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?

[EvilTwins]

Sorry, that should read "and the rules are NOT read out..." ie, that they are, always.

[MmeBlueberry]

The exams officer is not head of centre - that is the head teacher.

[ScarlettIsWalking]

Have you seen the note he brought in OP? What does it look like to you?

[kritur]

You need to look at the JCQ rules here as they govern all examinations and their rules apply to Edexcel. This is how a candidate can end up with all examinations being void regardless of the exam board. I have an old policy document which outlines the sanctions for candidates. They are -
Penalty 1 - Warning
Penalty 2 - Loss of marks for a section
Penalty 3 - Loss of marks for a component
Penalty 4 - Loss of all marks for a unit
Penalty 5 - Disqualification from a unit
Penalty 6 ? Disqualification from all units in one or more qualifications
Penalty 7 - Disqualification from a whole qualification
Penalty 8 - Disqualification from all qualifications taken in that series
Penalty 9 - Candidate debarral

It also gives examples of candidate malpractice including -
bringing into the examination room or assessment situation unauthorised material, for example: notes, study guides and personal organisers, own blank paper, calculators, dictionaries (when prohibited), electronic dictionaries, reading pens, translators, wordlists, glossaries, iPods, mobile phones, MP3 players, pagers or other similar electronic devices;
For a warning then it quotes "notes/annotations go beyond what is
permitted but do not give an advantage."
Penalties 2-4 (loss of marks) = notes/annotations are relevant and
give unfair advantage.
Penalties 5-9 (loss of certificatation) = notes/ annotations introduced in a
deliberate attempt to gain an advantage.

Hope this helps

[StayingDavidTennantsGirl]

You are right EvilTwins - I suspect I'm the one you are referring to when talking about it helping no-one to suggest the school should share some of the responsibility. I wasn't clear, certainly, and hadn't thought about it properly. The school only shares some responsibility if they haven't followed procedures properly.

[AngusOg]

Hope things went as well as they could for you today, OP. If you feel up to it, would you post?

[supersare]

My husband rang the school but the teacher who is dealing with it wasn't in. Unfortunately, you can't just go there to see someone - you have to make an appointment so we will try again tomorrow. I think they have to send a letter to the examining board by 30th and then we just have to sit and wait until August for their decision. We're fairly resigned to him being disqualified from the one exam (thank god he already has his C grade) but keeping our fingers crossed that the others will be safe.
For all the sanctimonious people who are calling him a cheat all I can say is have you never made a mistake? I suspect anyone who says they havn't is lying. I know how forgetful my son is and I also know it's not in his personality to cheat at anything. Will post updates when I know more.

[QueenBodicea]

Good luck Supersare. I hope its only the one maths exam which is affected. That would be the logical conclusion and will not affect the grade he already has for it.

[JenaiMarrHePlaysGuitar]

Poor sod.

Fingers crossed OP that the board aren't too hard on him.

[gingeroots]

Sympathies to you and your family supersare , really admire how you're handling this .
Hope DS not so upset that affects exams he's currently taking .
Give him all my heartfelt best wishes .
( and mucho tea and strength for you and DH )

[ellisbell]

OP no matter how sympathetic anyone is to your son the problem for both school and exam board is that it is almost impossible to tell the difference between bringing a piece of paper in accidentally and deliberately. They cannot give your son the benefit of the doubt and have to uphold exam standards.

Where there is discretion is over what other sanctions they apply. You need to be talking to the school about what exactly was on the piece of paper, whether he was seen to read it or simply have it in his possession and what difference that might make to the penalty. Also about any reputation he may have for forgetfulness.

Whether exam rules were read out or not or whether they should have removed the calculator cases only affect the centre, not your son. It is not in your son's interest to pursue any suggestion of laxity as that might predispose the examination board to rule out all your son's exams. You want the centre to have a high reputation for standards so you can argue that if he'd actually tried to make use of his piece of paper he would have been seen and that if he'd done the same thing in other exams it would have been spotted. He wasn't seen using it (hopefully) so it was possession but not use. You might ask him if he went to the toilet during the exam, an opportunity to have read the paper would be more damaging.

[ajandjjmum]

I do hope things work out for your son op - it's horrible situation.

According to dd cheating in exams is quite commonplace, so I suppose the school do have to be ultra careful.

[Hattiehoo]

For what it's worth Supersare, I think you are handling it brilliantly. You have kept a lid on your anger and are believing in him when he most needs you to. Whatever the outcome, he will always remember your belief in him. Fingers crossed it doesn't have to be too hard a lesson for him.

[dung428]

I am sorry to ask you but what happened in the end?!

[michglas]

Schools are obligated to report any forms of cheating, and what your son did was exactly that. It doesn't matter if he didn't mean to have the bit of paper in his calculator case (which really doesn't wash with my anyway), they are given enough reminders about making sure they only have what they are allowed into the exam.

[t0lk13n]

I am worried that he had pen on his arms with formulae or such like! He is 15/16 not 6.

[t0lk13n]

Sorry wrong child...just re-read and see it is goblin ds not op son who writes on them. Ignore first tolky post

[supersare]

t0lk13n: yep, I've ignored your messages and all the other harsher comments people have put on here also come to that.
The situation now is that my son has written a statement of what happened which has been sent to the examining board along with a statement written by a teacher. The school have been very fair about the whole thing and handled it well in my opinion. All we can do now is just hope that the one exam only is voided and all his others remain unaffected.
It's incredibly annoying that he's gone through school with no problems, getting good results and was actually quite sad on his last day as didn't want to leave!
If any other parents have been through this, please get in touch.

[Colleger]

On the bright side at least he will never do this again, how awful would it have been if it was an A'level or university test.

A good lesson for a cheat or a dipsy, forgetful child.

[t0lk13n]

Actually my ignore was for goblin not you. Let it be a lesson and hope more people look at this and inform their children to be more careful. My son`s last exam tomorrow and I have warned him.
On a nicer note I hope he can retake all his exams if it is the worst case scenario and does really well.

[supersare]

Thanks t0lk13n, I hope your son does ok too. Just keeping our fingers crossed now for the outcome we want, it will be exceptionally bad if they void every single exam he has taken! I'm still inwardly fuming with him, it's so hard not to go completely ballistic with him about it. He's angry with himself about it anyway so that's maybe punishment enough for him.