My son accused of cheating in GCSE maths exam...urgent advice needed please

[supersare]

Hi, my son has been accused of cheating in his GCSE maths exam and I have been informed by the school that there is a possibility all his exam results may be consequently voided. I am close to breaking point and am furiously trying to find some information on how to sort this out. The examining board is EDEXL and their website has no details relating to their policy on cheating.
The only thing my son is guilty of is absent mindedness as he claims that in the exam, he took his calculator out of its case he had forgotten to remove a piece of paper with some revision notes on - when he found the paper he panicked and stuffed it back in the calculator case and carried on with the exam. Another pupil spotted him do this and reported him to the invigulator who approached my son while the exam was still going on and asked him why he was cheating.
The school say they have to report it now and I'm at my wits end as to what is going to happen, surely he can't loose all his other GCSE's because of this?

[PotteringAlong]

I am a secondary teacher and I can't see any way out of this one I'm afraid. He took revision notes into an exam, absent minded or not then that's cheating I'm afraid.

The school will send an irregularity report to edxcel (they have to - if the exam board find out they've not done so and tried to cover up cheating they can prevent them from being an exam centre which has serious knock on effects for the school) and edxcel will make a decision. They have 3 options:

1. say that's ok, he was being absent minded, and let the grade stand
   
   
2. rip up his paper for maths and void his mark
   
   
3. void his mark for all the exams edxcel run
   
   Be aware that they can also say (to the best of my knowledge) that they won't allow him to be entered for any if their exams again which will impact a-level / college choices.
   
   You have to accept the very real
   Possibility that he's completely screwed this up and, I'm afraid, has only himself to blame. He will have been told the rules over and over again, they are read out at the start of the exam and he still didn't think. I suspect this will be a hard life lesson to learn

[tiggerandpoohtoo]

I think the rules are that if the exam board find him guilty of cheating then all his exams with that board can be voided. I'm not sure about other exam boards though.

[Pancakeflipper]

I used to work in a college. We had a reported case of cheating. Abut similar to your case. A kid stupidly took in revision notes.

In his case it was a few formula only enough to answer a few questions if any questions on the paper. Not wads of info.

I still think it was a genuine error.

Anyway the upshot was that particular paper he sat was void. He resat the paper in the Autumn. This was in agreement with his carers. The exam board offered 2 options - a reduced grade removing marks from questions that the formulas could answer or a resit.

All other papers were allowed to stand ( though the rest were from different examination awarding bodies) but we did used to ask him to empty pockets/ pencil cases etc... I'd like to think we did this sensitively, he did understand why and was co-operative throughout. He was a good kid. Just really daft.

It did cause him stress though through the exam period. Cos we didn't know what would happen. It took a while for the decision to be made.

It feels like a huge disaster at the time but it will sort itself out.

[mnistooaddictive]

Ellisbell you are given a very few formulae and there are lots more that would be useful along with step by step instructions of how to do things like completing the square, quadratic simultaneous equations, transformations of graphs. Cheating could be very useful at GCSE maths!

[chopchopbusybusy]

Your son is in a very difficult situation. The school really can't ignore it.
He could resit the maths exam. Or the school might allow him to continue to A level on the basis of the C grade that he already has. I'd say if he can resit he should because the jump from GCSE maths to A level is a big one and if he ends up with a disappointing A level result it would be better for him to have higher than a C grade at GCSE.
He may have to resit all his GCSEs (at a charge).
The head teacher is really in a very difficult position. Even if he believes your DS he can't just ignore.

[TheFlyingOnion]

PotteringAlong worded it much better than me, but basically I agree 100%. It doesn't look good to the exam board, they will see it as pretty cut and dried cheating/attempt to cheat by the sounds of it...

Wasn't intending to be harsh, GC.

[balia]

I'm going through exams with my DD at the moment so you have my every sympathy - sometimes they do stupid things. I think you may have to reconcile yourself to him retaking - even if he didn't take the paper in on purpose, he still had the advantage of written revision prompts over other candidates. I think his previous 'C' will stand. Going from a 'C' in stats and maths to an 'A' in a year is quite a leap, anyway.

[nickschick]

It is cheating or intending to cheat whatever way you dress it up.
My ds1 & indeed 2 (who has started his GCSEs this year) could well have done with revision notes accidentally in their cases/calculator wallets,but they play by the rules and dont.

Certainly if your son already has a c grade and was expected to get an A grade then he is bright at maths (that alone doesnt make him a high achiever)and he was v naive to do this.

Hope you can sort things out for him.

[MmeBlueberry]

Here is the official protocol

//www.jcq.org.uk/exams%5Foffice/malpractice/

[Goblinchild]

'Wasn't intending to be harsh, GC.'

All that scrubbing of my DS must have dulled my SOH.

[gingeroots]

Sending sympathies here supersare - hope it's only the Maths exam that is affected ,would seem incredibly harsh to cancel others.
I guess from your post that your lad is hardly a tearaway so I'm sorry for him having to go through this .
If it was a mistake ,it's a harsh outcome to have to retake more than the Maths ,if it was a genuine action - why did he feel the need ?
And now the whole school must be talking about him ,dreadful for you all .
I'm glad you're behind him ,he's a kid and is going to have a tough time with this ,he needs some support .

[MmeBlueberry]

From the JCQ document I linked to, the penalty for bringing in 'relevant material but no attempt to use' is anything from loss of marks from a section of his paper to loss of the whole unit.

This is on page 32 of the malpractice document.

[exoticfruits]

It is probably his first taste of the real world, generally at school you can break the rules, on purpose or by accident, and it doesn't really matter but it is a public exam and rules have to be rigid.

[mnistooaddictive]

I have known an incredibly sensible, hard working student get mixed up in something stupid ( hacking school it network!) it was forgotten quickly and he learnt a massive lesson.
It will pass and in 10 years you will look back and laugh. It really isn't the end of him ever getting a decent job etc.

[ellisbell]

unless his hand-writing is tiny he'd have trouble fitting step-by-step instructions on a single sheet of paper. So I stand by the comment that it would be difficult to actually get much benefit from a single sheet of paper in a maths exam. However the OP must expect the exam board to disqualify him from at least that exam.

I don't think my children have mentioned a requirement to remove cases from calculators before the exam. They have to reset any with a memory, which could involve removing them. If they do have to remove cases the centre is in trouble for not having enforced that. It does sound as though that should be a requirement.

[MmeBlueberry]

Calculator lids have to be removed as they contain formulae and operating instructions.

They even have to remove the labels from their water bottles.

[Goblinchild]

'unless his hand-writing is tiny he'd have trouble fitting step-by-step instructions on a single sheet of paper'

BIDMAS AND BODMAS don't take up much room.

[gingeroots]

the penalty for bringing in 'relevant material but no attempt to use' is anything from loss of marks from a section of his paper to loss of the whole unit
Thanks for posting that MmeBlueberry - I hadn't read the link you posted !
Sounds fair .

[MmeBlueberry]

A lot of people have made the point that the malpractice would not have been useful to the candidate.

However, the sanctions imposed by the awarding body is not only to removed the marks the cheating helped the candidate to obtain (zero in the OP's sons' case). There is also a punitive element, and a of discouraging other candidates from doing it in the future.

[mnistooaddictive]

Ellisbell- I don't know how much you know about GCSE maths, but as a maths teacher I could get enough on a piece of paper to make a massive difference, I listed the topics above, instructions may only be a few lines of algebra.

[Bucharest]

Of course it's locking the stable door, but what he should have done, to hope for at least a sympathetic trial as it were, is immediately tell the invigilators he'd brought them in by mistake.

Failing it this time because of this won't kill him. And when he sits it again, he won't do it again. So if he's an A student, he'll get an A, and a lesson will have been learned.

I think it would be unfair to void his other exams.

[AngusOg]

I think it would be unfair to void his other exams.

Nope, not unfair at all. The regulations exist to ensure the academic integrity of the candidate so that when they move on to tertiary education their ability is as stated and their understanding of ethical behaviours associated with professional / vocational work is clearly understood.

Yes, this particular boy has been very stupid indeed. However, he needs to face the consequences of his actions. And other pupils need to realise that the rules are there to be followed for a reason.

[Bucharest]

I guess so. Also if he has already sat some of them, he could have done the same in the others but not been caught.

Horrid situation, but a valid lesson learned.

[crazymum53]

A student at the secondary school where I work, was caught using a calculator in a non-calculator exam. She picked up the calculator from the floor and started using it part-way through the exam. This was noticed by the invigilator and was only used by the candidate for a few seconds so she would have had little benefit from using it.
The candidate had the result of that Maths exam and all the Maths exams she had done previously cancelled by the exam board. Her case (and the school's was that it was absent-mindedness because it in class they usually did that type of question using calculators). However the Exam Board do clamp down very severely on student's breaking the rules and tend to assume the worst i.e. that the student was cheating.
The best you can hope for is that only his Maths exams will be affected.

[PotteringAlong]

I agree with lots of the posts here.

It's an actions and consequences thing-he will have had this laid on the line over and over again by his teachers. 'I forgot' is simply not a defense. I would go to school tomorrow, go to the meeting and accept whatever they say with good grace and without argument. Remember that it's no longer the school's decision-it'll have been reported on Friday and you will just have to wait and see