Teen sitting GCSE exams while parent is dying

[Decompressing2]

I have often heard about how children whose parent has died, or dies, during their GCSE exams...the most they can get in terms of support is a 5% uplift to their grades. It's wrong. I am supporting this girl.
Teen forced to take GCSEs days after her dad died calls for exam change (msn.com)

But she was given the option of using her mocks, or resitting the following year, and she decided to go ahead with the exams because she’d done badly in the mocks and thought she’d get a better grade.

The exam board obviously can’t give her straight A*s based on teacher assessment if her mocks were poor, so I’m not really sure what she is suggesting should happen instead.

Compassion

more than 5%?

Permission to know she could have not done the exams but would have been allowed to resit a bit later…or yes teacher awarded grade.

Having had twins do the GCSEs last year…the pressure is immense - it’s not uncommon for kids to do poorly in mocks but well in exams. Besides as you can imagine it was her plan to do the exams…with her dad dying in hospital she was not exactly in the right frame of mind to take a step back and do a sense check. Kids are told constantly how important these exams are. For the most part they are only a stepping stone to A levels - but for her it seems she was doing English / Maths exams which are essential for that step,

She’s a teen - a year of her life would seem a lot to wait to redo exams she was so close to sitting. Most schools know whether their children are in a place to move onto A levels - whether they sit the exams and get official grades or not. That’s why some schools still let kids who don’t quite get the grades in the final exams to still go onto A levels.

Permission to know she could have not done the exams but would have been allowed to resit a bit later…or yes teacher awarded grade.

Both English and maths have a November sitting, but teacher awarded grades are not allowable under JCQ regulations.

It's not a school issue or an exam board one. It's a regulatory one.

Very brave girl attempting to sit the exams under those circumstances, but I do agree with pp, and while the options may not seems “fair” as it means a year out to take resits there are options and giving out/inflating grades significantly based on compassion is wrong.

The only fair solution would be for more formal evidence gathering with regular “mocks” style assessments leading up to the final exam which there simply isn’t time for the 5 million students sitting gcse every year.

Glad to read she did go to her dream college and it all worked out for her.

Permission to know she could have not done the exams but would have been allowed to resit a bit later

but she can’t “resit a bit later”. The exams are done, they’re out there. So she can’t sit them because she would have known what was on the exam paper beforehand.

This is one of those situations where it’s really awful, but there is also no alternative. She was offered the chance to use her mocks and she declined so you either sit the exams or you wait until next year at that point.

I must admit that I thought the 'make sure you do proper mocks and that they are conducted under exam conditions' instructions last year were in case exams had to be cancelled for everyone again, and that for individuals, the normal process whereby marks for missed papers were calculated with reference to components actually completed, where enough had been for that subject? In that case, it would have been better to have been 'signed off' for papers, if some had already been sat, rather than sit all of them and rely on the 'uplift' for the ones after the distressing event?

Personally I agree that 5% is pathetic when your parent dies during the exam season. I's support a move to make it 10%.

Poor kid. My dh died suddenly just before dd2's SATs. The school wanted her to still take them but she couldn't focus as she was in shock so I said no. SATs are obviously less important. If it had been GCSEs I'm not sure what we'd have done.

I’ve seen this elsewhere and the child’s determination to sit the exams (having already done one paper in that case) was their undoing. The school explained in painstaking detail the implications (if they had been absent the board could have used paper 1 but once all papers have been sat they must be taken into account) but the child was determined. It was awful all round but the rules are very clear.

I get that re the school and the exam boards so it is maybe the JCQ regulations that need to be changed.

Teacher assessed grades are a terrible idea.

No one is debating the rules are not clear - its just maybe its time for compassionate reasons to relook at these rules for children who have a parent die.

My twins just did GCSEs last year - honestly so much of it was utterly pointless. Unless a child wants to do science at A level or uni what they got for their science GCSE is of no consequence.

This over inflation one poster has referred to - her teachers would have known her well enough to give her a fair grade. What is over inflation anyway. Both my children had several GCSE subjects one mark off the next grade - ironically, with english literature they were both one mark off the next grade up. On appeal my son's english literature went up a grade, my daughter's english literature stayed the lower grade....but she was 1 mark off my son's grade - my son's life did not improve going up a grade, my daughter's life did not worsen staying the same grade. If the teacher's had accidentally over inflated this girl's grade by one level it would not have been a big deal.

I’m not sure what the answer is. It is awful for teenagers having to sit GCSEs when they have just lost a parent, with the alternative being to drop back a year. Not great choices. But I don’t think increasing the percentage allowance is the answer either. Perhaps the importance of mock exams really needs drilled into teenagers and then these results, alongside tag’s could be the alternative option.

maybe - or they could increase the 5% to 10% as one previous poster suggested.

I am not suggesting a method - I do not have an educational background - I am merely saying I think a 5% uplift for children whose parents dies is not compassionate enough.

I am very surprised I seem to be in the minority though. It must be a horrific thing to lose a parent during childhood but especially during your GCSE period.

The importance the UK education system puts on GCSEs is just nuts. My son broke his writing hand just before his GCSE exams - panic panic - I was so mortified. But he unexpectedly ended up with all 9s and 8s...which seemed amazing at the time, but as he does his A levels and it means very little because if he can't get the predicted grades he needs for uni applications...all his 9s and 8s will not help him get there.

Mock exams would have to be standardised across the country for that to work, though.

I'm not unsympathetic to the students in this situation - I've taught for a long time and seen a lot of terrible situations - but it's not as easy as people would like it to be.

It’s what they had to do during Covid though- an extremely unexpected circumstance. Which is what having a parent die right in the middle of your GCSEs is.

It isn't.

Schools basically did what they liked and the exam boards signed off on it because they - we - had no choice. It was an extreme situation which affected the whole cohort.

There was no standardisation, no moderation, no consistency. And that's why the results went insanely high in some places.

TAG workload was insane and unsustainable.

The death of a parent is not the same. That's not to say there shouldn't be some recognition of that in awarding - which there is - but it would be extremely unwise to have a system based on TAGs.

Compassion can't be measured in %'s - why is 5% not compassionate and 10% is, why not 15% before it is compassionate?

Compassion is measured in supporting the young person through a difficult time and helping them with the options available to them and making any reasonable adjustments with what option they chose.

What would you suggest in these circumstances ?

What would I suggest?

That if the candidate is able to sit the whole qualification, they get special consideration.
That if they sit part of it, the same applies.
That if they sit none of it, they be offered a statement of recognition.

All of these things already exist.

That if they sit none of it, they are allowed a fed free entry to the next sitting, should they want it.
.

I agree OP. My son has just sat his GCSEs while his sister has Stage 4 cancer. He has had to deal with his own emotions and those of us his parents who are devastated.

It is the day to day impact these kids suffer of listening to his sister crying in pain, losing her hair and absent parents staying over night at hospitals.

5% is the maximum award that is given, I imagine for the actual death of a family member.

When I spoke to the school they were overwhelmed with dealing with sheer explosion of kids needing extra time to complete exams due to SN they said it was unfair but all they could offer was to ask the exam boards to consider his situation and we wouldn't be told what their decision was. No extra tme was offered as we'd missed the deadline to ask.

We will be proud of him of whatever his results are. His sister is racked with guilt.

No one is debating the rules are not clear

But if I am correct re the circumstances for which mocks were to be used (possibly @MrsHamlet or one of the other teachers / examiners could clarify? I can only see the updated JCQ rules for 2024 online), then the school gave rather poor advice with regard to subjects for which enough of the required assessments had already been completed. If I am wrong,, then knowing that she had not done as well as she was capable of in her mocks, the girl was indeed put between a rock and a hard place wrt completing her exams.

As far as I can see, there is nothing in the regs for this series in relation to mock exams. That ship sailed many years ago.

My kids took public exams this summer (and in 2022 which was the first year back).

i believe that the schools have to keep “controlled documents” or something so that in this type of case, kids can use those for results. Controlled documents might be mocks or other exams taken under proper conditions.

Having a parent die during exams is unfortunately not as uncommon as you might think.