Data Protection Act request to get ISEB results

[PopcornPoppingInAPan]

TLDR - anyone know if it's possible to get your child's ISEB results by making a DPA Subject Access Request of ISEB?

The longer version (and apologies, it's rather niche!)
DD will be applying for independent schools this Autumn. Our top two target schools both use the ISEB Common Pretest. School B ask candidates to sit this in early October so that's when she'll take it, though if she were just applying to School A then she'd sit in in Jan.

She should do fine in the test and I'm cautiously optimistic she'd get offers from both schools. But we have to plan for the possibility she has a shocker in the test and find at least one further back-up school.

But I'm thinking - can I not do a Data Subject Access Request on ISEB as soon as she's done the October test, to get her scores (they'd ordinarily have to supply them within a month). We could then see how she's done and get a good idea whether she does need to sit any other exams or whether her marks look enough to get at least School B. If so, then we can discontinue the tutoring and I don't need to ask her to take further tests for a School C and possibly a School D.

I've checked and a) it is possible to apply to exam boards for exam results as they're considered personal data. However b) there is an exemption that says that if the results are yet to be published to the candidate then the exam board doesn't have to comply until after the date of publication.

However, with ISEB, my understanding is the results are never published to the candidate - they are shared with the applicant's schools which decide whether they meet the standard for invitation to interview and offer. So I don't think this exemption should apply.

Any insights gratefully received!

Oh, and to avoid drip feeding: School B gets candidates to sit ISEB in early October and then invites them a few weeks later for interview, so that would be a good indication of how well she'd done. However, I've been told that while officially they make offers in early December, in practice they make very few then and most offers don't come until March - so we may not know until then whether she'd got a place for School B.

I imagine there’s an exemption as someone else I believe asked something about exam marks previously but in a different context; but that’s not v helpful as I’m not sure!

However, you’d have to be quite sure of the outcome in terms of relative scores to the bin tutoring/prep? I’d also be concerned that schools would take quite a dim view of the request anyway and it wouldn’t paint you in a good light (even though I can see why you’re asking).

Hello- the schools wouldn’t know, I’d be making the DSAR request to ISEB as they would hold the test results.

Youre right I’d have to be fairly sure of things to bin efforts try for any other schools. But I think she has the capability to get very high scores, just as long as she doesn’t stuff up the exam on the day.

Perhaps the ICO is helpful - says can’t get exam results until certain period after they are “published”…..

Thanks, yes I’d seen that and my point is that unusually for exams the results are never “published” to the candidate.

If ISEB takes the view that the results are “published” to the schools that’s fine too, and they’ll be published to school B almost immediately after my daughter has taken the exam.

@PopcornPoppingInAPan As per the ISEB web page
Tests can be taken between the beginning of October and the end of June, but can only be sat once by a pupil in any academic year
If I understand you well, your dd can not write it in November, find out the results and take the exam again in January.

Sorry, my post wasn’t clear - she would sit the exam on once and it would be in October because that’s when School B want the test to be taken. School A will also use the results from the October test to decide whether to invite DD for interview, sometime in/after January. If DD wasn’t applying for School B then she’d be taking the test in January for School A, rather than in October.

My point is that we are looking for 1-2 other back-up schools in case she does badly on the ISEB - the other schools we’re considering use non-ISEB tests. But if we could get her ISEB marks by early November and if these were strong we might conclude that we don’t need to put her through the rigmarole of sitting more tests for third and fourth choice schools.

I expect her to perform really well in interviews because she’s articulate, cheerful and confident (without being over confident - her teachers absolutely love her!).

It’s about making sure she gets over the line in the test, having heard a few horror stories about how strong candidates have massively underperformed on the day for one reason or another.

Of course she could have a bad day in an interview but I feel the chances of her having two bad days in interviews for both schools are tiny.

Hope that makes sense!

Offers not just based on ISEBs, but interviews and those with drama, music, sport ability. Schools do look at all rounders for their year group mix. That is why those applying with ISEBs etc apply to 5 or 6 schools, see offers and holder offer days to decide.

@PopcornPoppingInAPan we managed to get the marks, but that is because ISEB made a mistake on the exam my dc took. We verified this with ISEB and they swore it did not affect his overall score (wish we fought on this one!). But in the end he did not pass for one school, so we asked for the scores. VERY frustrating and stressful for us. So yes, it is possible....but not sure they will give it to everyone.

Yes, but as above we expect our daughter to do really well in interviews - it’s the kind of situation she really excels at - so that as long as she can do well enough in the exam to get a callback then she should end up with an offer from at least one of School A and B, and probably both.

Thanks @SamPoodle123 that’s encouraging (though very sorry you and your son went through this all).

Worth asking but ISEBs and London Consortium or Digital exams based on Atom learning have a certain amount of opaqueness baked into it. The answer may be lead to a different pathway set of exams questions and different time would have different questions. Would the current primary school give the results to you as they would know?

No you can’t, they have an exemption. This has been tried before.

I’m sure they’d like to avoid giving the results, but as far as I can tell they have a duty to do so in response to a Data Protection Act request and can’t rely on the narrow exemption that’s in there for example results.
They must be providing definitive SAS to the schools we apply to and it’s that info I want them to share.

What I think is more likely is they try to fob me off and delay responding for a couple of months, by which point it wouldn’t help me.

I won’t be the first to ask, so they will have an internal policy on how they deal.

AFAIK the results wouldn’t be shared with our primary.

I really don’t think the exemption applies (and I say that as a solicitor who dabbles in Data Protection advice).

As above the exemption allows exam boards to delay complying with a DSAR until after the results are “published” but they are never “published” to the candidate, and they will be provided to School B almost immediately after she takes the test so if that counts as “publishing” then, then the exemption doesn’t help them either.

But they could well try to fob me off by initially claiming these exemptions and dragging things out.