To complain - daughter didn’t get her extra time!

[Hamnetsdad]

My Dd, 16, went in to do her English Literature exam today and the invigilator told her she didn’t have the 25% extra time she is entitled to. Dd thinks she had confused her with another student, but as she is autistic, she wasn’t able to explain herself.

I did receive a phone call half an hour into the exam to say Dd wasn’t there - which obviously panicked me! Then they checked again and found her. The exams officer said she may have arrived late (she didn’t). So I suspect the issue may have been the seating plan.

I am really upset as Dd didn’t finish the paper and wasn’t able to articulate herself because of her disability. She didn’t receive any of her extra time.

My DD had the same issue! She had her GCSEs last year and is entitled to the 25% due to LD. She also finds it hard to speak up and unfortunately this meant she missed out in two cases. Really frustrating and there was nothing they could do. She is retaking maths at College currently and I've made sure she's had the 25% this time round.

Oh gosh how frustrating and absoloutley something the school should be pushing to resolve as best they can.

Assuming this was this mornings GCSE, you need to get prepared for tomorrow, when I guess she has physics, and maybe history.
Do you have a copy of anything stating she will get 25% from school? Send her in with a copy of that, and tell her to show it to the invigilator if there is any doubt tomorrow. If nothing from school, write her a note.
And yes, get hold of the exams officer, or the SLT member who has responsibility for exams, and try and get special circumstances form submitted ASAP

DD got special consideration marks. 2 extra we’re added.

And she was on the grade boundary so without it she would have gotten a completely different grade!

Did the school definitely complete everything on time in terms of paperwork to get her the extra time? DS1 is about to go into a maths exam at 2pm but he isn't getting his extra time due to a mix up at school where they didn't submit the application in time..

Yes she definitely got her extra time for all of her other exams. It’s not a paperwork issue.

The invigilator is told of any extra time requirements, especially in the case of scribe/special circumstances/1:1. It was clearly marked on my timetable/schedule and on the candidates card with exam number when I invigilated. If we were working 1:1 we were reminded of amount of extra time just beforehand.

I’d contact exams officer. It’s their error they need to rectify with exam board. My DD has extra time. She’s in same room with rest breaks. She left with rest breaks after an exam as she’d finished and caused a bit of panic as invigilator was worried she hadn’t given her the time. I’ve told her to stay put in future.
Can you agree strategy with her so she’s not worried about it happening - card she can show confirming extra time etc.

Considering this immense balls up by the school, it maybe worth contacting jcq.org directly to ask what the process should be from this point forward so you can ensure the school take the appropriate steps.
When is her next exam? I’d be calling the school now tbh to make sure the correct access arrangements are in place for her next exam, irregardless of what they’re doing about this exam.

Dd is actually entitled to a scribe - she chooses not to use one. She can also use a laptop, but doesn’t. I just don’t understand how this has happened and that’s even without the safeguarding issue that they didn’t know she was in the exam for half an hour and called me. She’s had CAMHS involvement and is vulnerable.

Her next exam is tomorrow afternoon. There haven’t been any issues except for today.

First point of call is the exams officer. They will probably be rushed off their feet and won't have even seen your email yet.
The can and should apply for special consideration for her. The exam board will apply a correction to her mark to make up for the lost time. This does not have to be done today so it is not really urgent (although you will need reassurance that it won't happen again).
If you don't hear from the exam officer, then escalate to SLT. Ultimately the head is responsible for ensuring that all exam regulations are followed correctly.
There is no point contacting the exam board, they do not engage with parents and will just direct you back to the school.

Are you sure they haven't submitted her paper for the student they've muddled her with? Does she put the student number on herself? (Sorry not sure how the numbering works)

I assume she’s put her candidate number on the paper - but when I speak to school I will ask them to check this too.

This happened to my dyslexic daughter for a Spanish GCSE exam. We contacted the exams officer and they applied for special consideration and I think her marks were uplifted by 5% for that paper. This is the maximum uplift they usually give.(which of course doesn't make up for the 25% extra time that's missing). In my daughter's case it did move her up a grade.

Failure to implement previously approved access arrangements is one of the stated reasons for special consideration. The exam officer needs to fill in a form and send it off. You should hear back quite quickly.

I am an invigilator and for us, before the exam we receive a list of all students, their allocated desks and whether they have any special provisions e.g. extra time, scribe or prompt. We can also contact the exams officer if we have any questions so I don't understand why the invigilator didn't do this? Hope your daughter manages to get this sorted out. Definitely contact the exams officer.

Yes. Either the Exams Officer made an error on this one paper or an invigilator did. Given that she has had her adjustments previously I doubt it was the Exams Office - their routines tend to be scarily ironclad! That she was in a separate room and someone was there expecting her shows there was something in place for her. A 25% time addition in a separate room is difficult to manage, so it is unlikely that the EO forgot.

Your email is good and should get a detailed response. Bottom line is that the EO will put this forward to the exam board for consideration - there are some fairly predictable answers, most of which will adjust your DDs marks based on whatever they are using in these weird post covid days.

It will get sorted. The EO will also know that this might trigger an external visit, to check policies and procedures which, in the middle of an exam run, is the last thing they will want, so they will be annoyed with the invigilator, or their team, and won't forget to dot i's and cross t's.

My daughter is in the same position, though so far she has had her extra 25%. Cock ups happen. Yesterday mine was placed in a different room which threw her and affected her performance. Hope the examining board can take this in to account.

OP - You need to contact the school urgently if you think DD may have left important information off her exam paper.

The format is that exam papers should be gathered up IMMEDIATELY after the end of the exam and sealed up ready for collection by a courier. Papers should not be left unsealed for more than a few minutes after the final paper has been completed.

This is to stop any "untoward" activity with completed papers.

As PP's have said, it is a case of applying for special consideration, and this only needs to be done by the end of the series, but of course you want some urgent reassurance that it has been sent. I would ask to see what is to be submitted before it's sent. Separately, I would submit a complaint on the basis of it all being poorly organised. In normal times, they do it every year. It's busy and it's fraught, but it's not actually that hard and I speak from experience.

I hope compensatory adjustments will be made to her marks. My son is also entitled to extra time. It’s very frustrating that your daughter might also have performed less well than she is able because of the additional stress. Good luck anyway.

I’ve found the relevant section of the JCQ regs on special consideration. It says special consideration MUST be applied in your case.
www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/A-guide-to-the-special-consideration-process-202122-%E2%80%93-General-and-Vocational-qualifications-Updated-4-May-2022_FINAL.pdf

Sorry, I misread. It says must be applied for!

awful - what noblegiraffe said, absolutely gets special consideration and must not happen again - I've got my fingers crossed for the other exams.