College says GCSE exam paper file is missing, what can we do?

[ThoroughlyBrassedOff]

Hi all, long time user here, changing my name, as I don't want to be outing.

My dc is doing GCSEs and using a laptop. Today we found out that the college has lost one of their exam papers before half term. The exams officer has been rather vague about it. Apparently first they couldn't find it and now they have, but there is nothing in the file. My dc says they are certain they saved the file. I asked what the invigilator did afterwards, but apparently they can't remember as it is too long ago. They have contacted the exam board already and will ask for special consideration and to give dc a mark based on the average of the other three papers.

I know that mistakes can happen, but I feel super upset. Surely they should have processes in place for handling digital files to make sure these things don't happen. Has anyone else been in this situation before? Does anyone have any advice please?

That sounds odd as I thought they always print the work off immediately after the exam with the candidate present. In fact I think the candidate has to sign the copy.

Yes I agree with this, it sounds very strange. My son did his GCSEs last year and typed most of his papers. He wasn't allowed to leave until the exams officer had checked they could access his saved file, printed it off in front of him and had him sign every single page. School definitely need to check their procedures so it doesn't happen again - extra stress is definitely not needed in exam season! I hope your dc is ok and not disadvantaged 🤞

Agreed , ds used to print it off at the end.

There is a very rigid process for exam papers. The exams officer have to produce an attendance register and send this to the exam board with all the papers.

are they saying that they never sent it off as it was mislaid? If typed, there should be two copies, one for the exam board and the other to be retained by the education provision.

if they haven’t done this, they should also report themselves for maladministration, so I would ask if they have done this and you want to be informed of the outcome.

I would also want to know why it has taken so long to identify this as an error as statements should be taken as soon as possible after the incident.

This is very very strange. As a pp says, this is centre maladministration and they need ru report themselves to JCQ.

I would ask the exams officer for a short written timeline: when the file was saved, who checked it, whether it was printed or signed, when the problem was found, and what has been sent to the exam board. Also ask whether this is being reported as centre maladministration and what evidence will support special consideration.

Can your child remember signing the printed copy? Is use of a laptop their usual way of working for exams? If so, they should be used to checking each page is there, and signing the print out. Schools will have different processes, but at ours we download the paper onto the memory stick and print it out. The student is instructed not to delete the file from the laptop until they have checked the printed copy.

Not many exam boards allow the use of treasury tags to secure the loose sheets to the exam paper, so there is always the worry that the sheets may become separated from the exam paper- maybe this is what has happened?
The invigilators check off each script against a register before placing them in the envelope and sealing it, so it should have come to light then that the script wasn’t there. We always annotate on the register if it is a word processed script.

It seems odd that it wasn’t picked up on the day (or if it was, you should have been informed).

Thank you very much everyone. DC says there were no printouts of any of the exams where they used a computer and they haven't signed anything. Thank you for pointing out the JCQ rules document which I've now read through online. I will be taking this further.