Failed Maths GCSE - Appeal or not?

[mirjon66]

Hi

My daughter failed her maths GCSE by 3 marks, she was very upset as her teacher said she could get a 4. My eldest daughter did her AS Level in Sociology this year and was put down for Special Circumstances by the Head of 6th Form but my other daughter wasn’t given Special Circumstances even though they both went through the same experience(s). Should she have been given the same?

Should we appeal it as it was so close (her friend failed by 1 mark).

Thanks in advance for any replies.

A "just missed" grade with no other considerations is unlikely to be changed because it is unlikely to be considered an unreasonable professional judgement. Not taking into account special circumstances is I think more likely to be considered. Everything has to go through the school first, so I'd be contacting them now.

In a ‘normal’ year then I’d advise pupils who missed a grade by 3 marks to appeal. This year, the appeals system is totally different. I believe you can only appeal if you feel the school didn’t follow its policy for awarding grades (ie if your child was treated differently to other children in the school). Tbh, I’m amazed anyone told her she missed a grade by x marks (not suggesting you’re lying btw) because that’s simply not how most schools decided the grades. The best idea right now would probably be to contact school and ask to speak to whoever was responsible for CAGs and ask to discuss it with them. Understanding the process / data they used better then you might help you decide what to do.

I'm not sure why she was told she missed it by 3 marks. It shouldn't have been based on 1 piece of evidence really. The school should have informed you how marks were being awarded. They should also have informed you of the appeals process. I would be checking they followed their own TAG process as this sounds a bit odd to me.

Sounds like you've not really understood how grades were awarded this year. She may have missed out by 3 marks on one assessment but her final grade would have been based on more than that. School have had to state in a policy how each subject was assessed and this should have been published on their website. Have you read the policy for your daughter's school? It might be worth appealing, BUT grades can go down as well as up. It is too late for special consideration now, it should have been applied for before schools submitted their grades to the exam board.

Even if schools aren't using one piece of evidence, they will still have to assign value to evidence and weighting to them in order to provide some sort of mark. It's all marks, isn't it? If she missed by three marks, it doesn't mean she missed by three marks on one bit of evidence, just that her overall grade was three marks out if the boundary decided to be a 4

Honestly I’d just draw a line under it and really focus on prepping for the November exam to get that grade 4. Dragging the appeal out till end of October May mean her full focus isn’t on revision and that’s not what you want.

@EllieNBeeb it's meant to have been more holistic than that though. Given the process for awarding grades saying someone missed by 3 marks is a bit on the odd side. Particularly as there were no grade boundaries this year. We were given (not very useful) descriptors instead. First stop is to check the school's policy.

Head of Sixth here. I actually disagree with most of the above and would appeal on the grounds that special cons has been applied to one student and not the other for the same event, and so the stage one appeal should be enough since parity hasn’t been shown between the two students (the fact they are siblings isn’t the point).

It doesn’t actually matter about the reasons for special cons and whether they ‘should’ have been applied (this isn’t meant negatively - I’m very sorry this happened to your daughters) but once the school has accepted a special cons reason for one student it must be applied for all students involved.

Having said all this, this isn’t technically a maths “problem’ unless it specifically happened on the day of that assessment, and that’s the way it’s been applied to your eldest daughter i.e. she got special com’s for that one subject that day, but I understand why the maths appeal is most important.

Put simply, the school will have seen appeals this week for much less than this! So I reckon it’s worth a shot if it potentially saves her having to retake.

But she needs to get on with studying hard for her maths now while she has time in the holidays, and not rely on an appeal. November will rush round very soon so co carted work now could be very helpful. She really doesn’t want to have to be doing maths all year round to next summer, plus in the summer it will count as a retake while November won’t - make the most of that