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Primary education

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Original poster

Lost sats papers!

44 replies

happy2bhomely · 14/07/2015 13:09

So, the Head told me yesterday that we have a meeting on Wednesday morning to talk about why our sats results are delayed. Apparently the whole year group are missing their spelling and mental maths papers! It has affected 50 schools.

She told me that the children will be given their levels they reached without the missing papers. So a child who might have reached level 5, will be marked as a 4 because they will be missing marks from the other paper. She told me that it was still possible to reach level 5 if they scored high on the papers they do have, so all is not lost!

I am so disappointed. We had issues with the sats regarding maladministration (I posted here about it) but was told it was not being taken any further. it's just one thing after another.

My daughter took the level 6 papers and it's not clear yet whether they have been affected.

I know that it's not the end of the world. DD has already been streamed for secondary using her teacher assessment levels, but she was looking forward to the results.

Is anyone else affected by this?

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thankgoditsover · 15/07/2015 11:04

By the way, well done you for reporting the cheating. Our school is a stickler for ethics and is similarly compared unfavourably to schools which manage out the low achievers and do a few prompts during sats. It makes a mockery of the whole stupid system.

Your reporting it was putting ethics above your personal relationship with the school and you did the right thing.

BreconBeBuggered · 15/07/2015 14:33

Did you get any answers at the meeting, OP? Are the papers really missing or do they now form part of an investigation into maladministration?

Original poster

happy2bhomely · 15/07/2015 16:25

Right, I am back with an update!

We had a meeting with the Head, Executive Head, Governor, someone from the local Authority, a moderator, and a guy who I didn't catch where he was from. After lots and lots of talking about how proud they are and how proud we should be we were told the news.

We were given a a letter to look at but we had to give it back so we couldn't post it on social media I slipped it in the pram! I have no intention of posting it in full (I don't want to disclose personal details) but I wanted a copy for my daughter's records.

The letter is from the Standards and Testing Agency, addressed to the Head. It says it is a "confirmation of lost key stage 2 test scripts." Maths and SPAG tests are affected. It says, "We are unable to locate the lost test scripts, it will not be possible to mark and return overall levels for the mathematics and grammar, punctuation and spelling tests for 81 students. The results will appear as 'M' missing script." They acknowledge that the scripts were received at a warehouse, but were not sent to markers.

It also says, "Those pupils whose scripts have been lost will be excluded from the Department for Education's calculation of affected attainment performance measures. This is to minimise the impact of lost test scripts on schools' results published in the performance tables." "Teacher assessments will be used in place of missing test results."

So we were given some raw scores if we wanted them and then sent on our way.

OP posts:

soapboxqueen · 15/07/2015 16:34

Oh well at least you know. I'd have been surprised if your phone call had been the cause.

clam · 15/07/2015 18:38

Bloody hell! What a cock-up. And the fact that you had all those big guns at the meeting goes to show how serious it is and how desperate they are to keep it all quiet. phone the daily mail

admission · 15/07/2015 20:44

That is quite difficult, because there could well be a temptation when the results do come out and it says teacher assessments will be used to assume that something underhand has gone on, when the issue is nothing to do with the school and everything to do with the organisation who handled all the transportation of scripts. I do not think as a school that I would want to keep quiet, I would be clearly saying this is a mistake outside the school and we are gutted that our pupils have been let down by this error, so that everybody is under no illusion what has happened.

It does seem impossible to accept that the scripts got to the warehouse and were signed in and then were lost. They must have gone out to somewhere by mistake.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 15/07/2015 21:53

It does happen, admission. I seem to remember it going hiddeously wrong one year. Total balls up from beginning to end. Although I'm not sure it was the same provider.

As Feenie said, this sort of error only affecting 50 schools might not be considered newsworthy.

mrz · 15/07/2015 21:57

2008 I think? But thus year scripts were scanned and marked on line so surely they realised immediately !

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 15/07/2015 22:04

Yes 2008.

I suppose it depends on their processes for scanning and marking. Possibly they did realise immediately but couldn't find the papers. If they sent them straight to a warehouse and then elsewhere for scanning it could have got lost between those two points.

Feenie · 15/07/2015 22:26

Think it was around 2008, yes. complete debacle. I was in the TES had a double page spread doing a DM cross face!

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 15/07/2015 22:56

Ha ha @ DM cross face. Were you marking or trying to get results/papers back.
I've just dug out the epic TES thread on it. It's 250 pages. IIRC there wasn't single part of the process they didn't screw up.

Feenie · 16/07/2015 07:12

It was atrocious marking - they'd pulled anyone to do it, and we had clear level 5 writers barely scraping 3s. I'm probably on that thread moaning!

mrz · 16/07/2015 07:33

Ah the joys of spending the holidays going over the papers that were returned after school closed for summer

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 16/07/2015 09:04

i think they were a bit short of markers after the fiasco of the training sessions and standardisation. Loads pulled out and lots never made it to their training sessions.

eddiemairswife · 16/07/2015 10:57

I was marking then, and the whole thing was an absolute fiasco. I had papers missing, names on papers which didn't match names on the school list, and there was no way of getting in touch with the examining board as emails were ignored and phones were unanswered.

DeeWe · 16/07/2015 12:07

I thought this year the scripts were being scanned in and marked like that on line? And if they couldn't read a script it was going to be marked in the normal way?

Bit strange if they lost the scans and the original scripts.

Sorry, I still think it's suspicious, particlarly as one of the papers missing is one you said there was cheating going on.

Feenie · 16/07/2015 12:53

Me too, have to say.

Original poster

happy2bhomely · 16/07/2015 12:55

The cheating that I know of was in the level 6 papers.

I am annoyed and disheartened but to be honest, it's given me a reality check. I was getting a bit hung up on the results and the levels and becoming the sort of parent I dreaded. Time to relax.

We are going to have a fantastic summer. No preparing for September, just lots and lots of fun.

Hope everyone else enjoys their summer too.

OP posts:

MiaowTheCat · 17/07/2015 12:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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