Controlled Assessment fiasco! WWYD?

[magentadreamer]

Dd took a MFL Writing assessment today. DD was rather worried about the whole thing as she isn't a natural linguist - more a C/B then an A* student. She prepared a fab peice and as spent the last couple of weeks trying to memorise the peice. She chose the words she could take in with her very carefully and was happy(ish) this morning when she left for school.

DD duly turned up for the hour long CA after school this afternoon along with her fellow CA takers. They were put into a non MFL classroom to do the CA along with 3 others who were on detention.The MFL room was being used by the homework club and a TA supervising. DD was supervised by her Teacher. DD had one of the "detainees" sat on her table who spent half an hour repeatedly say she had to go now till the Teacher allowed her to go. The other pair were on a table behind DD bickering and making paper planes till one had what DD called a "hissy fit" The Teacher remonstrated with the detainees on numrous occasions.

DD spent the first half an hour unable to concerntrate properly, lost her train of thought and ended up leaving ten minutes early as she felt she'd failed it and was getting upset. DD doesn't think she got the magical 300 words down either. Two other CA takers left even earlier then DD.

I was under the impression that CA's should be conducted under exam style conditions which to me means in a quiet enviroment without distraction. This CA is one of two for writing and worth I think 15% of the total marks.

DD came home very quiet and upset, it took a while for me to "weedle" what had happened out of her - I assumed intially DD had just had a "bad exam" till she told me exactly how bad the whole thing was. Both DD and I up until today thought her Teacher was fab, she has really gone out of her way to help DD gain confidence and actually believe she CAN do it.

I really don't know how to take this further or who I should contact. I don't think I'm being unreasonable to think this CA was conducted in a shambolic way. DD feels she will get into trouble for telling me all about it. I'm just a tiny bit fuming that DD and the other CA takers had to do a GCSE assesment under these conditions when the situation could have easily been resolved by sending the Detention DC into the homework club and the TA supervise DD and her fellow CA takers while the Teacher over saw the homework club and detention lot in the other classroom. I don't think I'm being PFB over this and feel that DD and the others have not been able to carry out the CA under proper conditions. I really don't want to make a complaint but don't see I can just ignore this.

[MaureenMLove]

Phone and speak to the head of MFL. It's the only way. I don't think DD should worry about getting into trouble either. This is her GCSE and she wants to do the best.

There may be a possibility that she can do it again. IIRC, you can take the CS as many times as you need to until about April, so with a bit of luck, all is not completely lost. Bit of a pain that it's knocked her confidence again though.

I think it's outrageous that she had to do the CS with detention kids! That really isn't good, but you really need to know what was going on in there and you have every right to know.

[webwiz]

Why on earth wasn't it done in lesson time? I could understand it if it was a resit and it had to be accommodated outside the normal teaching but surely writing controlled assessments can be fitted in to the timetable.

I would telephone your DD's french teacher and ask her to clarify the situation and also put forward your concerns. It is madness to carry out a controlled assessment and try to supervise other pupils as well.

[magentadreamer]

Thank you for your comments, I was honestly thinking I was being a bit PFBish about it. Webwiz, the reason it was done after school was due to the fact it's a twilight class DD goes to. I shall ring the school on Monday when I'm off work as I have a busy day tomorrow and won't get time to take calls if they need to ring me back. Hopefully DD will be able to do the CA again and her other one next month as planned.

[TheFallenMadonna]

Our CA (Science) has several parts, some low control and some high control. I wouldn't even do my low control components in those conditions TBH, but for high control I think it would be malpractice.

[DialMforMummy]

I think you should complain to the head of dpt. It does sound like unacceptable conditions to do a CA. As webwiz said, why was not this done in lesson time?
Just beware thought that in theory, she should not "retake" the same assessment, it would be breaking the rules. AFAIK the only thing that can be done is that your DD does another CA on the same topic with slightly different questions.
Bear in mind that she might do more than just the two CA. For example, in our school we do 4 or 5 and then send off the best 2.

[webwiz]

But if its a twilight class they wouldn't normally have the homework club and detentions in with them?

Definitely not PFB though!

DS has to do his french speaking controlled assessment again - he did it this afternoon and went a bit "off piste" with his answers

[senua]

"I shall ring the school on Monday when I'm off work as I have a busy day tomorrow and won't get time to take calls if they need to ring me back."

I would log the complaint ASAP. Send an e-mail with the outline and say you will contact in detail on Monday? It will give them a chance to start the investigation, instead of fobbing you off with 'we will look into it'. Are the other parents complaining too?

[breatheslowly]

Definitely complain and ensure that she gets to do another CA to replace this one. You might not like complaining, but you will kick yourself if her final mark is borderline and you didn't complain. While it is great that they are offering this as a twilight session, remember that your DD's result will go down with the other results of the school, so by offering a twilight session they will get some of the benefit too.