School messing up Italian course.

Hinaro

TL;DR :Teachers taught us the wrong thing. Bad results. Looking for advice.

So, I just got my LC results, and as expected, I did really badly in my best subject: Italian.
The thing is, this isn't even my fault (at least I don't think so), and now I doubt I have enough points for my first choice.

Our teachers were not informed of a change of the novel that we needed to learn, the question for which we have all learned off perfectly, expecting to get the full 80 marks. But yeah, turns out that the question, which we were meant to start with to boost our spirits, ended up demoralising us.

Now the thing is, the teachers are all directing us to the principal, who seems to be clueless as to what's going on. We are advised to send them for a recheck, but I doubt the examiner will take the circumstances into consideration.

Is there anything that can be done? I've tried googling stuff but nothing similar can be found, and both me and my classmates are at a loss.

Any advice is appreciated.

rainbowtrout

Hinaro wrote: »

TL;DR :Teachers taught us the wrong thing. Bad results. Looking for advice.

So, I just got my LC results, and as expected, I did really badly in my best subject: Italian.
The thing is, this isn't even my fault (at least I don't think so), and now I doubt I have enough points for my first choice.

Our teachers were not informed of a change of the novel that we needed to learn, the question for which we have all learned off perfectly, expecting to get the full 80 marks. But yeah, turns out that the question, which we were meant to start with to boost our spirits, ended up demoralising us.

Now the thing is, the teachers are all directing us to the principal, who seems to be clueless as to what's going on. We are advised to send them for a recheck, but I doubt the examiner will take the circumstances into consideration.

Is there anything that can be done? I've tried googling stuff but nothing similar can be found, and both me and my classmates are at a loss.

Any advice is appreciated.

The only reason you will get extra marks on a recheck is if there are parts of your exam that weren't awarded marks that should have been awarded marks that are in the marking scheme. No other reason. I'm not familiar with the Italian course but if you answered a novel question on Pride and Prejudice and you should have been answering it on Of Mice and Men then you will get zero marks in that question, examiners cannot give you sympathy marks because you answered on the wrong novel whether that was your fault or your teachers. They can only mark what you wrote in the exam.


I'd be asking why the teacher is directing you to the principal. If it is how you have explained it, then surely they should know what is on the course?

d1234

Firstly, I'm very sorry to hear that op. This kind of thing really infuriates us all to hear, especially when you may not get your first choice on Monday.

Did you speak directly to the teacher in question and was their response merely to go to the principal? What does everybody else think of the entire situation? And when you say that the teachers were not informed, would this be an issue to raise with the SEC regarding a syllabus change which your teacher wasn't informed of?

There is a great legal forum on boards in which you may get some tips or advice in what to do next. Did your parents or guardians talk to the principal? Is it a vec/etc or a private/convent/grammar... school? (The reason why I'm asking is that you could meet the director of the vec if it was)

Sorry for asking so many questions but I too was really mad when I read that. Make sure you record any communication you have with them. By the way, what age was your teacher??

Hinaro

rainbowtrout wrote: »

I'd be asking why the teacher is directing you to the principal. If it is how you have explained it, then surely they should know what is on the course?

We had not one, but TWO Italian teachers who taught the wrong thing to us, as our main teacher got temporarily replaced.

d1234 wrote: »

Did you speak directly to the teacher in question and was their response merely to go to the principal?

Yes, exactly like that. they didn't seem to know any more about why that happened than we did.

d1234 wrote: »

What does everybody else think of the entire situation?

My classmates are all obviously annoyed. The teachers don't really know how to deal with this so they're all trying to assure us that something can be done, which I doubt.

d1234 wrote: »

And when you say that the teachers were not informed, would this be an issue to raise with the SEC regarding a syllabus change which your teacher wasn't informed of?

The novel that we need to study changes every few years, so it's not like a spontaneous change.

d1234 wrote: »

Is it a vec/etc or a private/convent/grammar... school?

It's a VEC school, so yeah, meeting the director might help.

I don't know the ages of the teachers, but the main teacher we had is pretty experienced, and is actually very good, so I really don't know who to blame.

rainbowtrout

It sounds like you had two inexperienced subs who weren't familiar with the syllabus to replace your regular teacher.

To be honest, I don't think anything can be done about your grades. This has nothing to do with the SEC, it's not their fault.

If you are seeking some sort of answer from the school/VEC I think you need to be a bit more organised. perhaps get the parents of each of the students in your Italian class talking.

Questions I would be asking:

Did the regular Italian teacher inform the subs what novel needed to be done?
Were the subs aware of the content of the syllabus?
Did you do mock exams? The first thought I had was that you would have picked up on this on your mock exam when the wrong novel was examined. Was a suitable mock exam (if your school does them) provided or was it a random older one?
Was your regular teacher gone for the whole of LC year or present at any stage? Did they do any part of the novel with you or make reference to it at any stage? Or was it all left to the subs?
What are your school/VEC going to do about it besides shrug their shoulders and go 'oops'?

spurious

Part of the problem may be that the 'mock' companies don't do papers for the less popular subjects such as Italian, so they probably got a paper made up in the school.

I don't see what the SEC can do about it now, even if it is acknowledged it was a school problem. It's terribly unfair on the OP and his/her classmates.

EoghanIRL

Have you complained the teachers responsible? Perhaps involve parents.
This should never have happened and is a large failing on behalf of the not one but two teachers.
They had a responsibility to teach you the correct content.
You have clearly been left in an unfair situation but I don't see what can be done about it other than making sure it never happens again.

Hinaro

Yeah, the mocks were made in the school. We'll see if we can get all the parents in, at least so that it's not repeated again.

Hinaro

Update to my own situation now that first round of offers is out: I still got my first choice, so there was no need to worry that much. But yeah, I'll be in anyway to at least make sure this doesn't happen again.

spurious

Delighted you got your course. Thanks for the update.

hardCopy

Hinaro wrote: »

Update to my own situation now that first round of offers is out: I still got my first choice, so there was no need to worry that much. But yeah, I'll be in anyway to at least make sure this doesn't happen again.

Great news. Stick by your classmates though. Many of them won't have done so well elsewhere and will need force of numbers to make anything happen. Has anyone contacted the Department of Education and Skills?

rainbowtrout

Great news for you Hinaro, and you will be busy getting ready for college in the next few weeks but do push for something to be done in that school of yours so the same thing doesn't happen again.