends and their parents. He is very annoyed, as am I, but doesn't want to snitch. These marks will be used to set targets and decide which set the dc will be in next year.

I phoned school the next day and informed the office who assured me that this would be taken seriously and passed on to the year head. DS really didn't want to be named as he didn't want to be seen as a snitch so I didn't leave a name or details.

Weeks have passed and nothing has been done at all. They all have their marks back. DS hasn't done too bad but he is normally towards top of the year but obviously not this time. I don't know whether to let this go or not but feel so annoyed every time I think about it!

As a teacher who has experienced exactly this situation where half the year sat a paper and then they gave answers to the other half they were both spoken to and it was explained to the first half they were potentially disadvanting themselves as the other half would do better and the half that had received answers were told that it is now difficult to trust!

Teachers are aware that this kind of thing will happen and they will also know their students and if someone has excelled or dropped below where they would be expected then that would be taken into account with set decisions.

With regard to targets they will only be for internal targets and “external” targets are will be set based on ks2 results and other things and they won’t change with any internal results.

You really need to do something about this. Ask for an appointment to see the head. You will have to give your name bur ask for this to be kept strictly confidential.
There is no way I would let this go. In fact I would be in touch with the Govenors as well.
I'm assuming this was a school exam, in which case they must have passed ie. old papers, in which case I would make the whole year resit the exam.
Be brave, and do it !

I don't think this would affect sets.

If they all did brilliantly except a few, then they'll have to look at previous performance to set them. They can't have the vast majority of the year group in the top set and then three or four students in the bottom one!

Even if the sets are a bit mucked up, if your DS is put in the wrong one schools usually will move a child up/down.

It's a bit unfair but I wouldn't do anything more. I doubt it will affect him in any way.

As a teacher, I would have known about the cheating when I marked the tests. If you know your students abilities well enough you will spot when someone goes from the middle to the top in one test.

I had it in recent class test - 3 who all sit in a row had identical work on one page, word perfect - and wrong!

When we set in my school, one exam does take a bit more of a precedence but over all year long performance is also considered.

Sitting a new test is a possibility but in my subject if the whole year was to do it thats 6 further tests to write with each one about an hours work to create, plus the second round of marking to be done as all would have to be catered for.

Sets will soon be obviously wrong if things don't get spotted, our sets are fluid so would not be for the whole year.

1. you don't know school hasn't done something do you?
2. just be concerned about your sons grades
3. they won't base sets on 1 test!!! They will look at the whole year.
4. it's year 8 end of years not GCSE's!!

I've no doubt they wanted to involve you in every aspect. They were wating for you to go in and look at unexpectedly high attainment for certain children so that the cheaters would be spotted. Then they wanted you to ...

oh, wait. Why would they inform you of anything?

One of my DCs had something similar happen at University. 🙁 There happened to be four or five big exams very close together (mathematic exams) so the students that were allowed extra time had one of their exams postponed for a week. It was the EXACT same paper. A third or fourth of the students have extra time so it must have had a significant effect on the general pass marks.

According to my DC some of the students who had extra time were also pissed off as the ones who had worked didn’t want their marks tainted by the other students who were cheating.