Higher history—school messed up!

[Ineedcoffeenow]

DD had her higher history exam today. She’s badly dyslexic and has extra time. She also has the computer screen coloured purple. She gets very sore eyes if she tries to read off a normal screen. Basically, they didn’t do it for paper 1. DD asked and the guy shrugged his shoulders and said he didn’t know how to do it (neither did DD as she generally uses a Mac and it’s different). So she struggled to do the exam and her eyes were really sore by the end. The same thing happened for paper 2, but thankfully somebody turned up and said it needed to be sorted. Two hours later, she finally got to sit the exam. That’s a total of 6 hours frkm start to finish. I’m pissed off with them and plan on complaining to the SQA—but to check, am I being unreasonable in thinking the school should have this sorted?

I would have thought they should be sorted. Who coordinates their disability support at school? How was it done for her mocks?

The screen has always been set up when DD got to the exam
before. I’m not sure who the disability person is at the school. I might email her guidance teacher. Her eyes are bloodshot from the strain. The text jumps around on the screen when she doesn’t have the overlay, which makes it bloody difficult to read!

The school should surely enter a report and there should be special consideration, though possibly not much. Make sure the school exams officer is aware and they confirm will be correct for exams going forward.

@TeenToTwenties many thanks. I’ll get onto it first thing in the morning. Thankfully the next exam isn’t until the 22nd.

tbh I would email today given that tomorrow is Saturday.
Just from a 'log the issue the day it occurred' point of view.

If you don't have the exams officer email then send to school admin or head of year or somesuch marked URGENT: For attention of Exams Officer

@TeenToTwenties I’m not with it. It completely slipped my mind that it’s Friday . I only have her guidance teacher’s email—I’ll try that.

Also - take photos of her bloodshot eyes and record how its made her feel. Unacceptable..

Teacher - I would contact the SQA coordinator at the school - just put that in your email they'll pass it on. Have you seen it written down that this was a part of her exam additional arrangements?

I’ve emailed her guidance teacher. The coloured screen is definitely part of the adjustments. It has always been set up when she got there for other exams.

DD says that she was with another girl who needed a coloured screen—hers was set up for her, but not for DD.

Hmmm, DD has said that a teacher told her to not tell anyone else what happened. 🤔

I am invigilating in this year's exam. I am regularly in 1-1s with kids who have purple paper, blue paper, large print paper, ICT arrangements... you name it. I do not know the reason why these kids are not sitting in the hall with everyone else and it's not my place to ask.

This is a fuck-up between the school SQA liaison person, and the Head Invigilator in the school. It is the job of the SQA person to make sure the right papers are requested from the SQA for each candidate, the job of the Head Invigilator to make sure that the correct papers are allocated to each candidate on the day.

There is also a formal process for invigilators to report back to the SQA on anything which impacted the smooth running of an exam such as IT failures, fire alarms, candidate illness etc. This should absolutely be done in this case.

It is the SQA invigilators who run the exams - not the teachers. Whatever some teachers might think! Yes we have their support/assistance but the invigilators are in charge.

Please take this further. Especially if your DD still has exams to sit.

If you were at my daughter’s school I would say email the Exams Officer, Head of Department and SENCO. Do it today so that it’s timely, also document/photograph her eyes. I would also be asking what arrangements will be made to stop muck ups like this happening for future papers. I would expect them to be applying to the examining board for special consideration for this exam.

Make a noise about it, keep making a noise until you are happy with their response for this and future papers.

When ds sat his modern studies higher the computer kept turning off again and again. The school sent a note to the exam board. I don’t know how much difference it made as he got A anyways as predicted.

Your poor Dd though even disregarding the actual problem of the screen colour etc it’s so unsettling for them.

Absolutely. She was sat with the invigilator in the dining hall for 2 hours with her nerves getting worse during the time.

I work in a college with Adults who are re-taking GCSEs. This shouldn't have happened and would have taken 10 mins tops to fix if it did. Make sure they have already sent an incident form to the exam board with her paper. If they haven't they need to send one pronto. You need to email the Senco, her tutor and the exams person for Monday. I'm so sorry that the school have failed your daughter in this way.

Email now. This will mean a report from the invigilator to the SQA and then exceptional circumstances for your daughter which means her prelim / other assessment evidence will be sent to SQA. The school has 10 days to do this.
I know it’s hard for a teenager to do but in future I would recommend she refuses to start if this happens again. The invigilator will need to get it sorted.

I’ve looked through a link that someone provided on a different thread and it seems that everything has to be done through the school. DD/I can’t make a complaint. Is that right?

From memory yes

Just to add to all the above - it is your daughter who needs to make the complaint, not you. Though nothing to stop you writing the email for her.

As you have already submitted a complaint, just get your daughter to write one too. They may have responded to you but they will ‘officially’ need an email from your daughter. (My school said they got a ticking off on this point one year when audited, I don’t know if that candidate missed out but they are careful to request this ongoing).

You need to email jer guidance teacher and cc

Too soon

... And cc in the SQA coordinator, and SfL if possible. Explain the AAA were not provided and she was unable to access the exam fully.

They need to start the exceptional circumstances process. They only have 10 days from the exam to do this, so you need to get the ball rolling.

They will gather timed assessment evidence and send it to the SQA.

(Teacher, dept Head who regularly sorts EC evidence, and mum of T1 diabetic who hypo'd in his first exam this year and is going through exceptional circumstances!)

Email guidance and the Year Head. Copy to the PTC History (who - I assure you - will be furious that this has happened). Ask them to forward to the SQA Coordinator, so that the SQA can be informed that your daughter was disadvantaged - therefore she sat the exam under adverse circumstances.

In your email, ask the school to let you know what steps they're putting into place in order to ensure that this does not happen again.

I'm assuming that one of the school technicians should have set up the screen, but the person responsible for alternative arrangements should have given them the info. In some schools, that's the PTC Learning Support; in others it can be the SQA Coordinator.

I may be a bit out of date with regard to the nomenclature - I was a PTC (not History) but that was 7 years ago.

Just to add - as others have said, the Chief Invigilator is ultimately responsible - but that's assuming that s/he has been given the correct information.

I have had glitches with invigilators in the past, but nothing like this. The 'guy' should have phoned for assistance.

Many thanks for the help. I’ve had confirmation that the school has submitted a report and they have noted what I told them. Unfortunately if they look at the prelim, it won’t be of much help. She didn’t do well.