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

[mumsneedwine]

I know exactly you what bullying is thank you. Did you see the email I was sent ! No ? But you still feel free to comment. Weird behaviour.

[EvilTwins]

Bakeoff - how would you know whether it was bullying - do you have access to mumsneedwine's private messages?

[BeaufortBelle]

womaninasack thank you for that comment. No, I'm not bonkers, that was said by the head teacher of an outstanding school. Fab isn't it, that that sort of ethos is regarded as outstanding. I am so very grateful that we were able to remove our child from the school run by that woman and that Ofsted reported was running an outstanding school. The 60 odd staff who worked for her thought she was a shocker yet did nothing.

I invigilated 11/12 years ago. I have made that clear and that my experiences of it are not contemporary. I do think the perspective then was better though. I also think that a lot of people on here have no idea of what London schools or other educational establishments are like.

[Bakeoffcake]

Apologies, I misread that post and thought it was referring to a post, not a private message.

[EvilTwins]

I taught in one. Left there in 2004 - so 11/12 years ago. I think you're wrong.

[noblegiraffe]

Every cheat in the country would be claiming scattiness if it could get them off the hook, so it can't be allowed to.

[Womaninsack]

And what do you make of the head's wife teaching, hmm? Good practice? Worth 12 K a year?

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

I think it's very easily done for some children
My dd could quite easily do this - she's pretty disorganised and just getting used to having a mobile at all.
Fortunately she's been leaving it at home
Of course sympathies are with the OP and her son.
I think you're being a bit evil unkind EvilTwins

[Womaninsack]

He will be disqualified, end of , if the school follow correct procedure. The only question is from how many papers.

[BeaufortBelle]

[mumsneedwine]

Oh and can I just add, I did like the 'and you say you're a teacher'. I do. Because I am. That's why I'm still
working at 11.29. Anyone else still working ?
I've spent a lot of today discussing Hannah's sweets. And dealing with 16year olds who feel they've mucked up .

[Womaninsack]

Me - teacher here too!

[LineRunner]

FloggingMolly You asked me something ages ago upthread, and I've only just read it. Yes, years ago I entered a couple of incident reports about 'chaos' as opposed to cheating, e.g. glasses of water being spilled and papers flying everywhere.

I wasn't writing specifically about mobile phones ringing.

I was trying to support the OP.

[noblegiraffe]

My DH once walked through airport security with all the signs up about liquids and tiny plastic bags and people binning their bottles of water, got to the x Rays and they asked if he had any liquids in his bag and he said no. They then took out his toiletry bag filled with big bottles of shampoo, deodorant etc and he went 'oh yeah, I'd forgotten about those'.

Because there were so many signs and reminders he'd just tuned them out, in a 'they don't apply to me, I'm not an idiot' way, while being an idiot.

So I can totally understand how the OP's DS could have made such a stupid mistake. Once you've seen the warnings and so on that many times, you stop listening.

If there was clearly no intention to cheat then I think the exam board will just cancel this paper, but you may not find out till the end of the summer.

[ReallyTired]

Mumsneedingwine

This thread is getting stupid if there are dodgy private messages.

I invigilated ten years ago and actually there is little change. Mobile phones were banned then. Differences are that they are stricter about watches on the table, most of the rules that existed ten years ago existed then. The biggest difference is getting rid of modular exams. the rules on extra time are tougher.

[mumsneedwine]

Two things before I start with year 9. Womanimsack - hi ! And OP - hang in there. I've got 5 kids myself so know how scatty they can be. Your son will get a fair hearing and hopefully not be penalised too badly. Exam boards are firm but fair.

[ravenAK]

Ah yes, we used to have an invigilator a bit like BeaufortBelle. Had a dh on the governing body & was prone to trilling 'we are a governor, you know!' at random intervals in between brightly delivering misinformation to the kids & engaging the ones she liked (ie. they were mates with her ds) in friendly chitchat.

As I say, we used to.

It's a job - admittedly a badly paid & fairly boring one - you follow the rules or, not to put to fine a bloody point on it, you could be fucking that exam up for everyone in that exam hall. That simply can't be allowed to happen.

[BeaufortBelle]

Mumsneedwine. There wasn't a dodgy pm. If you think that was the case then I suggest you report it to Mnet and let them be the arbiter of it.

[ReallyTired]

Most exam invigilators do the job because they are either retired or want an easy job that fits in with school pick up. I just do as I am instructed by the school. I have no emotional attachment to the kids as I don't know them. I do my best to look after the kids, but I follow the rules to the letter.

I think that being emotionally detached from the kids must have advantages when horrible situations happen.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Two years older than this I had a job (which involved prisons) where having a mobile phone on me and not handing it in would have been extremely serious. At some point even scatty kids have to learn when to double check; when to pause and think. It is a very hard lesson but hopefully he will learn it now.

I do feel for him, and the OP. And the poor other kids who were disturbed.

[SallyMcgally]

I really don't think the other kids will have suffered much. Is the sound of a mobile phone really so distracting? And how much can a person really do in the last three minutes? Hope it all works out as well as possible OP.

[ReallyTired]

I wish that schools could get their kids to walk through a detector like they have at airports. I expect that some liberal lefty would bleat about human rights. Perhaps I would be more ruthless and not allow them to wear blazers or clothes with any pockets. The kids could sit their exams in regulation boiler suits as if they were entering a secure area.

[cricketballs]

Going off topic, but this is an issue we have recently discussed at school - the rules are going have to become far more stricter given the availability of wearable tech i.e. watches, glasses etc.