Can the school legally withhold my exam results?

The school is claiming I owe them a book which I handed back and are now demanding £18.99. I'm going to try to resolve this issue but their letter is somewhat threatening and states that should I fail to pay them the £18.99 they will withhold any future support and results and basically disown me.

I will not pay the £18.99 as a principle because I did hand the book in, and it's an administrative error, but as a worst case scenario what can the school legally do? Surely under the freedom of information act I can simply squeeze the information out of them?

Reply 1

Wildebeest

13

The school cannot 'legally' withhold your exam results: they act as nothing apart from the centre at which you sat the papers and as a rather vague advisory means on results day. More to the point, you actually have handed in the book. Results are conferred by the exam boards, not by your school - and as such, are sent for the primary attention of you, not of your school. The situation is different at universities where some will not allow graduation if materials have not been handed in, but the process is governed by an internal awarding system.

Write a detailed, firm and polite letter to your school explaining the confusion and reaffirming that the book has been handed in. You should make the point now that they have no right to withhold your results, and that point should be continued on results day until they hand them over (to be honest, I see this as a rather petty threat than something that will actually be carried out). In other words, don't 'disown' them until they have complied.

Reply 2

Muppety_Kid

17

Wildebeest

The school cannot 'legally' withhold your exam results: they act as nothing apart from the centre at which you sat the papers and as a rather vague advisory means on results day. More to the point, you actually have handed in the book. Results are conferred by the exam boards, not by your school - and as such, are sent for the primary attention of you, not of your school. The situation is different at universities where some will not allow graduation if materials have not been handed in, but the process is governed by an internal awarding system.

Write a detailed, firm and polite letter to your school explaining the confusion and reaffirming that the book has been handed in. You should make the point now that they have no right to withhold your results, and that point should be continued on results day until they hand them over (to be honest, I see this as a rather petty threat than something that will actually be carried out). In other words, don't 'disown' them until they have complied.

Seconded. Didn't the book have a number in or something that would allow them to check you'd handed it in?

I think you're right, but perhaps you're thinking of the Data Protection Act 1998. You've got a right to see any information they hold about you (from personal details to exam results) - I'm not sure what the difference between this and the Freedom of Information Act is.

This is what you want:

JCQ

Centre Management
5.11 In relation to externally assessed examinations, the centre agrees to:
• keep scripts secure from the time they are collected from candidates until they are
despatched to the examiners or the awarding bodies;
• respect the confidentiality of scripts by not allowing them to be read or photocopied by
any person prior to marking, without permission of the awarding body;
• keep results or information issued by EDI or via an awarding body secure website
strictly confidential and not to divulge or post them to candidates, parents or other
persons prior to the official dates and times for their publication;
• distribute provisional statements of results to all candidates without delay.