GCSE exam finished early. What can I do?

[CAMHShelp]

DDs GCSE exam was 1 hour and 45 mins. The invigilator asked the kids if they had finished to which DD replied yes, as she had answered all the questions (ASD) but planned to use remain 20 mins to check answers. They immediately took the paper away and ended the exam early as she was the last one to stop writing.
I have made a complaint to the school but they are being dismissive and fobbing me off.
What can I do?

You can invigilate by yourself if there are fewer than 30 candidates. I used to have a phone and had to get the exams officer to come if anyone needed the toilet.

Is this extra time or the actual exam?

I have made a complaint to the school but they are being dismissive and fobbing me off.

What did they say? It didn't happen? That it doesn't matter because you DD said she'd finished?

That invigilator needs to be trained. I hope your DD is not too thrown by this.

AND to the exam board.

You need to check what actually happened because in an exam it's easy to lose track of time and think you have ages when you don't or the other way round.
If it did happen this way then ask for consideration, however I doubt it will be much, perhaps 1-2%. Friend's child got 5% because his mum died the day before, so you can see how little they give (for obvious reasons really).

Yes, there were only about 25 students, however I’d only just started and was still learning the ropes, so I was surprised to be in total ‘authority.’

I would tell the school that you'll be escalating to the exam board asap.

Report this to the exam board. If your dd gets less than expected you could take legal action against the school.

The invigilator should collect the papers at the end of the time allowed, not before. Make a complaint.

Clearly, the invigilator wanted an early finish. They should at least have asked all the pupils if they had read through their completed papers and checked their answers BEFORE collecting up the papers. When I took O Levels, even if we had all finished, we had to sit it out until the allocated time was up…….but that was before colour TV, mobile phones and when the earth was flat 🤣🤣

Contact the Exams Manager today. I'm an invigilator and always allow the full time plus any extra time they need. The invigilator will be in trouble I should imagine.

You can't go as a parent to the exam board.
You report to the exams officer, and if appropriate they write out an incident report.

This absolutely isn't correct protocol. School are clueless and/or panicking.

^ This. Complain now in writing while all the details are fresh in her mind and the staff involved can be questioned. Also, don't forget to request a copy of any report/incident records that are generate (you can use a Data Subject Access request to obtain this information if they refuse to give you it).

You can’t ask them anything like this! There very little you can actually say to them!

In this case I’d be writing via my solicitor to the exam board.

The only things I remember them saying were: you can start now, one hour remaining, 15 minutes remaining and please stop writing now.

I am an invigilator. It’s not clear from your post if the exam finished early or if the exam finished on time and your dd did not use her extra time.
assuming the latter, candidates do not have to stay for their extra time. I ask students if they are sure they don’t want to stay and let them leave if they want to go.
did Your dd feel she could not say she wanted to stay?

I think the outcome will depend on if your child has extra time or not . The main time of the exam has to be given to all students . However schools are able to use the extra time differently, they may choose to make the students stay until the end of extra time , but some will allow students to leave at any point during extra time if they say they have finished . We really need to know if you are talking about standard exam time , or extra time as the official rules are different for them .

The invigilators should NOT be asking the kids if they've finished. That's not how public exams work.

The invigilators need to remain silent and observe. If a child puts their hand up and says they are finished, they should remind them they need to remain until the end of the exam session.

Invigilators ONLY speak to candidates if they put their hand up.

Asking if your child had finished is a complete breach of protocol. There will be an exams officer in the school who you can complain to. Obviously your daughter can't have her paper back, but they can let the exam board know what happened.

What did the school say in response?

Talk about solicitors, going directly to exams boards is OTT.

The OP needs to contact the school's exams officer with an outline of her understanding of what happened.
They will investigate (e.g. talk with DD, other students and invigilator) and if necessary they will put in an incident report.

Things go wrong. They shouldn't. But there is a process.

Must have been a very easy exam if they had all finished early!
In fairness though if all the kids confirmed that they were finished then why have them sat there for 20 mins
If she wanted to check her answers she shouldn’t have said she was finished

invigilator are probably paid a set ammount for an examination so they should really stay until the allotted time is over

This is not how public exams work. Invigilators do not ask students to check their answers.

don’t be ridiculous!