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Secondary education

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Original poster

Gcse 2021 anyone appealing?

133 replies

Cleanmean · 12/08/2021 09:43

Dc has had a rubbish year, getting covid and being off school for ages (like many others). He's just got his results and is pleased but 2 of his grades are lower than his tracked grades and may mocks. He wants to appeal but I said it'll be impossible to appeal this year as teachers will have followed the protocols very carefully and there's less margins for error. Is anyone appealing this year and if so what do you think your chances are?

OP posts:
GiveMeDreamies · 12/08/2021 12:36

My DS is happy with his but his school have advised that the first step for anyone thinking of appealing is to contact them for a talk through of why that grade was awarded. Could your DS ring school and explain that he is disappointed with two grades and ask if the teachers could talk him through them before deciding whether to appeal or not.

Original poster
Cleanmean · 12/08/2021 13:33

That's a really good idea, I'll get him to email in. School have been very firm in communicating that the grades were double checked and are very unlikely to go up but could go down.

OP posts:
AzPie · 12/08/2021 15:07

I'm going to encourage DD to appeal, some of her results make no sense compared to what she's been predicted for years. I had an email exchange with one of her BTEC subject teachers back in October who said DD was on a level 2 pass (as consistently stated on her termly reports) but with the final unit she expected her to go up to level 2 merit, well her result today was level 1 merit, I just don't get it. The worst is her English result, she's been predicted 6/6 the whole way through, today she got 4/3.

Her mitigating circumstances (hospitalized due to mental health and death in the family) were not considered. The other year 11's were given revision lessons to prepare for mini-assessments (so specific topics were revised/practice questions), she was dumped in the SEN department with no work and had to do her own revision with no guidance on topics. Most of her assessments were done at SEND, some days she had to chase down a staff member to ask them to get her assessment for her to do, it's like they just forgot about her Sad

Original poster
Cleanmean · 12/08/2021 18:23

Azpie I'm sorry to hear about the situation your daughter was in. My dc has something similar, off for over 5 weeks with covid during Oct mocks when they were told the mocks were not important but just being done to see the gaps in learning. He did his weeks after everyone else without any of the revision classes or prep as there were no online lessons bask last year. Those mocks weighted heavily in the final tag assessment. I've said it's up to him if he wants to appeal, he's pretty gutted. What a shit year.

OP posts:
Misssugarplum12764 · 12/08/2021 18:47

If you go on the JCQ website there’s a very good student-friendly guide on how to appeal. It has worked examples of types of appeal, plus a flowchart of what to do. There’s also a word version of their appeals form template which I’d assume most schools are using.

I’d strongly suggest that students email/call themselves rather than parents (they have to fill in the form themselves) but also make sure they’re talking to the right person; this is likely to either be the deputy head or the assistant head for data/achievement rather than their classroom teachers.

Squidlydoo · 12/08/2021 19:21

I’m in charge of TAGs at my school and would say there is a very very slim chance of a successful appeal. Work will not be remarked. The only grounds for appeal is that the school has not followed its protocols correctly. Sadly mock exams and predictions will have limited bearing on final grades so this in itself will not be grounds.

Think carefully about appealing as grades can go down - and you don’t get to choose to accept the new grades

kackle · 12/08/2021 21:03

Hi Squidlydoo

Can I ask for an opinion

Subject one evidence used grades of 9,9,9,8 and awarded an 8

Subject two grades of 7,7,6,5. Awarded a 6

Special consideration was applied for. The JCQ and edexcel boards say evidence could be substituted. Our school have ignored this and say they have just allocated a couple of %

Yet if I read JCQ guidance etc it says substitute evidence for mitigating circumstances

Any idea if I have a leg to stand on. I think our school haven’t substituted evidence and my daughter has lost out

Cheers

Original poster
Cleanmean · 12/08/2021 21:41

Hi squidly, thank you for your input. Do you think it's worth appealing under the grounds of 'unreasonable selection of data' as ds had covid during Nov mocks and sat his mocks weeks after everyone else without any of the revision and prep as he was very poorly with covid. His poor mark in those exams brought his overall average down massively. I'm hoping he won't appeal as I just can't see his teachers admitting they might have got it wrong especially as it's been reviewed by other teachers. Once he sees all his assessment marks he'll probably change his mind.

OP posts:
BumbleMug · 12/08/2021 21:49

@Cleanmean

Azpie I'm sorry to hear about the situation your daughter was in. My dc has something similar, off for over 5 weeks with covid during Oct mocks when they were told the mocks were not important but just being done to see the gaps in learning. He did his weeks after everyone else without any of the revision classes or prep as there were no online lessons bask last year. Those mocks weighted heavily in the final tag assessment. I've said it's up to him if he wants to appeal, he's pretty gutted. What a shit year.
Sadly no special consideration this year so missing a mock won’t be taken into account as special circs. Sorry but that’s just this years rules and missing work won’t be taken into account for appeal. Appeal will only look at his evidence or work he DID complete. If not enough his grade could even go down.

Worth speaking to the school to find out how close he is to the grade below as an exam board review will not be taking into account how well his teachers know him either.

Lastly it had to come from him if he wants to appeal. If he doesn’t want to you can’t override that. He had to sign the forms.

deathbollywood · 12/08/2021 23:22

The evidence used for one of ds' grades is the mock exam, however, the mark shown is incorrect and 10 marks lower than he got. he has the original paper. Surely worth appealing on grounds of administration error? can't see how he can be downgraded in this instance?

MrsHamlet · 13/08/2021 08:06

It's worth a try, @deathbollywood - although I'm surprised that they didn't keep hold of the papers they were using for evidence.

MrsHamlet · 13/08/2021 08:11

@kackle I had two students who had missed an assessment which subsequently "counted".
Our policy allowed for substitutions under certain circumstances (they had to have been completed under the same conditions as the thing they were replacing, mainly).
For one student, I had that, so it was a case of doing the paperwork and subbing it in.
The other had nothing I could sub in. They also had no mitigating circumstances.

School should have told you how they were working out the CAGs before they sent them off. If they've not followed their own policy, you should definitely appeal.

ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba · 13/08/2021 08:14

mine is thinking about it, but we don't know how to proceed.
He says it's more of an ego thing.
He was expecting to get a 9 in Chemistry, got an 8 and he doesn't understand how or why; he finds Chemistry very easy and did finished in 45 mins and is convinced he made no mistakes.
not sure if it's worth appealing

kackle · 13/08/2021 08:18

@MrsHamlet thank you. Mitigating circumstances were accepted by the school and a couple -% awarded.

But they have failed to take account of JCQ guidance

Page 35 categorically says

As the range of evidence is flexible and can be tailored to an individual student according to coverage of the specification, then instances of special consideration should be limited. Centres should be able to select work completed by a student where they were unaffected by adverse circumstances.

Their TAG policy makes mention of substitution of evidence ( I know they have class tests etc as I have copies of them with my daughters marks)

My point is - they don’t appear to have followed the JCQ rules ( so they have to follow them?) and substituted evidence

Is it likely that if school don’t play ball, I can tell the exam board they haven’t followed procedure and they will review?

MrsHamlet · 13/08/2021 08:21

In that case @kackle, you need to start by contacting the school and asking them to review how the grades were awarded.
You should have been told how they were going to do it - I know we sent the policy to all parents and it's on our website.

MrsHamlet · 13/08/2021 08:21

Posted too soon!
If that gets you nowhere, then you go to the board.

Beckieloo · 13/08/2021 08:22

Nothing helpful to add but I want DD to appeal one of her grades too. It was a mark below her mock score. Seems very unfair when they were constantly in and out of school, no revision classes and under so much mental pressure. I don’t know whether a retake might be the best option though.

kackle · 13/08/2021 08:26

@MrsHamlet I’ve been through the policy with a fine tooth comb. And am awaiting a reply from school.

My daughter had to sign something to say what grades they would be considering and there was only a box on it with a tick for special consideration

Can I push the school as to why no evidence was substituted and why JCQ guidance wasn’t followed or wil this just annoy them ?

LemonMeringueThreePointOneFour · 13/08/2021 08:28

Subject one evidence used grades of 9,9,9,8 and awarded an 8

That seems odd, unless there's additional evidence.

Subject two grades of 7,7,6,5. Awarded a 6

The mean of these grades is 6.25, so that would seem to make sense.

MrsHamlet · 13/08/2021 08:30

@kackle If the policy says it will, and it hasn't been, absolutely.
The school's job is to get the best results for their students. Annoying them really shouldn't come into it! There will be someone on the staff whose job it is to deal with this, probably an assistant or deputy head. I know that our person would be able to explain the process and the steps (because we had some queries when we sent our data sheets home, and I had a very long conversation with them about one of my students). If we've messed up, we will own it.

EnidSpyton · 13/08/2021 08:35

Head of department here - do bear in mind that the exam boards did reserve the right to adjust grades. All schools were asked to send evidence for checking. If the exam board didn’t agree with a school’s grading procedures, and found their marks to be wholly out of line with previous cohorts, the board could have moved grades up or down from the teacher assessed grades. Don’t assume the grades are exactly what the teachers predicted.

A conversation needs to be had with the school. If the grades have been adjusted by the exam board, then the appeals process is going to be different than it would be if you feel that it’s the school that haven’t followed procedure.

EnidSpyton · 13/08/2021 08:36

Apologies for my use of the word predicted above - I meant awarded. Summer holiday brain atrophy has already kicked in!

kackle · 13/08/2021 08:39

@LemonMeringueThreePointOneFour

Subject one evidence used grades of 9,9,9,8 and awarded an 8

That seems odd, unless there's additional evidence.

Subject two grades of 7,7,6,5. Awarded a 6

The mean of these grades is 6.25, so that would seem to make sense.

Whilst you are correct that the mean is 6.25, the school haven’t followed the JCQ guidance for special consideration and it looks like they haven’t followed it
kackle · 13/08/2021 08:42

@MrsHamlet - no data sheets were sent home.

Can the school ignore the JCQ guidance or do they have to abide by it ?

MrsHamlet · 13/08/2021 08:52

@kackle they have to abide by it BUT each school has their own policy, which you should have been shown.
The JCQ info is here: www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/JCQ-Guidance-for-Students-and-Parents-on-Summer-2021.pdf