is this legal? AQA scrapping DDs result and forcing a resit for the whole year

[ThatVikRinA22]

has anyone else got this predicament? im very very right now.

DD is 15 and in year 11.
In year 10, she took several GCSEs, including all the science GCSEs. She got top Cs in them all, she was working at an E a year ago, her improvement has been epic and the work she put in was superhuman, she revised, revised and revised for the exams and was ecstatic with her Cs for all of them, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

so why the actual fuck is she having to resit one i asked?

so i rang the school to ask this, and ask what happens if she then gets a D on the resit.....

answer
AQA "misinformed" the school, something to do with percentages claimed during the year, blah blah blah < head of science felt i was clearly too thick to have it all explained properly>.....school say its completely the exam boards fault, theyve complained etc but upshot is that she has to resit her weakest subject.

im so so pissed off, it makes the hard work mean nothing, it means that if she then gets a lower grade that lower grade stands....

ive complained and got no where. Head of Science says he has complained, and many other schools are in the same predicament due to the exam board giving them "duff information"

why is no one held accountable for this "duff information" and why does my child and many others have to suffer for it?

whats the point of me telling DD to work hard, revise, if the grade she got is simply pulled from under her in this way?

Sorry, I didn't mean that you should know this (not a parent's 'job' iyswim) but if I'm right and this has always been the case in other subjects (as well as English and drama, where it has been for at least four years) then it's the school's 'fault' so it might be worth arguing that they should let your DD resit the paper she is the most confident about (if it's only one paper she'd need to redo.)

What you need to know is when each of the modules we're taken and when the CA marks were submitted.

You also need to know if the cash-in codes were entered.

If she did at least one module and the CA in June, I can't see where an admin problem would come from.

Now, the initial statement of results, which come out on results day in August, as well as the interim results days is called a "provisional" statement. I personally have never encountered a change between provisional and final, but could this be the issue!

I am not a Head of Science, but perhaps those Mumsnetters who are can shed some light.

I found this on the AQA website, but can't tell when it was added. If you dig around the AQA site you might find more useful information.

To be honest though, I think your best bet now is to accept she's going to have to resit and to start convincing her that it isn't a bad thing (whether you believe it or not). She's not actually in a worse position this year than she would have been had she not done the exam last year and if she got high Cs in all the others then even a rogue D this time isn't going to pull her whole grade down.

AQA did not change the rules at the last minute. The 40% rule has been very well publicised and many other schools are not in this predicament - was at an AQA course this week with about 30 other head of science/programme leaders and this was not mentioned as an issue.
Your school has cocked up big time and it is totally inexcusable, near on a sacking offence imo.
Can't imagine keeping my job if i made the same error. I'm afraid i think your daughter will have to resit. A truth she is though, because normally core and additional students would not have to revise for all the core and additional exams this year, as they have already done the core. It may well bring down her marks in both, it is very unfair on the students, but i am not sure there is a way round it.

It does look very much like a school cock up but the upside is that you could ask for her to be entered for higher tier and if she gets a 'B' it could raise her overall level to a 'B'. As someone else has said, she would have to do very badly indeed (F) to drop below a 'C'.

I can't suggest anything to remedy the wrong that's been done your DD, but one way to find out where the fault lies might be to make a Freedom Of Information Request www.ico.gov.uk/for_the_public/topic_specific_guides/schools/pupils_info.aspx for information the school holds about this exam process and your daughter's results. You could ask specifically for the information knowsabouteducation says you need.

I'm really sorry to hear this has happened. Best of luck to your daughter - she sounds fantastic, I'm sure she'll pull through it.

apparently if she gets a D a D will stand - her course work is only worth 60% - she could improve her course work to 80% - then if she gets a D she will still get a C overall.

this is the info the school have given me - if she gets a D now, a D will stand.
i dont understand this at all, but i have no reason to doubt what the head of science has said, and he knows how pissed off i am about it.

to keep her C she needs to get a C in the resit.

Again that sounds very bizarre too. My DD is in Y11 and for a variety of reasons, missed a lot of education in Y10. She did edexcel core science. She achieved a mid B on her controlled coursework, the highest UMS mark of a C in biology, an E in chemistry and a U (higher tier so F grade UMS points)in physics. This gave her an overall high D. She is retaking chemistry and physics next month (to satisfy the 40%) rule. She will only need a D and an E (or even 2 high Es) to achieve enough UMS marks (because the controlled coursework and biology results are banked) to achieve an overall C. If she manages 2 top UMS mark Cs (she's doing foundation tier resits) she will achieve an overall B.

vicar I'm so sorry this is happening to you and your daughter .

I have no advice I'm afraid but IME schools do make these sort of mistakes but they are very loathe to admit to them .

I had a terrible time getting DS's AS physics certificate .
School kept telling me he'd lost it ,but when I spoke to exam board they told me it hadn't been cashed in .
School told me they'd cash it in during next round of exams but again nothing appeared .
Eventually we did get it but school had to write a letter to exam board and they made some sort of exception allowing it to be cashed in even though it was after some cut off date .
And the school were furious with me.

OK, the grades assigned to individual components are a red herring. It is about the total UMS. In order to achieve a C, the total for all her three exams plus the CA need to exceed a certain threshold.

It should be fine. Her school should bend over backwards to provide revision classes, and about half the marks come not from knowing stuff, but being able to demonstrate certain skills. These are common through both Core and Additional Science, and she should do better in this part this year than last.

How can her coursework be worth 60%?

I am assuming 30/50 for the CA.

A school local to me forgot about the 40% terminal rule & buggered up all year 11's English grades. HOD fell on his sword over it, in fact, & resigned.

It's an almighty cock up by the school, almost certainly (not that that helps your dd, but if you felt like opening a can of whupass you certainly could.)

Agree with TFM that school should go out of their way to help with revision etc.

could someone please explain this 40% rule to me . I keep reading it but cannot understand it.

I think it's sort of like the Arsenal Offside Trap .

I actually glaze over, too, every time I try to get my head round it, but basically, you must submit 40% of the assessment in June 2013, if that's when the GCSE is being awarded. It can be either the exam, or some/all of the Controlled Assessment, but must be at least 40%.

So if the student is entered for a qualification awarded in June, but doing early exam entry in January, with a possible re-sit, you need to not cash in any controlled assessments before June, so they can be the 40% regarded as having been taken in June (even if you actually did them in year 10 & then stuck them in a filing cabinet for a year).

If you do cash them in, they have to sit the exam in June in order for that to be the terminal 40%. Which is not what you want if they've already hit target in January.

Clear as mud. I think.

This sort of thing is why my HOD gets paid lots more than me - properly understands it!

In Science, we can only cash in CAs in June. But they are only worth 25%. So you need to take one examined unit as well, worth at least 15%. And it will count! So if it is a re-take exam, and you do worse, then it's tough and the June mark will count.

For AQA, there are two ways of doing Core Science. We do an exam worth 35% in January, plus the CA and another exam worth 40% in June.

Or you can do B1 (25%), C1 (25%) and P1 (25%), plus the CA (25%). You need to do two lots of 25% at the end of the course.

Talk to the governors for a start? And if she does have to re-sit it. Is there any way you could get her one on one tuition and perhaps, with the extra support, it might even get her a higher grade?

If they haven't fulfilled the specification requirements, I don't see what the governors can do.

It's the school's screw-up.

Sounds like the HoD didn't cash in in June.

So yes, as others have said, in order to be awarded the qualification, she would need to fulfil the '40% rule' which is, to take 40% of the qualification in the June of the academic year in which it is awarded.

Hence the re-take, plus a repeated CA, I suspect. And yes, most recent (rather than highest) grade counts.

I have three students in Year 11 doing the same as they missed an exam in Year 10.

But to have the whole year doing this is an almighty balls up by either the HoD or the exams officer (or possibly both).

If I had ballsed up in this way, I think I would throw myself on the mercy of AQA. Have the school tried that?

COuld you call AQA yourself (you will need the school's exam number) and see of they will consider 'special circumstances' - they won't, of course, but it might prompt them to get in touch with the school and find out what the heck they are up to.

AQA have been really brill at supporting us throughout the first year of the new specs.

I would second contacting AQA ,they helped me when school were telling me DS had lost certificate and eventually I learnt they had not cashed in .
It's a bit tricky because they can't really give info to the parent but they can talk to school once you've alerted them .
And I found it helped once the school knew that I was talking to the exam board .

im wary of contacting AQA, do you think it would help?

how do i go about contacting them?

DD is quite adamant that i stay out of it - even though she is hugely annoyed at this she hates me interfering.....

Contacting AQA certainly can't do any harm and it may help if the school have messed up, which appears to be the case. There are contact details on their website web.aqa.org.uk.

This phone number from AQA website

Exams Office Support

        0844 209 6614       

If it were me I think I would contact them and expain that the school has told you that the resits are a result of AQA changing the rules at the last minute and that you're trying to clarify the position .
Make sure you expain that the whole year group is affected and ask if school can appeal to AQA .
They may just refuse to talk to you but you may get some info .
Otherwise or instead I think I'd contact my local MP - because this is someone's error ( school or AQA ) and the students suffer .

Why are you worried about contacting AQA ? Perfectly reasonable to check what school have told you ,and even if AQA won't talk to you I think they should have the feedback and try even harder to make sure schools aware of rules which seem to get ever more complicated .

If I hadn't contacted AQA about my son's AS certificate I would never have known that my son hadn't lost the certificate and that the school had forgotten to cash it in .
Schools are very reluctant to admit mistakes and with the exam system being so complicated and changing they can rely on parents not knowing what's going on and fob them off .

And the Governors may not be able to alter the situation and will undoubtably close ranks and support the school but I think they should be made aware of the situation .