A level art regradiing

[overitall100]

Hello. My dd received her A level results yesterday and though they aren't bad, we are really confused by her art one. She followed the AQA guidelines which most others did not, so she did many mediums and a whole load of research with some great books that were used as an example to the class.
One of her friends got much higher and had done one medium throughout. As lovely as the work is I don't understand how their gradings were so different.

It has been a huge struggle the whole last year as her art teacher has zero enthusiasm and often didn't update with important information when she promised to.
DD's grading went up, down, up, down and we never knew where she was at. Even in the exam the teacher pulled a rude face when she looked at my dd's piece and was praising others which threw dd a bit.

I have spoken to the school and strangely the person I spoke to didn't disagree with some of my points but also said "well, it's subjective" which worried me as are art teachers allowed to grade art on their own preferences?

DD luckily has unconditional offers so is very lucky. Her art teacher just frowned when she told her excitedly about that and said "I wish they'd stop giving those out". No well done or anything.

I am tempted to get the art regraded just because I feel the teacher just doesn't like my DD, which may sound paranoid but she never once said anything nice about DD's work. I am also aware that the teacher's DS wanted to date my DD and DD wasn't in to that which is interesting as the teacher was much nicer to DD years ago before this happened.

Is it worth it? Really we just want explanations to help DD moving forward but have met a brick wall so far.

Your final paragraph is you would like to help DD move forward. The biggest thing to this is she has an unconditional place where she wants to go so this one mark will not affect her future. B 6 months time no one will care what she got in her A-level art. She should focus on her future that she can change not her past which she can't change.

Though competitive graduate schemes may check a levels (ie law) and rule out say below a b in anything.

So depends what future plans are really.

Art is not the same as other subjects - the exam is internally marked and externally moderated. Candidates should have been given their marks (not grades) before the marks were submitted to the board. The time to question those was then. It's now too late, unless the centre chooses to have the whole lot remoderated.

Yes, this so true. I’d forgotten about this.

@MrsHamlet It transpires my dd (and her friend - don’t know about others) never received the marks. So it seems there has been a breech.
If only they had then we wouldn’t be here now wondering. I did ask for an update also while she working towards the exam and was promised one but they didn’t bother.

Exactly. And at 18 who knows what they might want to do in the future so this is important.

Well that's a mess up by the centre, but I don't think you can do anything about it at this stage, sadly.

I will be taking it up with them. Really unacceptable.

I have extensive experience of creative A levels. Depending on the spec there is no essay they complete, at my centre we offer AQA only. Your daughter should have had points throughout the course whereby she was given the grade she was working at with how to improve. This work would be demonstrated through her sketch books. Parent’s evenings would have given you the opportunity to discuss this with her teacher.
your daughter would have gone into the exam aware of where her coursework was sitting and therefore the potential outcome she was working towards. She would have also had a mock art exam too which would have given an indication of her forecast grade.
If you are a non specialist it is very difficult to compare other students work with your daughter’s. There are so many different nuances.
The creative A levels always require so much work and a grade that is below what was expected can be difficult to accept. A
review of marking is unusual because of what I have outlined above and does come with a note of caution; marks can go down.
I would suggest celebrating her place on an arts course and focus energies into that.

I agree that you should. But I don't think a review of the marking is possible now.

Will investigate!

Thank you for your input.
Some of what you say has been accurate ie mock etc but a serious amount of it also sadly was not the case. The books were not looked much and any enquiries requesting updates - vague responses or ignored. Once we were told in emails they were really happy with the work and grade went right up and then down again the next report even though a lot of work had been added. The reason made no sense.
It has been a really depressing experience because of the lack of passion and we were warned at the beginning by other parents that the dept didn’t seem to care.
What I really want is to get to the root of the issue and now I know that we should have had markings in June I am really not happy. I also do not want others to have this happen to them.
Of course, we are really thrilled for the future so I am going to just deal with this issue in a business like manner and then move on.

Wow - this is so helpful. I'm living the same nightmare right now with a teacher and school that has seriously failed my daughter. I will use some of the points raised and thank everyone for their comments 😥

@Amc999 ive messaged you. Sorry to hear that.

@Lostmykeys can I please ask what happens when an art exam has been breached?

There doesn’t appear to have been a breach in the technical sense of an exam breach.
my advice would be to take this up with the head of centre.
In the creative world it is highly unlikely she will be asked for her a level grades. It will be her portfolio and current relevant outcomes and specialism that she is judged on.
she is likely to specialise in a particular genre once she has done her foundation course and this will be the career opener for her, it her a level grades.
I completely understand your frustration but would be future focused on her next steps.

@Lostmykeys thanks - agree forward thinking is important. Thank you.
The breach was quite a serious one really so I feel it is important to address it. Partly because the dept is sloppy and kids deserve better.

I’ve no doubt the future is bright for my dd and she will love whatever she focuses on next.