GCSE appeals - any advice?

[Wittywomble]

Hello. I know this is becoming old news, but I'd really like some advice as I've reached a dead end. My daughter was to sit her GCSE's this year and was on track to get some good grades, but in the early part of year 11 we had some very traumatic things happen to us and she completely messed up her mocks. The situation continued into the new year (but was improving) and when her spring report came out we saw she had some pretty bad marks. We went to pains to explain all the events to the head of year and asked that all her subject teachers were aware of what had gone on so as not to put undue pressure on her at that time When schools were closed in March things were returning to normal for us and she was doing well and looking forward to sitting the exams in May/June. Obviously when we heard they were cancelled we were worried that her disastrous mocks and performance during December and January would badly affect her final assessed grades. The headteacher and head of year assured us the teachers would take everything that had happened into account.
Forward to results day and she was given a pretty dreadful set of results, including 2 that were 5 grades below her target. We feel very strongly the teachers were not aware of the difficulties (which were quite significant) and that they made an error of judgement. I have tried speaking to one of her teachers but she refuses to confirm or deny whether she knew.
I'm not asking for any preferential treatment, just an idea of how we can appeal this as appeals are apparently only allowed for 'admin errors'. There seems no firm route to go down. All her grades were at least 1 or more below her predicted and working at levels. Can anyone give me any advice?

I’m sorry I can’t help with advice but we are in a very similar boat! I have asked the school for the evidence they used to calculate the CAG which they have just given me. It seems to me that similar to your daughter, they have based the CAG grade only on the mocks result plus the mock from Y10. This does not follow the school process we were sent which said they were to base on a wide base of evidence including mocks but much more too!
Can anyone point myself and OP in the right direction as to action we can take? The deadline for appeals is in a few days so we need to get a move on....

@Wittywomble
Have a look at this:

www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/after-results/post-results/appeals

It says there are several grounds on which an appeal can be made. I believe our case and your daughters would fall under Number 1. For us, it lies in the second and third points made.

Thanks for your comments. I agree, the centre doesn't seem to have assessed correctly. The difficulty though is in that only the centre (eg school) can appeal and they would presumably be appealing against themselves. Proving that is in itself almost impossible! We've submitted an initial appeal to the school which they have acknowledged but not yet replied to, IF they refuse to take any action I will be making a complaint directly to the exam boards on the basis of discrimination as I can think of no other reason for their total inaccuracy of her ability. Some of her grades were lower than what she achieved in year 10! I hope you get some satisfaction with your appeal, it looks like its going to be an uphill struggle!

She did very badly in her mocks and in school throughout y11 and in the run up to the lockdown.

She was going through some traumatic events which had affected her badly. School knew the causes of her poor performance.

Knowing the reason for her poor performance does not mean that they can give her grades that she might have got had all been well in her life. They had to give realistic grades based on what they might have expected of her given her poor performance throughout year 11. The fact that she is doing better out of school is not sufficient to say that she would have caught up and performed well.
I sympathise but I cannot see how you will be successful here. You seem to be basing your appeal on your assertion that the school reassured you that the teachers would take her circumstances into account. They might understand but they couldn't award grades on this basis. They would have had to rank your daughter within her year group.

I hear what you’re saying but you must have missed the bit about her being given below the ‘working at’ and predicted grades which were given in March and consistent throughout yr 11. Surely if the teacher thought she was working at a 7 and predicted a 7 despite the problems (even though they had been resolved) she can’t have been working at a 5 after lockdown can she? This is what I’m saying is wrong and was the case for the majority of them. I’m not saying she should be given an 8 because she’d had a hard time, just a 7 which, given this was her current and expected grade, should have been the final result.