11 Plus Exams Forum

My son recently did very badly in a school english exam. I have asked the school to let me have a copy of his paper but they have told me they have a policy of not handing them out to parents. I think this is because they use the same exam each year and don't want pupils to get hold of past papers. I would like to see the exam so that I can work through it with my son and get some understanding as to why it went so badly. Am I entitled to see the paper under the Data protection act?

could you maybe ask where he had problems on the paper because you want to help him improve in those areas?

Or you could leave it to the school?

JP wrote:My son recently did very badly in a school english exam. I have asked the school to let me have a copy of his paper but they have told me they have a policy of not handing them out to parents. I think this is because they use the same exam each year and don't want pupils to get hold of past papers. I would like to see the exam so that I can work through it with my son and get some understanding as to why it went so badly. Am I entitled to see the paper under the Data protection act?

I think you mean the Freedom of Information Act. If it is an independent school then the answer is no, as they are exempt from the Act. If it is a state school, unfortunately the answer is probably not, as they no doubt have a good reason for not releasing it which would be acceptable to the Information Commissioner. Requesting information under the Act is also a surefire way to antagonise the school. What I think I would do, if your son doesn't understand where he went wrong, is to ask his teacher to spend a bit of time with him going through it so he can find out what they expected, or depending on his age for him to ask his teacher himself.

Exam papers are exempt from both FOI and DPA, but you can ask for a copy of any comments which may have been written on or about it.

Mike

Or the school may be happy to let you look through the paper in the presence of a teacher.

Or you could leave it to the school.

No one is more interested in a child's education than the parent, and as a teacher once said to me, if you don't fight for your child, who will? No school is perfect, and no teacher has limitless time. I reckon a concerned parent is entitled to investigate where a child might be going wrong.

Y - absolutely. I expressed some concerns to one of the deputy heads at my sons' GS a few weeks ago. It was to do with a lack of marking in one particular subject and I mentioned it to him with my, "don't want to make a fuss or appear difficult..." hat on. He said that as soon as I'd begun to be concerned I should have rung the school and asked to speak to the relevant teacher - as a parent himself he said he would always do that and never ignore something he wasn't happy with.