School messed up badly - what happens

[prh47bridge]

I didn't expect to find myself asking for advice like this...

DS1 is currently sitting his GCSEs. Today at around 4pm his school phoned both my wife and myself to tell us he had missed an exam. We both said that he didn't have an exam today and suggested the school might be getting him mixed up with another pupil with the same surname. It turns out the exam board (AQA) issued a revised exam timetable for DS1 in February but the school failed to pass it on to him. It has sat in teacher's folder for the last 3 months. The timetable they did give him was missing three papers, one of which was today.

I rushed DS1 into school and he sat the paper but he was starting over 4.5 hours late on a 1 hour paper. I pointed out to the school that their failure has undermined his ability to prepare for this exam. They brushed this off saying he will have been revising in class. However, my son has pointed out to me that they have been revising for Module 2 of this exam and this was Module 1, which he is retaking because he failed it last year. He also now knows he has another exam on Thursday which he was not expecting and which is also a retake. He now has less than 2 days to revise the entire Module 1 syllabus for this subject.

The school is unclear whether my son will get any marks at all for this module. Even if he does, the maximum uplift under "special consideration" is 5%. My son feels this is grossly inadequate. There were two 4-mark questions on subjects that he knew he had to revise. He was unable to answer these questions at all. There was also a 6-mark question on a subject he intended to revise. He believes the lack of revision cost him at least 2 marks on this question. Overall he believes that this has cost him at least 15%-20% of the marks on this paper. If he is right, even if AQA accept his paper and give him 5% extra (which appears to be the best case scenario) he will end up being penalised for the school's failure, possibly being knocked down a grade or more from the grade he would have got if the school had got it right.

I will clearly be taking this up with the school once exams are over. However, I can't see anything in the regulations that covers this kind of situation. Does anyone have any experience? How will AQA handle this? Is there anything I should do?

I just don't get how ,if he knew he was supposed to be resitting an exam , he didn't clock that it was missing from the timetable and presumably the exam entry which he would have been given to check months ago.

I just don't get how ,if he knew he was supposed to be resitting an exam , he didn't clock that it was missing from the timetable and presumably the exam entry which he would have been given to check months ago.

He was not given the exam entry to check. If he had been the original timetable would have been correct.

He is resitting Science A and is also taking Additional Science. Neither of these is mentioned on his exam timetable at all. The timetable simply shows papers in Biology, Physics and Chemistry. The second timetable he received showed papers in these subjects. They had been missing from the first timetable. It did not occur to him to check that there were the right number of papers in each of these three subjects.

User - what do you mean by the exam entry to check?

My DC have only ever been given a timetable by the school to check, afaik they wouldn't have access to the entry paperwork - is it normal to see that?

This thread has made me realise that actually expecting the student to spot a mistake on maybe 3 pages of quite a lot of detail probably isn't the best way to make sure nothing is wrong.

I'm an involved parent and have a little experience in the exam world but I'm couldn't be 100% sure that I would pick up a mistake if I was checking my first chiild's timetable.

I'm surprised at the comment that students can turn up on the day and sit an exam they haven't been entered for, how does that work?

Although I've 'checked' two lots of GCSE timetables, A-levels and AS levels by now, I would never have spotted a missing module. There are just too many bits involved.

I have (twice!) spotted a clash of exams and had to point it out to the school, leading to very miffed offspring spending lunchtime in isolation in order to take the exam later that day. Not sure what happens if you don't notice these things - I guess you miss one.

...complicated in one case by him being entitled to 25% extra time plus breaks, all of which somehow had to be crammed into the timetable.

Tiggytape - I agree.

We were sent a list with 11 columns, Element Code and Title, Component Code and title, and because it was not formatted in any way that my computer recognised (I find school documents come like that!) it took me 3 goes and about 20 minutes to print it out in a readable table form. I have no idea how many elements and components and tiers there are in each and every subject that Dc is taking.

What is Biology A: Mdls B4, B5, B6, Wrtn Hgh ? And how do I know how many there should be?

I trust my 15 year old, who loses everything, forgets everything and takes life as comes is 100% on the ball here!

all round and especially in the prh47bridge household.

It would be interesting to know how many times schools make mistakes that aren't picked up causing students to miss exams.

If this is a widespread issue it might be time for schools to be a bit more proactive in communicating with parents. When my eldest did GCSEs I took it upon myself to find out the exams boards for each subjects and checked the paper codes online beforehand as I like to be informed but I'd be very surprised if any other parent did.

Another comment in support of prh

DS was by mistake entered into the FP rather than the HP for one of the modules within one of his many his subjects.
The FP paper could only have dragged the other HP grades down
It took massive kicking off on my part to get it changed
and it took till mid April after I spotted it in Feb (multiple supply teachers did not help).

The exam timetables are so unbelievably complicated nowadays
but I admit to having no idea at all of what would work better

Thank you once again for all the support.

A minor point but I suspect it hasn't helped that the pupils seem to be under the impression that they are sitting a single GCSE called Science Double Award (or something like that) which counts as two GCSEs. The level of confusion becomes apparent when you ask them how the marking works. They really don't seem to understand at all.

Anyway, I have now given the school a signed statement covering my knowledge of my son's movements on Tuesday. I also gave them other evidence which they thought might help - a train ticket showing when it was purchased, a printout from somewhere he visited showing his arrival time and a signed statement from an adult he was with in the latter part of the afternoon stating where he was and what he was doing. The Exams Officer (ex-police) thinks I've missed my vocation and should have been a detective! She tells me the school is going to ask for special consideration for all three Science A papers on the basis that his preparation has been compromised by the mistake. They are also asking another exam board for special consideration on an exam he sat on Wednesday on the basis that he will have been upset by what happened on Tuesday and this may have affected his performance.

He did the Chemistry paper yesterday. He thought it was hard. I don't know if it was or if that was just him having to cram his preparation into a much shorter timeframe than he was expecting.

That's probably it in terms of updates for the moment. The school doesn't seem to have any idea how long it will be before we get any decisions from AQA. I doubt anything significant will happen before that.

I have no idea what my son will want to do if his grade is below expectations. Is a retake in January possible on this spec? If it is and he wants to go for it I will be making some demands on the school.

Best of luck, prh
ps. Dd did the Chemistry paper yesterday. It was hard! Hopefully it'll have been fine.

We have now heard from AQA regarding the Biology paper. They have decided that, despite the evidence we gave as to my son's movements, they cannot regard the security of the exam has having been maintained. However, although my son's script won't be marked, they will use estimated marks for the component they cannot accept where marks exist for other units. I presume that means his grade will be based on the Physics and Chemistry papers only. Of course, I have no way of knowing if this is better or worse than he would have got if the Biology paper had been marked but, considering how flustered he was, it is probably better. Fingers crossed he did ok in those two papers.

That sounds like good news. Fingers crossed!

Nothing to add - but sympathy - especially as I know you to be such a helpful poster.

In case anyone is interested he got a C for Science A and a B for Additional Science. The Science A grade is an improvement on what he got last year but he was hoping for better. However, given what happened it could have been a lot worse.

Well done young Prh, are the grades enough for what he wants to do next?

I was wondering, it must be a relief for you.

Once again thankyou for the advice you give here, I've learned much from you over the years

Thats good.

are the grades enough for what he wants to do next?

Yes. He has the grades he needs to go to the local college to study for a performing arts BTEC which is what he wants.

Thanks once again for all the support on this thread.

I was looking for this thread to see how pr47junior got on. So pleased he passed and did well.

I'd wondered how he did - good news!

So glad it all worked out for you; but its that a typo - you say he got an A in science (Additional science?) and that's not what you wanted?