D's Alevel disaster

[bingethinker]

Hi folks, looking for ideas and advice: the 17 year old came home in tears today. It seems her drama teacher misinterpreted the syllabus last year, resulting in her big devised piece project being done kind of wrong. As a piece in its own right it got a good A, but has been reviewed, with the result that her expected overall grade A has been reduced to a C. She wants a performing arts career so this is something of a disaster for her. Some of the damage may be repaired by redoing the portfolio, which took her months of work and midnight oil last year, when she has only 3 months until the rest of her A-level exams. The teacher who cocked up has left in the wake of HM govt's cuts to performing arts funding, and in any case blame won't help....is there anything we can do, as concerned parents? Invade the school with torches and an angry mob? Ask them to plead with the exam board? All useful advice appreciated.

Surely worth a letter to the Head of Department/Faculty setting out your concerns? You can start nicely and ramp up the pressure if things don't go your way. I'd be surprised if there's an easy solution, though. If the work doesn't score the points on the mark scheme then it can't readily be graded well, even if that wasn't your daughter's fault.

How awful for your Dd. I really don’t have any advice other than to reassure you that if your Dd wants a career in the performing arts her A level results won’t really matter. Places at training colleges pretty much depend on how they perform at audition.

Thank you.
I suspected there wouldn't really be much of a solution.

Re the performing arts....cynically and without ever saying this to her, I'd kind of assumed that the uber-competitive musical theatre courses she is applying for, which are oversubscribed with 5 for 6 blondes with mezzo voices, would not give her a place and hoped she would then fall back on the decent A levels to get a place to do decent drama degree, which would at least be useful....ho hum.

WHere is she thinking of applying?

For my science gcses many years ago it turns out we were taught the syllabus. The school had our grades revised and they all went up 2 grades. Obviously things have changed but u would be approaching the school about what they are going to do about it.

OP, how stressful for you and your DD. I do love your idea of rounding up an angry mob with pitchforks, though. Try this, please, and then report back to MN, preferably under AIBU.

Did your DD get her love of drama from you?

Does the school, or do any other local schools, still have an A-level Drama teacher? Can you embarrass the school enough - local papers can pick up on this kind of stuff quite quickly, especially if the school generally has a good reputation - to get her and her cohort extra teaching time (e.g. after school) to sort out the mess and do another devised piece?

If the school won't do that, then perhaps writing to the exam board factually, setting out the exact errors made by the school (it will need to be errors, not e.g. over-enthusiastic internal marking corrected by the moderation process, which is relatively 'normal' and the reason for moderation) and requesting their advice might be the next step.

Thanks.
Will plan carefully, and also of course all has to be done with consent of DD, whose life it is.

She's applying to Bath Spa. Chichester and central this time, and then a host of foundation courses. This year.

It's possibly my fault, I'm a medic but also a professional storyteller....

Personally I would arrange a meeting with head of sixth form and ask them what they are proposing to do to mitigate this.
At the least I would push for the school to contact the exam board and/or the universities your DD has applied to explaining the error and the likely impact on her grade.