Leaving cert exam disrupted by bulldozers and rock breakers at school

ClonNGB

My daughter sat English this morning while the school had a full on building work outside the window. Rock breakers, heavy trucks, etc. (New school extention)
School not interested in complaints. Is there any action parents can take ? Should there at least be a note made of the unfair conditions when marking ?
To add insult to injury the junior certs were placed furthest away from the works.

Gerianam

Contact Athlone immediately.

ClonNGB

OK, I will. Thanks.

spurious

The SEC uses the schools for the exams. The schools are meant to make sure they are suitable.

About 25 years ago the school I worked in had a similar issue and had the noise stopped within an hour. Surprised the Superintendents did not report it to Athlone - or maybe they did.

Hope it has stopped tomorrow.

judeboy101

Contact parent rep bom as well as the SEC, school have nothing to do with running of exams but SEC will not look too kindly on disruption to exams.

myshirt

When I done my leaving certificate we had something similar, and to make it worse the invigilator stepped outside to smoke a cigarette. Made it louder.

Complaints were not listened to.

ClonNGB

I phoned Athlone and they were shocked that the school had this going on, under their own control. I will know tomorrow if they will do anything about it though. Hard to imagine two more weeks of this. Hard enough on them as it is.

Jupiter Mulligan

Possible actions if this isn't immediately stopped.

Threaten the SEC with a court injunction, ring RTE's educational correspondent, contact local TDs - both government and opposition - and be sure to use cameraphones to record the noise and disruption.

Time is of the essence.

judeboy101

And ring Joe!!!

ClonNGB

Thank-you all for your help. I rang the SEC and they said there were already a lot of parents on to them and they have an inspector on the way to the school. They said the school should have arranged with their contractor that no work to be done during the exam period. Fingers crossed for the rest of the exams. Best of luck to anyone else that has kids doings exams. It brings it all back to our own time doing it.

Jupiter Mulligan

ClonNGB wrote: »

School not interested in complaints.

That bit really stinks - if you're non-Dublin phone your local paper and get them on the job - name & shame!

ClonNGB

I just passed the school now and work is continuing unhindered. No exams this afternoon apart from Junior Cert. I hope this does not happen tomorrow. I will collect some video footage if it does and some audio for Joe Duffy show !

Jupiter Mulligan

Any update this morning, OP?

dodderangler

That’s why I failed maths. Because a feckin seagull was squawking. Tried to complain but the seagull told me to F off.

Jupiter Mulligan

dodderangler wrote: »

That’s why I failed maths. Because a feckin seagull was squawking. Tried to complain but the seagull told me to F off.

If you had paid more attention you'd have realised that it was telling you the right answers!

ClonNGB

English exam has started and diggers going about their business unhindered. I phoned Athlone and they said the school gave them an assurance that building work would be done outside exam hours. Basically the school is giving them the two fingers as well as they did to the students and parents. I am exasperated.

judeboy101

Get onto joe, and tell athlone you are seeking legal advice. Ps time to name and SHAme them or upload some video so we can see how bad it is, send video link to all news places, and tweet tag all and any politician etc

bureau2009

ClonNGB wrote: »

English exam has started and diggers going about their business unhindered. I phoned Athlone and they said the school gave them an assurance that building work would be done outside exam hours. Basically the school is giving them the two fingers as well as they did to the students and parents. I am exasperated.

Keep an impeccable written record of all phone calls and contacts - date, time and names. Put your complaint in writing to the SEC. Forward a copy to the School Principal.

Jupiter Mulligan

Have you called the people who placed the contract? Because they're the ones who can tell the contractors to stop.

Bit of a long shot, but I'm thinking that it's probably the CETB. http://cork.etb.ie

ClonNGB

A quick update. Athlone have been back to me and had been assured by school management that work had stopped during exam time. I advised I had video evidence to the contrary. Another parent went on-site and saw multiple machines working away.
Athlone are sending out an inspector again to be present all day tomorrow. Crazy times we live in where students doing the most important exam of their lives are of little consequence to those we trusted.

spurious

Contact the local paper and get them to ring the school for a comment.

What you have described is not on. It is not uncommon for a school to have building work going on during the summer period, but it is up to the school/ETB/management body to get them to stop during exams.

It is likely that there will be mention of the disruption in the Superintendent's report, so examiners should be aware conditions were not ideal.

kennethsmyth

Maybe a bit extreme but organise for all the kids and adults to walk out of school if the building work is going on and ask the sec for the second version of the exam to be re run - this will be in the papers!

juneg

You have amazing patience. My child is doing the leaving cert now. I would actually pull the driver out of the digger with my bare hands and call the guards. How dare they treat students like this.

Actually I think I'd go in and sit in the middle of the building site to protest.

gordongekko

kennethsmyth wrote: »

Maybe a bit extreme but organise for all the kids and adults to walk out of school if the building work is going on and ask the sec for the second version of the exam to be re run - this will be in the papers!

Or the Department dont play ball and you fail the exams and have to repeat next year

randylonghorn

kennethsmyth wrote: »

Maybe a bit extreme but organise for all the kids and adults to walk out of school if the building work is going on and ask the sec for the second version of the exam to be re run - this will be in the papers!

It's also an excellent way to put even more stress on the OP's daughter and all her classmates.

Making the paper isn't the objective here, it's one possible means to an end, and the end in question is REDUCING stress on this class of students.

spurious

The candidates have done nothing wrong here and I would not be encouraging them to walk out or anything like that.
As described, the fault is with the school's local management.

What are they going to do during the aural sections?

This should have been stopped in minutes. I still think a phone call from a local paper might have some effect, not with a view to publication, but as a reminder to the Principal how bad this will look if the school continue to let it happen.

The candidates want it to stop.
The parents want it to stop.
The SEC want it to stop.
The Principal/management body need to explain why they are not stopping it.

B-D-P--

juneg wrote: »

I would actually pull the driver out of the digger with my bare hands

would ya really though, Easy said on a forum

juneg

B-D-P-- wrote: »

would ya really though, Easy said on a forum

I actually would.
I'm a stressed mother wanting the best for her child
All the stress he is going through with the leaving cert
6 years work leading up to this
On a knife edge for points
College place depending on the outcome
The amount of money I've paid out for grinds

I 100% would and more

JustJoe7240

juneg wrote: »

I actually would.
I'm a stressed mother wanting the best for her child
All the stress he is going through with the leaving cert
6 years work leading up to this
On a knife edge for points
College place depending on the outcome
The amount of money I've paid out for grinds

I 100% would and more

Assault probably wouldn't be the best solution to be honest. They're just doing their job.

TCM

If this is as noisy and disruptive as you say, have other parents complained. If so then a group of you should simply go on the building site and interrupt activities. That will bring things to a head immediately.
I stayed in a hotel recently for one night. At 7 in the morning a pile driver started on a building site next door. The noise was dreadful. Can't imagine trying to do exams beside a site with a rock breaker in action.

cruizer101

juneg wrote: »

You have amazing patience. My child is doing the leaving cert now. I would actually pull the driver out of the digger with my bare hands and call the guards. How dare they treat students like this.

Actually I think I'd go in and sit in the middle of the building site to protest.

To be fair the digger driver isn't at fault he is just doing what he is told by his boss, who is probably just doing what he is told by the principal.

That is the person that is really at fault for allowing this.

BarryD2

What do the exam candidates themselves say?? If you're concentrating on what you're doing, a lot of background noise just becomes that. Sometimes too much silence is as unsettling.

ClonNGB

A quick update from students. English paper II started yesterday with diggers in full flow. Some students raised their hands to complain about the clatter outside. Next thing the principal arrived in and asked for whoever complained to be pointed out (exam numbers not names on desk, so they had to be pointed out like criminals), so they were pointed out and the principal and one of the teachers interrupted the exam of those students. They were humiliated inside in the exam hall and in the case of my offspring, failed to complete the paper on-time. Shortly after, the noise stopped (I presume with a call from Athlone), and today the activity on site stopped once the exam started. Athlone have someone there today on-site. It is not the digger I driver I blame here, but the principal who in my mind should not have been allowed in to the exam once it started.

GooglePlus

ClonNGB wrote: »

A quick update from students. English paper II started yesterday with diggers in full flow. Some students raised their hands to complain about the clatter outside. Next thing the principal arrived in and asked for whoever complained to be pointed out (exam numbers not names on desk, so they had to be pointed out like criminals), so they were pointed out and the principal and one of the teachers interrupted the exam of those students. They were humiliated inside in the exam hall and in the case of my offspring, failed to complete the paper on-time. Shortly after, the noise stopped (I presume with a call from Athlone), and today the activity on site stopped once the exam started. Athlone have someone there today on-site. It is not the digger I driver I blame here, but the principal who in my mind should not have been allowed in to the exam once it started.

What a horrible person to do that to a young lad/lass during their exams.

Poor results reflect on the school, it has me baffled to think the principal is happy to allow all this commotion.

Aquals

This is very weird - usually schools want their students to well so that they can brag about the amazing results they produce!

cruizer101

What do you mean when you say interrupted. Did they have to get up from their desks to talk to the principal? For how long?

.......

ClonNGB wrote: »

Next thing the principal arrived in and asked for whoever complained to be pointed out (exam numbers not names on desk, so they had to be pointed out like criminals), so they were pointed out and the principal and one of the teachers interrupted the exam of those students. They were humiliated inside in the exam hall and in the case of my offspring, failed to complete the paper on-time.

What does this mean? Did they lose time? Was it made up?

Were other people doing their exam while some were being prevented?

ClonNGB

Yes, they lost time. And no, no allowance was made at the end of it.
Somebody asked why would a principal do this ? Only the principal can answer this for sure, but I was told the rules dictates the principal had to be on-site during school construction works, so if the work was done during the exam period, the added bonus is to save two weeks of time on holiday.

.......

ClonNGB wrote: »

Yes, they lost time. And no, no allowance was made at the end of it.

Were they taken out of the exam hall? What exactly happened here?

Were they told off in front of others by the principal and a teacher? This would have surely interrupted other students sitting the exam too?

FutureGuy

This is farcical. If I were the parent of a student affected by this, I'd be up in fcuking arms too.

BarryD2

Doesn't sound ideal but if I was a parent there, I'd be talking it down with any child doing exams - don't be dragging them into the situation to complain and unsettling them. Just deal with it separately.

Agent Smith

Name and shame the school!

judeboy101

It's against the rules for non SEC staff to enter room during exam, you need to get exam.room number and report directly to SEC, that's insanely serious. Not to mention a gdpr breach if exam invigilator gave info to principal.

ANXIOUS

judeboy101 wrote: »

It's against the rules for non SEC staff to enter room during exam, you need to get exam.room number and report directly to SEC, that's insanely serious. Not to mention a gdpr breach if exam invigilator gave info to principal.

Love the GDPR breach part. :rolleyes::p

kennethsmyth

ANXIOUS wrote: »

Love the GDPR breach part. :rolleyes::p

You maybe being sarastic (dont know) but hes correct regarding the GDPR aspect.

BrianBoru00

1. Construction noise in close proximity would I imagine have the noise well above the "ambient" level...so I do think its unfair on the students.

2. Principal has behaved despicably and incompetently

3. I know parents are stressed but you need to stop with all this most important exam in their lives crack. There's always next year, and the year after. A college degree is pretty vital nowadays BUT it doesn't have to be got immediately - plenty of very successful people I've worked with had no degree until well into their careers, or had a mediocre degree and later got a masters and or PhD.
I'm not having a go a the parents posting on here but the reason its" the most stressful exam" is because of the pressure being put on by media > encouraged by parents who are stressed > impacting on students who are stressed.

The Leaving cert is a right of passage but unless parents of students impress upon them that the sun will still rise in the morning we as a society can't really combat all the stress and "mental health issues" that are seemingly on the increase

juneg

Well.
You don't even want to know what I'd do to that principal.
He is an utter disgrace of the highest order.
Glad to hear that Athlone put a stop to it.

Jimbob1977

What was the principal thinking????

Usually principals put their students' interests first.

Building can always be caught up during the summer months.

ANXIOUS

kennethsmyth wrote: »

You maybe being sarastic (dont know) but hes correct regarding the GDPR aspect.

I am beiing sarcastic and they are wrong, it's not even a 3rd cousin twice removed of anything got to do with GDPR.

Misguided1

It's against the rules for non SEC staff to enter room during exam, you need to get exam.room number and report directly to SEC, that's insanely serious. Not to mention a gdpr breach if exam invigilator gave info to principal.

What information could have been shared with the principal that would constitute a breach of GDPR? Just out of curiosity

ANXIOUS

Misguided1 wrote: »

It's against the rules for non SEC staff to enter room during exam, you need to get exam.room number and report directly to SEC, that's insanely serious. Not to mention a gdpr breach if exam invigilator gave info to principal.

What information could have been shared with the principal that would constitute a breach of GDPR? Just out of curiosity

None, it's the new version of people quoting made up health and safety "laws".