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.

Make a formal written complain right away; her marks will have to be adjusted.

Poor girl this sounds really stressful. Technically I would say it constitutes a failure to make reasonable adjustments under the equality act - so, discrimination. On that basis a reasonable adjustment should now be made to her marks. Hope you get this sorted quickly so she can regain confidence for the next ones.

The students fill in their name and candidate numbers on the front of the exam papers, and for certain exam boards, have to sign them too.
The exam papers have to be packed in candidate order and marked against a sheet, they should notice if the candidate number is missing/wrong/does not match the name.

I am so sorry to hear this. My DS has extra time and would never finish an English exam without it (rarely finishes even with it!), this is my worst nightmare.

I’m working as an exam invigilator at the moment. I’ve seen several kids this week complaining that they didn’t get their extra time. These are kids who myself and my fellow invigilators are absolutely sure we saw given extra time before half term, but the paperwork and seating plans we’ve been given for this week’s exams definitely don’t have them down for extra time so there’s nothing we can do except flag it to the Exams Officer.

Somebody told me they think it’s because the extra time applications only last for a set period and some of them may have run out at the end of May, and the school have forgotten to reapply. I don’t know for sure if this is the case but if so, it’s appalling.

I really hope you get this sorted for your daughter, what a nightmare for her.

Oh god, this is unacceptable. I hope this hasn’t completely stressed her out

Oh and as for the invigilator getting her confused with another student: generally the invigilators will be external people like myself (by design, so we’re not connected to the students personally or professionally) and aren’t expected to know who is who. That’s what the seating plan is for, so if she was sat in the wrong seat then all the invigilator will know is that the student in seat A1 gets extra time and the student in A2 doesn’t. If your daughter struggled to make herself heard then she may not have been able to properly explain that despite what the seating plan says, she isn’t actually Jane Bloggs sitting in Seat A2.

The school is supposed to have a process in place, though, for making sure every student’s identity is verified before the exam. There are a few different ways of doing this but the school where I’m working, this means a senior member of staff like the headmaster (someone who will recognise all the kids by sight) comes in at the start, watches the kids as they come in and take their seats, and looks over the seating plan to make sure they’re satisfied that everyone is who they’re supposed to be. This is both in case of mistakes and in case of deliberate deception (a student getting another student to sit the exam). That member of staff then leaves as soon as the exam starts, as there aren’t allowed to be any teachers present in the exam hall for the rest of the exam.

Apologies if this is all useless info but I thought it might help to know how it’s supposed to work in practice! If your daughter has been confused with another student then someone at the school hasn’t done their job properly.

Oh and as for the invigilator getting her confused with another student: generally the invigilators will be external people like myself (by design, so we’re not connected to the students personally or professionally) and aren’t expected to know who is who. That’s what the seating plan is for, so if she was sat in the wrong seat then all the invigilator will know is that the student in seat A1 gets extra time and the student in A2 doesn’t. If your daughter struggled to make herself heard then she may not have been able to properly explain that despite what the seating plan says, she isn’t actually Jane Bloggs sitting in Seat A2.

The school is supposed to have a process in place, though, for making sure every student’s identity is verified before the exam. There are a few different ways of doing this but at the school where I’m working, this means a senior member of staff like the headmaster (someone who will recognise all the kids by sight) comes in at the start, watches the kids as they come in and take their seats, and looks over the seating plan to make sure they’re satisfied that everyone is who they’re supposed to be. This is both in case of mistakes and in case of deliberate deception (a student getting another student to sit the exam). That member of staff then leaves as soon as the exam starts, as there aren’t allowed to be any teachers present in the exam hall for the rest of the exam.

Apologies if this is all useless info but I thought it might help to know how it’s supposed to work in practice! If your daughter has been confused with another student then someone at the school hasn’t done their job properly.

OP - I'd be very unhappy with this. Extra time is not given lightly, far from it and the school have really messed up badly here. I hope you get a quick response from the exams officer not least beause they need to ensure that they do not do this to your dd again.

School won’t be able to check. Papers, including special consideration ones, are locked away immediately - even the schools exams officer can’t access them once sealed and locked.

Same thing happened to my dd re extra time. It’s infuriating and unacceptable.

For those saying to contact JCQ - parents can’t. I tried and literally couldn’t do a thing.

This sounds like the school haven't put in the application for the extended time, which means her exam tomorrow and any further exams will also have to be sat without the extra time.

This is a massive school screw up. I'm not sure what you or they can do to fix it in time to make a difference though.

Call them now to speak to someone and find out if this is the issue, then she will know before turning up tomorrow. Follow it up with an email.

Following

@FirewomanSam This year there's been a shortage of invigilators and the rules have been relaxed this year so teachers ARE allowed to invigilate. They've also changed the allowed ratio from 30:1 to 40:1 It's not surprising with all that going on that mistakes get made.

Worse - and this does seem wrong for both student and teacher - subject teachers are allowed to invigilate their own exams. Obviously they are told to be careful not to influence responses but the temptation to clear their throats or cough when standing near a particular pupil must be very difficult to resist.

If these things interest you, there's more here.

I'm an exams officer, that's a major, major cock up.

They are obviously not using invigilators that can clearly identify pupils. You are supposed to have invigilators that know/can identify the kids or they have to have ID with them to be checked.

If it was my school, that invigilator would be gone.

The school need to report the error to JCQ, which I'm sure they will. It's an easy process.

@listsandbudgets that’s shocking. My school are still sticking to the 1:30 rule and not allowing teachers to invigilate. I can see positives and negatives as it means nearly all the invigilators are inexperienced first-timers (like me) who the school have worked really really hard to recruit and train up in time. We have all got the hang of it now but the first day was brutal!

She was in the right seat - the exams officer confirmed. He doesn’t know how the invigilator got confused and he will apply for special consideration for her. He was very apologetic.

@calliopea I’m an invigilator and I can’t identify pupils but if a student told me they were meant to have extra time, I would never ignore it, I’d be radioing for the exams officer immediately. It’s shocking that it sounds like this invigilator just said ‘no you’re not’ and left it at that.

There’s been no issue with the school applying for her extra time. That’s been done. It’s an invigilator cock up.

That is good news, but what a monumental cock up by the invigilator! They should have double checked with the exam officer as soon as it was brought to their attention. I’m glad your daughter will get her extra time for the other exams at least.

This needs to be addressed urgently. Not only is it an issue of her 25% extra time but, because of how the exams are tracked with codes instead of names, if they confused her with a different student then she might end up with completely the wrong result.

Say, your daughter is Alice and they've confused her with Alicia. Alice is entitled to extra time, Alicia isn't. Alicia didn't come to the exam, Alice did. Alice was placed in Alicia's exam seat. It appeared Alice was missing so you got a phone call, a member of staff double-checked, saw Alice and confirmed to you that she's there. Then Alice has put Alicia's candidate number onto her paper. The invigilator checked whether Alicia is entitled to extra time, she isn't so Alice (who the invigilator thinks is Alicia) is asked to leave. Alice's paper is sent off but is treated as Alicia's paper - Alicia gets that mark. Alicia didn't turn up, so her blank paper is treated like Alice's blank paper, and Alice gets 0 for the exam.

You need to clarify exactly what has happened.

How awful of the invigilator not to check when your daughter brought it up. Complain to the school ASAP so this doesn’t happen again to anyone else and also to the exam board.

Definitely complain!
i had to email the exams officer re ds as he didn’t receive what he should have & there were a couple of other issues which could’ve been avoided. She couldn’t have been more apologetic and things went better today.

At least the school have acknowledged invigilator cock up. I would want to check they had her right name on the paper. It’s not just the extra time it’s the stress she was put under for the whole exam being told she didn’t have extra time.
a friend had an arsehole invigilator. His mum had fallen and gone to hospital by ambulance, she was okay and had asked for him not to be told until after the exam. Wanker went up to him as he started the exam and told him in front of everyone! Power hungry arsehole.

Your point about it putting her off future exams is valid and definitely needs addressing by school. If she’s worried she won’t get time or rushing in case they decide to end exam at normal time it will affect her performance.

My dd is dyslexic and didn’t get her spell checker turned on for her English exam, despite asking. I contacted the school and they put in an exceptional circumstances case, with her prelim mark, other evidence or her usual work and a note of her predicted grade. I was assured that she will not be disadvantaged by the error and told (without actually being told) that she would not get lower than her predicted grade. We are in Scotland though so it might be different. Chase it up if you don’t hear back from the school. It all had to be done in a rush because the school only has 10 days to submit all the evidence.