Stress!!!

[Hpsauce27]

Looking for some advice as completely freaking out. Last year I booked the family a holiday abroad. My dsd has been loving with us for 3 years and came from a terrible home life. As soon as she moved in, lockdown happened. So I booked this holiday to go a couple of days before end of term (first time I have done this) to save a few pennies. Dsd is in year 10. The school have pulled her English lit exam forward and she now has to sit a paper on the day we fly out. At first it was ok as we have an afternoon flight. Now they have made the exam later in the day. Year 11 are sitting the same exam first thing. She has never been on holiday and it's cost a tidy 5000 and a year of slogging to pay for it. Of course I would have never booked the holiday if I knew last year that she would be sitting gcses in year 10. I have no idea what to do. People are telling me I will be fined if she doesn't sit the exam. Does anyone think the school would be understanding and let her sit the first exam with the year 11s??

I am also staggered that the cohort was only told two months ago they would be sitting the GCSE this year. That's ridiculous tbh.

But be that as it may, I think it would be more than reasonable to ask for her to sit it at 9.30. Especially if they really only had two months' notice.

Exactly. It really got my back up as it is a little bit of blackmail there. Hubby just wants to keep her off and I want her to sit the exam. This thread has given me great insight ahead of my visit to the school tomorrow.

I was astounded and couldn't believe what I was hearing. I said OK you mean mocks but nope actual GCSEs! Flummoxed.

Shamelessly place marking
.... am aware of Year 10's taking their spoken English lang assessment in year 10 for results to be processed in year 11 but not of taking their official exam.
Curious as to what the school will say tomorrow when you contact them.

Don't miss your holiday because the school is so disorganised. Put it back on to them. Explain your circumstances and ask the head teacher to offer you a solution.

If a child is ill or unable to attend for a good reason they usually allow them to sit the exam at a later date.

Thank you. I will do just this.

The solution is she sits the exam at 9am with the Year 11's.

Spoken language does not go towards the exam grade - it's a lot of stress and faff for nothing!

Unless there is a clash I don't see how a 9:00 session can be deferred to 11:30 for some. It is not up to the school when to schedule public exams but the exam board and there is limited leeway for latecomers.

What does she think about it ?
I am going to be reckless and suggest she sits the first paper and skips the second.

Be prepared to pay for resits in the Autumn if its essential that she does Eng Lit, or just skip it all together.

Its such a dumbed down curriculum. I don't think they even have to read and entire book or play do they ? Just sections of it. Why do we put our kids through such nonsense?

The solution is to sit the exam with year 11 or take the exam in the November sitting - or even next year as an individual (or with next year’s year 10). The last option would mean she needs to take responsibility for keeping up to date with her Lit knowledge.

The cynic in me is wondering if a significant number of current year 10 will ‘retake’ next summer and get their grades up?

When you go into school, make sure they actually ask the actual Exam Officer. That is the only person in school who can help you with this.

As a teacher- this. Tell them she's going to sit it next year as a private candidate, and make your own arrangements. Mad decision from the school- I don't see how they can have finished the curriculum if the decision has been made so short notice, like I don't understand how they planned their scheme of work for the year. They may well fine you but the stuff about making everyone else fail is bollocks. Ask to speak to Exams Officer.

The English Literature curriculum is intense!

They have to read 3 full texts, know them
back to front - and know lots of quotations.

On top of this they should aim to learn as many
poems as possible by heart from a poetry anthology.

It is a HUGE amount of content to teach in a year. They are not allowed books at all in the exam (in my school years I had annotated copies - then they moved to ‘clean copies’ which was sensible - now it’s completely closed book)

By contrast, English Language is all unseen texts and purely exam technique.

Yes in exceptional circumstances. I don’t see how a year 10 exam qualifies as that as it’s not their last chance to take it. The exam board most likely wouldn’t consider this exceptional.

Fully agree with this.

It sounds utter BS to me.
You can’t fail a whole cohort for 1 pupil missing it. Also she’d have to sit both papers not just one on one day.

I’d insist on speaking to the Exams Officer if I were you. It sounds like SLT made up crap from my experience.

In my experience, teachers and SLT often think they can do what they want when it comes to exams (not all but often).

yes technically they can defer start time to later for a cohort too big to sit in one sitting. However they’d have to maintain full exam security so ALL children waiting would be isolated from all other pupils and no online access. I’m also not sure the exam board would consider a year 10 exam counts as exceptional circumstances with their being other seasons they could enter.

I’d also question the schools ability to fine parents if communication was not robust. Unless they have proof of telling you the exam would be sat and when, I’d doubt they can charge you as you’d have cause for complaint that you never been warned.

Fines really need to be stated in the schools exam policy if they are going to try to issue them.

If a child is ill or unable to attend for a good reason they usually allow them to sit the exam at a later date.

This is certainly not true - they would easily be able to find out the questions.

But yy OP, please address this whole issue with school. When exactly were the students told that they would be sitting their Eng lit GCSE this year, year 10? If they really only got two months' notice, that's not at all reasonable in terms of revision if nothing else. Year 11s have been working on revision for Eng Lit for at least six months, most likely (or being told to anyway).

Interesting that exams officers on here are questioning this. Ask them if they have run their rather bizarre proposed arrangement past the exam board.

When I say "ask them" I mean the school obvs, not the MN exam officers

Just an update. Went into school first thing to be told examinations officer was in an exam and would call. Nothing. So guess I am going to have to make nuisance of myself.

This morning was biology.
Now might be a good time.

You need to also check if they will be allowing resits. We take english lit in year 10 with the option to resit if grade not what is expected. We are in Wales so ds sat a number in year 10 but always had the option to resit in year 11 if he had to.

I thought only autumn resits were English Language and Maths

Correct.

But if you take something in y10 you could resit it in the summer of y11.

All good. They have just called and have said she can sit the exam with the year 11s! Oh and of course I will be fined for taking her on holiday but expected that. Thank you all 😀