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.

That's ridiculous. Usually the Paperwork lasts for 2 years'

This

Invigilator here. We have that system too and other access arrangement indicators. However, if a student claimed to have extra time I would still check with EO and SEN people. The exam board will have a set procedure for special consideration.

disgusting really all she had to do was go and check if your dd was right or not

Absolutely complain and get their assurance that there will be a member of SEN dept to be your daughter's advocate if something like this happens again. Personally I'd copy it to SENCO, HT and Chair of Governors (maybe LA too). I may mention the Equality Act of 2010 so they knew I was unhappy. Hope your dd was OK. Absolutely unacceptable. (Teacher here.)

Ds (dyslexic) went to his special room for an exam once to find it was stuffed with spare furniture. He had to help move it before the exam!

Well that is incorrect. The exams officer would have completed forms back in February setting out what adjustments each student had and if adjustments were awarded after then they would have applied for permission for late adjustments.

You would think the teachers would do the register to ensure that all of the students are sat in the correct place.

When I was a uni student and an exam invigilator for a college the students would have to put their photo ID on the table and the invigilators go around and tick it off.

Your DD did very well to try and explain herself and go ahead and sit the exam!
You must be very proud of her!

I’m glad you’ve emailed and I think you have worded the email perfectly.

Schools most certainly should not be using stickers to differentiate students publicly! The register the invigilator has should have all adjustments on.
If a student says they have adjustments that do not appear that invigilator should have raised it with the exams officer immediately. The invigiliator is entirely in the wrong.

If it happens again tell your daughter to indeed carry on writing on insist on the exams officer being called to the room. I know it may be difficult for her but tell her this is fine and the exams officer would rather she did this than have to report their error to an exam board.

So she didn't check DD's name? read her folder - ie, youre sitting GCSE, Subhect bla bla, with IT and extra time, etc etc?

There can't have been that many in a separate accomodation room that she couldn't have done that on arrival.

I am an exams officer - the school has fobbed you off - they need to report themselves for maladministrationnas they have not applied the exam access arrangements correctly and as a result a students results have been impacted. Special consideration does not mean the school has reported themselves and will amount t to a maximum of 3%. The board being aware of maladministration May mean the exam board proratas your daughters marks for the percentage of the exam she sat.

make sure you request copies of all reports submitted and if not happy with school ring up board directly.

you must fight for your daughter to be treated fairly

Definitely complain this is awful

Complain to her school and ask for written assurance she will be given 25 percent additional time in future exams. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done now after a candidate has left the exam room. Exam board will just say school should be more careful.

That's simply not true, as several posters have pointed out.

Fuck up, big time. If you don’t get a reply by tomorrow-was it the exams officer you emailed-then phone urgently. Your dd needs special consideration applied now.

Not if she gives it before the exam starts so that she doesn’t have the worry of if they will stop her early.

Ex invigilator here. This is a no brainer, the exams officer should apply for special consideration as a matter of course. This is a huge cock up on their part. Hope you get it sorted soon, I have two children doing gcses/a levels at the moment so I feel your pain

@Gh12345 - many jobs are stressful! If you can’t cope without making mistakes that could cost children their futures, find something easier that you can cope with. For this ‘error’ to have happened, multiple people must have been involved. It wasn’t just one person who got a bit mixed up, it’s a systemic failure to run exams properly and in accordance with the rules - ie maladministration. It’s serious.

Legal action could include damages for distress caused, a potential discrimination case depending on the exact circumstances, loss of future opportunities. I’d be even more inclined to do this given how the centre has fobbed off the OP.

Dont be ridiculous. Loss of future opportunities for missing 26 mins of writing time in a single gcse paper? I don’t think any judge would entertain that argument for a millisecond. 😂

It’s not a systemic failure, as it’s pretty clear in this case that the error was caused by a single invigilator who initially mixed up two candidates from their list and then compounded their error by still thinking the candidate was Y and not X.

That particular invigilator definitely needs additional training but I’m wondering why the exams officer didn’t pick up the extra time issue when they went to check where the student was when she was initially reported as missing?

Did the EO check in person or send another member of staff to check if the candidate was there?

I would imagine that had the EO checked they would have spoken to the Invigilator who initially reported the DD as missing and clarified with them who was sat in seat 123 and noted the extra time at that point.

That’s what any competent EO would have surely done? Is the EO new to the post?

This is a bit over the top. OP should at least wait to see what grade her daughter is given once the special consideration is taken into account, before taking further action. Even if the grade is lower than expected, there are other avenues to pursue to address that before jumping to legal action against the school.

And how has OP been ‘fobbed off’? She said the exam officer was very apologetic, acknowledged exactly what happened and is applying for special consideration for this exam, and that her daughter will be getting the extra time she’s entitled to for the remaining exams. What else do you think the school should be doing?

As others have said this is so over the top. Instead of reassuring a worried mum you are riling her up to take legal action. It was a mistake yes and I'm sure it will be rectified

@Léighméleabhair - Actually if a student misses out on a sixth form offer because they are a few marks short of the relevant grade boundary, then it's easy to demonstrate loss of an opportunity most likely as a direct result of extra time not being given.

I doubt it will come to legal action but a judge may well entertain it because the loss could be demonstrable.

As said before the school needs to report itself for maladministration not apply for special consideration

PS I dont think the OP SHOULD take legal action, this is likely to be resolved between the school and the exam board but I was simply giving a theoretical example of how opportunity might be lost - don't worry OP I think the correct allowances will be made in the circumstances.

Dd is ok now and there was no issue with the other exams. I have read the JCQ regs and I think the centre will have to report this and apply for special consideration- but I think that’s all she’ll get tbh. I asked the exams officer at my school (I teach) and she said that the school needed to apply for special consideration. Hopefully it won’t have too much of an impact.

Hopefully your daughter had nearly finished anyway. Hope so, as Special Consideration is only between 1 and 5% difference.