son had his mobile phone in GCSE biology

[Applecheeks]

Three minutes before the end of my sons Biology paper today his mobile phone rang. It was in his pocket. He forgot he had it despite usual prompt at the beginning to hand any mobiles in. He didn't answer it, Invigilator took it off him. He was then interviewed after asked had he intended to cheat etc. My son is chaotic and disorganised. The school rang me to inform and explain that they would submit an incident report. My son is in pieces , angry at himself. I am hoping someone may have had experience. I have read the guidelines on the website of the exam board. This suggests he will receive a penalty of either a warning, lose of points on a unit or the paper, disqualification of this GCSE or ultimately of all he has taken under this board. That would be five GCSEs. I'm so angry with him but that's not helping so trying to stay calm. Clearly it's a breach of the rules but the website doesn't help me work out which penalty is likely as it is judged case by case

[muminhants1]

I'm glad it wasn't harsher and only affected that one paper. Hopefully he'll have done well on the other papers, so his overall grade will be sufficient for his college place. Definitely a lesson learnt the hard way but I'm really glad it wasn't worse.

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

Very glad to hear it has been resolved for you and DS now Applecheeks
Hope your DS especially is OK with the outcome and can still proceed with his plans for next steps without it causing too many problems for him x

[adoptmama]

AS Golf says, I 'm glad that he didn't face a more severe penalty.

[Golfhotelromeofoxtrot]

Best of luck for the future- I'm glad it isn't a more severe punishment.

[Applecheeks]

UPDATE
Just had a call from the Exams Officer at DS's school. DS will receive zero points for the Biology paper. It's the outcome we were expecting and we're very relieved that he won't incur any penalties on the other papers he took with that board. I can now tell anyone else who ever finds themselves in this situation that the board took four working days to issue the penalty. The school took five working days to submit it. Thank you for all the support and help I really appreciate it xx

[adoptmama]

It is frequently drilled into students they may not ask for help. They may raise a hand to ask for more paper, to ask to go to the toilet (escorted), to say they feel ill. They have sat Mocks in Y11 and often in Y10 as well as frequent class exams. Posters provided by the exam boards are displayed showing the potential penalties for taking any electronic device into the exam - No mobile phones, ipods, MP3/4 devices, and no devices capable of storing data or sending data. It doesn't matter a hoot if they are turned off. They could be turned back on again. This is an issue about preventing cheating. Devices can have dictionary apps, translators, internet access or e-books of the entire course stored on them etc. They can be used to photograph question papers and send those questions to others who may sit the exam later (eg due to a clash). A student could ask to go the the toilet with a phone in their pocket and google an answer etc.

Posters display this information both in and outside the examination rooms. Inspectors from the exam boards can call unannounced at any time to check regulations are being followed. The posters clearly state the penalty for breaking the rules could be disqualification. Exam boards like Cambridge provide an instruction booklet for invigilators to read from directly at the start of the exam and this again includes the instruction to hand in any unauthorised items. So students are warned by their teachers before going into the exam, warned by the posters inside and outside the room and warned by the invigilator. Students know they need to take responsibility for this. 'Forgetting' is not an acceptable excuse. They have a responsibility to fulfill and are certainly old enough to be expected to do so in these circumstances.

Harsh as it may sound the rules are there for a reason and have to be enforced consistently and without favour (as the OP clearly accepts). I'm very surprised that there are people on here who would argue that the rules should not be applied because they don't believe there was any 'ill intent' involved. It really doesn't matter whether someone has a phone on them and is intending to cheat or simply forgot about it being there. They still broke the rule. As others have said the exam board will read the submitted report from the invigilators and make a decision about the penalty from that. That is fair and ensures there is not one, blanket penalty meted out. But to suggest there should be no action taken or no penalty given for rule breaking in an externally administered exam is very unrealistic (and I know not something the OP herself has advocated for).

OP I hope your son has a good outcome from the exam board. I hope others who have criticised the way the system is administered can develop a greater level of understanding about why it is important to have this rule. It is not just (or even primarily) about peace and quiet. It is about maintaining the integrity of an examination which is directly linked to the individual's university application(s) and therefore has to be known to be truly reflective of their own performance, without any possibility of cheating or unfair advantage being gained or sought.

[MyPelvicFloorTrainsItself]

Hope you've had good news about this by now Applecheeks.

[Stickerrocks]

OP, have you heard anything about this yet?

[clam]

I don't suppose for one moment this lad was trying to cheat. But rules are rules, and the school must be seen to follow them, particularly in a public examination.

"amazes me that it hasn't been drilled in to them."

We start this very early on in primary - one or two needy ones might stick their hand up in a test in Y3 or 4, and get told they mustn't, but the vast majority have 'got it' by then.

[MayPolist]

As others have said, this isn't about disruption, it is about cheating.How can any of us here, or the examining body, who don't know the boy, know he wasn't cheating? Why else would you have a phone switched on and on your person after notices have been read about it, not to mention the school most probably having told them for weeks to leave their phones at home.

[MrsUltracrepidarian]

Surely they need to understand that they can't ask for help from anyone in a formal exam?!
Precisely - amazes me that it hasn't been drilled in to them.

[stonecircle]

When a kid asks me for help I am very apologetic and apologise that English/ maths/ whatever subject is not my area of expertise and I can't help them.

Why on earth would you say that? That implies that you would help them if it was your area of expertise! Surely they need to understand that they can't ask for help from anyone in a formal exam?!

[Sandpipernest]

I am very apologetic and apologise that English/ maths/ whatever subject is not my area of expertise and I can't help them.


To be correct you shoudl be telling them you can't help them as those are the rules - not because you don't know the subject! That could be very confusing!

[ErrolTheDragon]

I don't think anyone is wanting kids to be exempt from the rules - certainly not the OP. Her question was about which of the available levels of punishment fits the crime.

[ReallyTired]

I have been invigilating internal exams today as the school wants the kids to have experience of people they don't know. When a kid asks me for help I am very apologetic and apologise that English/ maths/ whatever subject is not my area of expertise and I can't help them.

[MrsUltracrepidarian]

The logic or reasoning is irrelevant -it is the rules that apply to everybody - the rules could not be made clearer - there are posters outside the room and in it, the teachers will have told them in the lessons before, they will be told when they enter the room and told again before they start.
I had a parent complain recently that I had refused to help a child in a Year 9 exam. The children were explicitly told clearly and in advance that no help could be given interpreting the questions, and not to ask. Several did, though, disrupting the quiet of the room, because they are so used to being helped all the time in class they cannot comprehend trying to work something out for themselves.
Parents who constantly expect their own child to be exempt from the rules and deride the rules, or demand endless explanation of why they should apply (ignoring all the others who could then equally claim to be exempt) are a major part of the problem that schools have with behaviour.

[ReallyTired]

Occasionally one of the little darlings set off a fire alarm and that is truely disruptive. Asking the children to carry on working through that kind of racket is tough.

When I did my French listening paper many moons ago bloody Concorde flew over whic meant that everyone lost marks for one question. We were not given any allowances.

[ErrolTheDragon]

I don't get the logic that the phone being switched on suggests he hadn't intended to cheat?

Someone intending to cheat would have it switched on but on silent. I can't believe anyone would intentionally take in a non-silenced phone, and neither hopefully will his 'judges'.

[Applecheeks]

From what I have read a warning would be the likely outcome for phone going off but not on person. Phone ringing on person but no evidence of using it -loss of unit so this is I think where we sit. They take into account the candidates response eg if you refuse to hand it over or become argumentative the penalties are higher. He waited for the invigilator to come over and allowed her to remove it from his inside zipped blazer pocket. The thing is it isn't just a penalty for potential cheating they also take into account the disruption to others. The candidates actions can obviously impact on this. The exam board approach the evaluation incident in an evidence based manner so it will purely be judged on this basis.
DS's school do not allow bags in the exam room they are left outside the hall. They have a box in the playground for placing phones in and are prompted in the waiting area (playground) and before the exam once seated. Chemistry Unit 1 today (probably pointless exercise for DS) phone is in my handbag where it will remain until the end of the day!!!!!!

[stinkingbishop]

Because if he'd intended to cheat he would have wanted to make damn sure he wasn't found out, so would have put it on silent so there was no chance of it ringing out...

[Floggingmolly]

I don't get the logic that the phone being switched on suggests he hadn't intended to cheat? You can't cheat with it turned off? And the fact that he wasn't seen to use it during the exam doesn't mean he actually didn't do so; just that he wasn't seen to do it. He still had a switched on phone in his pocket, it's pretty irrelevant when it was discovered.
Sorry, op, I'm not disputing that in your case it was done accidentally, you know your ds best; just looking at it from the exam board's perspective.

[muminhants1]

I do because I read years ago in an article that if you listen and make sure you know where the nearest exit is, you have a greater chance of survival. But I absolutely agree with you.

Going back to the exam thing, I just googled this, and came up with this report on last year's exams: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/386119/malpractice-for-gcse-and-a-level-summer-2014-exam-series.pdf.

It says "The penalties for candidate malpractice vary depending on the type of offence. They
include warnings, loss of marks and disqualification from units, components or
qualifications. For example, candidates who bring a mobile phone into an exam room
but do not have their phone at their desk might receive a warning, whereas
candidates found using a mobile phone during an exam might be disqualified from
the unit or the qualification in that exam series. An individual candidate can be
penalised more than once and by more than one exam board if they commit
malpractice offences when sitting more than one assessment."

So it could be a warning or losing the marks on that paper because he was inbetween those two - ie had phone at desk but didn't use. I think it's important that he doesn't worry about it now. He needs to concentrate on doing as well as he can on the other papers and getting those four GCSE grade C. It must be really difficult for you.