Daughter given wrong time for GCSE resit, subsequently missed exam - what to do?

[KingsArmy]

This is slightly long so thanks to those who read it!
Daughter got a 3 in GCSE maths last year. Had obtained a few 4's but wasn't consistent enough to be awarded by her teachers in June. However my point is more that she is very near the grade boundary for a pass.
She has gone to college where she is in a maths revision class with only 1 other student who was resitting in November (last year). The rest of the class consists of students who failed entirely, or haven't taken maths at GCSE at all. They are all being taught the same content, so she is spending her maths lessons being taught how to add 3 digit numbers and her times tables. She has still attended these lessons as it will impact her attendance if she doesn't, but she has spent many an additional hour refreshing herself on content in anticipation of the resit which was taken last November.
The day before the exam she could not access her exam portal which told her the time of her exam, location, seat number etc. She showed her teacher on her phone who then proceeded to tell her the information, which she wrote down. The other girl who was resitting also wrote down the info too. The two do not know each other.

The subsequent exam day she arrives at 10.05 in anticipation of the exam starting at 10.30. The other girl also arrives shortly after her. They are then told that the exam started at 9am and she has missed it. They are both escorted to a side room (with said child in floods of tears), sit the exam as they are told there maybe a chance that it will still be marked.

Fast forward to December and we received confirmation that the exam board will not mark the paper as she arrived after 10am. I should also add that the college told me on the day when I called to find out what had happened that their supporting statement would state she arrived before 10am.

I have followed the complaints process with the college but today received an email from the principal saying they are sympathetic but there is nothing they can do. Unsuprisingly, the teacher is denying he told the students the incorrect time and has said that my daughter misheard him.

So my question really is what else can I do? I've called the exam board who said the complaint needs to really come via the college. I've followed the colleges complaints protocol and been told tough luck!
I really feel for my daughter who was so down about it she didn't leave the house for nearly a week. She has not attended any maths lessons since and is likely to now fail this year if she resits again.

OP, your poor DD. I would normally say that they should know at this stage what time exams start (they ALWAYS start at 9 for am sitting) but of course, they wouldn't have taken any last year.

I do think that although you can argue with the school about the details, the exam board are very unlikely to go back on this decision. The rules were broken even if they weren't your dd's fault.

I think unfortunately, whilst you could fight for the school to admit responsibility (highly unlikely) you are best getting them to support your dd to be prepared for the summer sitting. Could they offer her a different teacher? Some one to one with someone else? There is a catch-up budget (although not sure colleges have been given this) available to help students. I have a feeling it may be for the current year groups in school (7-11) though, but don't know details.

Good luck to your dd. Hopefully she can reach her potential in maths and move on

JCQ regulations state that: “When deciding whether to accept any of the work done by a candidate who arrives very late, the awarding body will pay particular attention to how far it can be sure that the security of the examination has been maintained. Given that candidates may have left the examination room one hour after the awarding body’s published starting time*, the awarding body is unlikely to be able to accept the work of very late candidates unless they have been adequately supervised.”

So if your DD arrived at 10:05 and wasn't supervised, JCQ couldn't guarantee the integrity of the exam. It doesn't matter that her exam started at 9:30 as nationally it could have started at 9am. I don't think it matters in that case that it was the fault of the school.