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

So I had to meeting with the HofE and it ended up being an interesting conversation. I now get the gist of what happened. Trying to summarise the situation, the school went through a difficult time with a number of teacher and Heads living. The Head of Department was new, having to deal with vacancies and a brand new teacher. Brand new teacher was allocated to top seeded class as probably easier to manage. It was recognised that a number of student in the class did poorly in the CA, but the department was under too much pressure to be able to work with all pupils who would have wanted to rework on the CA, so they only selected those pupils who hadn't completed or totally failed and those pupils/parents who raise issues at the time.

It would seem there was a number of elements that contributed to the issue. Firstly, the teacher didn't assigned markings to the element of the papers as she should have done (according to the Head), so pupils didn't actually know how they were doing as they went along. Then the day DD was supposed to learn about her grade, she was assigned to a task by the school, so didn't find out her own grade. When she asked her teacher, she kept telling her to come back at a particular time, but then each time told DD she didn't have the time to go over it then. By the time we knew, it was too late.

HoE acknowledged that the fact that DD was working at two grades below her target grade should have been picked up and the teacher should have worked with her to improve her work or at least, allowed her to do it again before being sent off. He told me that if DD didn't get an A at the first CA which is due to be graded to come and talk to him. I know he had already had a word with the teacher to make sure that she kept an eye on DD's progress.

Many pupils in the class got marks below or much below their target grades, but nothing was done about it. It is frustrating that internal issues meant that the school, known to be very supportive of pupils' progress at all levels let many down. It is frustrating too that although I felt that something wasn't right I was too self-conscious to go and see the Head then (that I would be labeled as an anxious and pushy mum) and trusted the school.

Still, what happened can't be undone, so we had to turn the page. At least DD got an apology and I got assurance that this year Engl Lang GCSE CAs will be handled differently. I will certainly keep a much closer eye on things from now on though!