to tell you reviewing your GCSE paper isn't "free"

[BorrowedThyme]

I've never begrudged putting aside a few hours for genuine disappointing shock grades, or when a student has so nearly made the grade they need for their next stage.

But this year it has gone totally over the top.

And recalling GCSE papers for the school to review is NOT "free" - it just doesn't cost the parent anything, that is all. It relies either on teachers volunteering their spare time, or the school employing an additional, qualified person to do it.

I spent 25-30 hours in the last week of the holiday doing this, and now have a whole new list to somehow try and cram in to a single weekend

My head of department has already contacted some parents to say no, we are not doing it for such and such a student, and honestly, you would think we were chopping their kids hands off, or something, the abuse, and threats and accusations we get!

Some of the students we have said no to have already got their sixth form places, and don't need to check their grades, some are so far from the next grade up that they are many times more likely to go down than up, and some have got exactly what was predicted, anyway.

Occasionally a grade goes up, but it is very rare, and in genuine cases, I am happy to spend the time checking. Most of the cases we are getting requested now though, are not genuine! None of the papers I have checked this year are going up, although several might actual go down if the parents take it further.

So please, before expecting this service for the school, keep in mind

a) Is it necessary? Not if your child has got their sixth form place or apprenticeship, or whatever they wanted.

b) Is it likely? Parents often over estimate their children's likely GCSE grades, particularly if they have helped them revise, and marked a few mock papers, etc- children perform best in a one to one situation with a lot of encouragement, such as they might get at home with a parent, but this is not how they are assessed.

c) Somebody has to be just below the next grade boundary! That is how grade boundaries work!

d) Some grade bands are very narrow - being 3 marks off a 6 could actually be 2 marks from a 4.

e) It isn't a case of " just finding one more mark" - the marking has to be withing a tolerance. 2 examiners might mark the same paper differently, but that does not mean one is right and one is wrong. Yes, I find marks in the papers that I would have given that the examiner has not, but I also find marks the examiner has given that I would not, and overall, the mark comes out the same, or virtually the same. The grade is not going to be changed over a disagreement about fractions of marks. It needs to be a substantial difference for the grade to be changed, and not a case of strict or lenient marking.

Yes, it is sometimes worth having a look at the papers, no it is not worth this wholesale demand that has developed this year.

If this school review system continues to be abused, I expect it will be withdrawn very soon!

Totally this! I missed my predicted grade A in A level Maths. It still upsets me 30 years later. But I had my place at Uni, it made no difference, except to my ego. No one, at school or at home, made any indication that reviewing the paper was possible. It was just one of those things.

My state comprehensive school had my A level French paper looked at in the mid 90s. I had been predicted A/B. Neither I or my parents asked for it and didn't know until it happened, the lower grade luckily didn't affect my uni place (it would have if I'd chosen a different offer placement) but they found out the exam board had given me the wrong grade, a C, even before it was remarked.

It was then remarked, but I didn't go up any more grades, I just missed out on an A. But I was happy with the B and hadn't been particularly bothered by the C. We had had lots of supply teachers for French in the upper sixth year and got sent to the library to self study at times when no teacher available so I guess the school wondered if that had been a problem for the students who were considerably off from what they were predicted to get, one of them being me. I don't know anyone else of that time who had papers remarked, so I guess it wasn't as common then.

You clearly have no idea how things work at the higher grade end and how competitive certain careers are.

It is of equal importance ensuring that all students recieve the grade they deserve.

I’m not sure you should be a teacher if this is the level of concern you have for your students.

Trying to emotionally blackmail teachers into doing masses of extra work for free by suggesting that they don't care about the kids if they don't is absolutely toxic.

@pinotnow totally agree (also English) what I have seen so far this year has been awful. There seems to be no quality assurance any more.

Agreed.

And is one reason why people like the OP are perfectly legitimately at the point where they're saying no to stuff.

Can you clarify what job you do, and how many hours per week of overtime you do without being paid, simply out of concern for your client base? That would be useful to know so we can respond appropriately to your post.

Is this AQA? They seem to have been in a bit of a mess this year according to the UK Teachers subreddit. Not enough examiners, too much pressure to complete workloads in not enough time, inconsistent marking criteria and of course not being paid.

My DS dropped 3 grades from his mock and 2 grades from his predicted in AQA Eng Lit so I've submitted the form to school for a review. First time in 4 kids I've ever done this because none of them have ever had a grade that felt so out of whack until this one. Sure they've all had grades they just missed but a 2/3 grade disparity in this one subject was quite a shock. Eng Lit was one of his three best/top performing subjects. His other best subjects he got an 8 and 7 in.

It wasn't a priority request as it didn't end up jeopardising his college place but it has made him doubt himself. So we would like to know what went wrong even if it turns out he panicked and made silly mistakes or missed questions (he swears he thought he did fairly good papers!).

If I hadn't read what I have about AQA this year I would be far more inclined to think it was a him problem and not a them problem. Only way to find out is to review the papers.

His school are prioritising going through all the borderline 3s in core subjects - I assume because this benefits them as much as the pupils which is fair enough. Even though the school has improved in recent years it's still below the national and local average for Maths and English.

Teachers shouldn't face emotional blackmail to do hours of unpaid work in their summer break.

If you consider it such a vitally important service, surely you'd be happy for teachers to be paid for their time?

I stand by my comment because in it, I reference the level of concern shown for students.

I absolutely agree that teachers shouldn’t have to pick up the slack here for free.

However, there is a slack to be picked up and it would be nice to see teachers more concerned about the impact of this on their students.

Why not focus on addressing the problem of lack of resource, rather than making out the students are the problem for requesting something they are more than entitled to?

Exactly this. I had the same conversation recently with my cousin. She was saying how her DD was going to be so upset if she didn't get all 9s. She is a spoilt brat at the best of times, I just said well let's hope if she doesn't she doesn't make a fuss at the school as there will be some who don't get the 4s they need to get into college.

Students are entitled to ask for their scripts back.
They are entitled to request and pay for a review by the exam board.

They are not 'entitled' to ask a teacher to do unpaid work to review the script before paying for the exam board review. That is a new interim step that has crept into the process because teachers are kindhearted, but is now being overused.

If it doesn't affect college place at all then why would you want a remark.

1 or 2 marks away on a grade which means you wouldn't get into college would be worthy I guess. Just so someone can get a 7 rather than a 6 then why would you?

My DS was 1/2 marks away either 8s or 7s in at least 4 papers (I only asked for marks of those out of interest as they were below predicted grades). He needed 5 x 4s for his college course so why get them remarked, for bragging rights?

Just a reminder that this is new workload for teachers that wasn't a thing until a few years ago (and then exams were cancelled so it wasn't used). At a time when workload is a massive issue for teachers, we absolutely should be refusing anything that will increase workload because this will not help with recruitment and retention. If teachers like the OP start losing a week of their holidays to this extra work then it could be the final straw that makes them jump ship. Or takes time away from them getting to know their new classes in September, if people point out that it doesn't have to be done in the holidays. September is busy.

Not looking over papers for free to see if you can spot any extra marks isn't taking anything away from students that they have always had. It's refusing to do something new and extra. It's also not changing their ability to get exams remarked and grades changed, which is the paid job of the exam board.

We asked for a remark on one of DS's papers and it did go up.

A friend's DS gained 2 crucial grades in English from a D to a B (old grading system) because a whole section of one paper hadn't been marked at all!

So when errors like that are being made, you can see why people ask for it.

If that's the case then it is a great opportunity to learn to cope with imperfection. Or 'good enough'. Perfectionism is often a handicap in life and shouldn't be indulged, IMHO.

Our school suggested it to us for one of DS’s papers. Because he was 1 mark off the grade above. So we’re having it back to have a look. 🤷🏻‍♀️

But that is nothing to do with asking teachers to look at the papers first.
You can look at your own papers and see a section has been missed.

But this is not the teens’ or the parents’ fault. This is the fault of whoever decided it was acceptable to exploit teachers and make them review papers without being paid.

Why are so many teachers being unpleasant about parents, and even worse, the kids who feel they haven’t got the grade they worked for? Whether that’s a 9 or a 4. (I am not excusing being rude or abusive to the staff which is never ok).

Teens have been told the process and options and are just following it.

This is bizarre! Why wouldn’t you want your child to get the grades which reflect their ability? GCSE grades are needed for university entrance as well as college courses. I have a child predicted a nine who got a six, and it looks as though it’s down to an error by the exam board. I’m not going to tell him to reign in his lofty ideas and live with a 6, because I care and he cares about academic achievement. He has worked incredibly hard for his grades.

Note this is a re-mark by the exam board, not getting his school to review the paper as per the OP

Only a handful of teachers had had a look at scripts - but most were still away.

Do these teachers have access to the official mark scheme at this stage and plenty of time to study it before looking at scripts? I mark Maths and the mark scheme is very precise about what's allowed etc and the nuances could be viewed as unfair but the scheme is applied to everyone.

If your school offers this service, it’s a bit unreasonable to expect parents not to use it. Surely your issue should be with the school management team? ie they should either pay extra teachers extra to do it (unlikely I know, given school budgets!) or make it clear to parents that this service is not available except in very specific cases - eg if a student needs a certain grade for college and is only a mark off, or has performed several grades lower than expected, or whatever you think is reasonable. Then if pupils don’t meet these criteria, parents could still opt to pay for a review like in the old days.

As to grades not mattering so long as the kid has their place at college, that surely depends on what they want to do in the future. If they want to apply for a competitive uni/course, they will need the best GCSE grades they can muster.

Teachers already show concern. They already focus on a lack of resources. No they are not entitled to ask teachers to work for free and neither are parents.

How many hours overtime is acceptable for you? 30? 40? 50? 60? Because right now that is what some are doing to please entitled idiots who think teachers should never rest or have any kind of family life at all.

Their families are suffering because of people like you.

Hi - yeah, try doing a quick re-read of my comment and respond again if you wish.