Complaints about GCSE PE practical

[Honeypig]

Before I get down to the main point I am aware of how hard some teachers work and the miracles they perform but, as with all professions, sometimes, as a parent you have to question things.

I‘m trying to find out if anyone has complained about their child’s GCSE PE practical before. I know officially they are now referred to as NEA (non exam assessment). What was your outcome? Did you end up escalating to the exam board?

I know if you disagree with the mark you ask for an internal review. I asked to see the log book and the assessments (date, results and feedback). The exam board themselves say you can ask to see these before deciding your next steps.
All i was given from school was a score and told that they were assessed and moderated as per the exam board.

I am obviously pursuing this further with both the school and exam board but am trying to find out if anyone else has had any experiences with it and what happened.

It depends what your issue is. If you have an issue with the teaching and delivery of the component, then that is an issue that can only be raised with the school - the exam board won't touch that. If your issue is that you think the marking has been unfair and does not follow the mark scheme, then you can request the review. In that case you would need to see the log books and the recording (I assume?) of the practical to be able to explain where you think the discrepancy has been. You can't request a review just because you want more marks - you have to be able to explain clearly where you think the school has not marked in line with the mark scheme and national standard.

It's also worth remembering it's not your coursework (I presume this is your child's NEA and not yours?) and so the school may be reluctant to share directly with you. It really needs to come from the student.

They have to follow their published process, and the assessment has to be reviewed by someone unconnected. The board won't be interested until that's been completed.
A student queried my assessment of their (not PE) NEA last year. They were entitled to see all of my marking, which they did. It had been internally standardised. They then asked for an external review. Someone external looked at it and suggested I had marked it inaccurately: I was a little too generous.
In fact, when it went to the board, they agreed my original marks.

Thanks.
As part of deciding if we wanted a re assessment I asked to see the log book, dates of the assessment, the marks and feedback.
I have literally been give a mark e.g football 8. Nothing else other than they say they feel they assessed it correctly.
My child is the one who instigated it. She was even told she had to run for her athletics even though she wanted to do a throwing event.

Thanks for your input. It is actually reassuring that you put about being able to see all the marking.
They have literally shown me a score but nothing else. I have an email trail where i specifically ask on more than one occasion to see the grid etc and in the meeting all i got told was it was a line of best fit. Nothing else to support this .
I have spoken to a subject specialist who even told me the key jargon and what they should have shown me. I just feel the head is just agreeing with the teacher.

Sounds like you should be able to insist on seeing all of the assessment material - the coursework, recordings, along with mark schemes and access to any standardisation materials the board provides. At that stage you can decide whether you think they have marked unfairly or inaccurately. Do be careful though - if the issue is with the teaching/feedback/guidance then a review of marking can’t address that - that’s an issue the school will have to deal with in-house.

Thanks both. I really feel the school are stone walling me. They had an injury whilst some of the assessment was going on and they haven’t even got back to me if that was even taken into consideration! They have just blatantly ignored my question.
I’m now waiting for the subject specialist to get back to me as what they school say is conflicting with what OCR told me.

You need to ask them for a copy of the NEA policy, which you're entitled to.
And then you can make sure they've followed that.
The injury issue may be a red herring though. You'd need to have a look at what JCQ says about that. Special consideration doesn't normally apply to NEA - but that may be different with PE.
Keep an eye on the time - the marks have to be with the board on May 7th if it's GCSE, so any appeal has to be completed by then. The timeline should be set out in the policy.

Thank you. I asked in my initial correspondence that i wanted an internal review of the practical mark.
I was given the monthly academic scores but for the practical just 3 scores: 1 for each sport . I specifically asked for the breakdown as practical was ongoing before the meeting but received nothing.