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Exam disruption impacts my son, and school declines my request for Special consideration - anyone got experience of this??

KIDS3

I would be interested to know others views and experiences - inc teachers of course!! of the correctness of an invigilator speaking to a pupil in an exam, scribbling over their 'quote dumping' at the start of an English exam, when they handed their paper in at the end of the exam, telling them they are 'in breach of health & safety regulations' if they change their chair, telling them prior to the exam, in the corridor, that their computer reader was not working today, telling them off for ignoring their instruction [to change their chair] during the exam.

These all happened to my ASD OCD 16 year old son every day in the first week of his GCSE's. I have applied to the school for special consideration, as he was severely impacted by them, and overwhelmed with anxiety to such a degree that he could not think/write, let alone perform his best. He ended the week in tears, and only told me these things had happened at some point every day, on Friday that week.

The school is refusing the grant him Special consideration, saying that the disruptions were minor. I have quoted back to them JCQ regulations that state

that in such instances his disability should made minor disruptions major for him, but they are still saying no.

Has anyone won a similar battle please? If so, how?  Any advice and suggestions would be appreciated please! many thanks :-)

Parents

  • The school will be extremely defensive of this, as any irregularities could affect their status as an examination centre. I imagine they may not want to go down the route of informing the exam officers at all about what happened, and in those circumstances it’s just easier to tell themselves that the disruptions were in fact minor ones. I think your clearest path is to focus on the absence of a reader. If he was meant to have one, if he had one in his mocks, and then it wasn’t working on the day, then that alone is a huge mistake.

  • in reply to glint

       thank you so much for your reply on this  . Indeed today it has emerged that the school allowed the invigilator who disturb my son, to file the SC request direct to the exam board, unchecked by their exams officer, or indeed anyone! They did not give a full and accurate account of the disturbances, and of course the claim was rejected. the school is now saying to proceed to a stage 2 claim, I must fund this myself,  for each exam.

    • Stage 2: appeal hearing £228.20

    Any advice or guidance would be appreciated please. i have a meeting tomorrow with the head at 10am on TEAMS. Yours gratefully all!

  • in reply to KIDS3

    I'm afraid that I have zero experience of making a claim to the Exam Board, so am unable to help on that front. I would however strongly dispute the schools handling of the situation in allowing an invigilator rather than the Exams Officer to make the claim on behalf of your son, especially if it was the same invigilator who appears to have acted outside of the exam rules (that to me is a huge red flag as there is a conflict of interest i.e. the invigilator may have wanted to 'hide' their errors when writing the claim). If you are prepared to follow through, I would also advise the Head that if they do not support your son's claim, you will be contacting the relevant exam Boards to complain (you can get the complaints procedures online via each respective Board).

    Slightly 'left field', but it may help you to know.......you may also like to ask about the schools invigilator training procedures; we all have to be trained via online modules & each September, any new additions to the JCQ Guidelines get included in the online training. Ask when the last time the invigilator completed their training; the Exams Office should have records confirming this.

    Good luck

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  • in reply to KIDS3

    I'm afraid that I have zero experience of making a claim to the Exam Board, so am unable to help on that front. I would however strongly dispute the schools handling of the situation in allowing an invigilator rather than the Exams Officer to make the claim on behalf of your son, especially if it was the same invigilator who appears to have acted outside of the exam rules (that to me is a huge red flag as there is a conflict of interest i.e. the invigilator may have wanted to 'hide' their errors when writing the claim). If you are prepared to follow through, I would also advise the Head that if they do not support your son's claim, you will be contacting the relevant exam Boards to complain (you can get the complaints procedures online via each respective Board).

    Slightly 'left field', but it may help you to know.......you may also like to ask about the schools invigilator training procedures; we all have to be trained via online modules & each September, any new additions to the JCQ Guidelines get included in the online training. Ask when the last time the invigilator completed their training; the Exams Office should have records confirming this.

    Good luck

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