Anger as children’s exam papers are collected too soon

ss wrote:

My daughter was also one of the pupils whose paper got taken away early. She was sat at the front which her paper was collected first and handed back last. By the time she got her paper back there was not much time left to goo back and figure out what question she was actually on, as she was advised by her school to do random tick off if she run out of time! I'm totally disgusted with Medway Councils response or lack of!!! I hope they are going to sort something out for the children that were affected. We got to remember these children were already under alot of pressure doing this exam out of their normal environment.

07 Oct 2010 8:22 AM

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caroline wrote:

Where the hell have my comments gone? Why have the older comments been removed?

05 Oct 2010 11:12 PM

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tracey wrote:

Sorry its late!!!!

What I meant to say is that I hope a positive outcome can be achieved for these children....

04 Oct 2010 9:43 PM

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Tracey wrote:

Just to let any interested parties know that I have today sent a letter of complaint to Medway council, Ofsted and my local MP. Will let you all know the outcome as soon as. I believe that a great miscarriage of justice has been done to these children and that the system has let them down. I do hope that a position can come from this for as many children as possible....

04 Oct 2010 9:41 PM

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Nataile wrote:

Tracey I agree with what you are saying , I know I suggested a re-sit as personally that's all I could think of at the time . I have also been told the English wasn't explained to them , fair enough , but at another school a child put their hand up and asked what they had to do and the invigilator told them they could write a story , a letter etc so those children were actually given guidance ! The more I am hearing about this exam the more I am beginning to feel it was a total farce ! And to make matters even worse this happened at the Kent test too which my daughter sat down in Ashford ! The papers were taken away early again in the Maths section ! Crikey just how hard is it to time 50 minutes !!!!

04 Oct 2010 10:33 AM

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Tracey wrote:

I think that it is an absolute disgrace and that there is only one thing that can be done about this and that is to give the children whom had their papers taken away before time, extra points to compensate for these invigilator errors. I believe that as there were 50 questions and 50 minutes to complete the paper, then 1 points should de given for each minute taken away from the children. As this was alerted at the 10 minute stage of the exam, then 10 points should be awarded. You cannot expect these children to re-sit the test again and to say that they were not at a disadvantage is ludicrous, but the only fair way is to award the points as said. This is what I have put in my letter to the council, anybody agree?????

04 Oct 2010 10:15 AM

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Jo wrote:

The instructions we were given said that the doors would be shut at 8.45 and children would not be allowed to sit the test after this. We arrived as advised at 8.25 and were let in at nearly 9.00. It was a really cold morning.

The children were not clearly told about what was going on. It seems that the invigilator said something - but only within hearing of the children around her at the time.

To claim all children were given clear and explicit instructions is not true and is a cowardly attempt by adults in authority to dismiss ten year olds as liars. This is what makes me so angry.

Obviously - the fact that she lost ten per cent of her time and was not able to do the vital checking of her work is irritating too. To put it mildly.

04 Oct 2010 1:12 AM

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Naomi wrote:

In addition to this they kept them waiting in the freezing cold until nearly 9am, even though they said they must not arrive later than 8.45am.

03 Oct 2010 5:33 PM

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KH wrote:

Clearly the Medway Council spokesman has no actual clue about how children would be affected by such a mistake, on an already stressful occasion, and should not be employed in education!

03 Oct 2010 4:16 PM

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Natalie wrote:

Put a space between muck and up , that's how I found it .

03 Oct 2010 11:55 AM

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Victoria wrote:

@Lorraine have not been able to find this fb group. Is the name correct?

03 Oct 2010 9:08 AM

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H H Caulfield wrote:

Every article ends with "A Medway Council spokesman said..." in the MM doesn't it? The council response to this fiasco should be more than just a patronising one-liner.

03 Oct 2010 1:38 AM

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Lorraine wrote:

There is a FB group now set up for all affected by this. It's called Medway Test Muckup.

02 Oct 2010 11:09 PM

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Sarah wrote:

My son sat the test last week and had the same problem, the people involved should be ashamed of themselves, it's disgusting how these children have had this important exam dealt with. My son marked any box as he had run out of time on the last few questions, dreadful for all the kids involved at what is a stressful time for them as it is.

02 Oct 2010 4:49 PM

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Victoria wrote:

You should probably wait till the results come in. I doubt that 5 mins would make that much difference to the results. It would seem unfair to the children to make them resit a test they have already done. Sure if you fail by one or two on the maths paper it is a problem but there are two other papers to make the marks and you only need a pass mark.

02 Oct 2010 12:22 PM

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Natalie wrote:

What can be done though ? The only thing I can think of is a re-sit of the Maths section for all 268 children involved but would that work ? Have just checked with my daughter who WAS told the paper had been collected too early and to carry on so again some children were told and others weren't , not fair at all !

02 Oct 2010 10:27 AM

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Lorraine wrote:

How can Medway Council say that the children were not disadvantaged? The exam was not administered in the same way as at the centres and even within the same centre, but in different halls. This already brings into question the reliability of the test results.

Also, when the paper was returned, it was not explained clearly and loudly enough for all the children to understand. My daughter sat in confusion for most of the 5 minutes that were left with her returned paper in front of her, not understanding that she could continue the paper, till she raised her hand and enquired why they had been given their papers back. At this stage, she only had 2 mins left!

All around her (near the back of the room), the other children were sitting in confusion and many, if not all, did not even utilise their 5 minutes! A few of my daughter's friends certainly did not use their reinstated time as this was not made clear, contrary to the official line.

Anyone can make a mistake, but what is important is what they do about it once this mistake is realised. Medway Council would be doing an injustice to these children to pretend no one was disadvantaged.

02 Oct 2010 9:00 AM

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Natalie wrote:

@RH ... No , he does mean 10 minutes , a warning is given saying only 5 minutes left , his daughter thought ,correctly, she had 10 mins left so therefore started to rush through the rest of the questions . The papers were taken away 5 minutes early .

01 Oct 2010 10:57 PM

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RH wrote:

Seems Dave Lambert might have made a schoolboy error of his own. Doesnt he mean 5 mintues not 10?!

"David Lambert’s daughter Olivia was among the children sitting the exam on Saturday.

He said: “Olivia was on question 35 of 50 when the time warning was given and she panicked because she thought she had 10 minutes left, not five.

"I would hate to think she’s been robbed of a place at a school she wants by Medway Council’s mistake. It’s a schoolboy error.”

01 Oct 2010 10:10 PM

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Pippa wrote:

My daughter had finished her paper and was about to check it when it was taken away. And it was not made at all clear to the kids why the papers were then given back. She was upset and confused and never got to check her work. Dont understand how she is not disadvantaged compared to other kids who were given the full time uninterrupted.

01 Oct 2010 6:54 PM

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Natalie wrote:

My daughter was one of the children who had her paper collected early,luckily for her she had already finished and was just checking her answers but I feel sorry for the other children who then had to rush it. I wonder just how badly this mistake affected others ? Fingers crossed for all the children who had their papers taken early .

01 Oct 2010 3:25 PM

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Amanda wrote:

Of course these children were disadvantaged. Their concentration was significantly broken and although time was reinstated, it can not be considered to be the same as an uninterrupted examination. Can only hope that a fair and competent approach is applied to the outcome, as some results will surely not reflect ability, due to this "oversight".

01 Oct 2010 3:12 PM

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AngryParent wrote:

At RGS, pupils were not given an instruction sheet during the preparation stage of their English paper - Medway Council once again shows its incompetence, hand back control to KCC is what I say.

01 Oct 2010 1:53 PM

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Victoria wrote:

This is the second year running there have been problems with the exams being taken at Chatham Grammer for Boys. Perhaps they should be removed from the process. If they can't run exams to rule how do they run their school?

01 Oct 2010 1:17 PM

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Carolyn D wrote:

Not disadvantaged! Is this standard practice for all exams in Kent now,absolutely disgusting, I hope that the authorities explain such a pathetic and potentially damaging mistake.

01 Oct 2010 12:57 PM

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