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?

Bloody hell!

“What would you expect a lawyer to do?”
”Law and legal stuff”
No shit @ButterCrackers
😆

Other than malpractice, which some knowledgeable Mumsnetters have already commented about in detail, there are arguably implications for equality and reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 (duty to make reasonable adjustments for a child with ASD), etc, potential direct and indirect discrimination. That's a law. Then there are the Joint Council for Qualifications Regulations, which other Mumsnetters have listed (access arrangement and malpractice other Mumsnetters have already commented about, i.e. the invigilator error of shortening the exam and potential staff malpractice of the school after being put on notice and being dismissive) and lastly the SEND Code of Practice, which arguably is applicable here too. The Equality Act is a law and I would assume that the JCQ regulations are Ofqual or similar requirements and a breach by the school would be a breach of professional rules or similar, SEND is a statutory guidance, not primary legislation.

I think there is a risk of repetition and that the child has been unfairly treated and the mum is right to preserve her rights.

Say again? Where did you study law or Latin? 😱

This should not have happened. In fact in the invigilation training you are told that students are not suppose to leave before the exam room before the finish time and they should be encouraged to use the time to check over their answers. This isn’t the case if they have extra time allowed and don’t want to use it, they can go once ordinary time is up.

Complain to the examining board

Are you saying that the child has responsibility for the timing of the exam? The terms and conditions of the exam would need checking to see if this is the case. If so the school would need to make this clear to all.

Unfortunately the OP hasn't been back so we don't know if we are talking about Extra Time or not which makes a difference.

This is not acceptable. I’m an invigilator and the children with extra time are allowed to leave early but they have to ask to leave rather than the invigilator ask them. Extra time pupils also have to sign out.

If it was the whole cohort allowed to leave early then that invigilator needs retraining.

look at the JCQ guidance as it’s online.

as your kid has ASD they are going to answer honestly but need to then say they want to stay for whole time as it’s their right. It might confuse them if you say tell them no as it’s a lie if technically they answered all the questions. I don’t know how literal your child is.

Get it known to exams officer that invigilators are not to ask your child. Also speak to form tutor and senco.

It's not at all clear what's supposed to have happened.

Students can leave an hour after the official awarding organisation start time. Some schools choose to tell students they must stay the whole duration but it's not a regulation unless the exam is under an hour. Would not expect an invigilator to ask someone if they have finished unless the student was starting to get super fidgety and might cause a disturbance. Special consideration forms are super easy and the school won't get in any trouble for submitting one in this situation. Surprised the school didn't just apologise and say they will apply for special consideration. Unfortunately even if the application is successful, it will only be an additional 1%

I am an experienced invigilator and am well aware of all the JCQ regulations.
The issue here is that the OP is not particularly clear regarding what happened. Was the exam actually shortened?
Did the pupil feel she could not take the extra time?
what did the pupil say to the invigilator?
what did the invigilator ask?
as a parent I would be looking for clarification of these points first.

I’ve been teaching for 21 years and I’m fairly certain the school has to stick to the timetable, so the exam isn’t finished until the official finish time, plus extra time if any students are allowed it. I’d complain to Head, governors and exam board!

Yep, big mistake by the invigilators. Candidates sit for the entire time. What if they have a brainwave and realise they could have added or completely changed their answer?

I can absolutely tell you I wrote a completely different answer to a question in the time I had after completing. It made the difference between a merit and distinction.

That's step two, the investigation as to what happened but to get there and to preserve her daughter's rights, the mum needs to put the supervising authority of the school on notice, especially since the school was dismissive. Then things can be investigated. If the mum doesn't complain to the board and does so expeditiously, etc. then how will all of this be triggered? Nullo actore nullus judex. Also, with a child with ASD, there are is the Equality Act and I would hope that any school in the UK takes that a little more seriously.

I have been an invigilator for 6 years. It’s not absolutely clear from the OP whether the paper was taken during the main exam time or during the extra time. I’m thinking it’s probably during the extra time in which case, students do not have to stay until the end of their allocated time unless they want to (often they leave early in my experience).

Out of interest, students ARE allowed to leave an exam before the end as long as it’s at least an hour after the published start time of the exam - this is an official JCQ regulation. There seem to be a lot of comments from people who are clearly not invigilators as there’s quite a lot of disinformation on this thread!

I can’t imagine an invigilator would take an exam paper before the end of the main exam without good reason - if they did then that is serious malpractice. However, in extra time, if you see a student has definitely finished (eg sitting with paper closed, all stationery back in the pencil case) you can ask them if they are finished. If they say yes, I would always say “are you sure?”. If they want to leave, at my school, they then have to sign an ‘access form’ to say that they left before the end of their extra time as ‘proof’ that they made the choice themselves.

I'm sorry this has happened to your DD but without more details it’s hard to know exactly what went on here and whether the invigilator was in the wrong. Hopefully you will get some answers from the exam officer as that should be your first port of call.

Agree.

What would be the substance of your complaint, given the information you have from the OP? Because I don't know what the hell happened.

Yes, in my experience those who are fluent in their language exam often finish very early, and (at my school) are allowed to leave the exam after an hour as per JCQ regs

Candidates do not have to stay for the entire time.
schools can make pupils stay for the duration of the exam, but this is not a JCQ regulation.

Sorry to clarify, she did not have extra time.

The exam was due to last 1 hour and 45 minutes and the invigilators finished it after 1 hour and 25 minutes because the students had stopped writing. They should have let it run to the official finish time. Exam boards are strict with their requirements.

i would ignore the posts on here about engaging lawyers and do the following:

1. back to exams officer and explain the situation that Dd was asked if she had finished and said yes, but actually wanted to check her answers, but didn’t say that or didn’t feel she could say that.
2. you and exams officer decide together how best to avoid this happening again eg Dd stays for the full amount of extra time for every exam. you know your Dd best and the exams officer can ensure that invigilators are aware of the situation and how your Dd can be supported.

I am an exams officer . This should not have happened . Ask the exams officer to apply for special consideration. This is malpractice by the invigilator

That is not what happened according to OP

The invigilator shouldn't have encouraged her to finish early. She should have waited until the end of the exam time. That wouldn't have been allowed at the school where I worked.