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Eton caught cheating on Pre-U

232 replies

BossWitch · 26/08/2017 08:22

Saw this on bbc's papers round up but can only find a full story link in the Fail, sorry.

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4824050/amp/Eton-deputy-head-quits-amid-claims-helped-pupils-cheat.html

Basically, a deputy head who was a senior examiner and involved in setting the exam leaked the exam materials to staff and students for one of the economics papers for the Cambridge Pre-U so all those marks have been disregarded. Deputy head has now left the school.

I'm quite shocked. What on earth was he thinking? And how much pressure must he have been under to ensure results that he thought this was a good idea?

Any Eton parents about on mumsnet today? What are your thoughts?

OP posts:
PaganGoddessBrigid · 28/08/2017 14:36

Blimey, I love how Peteneras' post makes it seem like the real problem here is the shabby outside world affecting Eton. ''He came from elsewhere''.

Those students have enough advantages. So it is an eye-roll revelation.

peteneras · 28/08/2017 14:39

You are absolutely right, dishwasher! My DD was at a state school too (super selective grammar) and to her, her school was the greatest of all. Who am I to argue? I certainly don't expect everyone to agree with everything I say; likewise, I don't agree with everything everyone says. This is what make forums like this interesting...

FrenchRoast · 28/08/2017 14:50

Eton DOES make human sacrifices so that the likes of you can be alive today to poke fun at it
Can we have links to back up this statement please?

TestTubeTeen · 28/08/2017 15:02

Of course all sectors of school are vulnerable to dodgy practice. What sticks in the craw is that the students 'assisted ' by such practice at Eton are already priveligef and given a massive head start. That because of a range of factors which are based entirely in privilege our country is led, governed and managed by a disproportionate number of its alumni, and within our wretched enduring class system it is still seen to uphold some code of Great British Values.

In private schools it seems to me that everyone is so much more invested in keeping the reputation and results high. Because it is a business, because parents have paid for it, and because the elite privileges it brings rest on that brand and reputation.

State school results depend on the results. No one has heard of or remembers the name of your comp that supported your row of A*s.

Quite offensive really to imply that Eton lives lost in world wars are more of a sacrifice than other lives. Especially given the make up of officer classes etc.

There is a state school near me that was investigated in an exam cheating context, teachers whistleblew, the school was talked about for a long time afterwards and subject to many interim inspections. Will Eton be subjected to the same scrutiny?

Independent inspections (managed by the independent sector itself), a custom-designed exam board...

So little accountability, it seems.

Ttbb · 28/08/2017 15:24

They seem to be cheating a lot recently? Maybe their most recent cohorts are a bit thick, it happens from time to time that a whole year is unusually stupid.

peteneras · 28/08/2017 15:35

^"Eton DOES make human sacrifices so that the likes of you can be alive today to poke fun at it .

TestTubeTeen · 28/08/2017 16:12

Peteneras, that is ridiculous.

Eton did not make those sacrifices, individuals gave their lives. As did many others from many walks of life.

And the call (and answer) for a more equal society after the WW2 was in response to the individual lives from all walks of life. And the women who did formerly men's jobs while they were away / dead.

Freedom and democracy, not a self interested, self perpetuating system of a self interested elite.

One of us is going to have to leave this thread if I am not to emerge from it as a full blown revolutionary by the end of the afternoon Grin

Angry -me, as a Red

Namechangeblock · 28/08/2017 16:37

The cheating is clearly rife, it's been reported today as going on at WinCol too...

Ta1kinPeece · 28/08/2017 16:41

Lots of teachers mark exams for lots of boards.
There is a massive difference between
marking the exam after the event
and

writing the exam paper.

The fact that CIE clearly does not bar its examiners from teaching their own course (Eton, Winchester and Charterhouse have all been caught this year)
should make them be unacceptable as a UK University exam board.

The fact that the Eton (and Winchester and Charterhouse) boys have such a poor moral compass that this did not hit the news in June
shows that they are being trained to expect perks on a plate.

Disgraceful.

FrenchRoast · 28/08/2017 17:09

Peteneras that's a link to Eton - are you saying that some old boys fought and died in a few wars - I think all schools that had been around pre war could make the same claims - are Eton lives more precious than the cannon fodder?

annandale · 28/08/2017 17:16

French roast there is definitely an 'excess death rate' among public school educated boys for British and colonial troops for both WWI and WWII, that's well established. Factors like these boys being more likely to be commissioned as junior officers and required to lead into battle, and also being simply better fed and therefore taller/easier to hit have been cited.

There is little relationship between this and the current news story.

sendsummer · 28/08/2017 17:18

My question has not been answered. Are A level examiners who write questions (not mark them) also teachers? If so do all other boards apart from CIE make it à condition that they cannot teach the same board.
It is of course easy to jump on the 'pointing fingers at preU private schools' bandwagon but I would just like the situation clarified for A levels.

Ceto · 28/08/2017 17:23

The human sacrifices, many thousands of them, were not made on the cricket or rugby pitches like you suggested, but instead on much more uncomfortable trenches and battle fields. . .

Thousands of Eton's former pupils were killed in trenches and battlefields? I don't think so, somehow.

Ceto · 28/08/2017 17:28

What makes you think you are entitled to an automatic position at Eton ahead of everyone else, Ceto?

Oh dear, comprehension fail, Peteneras. Self-evidently I don't think that. My point was that that would however be the logical conclusion of your confident statement that "They take you at face value; you tell them who you are, what you are and what you can do for the School and yourself preferably with some evidence" and therefore could not be blamed for taking on someone you describe as an idiot.

KarlosKKrinkelbeim · 28/08/2017 17:37

Some people need to do some history (at Eton perhaps). the junior officer class got it worst of all in WW1, and they tended to be drawn from the public school going classes.
I'm not understanding why it's ok to be taught by your exam setter at university but not at school. Am I being dense? In some subjects (e.g. International law) everyone was but in the subjects everyone did (e.g. Contract) that was by no means true.

Ta1kinPeece · 28/08/2017 17:38

sendsummer
Are A level examiners who write questions (not mark them) also teachers? If so do all other boards apart from CIE make it à condition that they cannot teach the same board.
Apparently yes.

CIE have so few schools its clearly not come to light before
but the guy at Eton was so blatant
and the lads at Winchester were posting it on Facebook.

I find the lack of moral compass / ethical standards utterly depressing.

Ta1kinPeece · 28/08/2017 17:40

karlos
I'm not understanding why it's ok to be taught by your exam setter at university but not at school.
At University, everybody is taught by the exam setter.
At A level only the kids at the school where the exam setter works get the perk ......
the kids at all the other schools are left behind ...

TestTubeTeen · 28/08/2017 17:45

"the junior officer class got it worst of all in WW1, and they tended to be drawn from the public school going classes." And 100 years later we are supposed to be so grateful that we have an indulgent chuckle at cheating? Or kowtow to a current generation of 17 year olds whose military risk stopped with Minecraft?

Who the hell was in charge of government and the military during WW1? It wasn't the working classes.

TestTubeTeen · 28/08/2017 17:48

If the Universities (Oxbridge) do not take a very close look at the evident conflict of interest in the CIE as a result of this, we will know for sure that they tacitly approve of the status quo wrt their demography.

mrz · 28/08/2017 18:10

The poster is correct 1000 of the 700 000 fatalities in WW1 we're old Etonians although I'm not sure that makes their sacrifice any greater than others

Ta1kinPeece · 28/08/2017 18:47

Bearing in mind that in WW1 most of the "troops" left school at 11 if they ever went, Eton's figures cannot be compared with anything.

Do those posters defending Eton's record really defend hiring a guy who is the head examiner and then switching to his exam board.
Are their ethics really that distorted ?

FrenchRoast · 28/08/2017 19:19

Were the 1000 making the decisions doing so for the honour of Eton? Were they the people in charge - making the decisions - I doubt they were the poor bastards who gave up their lives without a choice.

EmpressoftheMundane · 28/08/2017 19:36

I'm more concerned about the exam boards than Eton. In the final analysis, Eton is just a school with the same temptations to cheat and bend the rules that other schools have. The difference is, CIE thought Eton (and Winchester) could police themselves effectively. The fact Eton has sacked the guy, and he wasn't around long shows me that Eton was willing, but not sufficiently effective. No matter how respected the organisation, self policing doesn't work. The CIE exam board is either deluded, or stupid.

FrenchRoast · 28/08/2017 19:44

No matter how respected the organisation, self policing doesn't work. Amen! Look at the NHS!

KarlosKKrinkelbeim · 28/08/2017 20:10

But it simply isn't true that at university everyone is taught by the examiner! How could that possibly be true across the board.
As I pointed out, in my instance, for some subjects (taken by relatively low numbers) that was the case. But on the compulsory papers which hundreds of people took of course it wasn't.
By some people's reckoning there should be 100s of QCs and maguc circle partners all handing their qualifications back and gjagekkating themselves for CHEATING. What nonsense.