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Any school exam officers lurking here? Need Urgent advice!

I need some urgent advice as I've hit a brick wall with school. My child has just been told he is not entitled to his English Language June resit as what he sat in January was his resit.

Long story short - Year 10 school sent him on work experience for a week causing his to miss a controlled assessment. No mention of it for the rest of the year not being complete to him or me and seems to he schools knowledge. Year 10 English was not able to be certified as they sent it all off saying it was incomplete.

Its only now they have gone to submit his June retake they have been told his January exam was classed as a resit and this year will be a full year certified.

I've called AQA - They have said school need to ask for a late entry award and a 0 for the section of missing work. School say exam board telling me rubbish and they have been told they cannot do this and tough luck basically for their huge mistake and trying to blame him for not working hard enough.

Can anyone help me here, who else can I contact to try and get this sorted. As far as I'm concerned this is a school admin error that is about to cost my son a pass grade.

Thank you!
Reply 1
I am not a exam officer, just a secondary student, however your child can't re-take a re-take unfortunately
Reply 2
Original post by tillycat123
I need some urgent advice as I've hit a brick wall with school. My child has just been told he is not entitled to his English Language June resit as what he sat in January was his resit.

Long story short - Year 10 school sent him on work experience for a week causing his to miss a controlled assessment. No mention of it for the rest of the year not being complete to him or me and seems to he schools knowledge. Year 10 English was not able to be certified as they sent it all off saying it was incomplete.

Its only now they have gone to submit his June retake they have been told his January exam was classed as a resit and this year will be a full year certified.

I've called AQA - They have said school need to ask for a late entry award and a 0 for the section of missing work. School say exam board telling me rubbish and they have been told they cannot do this and tough luck basically for their huge mistake and trying to blame him for not working hard enough.

Can anyone help me here, who else can I contact to try and get this sorted. As far as I'm concerned this is a school admin error that is about to cost my son a pass grade.

Thank you!


I'm not an exam officer either but if you seriously want to pursue this, and your getting nowhere with the school or AQA then you might want to consider legal help.

Ring AQA again, tell them you believe the school has casused this and ask them to explain to you your options. Also, go into the school and directly speak to him and give him a right bolloc*ing.

Sorry for your situation,

Tom :smile:
Reply 3
Original post by tillycat123
I need some urgent advice as I've hit a brick wall with school. My child has just been told he is not entitled to his English Language June resit as what he sat in January was his resit.

Long story short - Year 10 school sent him on work experience for a week causing his to miss a controlled assessment. No mention of it for the rest of the year not being complete to him or me and seems to he schools knowledge. Year 10 English was not able to be certified as they sent it all off saying it was incomplete.

Its only now they have gone to submit his June retake they have been told his January exam was classed as a resit and this year will be a full year certified.

I've called AQA - They have said school need to ask for a late entry award and a 0 for the section of missing work. School say exam board telling me rubbish and they have been told they cannot do this and tough luck basically for their huge mistake and trying to blame him for not working hard enough.

Can anyone help me here, who else can I contact to try and get this sorted. As far as I'm concerned this is a school admin error that is about to cost my son a pass grade.


I have been an exams officer but cannot make complete sense of what you say - it does get quite complicated and it may be that you have misunderstood what the school has said and that the confusion between what the school and AQA are saying is because what AQA understood from what you said is not what the school meant(!) I've tried to list the bits you need to understand, which may help you make sense of what the school is saying so you can resolve this.

AQA GCSE English consists of 3 units:
an exam (40%),
the speaking and listening controlled assessment (20%) and
the written controlled assessment (40%)

Each unit is entered as a separate entry with the exam board. Candidates are only allowed 2 attempts at a unit (i.e. one re-sit) with the better attempt counting. (An attempt for the controlled assessment is when the work is all submitted to the exam board).

You also can only ask for an overall grade for GCSE when you are taking (that means entering the exam or submitting controlled assessments) at least 40% of the GCSE in that same exam season (there are 2 - January or Summer). For GCSE English with AQA that obviously means you have to enter at least the exam or the written controlled assessment at the same time that you ask for an overall grade.

For the summer, the controlled assessment has to be submitted to AQA by 7 May so time is running out.

I hope that helps to make more sense of what the school says - ask if you have any more questions.
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 4
Original post by Data
I have been an exams officer but cannot make complete sense of what you say - it does get quite complicated and it may be that you have misunderstood what the school has said and that the confusion between what the school and AQA are saying is because what AQA understood from what you said is not what the school meant(!) I've tried to list the bits you need to understand, which may help you make sense of what the school is saying so you can resolve this.

AQA GCSE English consists of 3 units:
an exam (40%),
the speaking and listening controlled assessment (20%) and
the written controlled assessment (40%)

Each unit is entered as a separate entry with the exam board. Candidates are only allowed 2 attempts at a unit (i.e. one re-sit) with the better attempt counting. (An attempt for the controlled assessment is when the work is all submitted to the exam board).

You also can only ask for an overall grade for GCSE when you are taking (that means entering the exam or submitting controlled assessments) at least 40% of the GCSE in that same exam season (there are 2 - January or Summer). For GCSE English with AQA that obviously means you have to enter at least the exam or the written controlled assessment at the same time that you ask for an overall grade.

For the summer, the controlled assessment has to be submitted to AQA by 7 May so time is running out.

I hope that helps to make more sense of what the school says - ask if you have any more questions.


It was the unit 3 of year 10 that was incomplete, so in 2012 they submitted I guess this time last year the controlled assessments and they submitted saying incomplete he sat the exam in the January so unit 1 and the unit 2. From what I gather they should have given the missing one a mark of zero on unit 3 not returned it as incomplete. The school have told me it was missing because they sent him on work experience and missed doing it and for what ever reason they have not followed this up meaning it was not there to submit.

They put him in again as they did all the year in January 2013 for the written paper again and only realised last week that the error of last year has meant that the June resit is not available for him as January was actually classed as the resit.

I spoke to the exam board again yesterday, they did get a call from the head last week and it was refereed higher at AQA but the exam board have still said no. Apparently they only give exception if the child is about to die!!!

I want heads to role at school over this, the English teacher and the head of English seem the ones at fault here. I think the school hope I fade away over this as the head has still not bothered to reply to me from a week ago today but I'm not prepared to, so I guess today is about drafting a letter to the governors and the LEA?

The AQA entries chap said that he will have the opportunity in NOVEMBER 2013 to enter the unit one as a private candidate and the unit 2 and unit 3 from this years submission May 7th will count still. DATA - could you just confirm I've understood that bit correct from him?
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 5
Original post by tillycat123
It was the unit 3 of year 10 that was incomplete, so in 2012 they submitted I guess this time last year the controlled assessments and they submitted saying incomplete he sat the exam in the January so unit 1 and the unit 2. From what I gather they should have given the missing one a mark of zero on unit 3 not returned it as incomplete. The school have told me it was missing because they sent him on work experience and missed doing it and for what ever reason they have not followed this up meaning it was not there to submit.

They put him in again as they did all the year in January 2013 for the written paper again and only realised last week that the error of last year has meant that the June resit is not available for him as January was actually classed as the resit.

I spoke to the exam board again yesterday, they did get a call from the head last week and it was refereed higher at AQA but the exam board have still said no. Apparently they only give exception if the child is about to die!!!

The AQA entries chap said that he will have the opportunity in NOVEMBER 2013 to enter the unit one as a private candidate and the unit 2 and unit 3 from this years submission May 7th will count still. DATA - could you just confirm I've understood that bit correct from him?


He has taken the exam twice and so cannot take it again in November. However, from what you have said, he could be re-entered for the controlled assessment this summer and a final grade requested. That would comply with the one re-sit rule and the 40% terminal rule (but time is very short for this).
Reply 6
I spoke to AQA entries again yesterday to confirm about a November resit. They said if unit 2 and 3 are being submitted now, these will be added to the January unit 1 he sat and in November this year he will be able to resit unit 1 as a private candidate.

currently drafting letter to the governors! School have not come back to me still with a reason apart from the he was on work experience and missed an assessment. I think they hope I will just go away over this......

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