Shambles at Rainham Girls

[telly-addict]

Medway managed to mess up the invigilation again this year. Children at Rainham Girls didn't leave until 2:40 instead of 1:20. They were starting their VR when other centres were leaving. They made a mess of registering the children in the morning, with only two people trying to register all the children in 20 minutes. How they managed to overrun by so long I don't know. Looking forward to hearing their apology. Poor children were hungry after being there 6 hours with only fruit to eat - assuming their parents had given them a snack! Schools affected included Miers Court, Deanwood, Fairview, St Margarets.

[reddebs]

Several of my students were at this test centre on Saturday and they are not happy with the overrun and proceedures.

What will it take for Medway council to rethink this testing in one day at a huge test centre approach?

How the children are expected to excel and produce quality tests under such conditions is a mystery to me. Perhaps those at the council may reconsider if their own children ever have to go through this ordeal.

Kent have got it right allowing the children to remain in their own school and split the tests over 2 school days.

Come on Medway you have had enough experieince and problems over the years this has been running to realise this system is not working.

[pheasantchick]

Looked at the website from '******' (pm Me if you don't understand this reference) earlier. He is trying to collate info regarding this situation.

[Mininsmum]

My daughter was unfortunate enough to sit the test at Rainham Girls. I have today sent a letter of complaint.

[sherry_d]

Medway should just let pupils sit the test in their schools and then arrange something for OOCs. It just seems like a perfectly simple solution rather than dealing with issues of maladministration. Can't they just look across to see what works in Kent. The review process in Medway is another bizarre thing they do. Most parent's simply don't understand it and rush to do a review not knowing the full implications of it all. I can't see Medway admitting its wrongs, same thing happened last year and they simply fobbed off the complaints as if they were pokies.

The weird thing was there were lots of similar complaints after the test last year but once results were out not once did I see or hear anyone appealing or even mention about the distraction. I wonder if that has an influence on how Medway is behaving. Maybe the children of the majority of the parents who complained passed after all. I don't know. Its just my own little assumption. I think if a significant number had complained or appealed after results based on these distractions Medway might have taken the issue seriously. There is still no justification for them ruining the chance of some children be it one or two or however many.

[Allbutdone]

I have written a letter to the LEA to complain about the poor administration of Saturday's test and intend to copy it to my local councillor, it will probably make no difference but at least it is off my chest and perhaps could prod improvements for future test entrants. I have suggested that to prevent future issues they look at adopting the Kent Model which seems much kinder, by allowing the testing to take place within the school on a normal day. Children are quite used to doing assessment tests at their own school and mine DD actually enjoys these - she did not enjoy Saturday, except for when she came out. It would remove alot of the stress attached to having to go somewhere unknown and being invigilated by unfamiliar faces. I would also have thought that Kent's model would be cheaper - as there would be no need to pay for invigilators.
Does any one know why Medway changed to a Saturday at centralised centres, as I seem to remember they did used to follow the Kent model and wonder if there was originally a good reason to change?

[Belinda]

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[reddebs]

To add to the Kent/Medway testing comparison. It is the practice that Kent schools swap teachers with another local school to act as invigilators for the exam days. This eliminates the exposure of wanting to support their own students and therefore makes it a fair test.
Medway could indeed follow Kent's example. I for one would support this.

I must admit that when the switchover happened all those years ago to centre testing, I was of the belief that the schools to be used as test centres would be the grammar schools only as I had a feeling that Medway were considering moving towards individual schools running their own entrance tests, for example, if you wanted your child to go to Rochester Grammar you sat their test and if you also wanted to try for Rainham Mark you sat their test too. (Hope this makes sense).
However I have been proved wrong as no such move has even been muted so I was obviously overthinking the situation.

Maybe it's time Medway council had a formal review of this so that opinions, reasons and ideas are put forward to provide a fair and managable system that does not compromise the student, school or the tests themselves.

I would put my hand up for that committee!

[jenhug]

Here is a question for you;

The children that were sent home due to distress from the Rainham Girls site before they sat the final paper, later had the opportunity to sit the final paper on a different day.

Bearing in mind that they would then have been rested, had further option to practice, and would not have been as tired and stressed (or hungry) than on the original day could have been given an unfair advantage?

What does everyone think please? I do know of one child that this happened to, and they passed. I am pleased for them, and it doesn't alter my childs path in any way, I am just curious on peoples views on this.

[Allbutdone]

I think it is symptomatic of the whole mess made by Medway - all children should take the test on a level playing field, this time round it does not seem to have taken place. I agree that those children would have had an advantage but also to have forced them to carry on having become distressed would have placed them at a disadvantage and been cruel, either way it would not be fair. I have heard of a child whose parents decided not to turn up on the test day as the child nolonger wanted to take the test and was rung on the Monday and offered the chance to take it in their own school on the Thursday (despite the letter stating that if you turned up late / did not have a medical letter you would not be able to take it) - they opted not to take this up but if they had this too could have been an unfair advantage. The children who did sit the test at my school (due to special needs) had an advantage as they were on familar territory but also they claim to have had either the same english question or one so very very similiar that they thought it was the same. They all knew what question the Saturday children had and would have had time to think about the type of answer that could be given (fair?).

I am quite sure that if she my DD had been at Rainham Girls I would feel that same, that it was not fair.