Controlled Assessment Help

[xxnamechangedforthis]

My daughter had a serious discussion with me yesterday about her MFL gcse. It appears that she has had to do some work called "Controlled Assessments" over the last few months but didn't do very well in them. She wants me to ask the school if she can retake one of them, as after going to her languages teacher they refused as her work had been of a B/A grade standard and they only allowed retakes for D/C grade students. She is very concerned now and was in tears last night, her school is quite competitive and she loves her MFL and really wants a top grade ie. A*. I don't know how to support her when the school is refusing this request, does anyone have any experience with this sort of situation?
(She had been ill previous to one assessment and was home, so had to catch it up later but didn't really have time to learn it properly if this is relevant.)

Wanting something and being capable of delivering it are not always the same thing. What is her predicted grade for this MFL? Maybe the teacher thinks this is the best grade she can achieve?Also if it is a single controlled assessment and she has an A/B grade for it, she can still achieve an A* in the language overall. She will just need to do very well in all other assessments and the exam.

The point if the system is not to allow constant retaking to improve the grade. They will have had lots of practice /revision time for the CA and once it's done it's done I'm afraid. There will be others and she can make up any shortfall in the main written papers. Wanting an A* is different from being capable of it- maybe it's an opportunity to manage expectations?

With DD's board, 1 CA is worth 15% and there are 4 in total (so 60% CA), 2 speaking and 2 written.

So one at B/A with 3 others at A* re-doing costs time but some potential increase. If she has done 4 all at B/A they will probably think that is her level.

With all of them you prepare in advance then learn off by heart. You can help by listening / ensuring she is practicing this.

You could email the teacher asking her to clarify the reasoning and saying your DD would really like to retake, but broadly speaking I get the impression schools seem to have 'policies' on what they will / won't let kids redo (as it all costs teacher time).

Which year is she? if only y10 they may let her retake her 'worst' one towards the end of y11. If y11 she's probably done more than one already.

Thank you for all the replies. Just to answer a few of the questions, she is predicted an A* overall, which I think is contributing to this issue at the moment as it would normally be a grade within her reach.
Quitethewoodsman, the exam board is AQA - I think I will send a quick email to the teacher about retaking one of the writing ones, as it doesn't sound like too big an issue. She was most worried about her most recent written one, apparently the aural/other writing task were fine. Just another quick question - if she did get a A or B overall, could she retake alongside her A-levels? This is a MFL she was planning to do for A level, but I am not so sure it is a good idea now.

I personally can't see any value whatsoever in retaking an MFL GCSE along side A levels if you get a B or A at just to try to get A*.

Round here the 6th form colleges let you do an MFL A level as long as you got a B at the GCSE.