Control assessment remark

[swingofthings]

I'm sorry for asking for advice that has probably already been shared a number of times, but couldn't find anything.

Is it possible to ask for a control assessment to be remarked and if so, how would I go about it?

Story is that DD is a high achiever pupil in all subjects, finished year 9 with a 7a level in English Literature, expected an A at GCSEs since Year 7. Year 10, she got a newly graduated teacher who had no experience of teaching GCSEs. Very quickly a number of issues with her teaching came to light (by a number of parents). I gave her the benefit of the doubt. However, we only found out in February that DD got a B/C grade at the control assessment she took in November. This came as a real surprise especially as DD thought she had done well and she normally is a good judge of her expected results. We have now received her results and not surprisingly, she got two As at the exams in June, but got a final C at the final grade for her control assessment giving her a final total grade of B. It is not the end of the world, but it has surprised everyone has she was always expected an easy A, and a slight concern as she is determined to go to Medical School, and unfortunately, the ridiculous competitive entry access mean that a number of the schools do look at GCSEs grades.

I don't know much about the whole system, but I was told yesterday that for control assessment grades it is the decision of the teacher, with only a few top grade papers being reviewed by the Board Administration. Is this indeed the case for all subjects? If so, in light of all the complaints with this teacher, I am seriously considering a remark.

DD got a score of 157 (AQA). I understand that 160 was an A, but I don't know what was the cut off mark for an A.

In light of the above circumstances, would you advise going through the remarking route?
Thanks

swing

I would say that there are too many "maybes" to lay the blame of this entirely at the teachers door.

(going against everybody else) You may be able to get a CA remark, but it won't be just for your DD's work. When we did it (for a different subject) the entire years work had to go off and was paid for by the parent of the child in question.

This also meant that as the other children's grades could be affected (up and down) they (and their parent) had to be asked for permission before the work was sent off.

It may also be possible to get a marking script for the exams and the CA to find out which areas where weak, you will have to pay for these as well.

If you do believe that the teacher is at fault, then you need to raise the points with either them or their HoD.

The boundaries for coursework/controlled assessment are often very close together. The school do not know what grade a piece will get, they only know the numerical raw mark they have given it. Guesses can be made on the basis of previous years but that can be a dangerous game.

I know that CA marks seem to have been moderated down wholesale by some exam boards with on the D/C/B borderline this year so your daughter may be a victim of this. But, as others have said, her teacher won't have been left to fend for herself all year and your DD's CA will have been looked at by at least two other more experienced teachers before it was sent off.

Students can redo CA pieces, just not with the same title, so it might be worth exploring whether this was offered last year but really, I'd speak to the HoD or the class teacher, the exams officer won't know anything about the internal moderation process.

As an aside, you sound quite unfair in the way you speak about your DD's teacher. I think when you speak to someone in school it might profit you to put those feelings to one side and be quite business-like about it. And, as a HoD myself, I always tell parents to speak up about concerns sooner rather than later; you want the best for your DD and there's nothing wrong with pursuing that as long as you're reasonable and polite about it

Finally, if she's been told that she can do CA at home, outside controlled conditions then that's completely wrong and seriously needs addressing as a matter of urgency.

Finally, if she's been told that she can do CA at home, outside controlled conditions then that's completely wrong and seriously needs addressing as a matter of urgency.

This isn't always true, there are three levels of controlled assessment, Limited does not have to be completed in centre, medium can be done with minimal supervision, and high which has to be done in centre , supervised and with no help.

If she got a 7a at the end of Y9, then a B/C in a controlled assessment that she sat in November of Y10, then As in exams that she sat at the end of Y10, that sounds pretty good, in terms of progress, tbh.

If the teacher was crap, then your DD wouldn't have got As in the exam.

Early entry is your problem here. Your DD was entered for her exams a year early, which the DfE strongly advise against. If she had sat at the end of Y11 as she should have, you could well have been looking at A*s. This is not the NQT's fault, but an issue that should be raised with the school.

It's worth trying for a remark on the exams to get those extra 3 marks. English marking is subjective and there have been lots of complaints about poor exam marking.

Early entry is a real issue. In the old days of coursework the pieces classes did in year 10 were always redrafted in year 11 because they were just more mature writers by then.

Jefferson - you're right. I was assuming OP meant the actual writing of the final CA piece, which for Lit is always high control. The perils of assuming

It sounds as though your dd has been allowed to do some initial research at home for her English Language controlled assessment which would be allowed.

I'm not sure you can still re-do English controlled assessments under the new rules - I thought you had to retake the written papers as well now - perhaps you can for some boards?

The examinations officer should certainly know all about the procedure for internal moderation but you are too late to do anything about the English Literature controlled assessment now; you found out in February that your dd was looking at a low B or C grade for the controlled assessment and she has already taken the final written exams. All exam centres (i.e.schools) are required to have an appeals policy against internally assessed marks for controlled assessments and coursework units, however you can only appeal against the assessment procedure itself and not against the marks given and you have to lodge your appeal (usually with the examinations officer) at least two weeks before the final written exams are taken. The Joint Council For Qualifications does have a template for the Appeals Policy on its website and this states that, "Candidates' work should be marked by staff with appropriate knowledge, understanding and skill and who have been trained in this activity.... Where a number of subject teachers are involved in marking candidates' work internal moderation and standardisation will ensure consistency of marking." Appeals can be lodged (within the correct time frame - and this can vary from school to school but before the final written papers) if you believe that this has not happened. You can still ask for a remark of the written papers but you are out of time for the controlled assessment.

I agree with the comments regarding early entry though and if your dd got As in the written papers in Year 10 then the teacher doesn't sound inadequate.

Thank you very much for all your feedback. Just to answer some points.

This also meant that as the other children's grades could be affected (up and down) they (and their parent) had to be asked for permission before the work was sent off.

I really don't think that is an option. It would be totally unfair for everyone else who are happy with their grades. I can't see how putting everyone through this for the sake of one pupil could be right.

students can redo CA pieces, just not with the same title, so it might be worth exploring whether this was offered last year but really, I'd speak to the HoD or the class teacher, the exams officer won't know anything about the internal moderation process.

I would be much happier with this option and one I will ask about.

As an aside, you sound quite unfair in the way you speak about your DD's teacher
I can see how this would come across from my posts. As it is, it is more the other way around. I gave her the benefit of the doubt the whole year when other parents had already been quite vocal. So have other teachers. As a matter of fact, a number of English teachers told her pupils to come to them during their lunchtime for support because they were concerned about her teaching. I have never had an issue with a teacher until now. I accept that some teachers are better than others and most work very hard, but like in any profession, they are some who deliver poorly and I am quite certain she is one of them.

I agree with the comments regarding early entry though and if your dd got As in the written papers in Year 10 then the teacher doesn't sound inadequate. Except that I paid for 8 sessions with a tutor as I was concerned about the number of topics she had not covered in class. Again, a number of parents ended up doing the same thing.

your DD's CA will have been looked at by at least two other more experienced teachers before it was sent off
That's all it comes down to. If I can be given reassurance that this was the case, I will be perfectly happy to move on but my gut feeling is telling me that it might not have been the case.

Jefferson - you're right. I was assuming OP meant the actual writing of the final CA piece, which for Lit is always high control. The perils of assuming
Your assumption was correct, it is the FINAL piece of writing that she has asked DD to finish at home. I didn't even know about it until a couple of days ago when DD said she would need to spend the day studying and I asked her what she had to do.

however you can only appeal against the assessment procedure itself and not against the marks given and you have to lodge your appeal (usually with the examinations officer) at least two weeks before the final written exams are taken.
Unfortunately, my understanding of the system doesn't extend to that level of depth and no need to say that nothing as such was communicated to parents. I -stupidly- assumed that all controlled assessment were being marked by an external examiner, so I wasn't too worried then. The teacher herself told me that I shouldn't worry when I told her I was concerned that she might not get an A.

There are options to consider and will be discussing these with both the HoD and Examination Officer taking their advice into account and one of them being of course to accept her grade and hope that it doesn't come to affect her choices in the future. After all, she is still a way off being in a position to apply to medical school, even if besides this blip, everything was going in the right direction!

You can be assured the work of the teacher was internally moderated. That is a given. If this hasn't happened their results wouldn't count and people would lose their jobs.
Internal moderation has to happen by the beginning of May when the marks go to the board.
If you email the Head of Department I'm sure they will reassure you on this.

OP you sound like my favourite kind of parent then - concerned but supportive

Just to clarify, students can redo CA but only in the one 'sitting'. For example, if your DD had done one piece of CA for submission in 2015 but it was below her target grade (and it's all a rough approximation, the exam boards aren't kind enough to tell us what grade a piece is, just a mark) then she could have done another one for 2015. (The teacher should identify this need after marking). If she wanted to redo it for 2016 submission, she'd have to sit the two exams as well. It wasn't always like this but the government have moved away from modular exams and back to linear.

Hope it works out OP!

So have other teachers. As a matter of fact, a number of English teachers told her pupils to come to them during their lunchtime for support because they were concerned about her teaching

Did they actually say this? (very very unprofessional) or did they invite her to lunchtime revision/catch up sessions like they have in many schools?

So have other teachers. As a matter of fact, a number of English teachers told her pupils to come to them during their lunchtime for support because they were concerned about her teaching

I doubt they said this! surely it is more likely that extra support and revision was set up, as a matter of course, as tend to happen in all schools in all subjects.

Which means your DD has had access to the support and teaching of other teachers too, and so however much you have taken against her poor class teacher, she isn't the only one who has had input into your DDs result.

OP you sound like my favourite kind of parent then - concerned but supportive
Thank you for your kind words :)

I have spoken with OH and he thinks she should resit the whole thing. I will meet with the HoD/Exam Officer and then discuss it with DD. In the end, it will be up to her but it's good to know that is another option.

Did they actually say this? (very very unprofessional) or did they invite her to lunchtime revision/catch up sessions like they have in many schools?
DD was the first one to go to another teacher with questions and he told her she could come during his lunch time. Then other pupils asked, so another teacher started to offer help too. It wasn't revision sessions, it was really done during their break the last two weeks before the exams. To be fair, I can't remember how it was implied that they had concerns about the teacher, but they definitely provided some of their own time to about 5 or 6 pupils who were in that teacher's class.

I doubt they said this! surely it is more likely that extra support and revision was set up, as a matter of course, as tend to happen in all schools in all subjects.
Interesting how a number of posters are doubting what is happening in the school in relation to this teacher. I am certainly not lying or making things up, no interest in doing so. I don't have it for teachers, I think most of them do an amazing job, but yes, I can confirm that the sessions provided by these two teachers were definitely not set up for revision, hence why I even pointed it out in the first place.

what was it set up for then?

Which means your DD has had access to the support and teaching of other teachers too, and so however much you have taken against her poor class teacher, she isn't the only one who has had input into your DDs result
DD saw one teacher she knew twice, as I've said before, two weeks before the exams, so many months after she'd done the controlled assessment.

I'm a bit confused over this keen intent by some posters to defend this teacher. Is it the case that there isn't one bad English teacher in the whole of the country? Why couldn't she happen to be one of the few bad ones?

We're not defending poor teaching just trying to explain the situation about controlled assessment. It will have been marked by more than one teacher.

finishing year 8 with a 7c level and year 9 with a 7a level

But 7a at the end of year 9 isn't natural progress to A grade in year 10, is it? 7c in year 8 does show steady progress to year 9 at 7a. You'd then be looking at a 8b at the end of year 10, which isn't grade A level.

Dd1's top set in English were being marked at the end of year 9 as 8a-8c and they are aiming for A* to A at the end of year 11.
So I'd have though B grades were roughly expected for them.

I don't really like the entering them early.
Dd1's done 2 this year (year 9), does another 2 next year then 10 in year 11. I personally think they'd be better waiting to year 11 and doing 9 good ones rather than this. You could see that although she is very mature regarding work, and is at the older end of the year, that a couple more years maturity would have made a lot of difference to how she faced the exams. Don't know why they do this, and I hope they change it with the new harder GCSEs coming in.

We're not defending poor teaching just trying to explain the situation about controlled assessment. It will have been marked by more than one teacher
No issue with that at all, I got the message, but people are questioning my words that I think she is a bad teacher (in addition to the issue of the marking).

But 7a at the end of year 9 isn't natural progress to A grade in year 10, is it? 7c in year 8 does show steady progress to year 9 at 7a. You'd then be looking at a 8b at the end of year 10, which isn't grade A level.
That's interesting because in addition to her target level, her report also indicated an expected grade of A at GCSE both at end of year 9 and beginning of year 10 so I'm surprised with that. Are you saying that to expect an A grade, you would be expected a higher level than 8b? I didn't think it went higher than 8a! Is that only for English or all subjects, but again, she was at 7a at end of year 9 in Science and she is expected an A* grade at GCSE for all three disciplines (and got these marks at end of year exam this year).

I too really wished (as did DD) that they had waited another year. It's one thing to do exams at the end of the year, but doing CA only two months after they started the year is very early.

Levels don't really exist anymore and weren't really a great indicator. The KS3 exam in English went up to 7 BUT teacher assessments could include level 8 and EP (Exceptional Performance). My A* students were usually at least an 8 in year 9.

I don't know the precise details for English but in maths a level 7 is equivalent to a C grade at gcse, a level 8 is a B.

So a student on a level 7 would expect a C grade if they sat their GCSE right then.
So your DD was a high C at the end of Y9, thus getting a high B at the end of Y10 is good progress.

I'm a bit confused over this keen intent by some posters to defend this teacher. Is it the case that there isn't one bad English teacher in the whole of the country? Why couldn't she happen to be one of the few bad ones?

You say she is newly qualified, which means she is constantly supervised, monitored, moderated, assessed, will be making very few decisions alone, will not be teaching a full timetable, have a supervisor and most likely a mentor, be in a constant feed back loop, etc etc etc.

A class is not going to be badly taught because of an newly qualified teacher. If a class with a newly qualified teacher is badly taught, it is because of the supervisor, mentor, head of department and head of the school.

It's one thing to do exams at the end of the year, but doing CA only two months after they started the year is very early.

You only have to read the Ofqual and education select committee reports into 2012 English debacle to see that not only were a minority of schools playing games with exam admission, but weren't playing those games terribly well.

OP, I've only read this thread quickly, but the poster who asserted that marks do not go up is incorrect - at least for the board I work for. It's true to say that marks are more often reduced, but it makes a nice change to be able to put them up. There are (as others have said) lots of controls put into CA assessment - class teacher / school moderation / exam board moderator / exam board Team Leader / exam board Grade Review. I spent four days earlier this summer, with a small group of very senior moderators, checking moderation decisions where a centre's marks had been shifted (up or down) by a certain percentage. I'm not saying with 100% certainty that mistakes don't happen, but there are lots of checks built in to try to minimise them and to give the grades rigour.