Tutor not marking practical exam fairly

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Jun 30, 2019
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Hello,
I was wondering if anyone could help my niece is currently doing her beauty therapy VTCT diploma at college. She done her make-up exam ages ago she was told she got a Merit for her consultation and a Pass for the overall look (as the were being marked on both) when she got her folder back on Friday the tutor had marked her as a fail. Her mother went in and wanted an explanation as to why her daughter had failed for the tutor to reply with "her attendance is to low". I was wondering what my niece's over all mark would be? We have gone straight to VTCT and explained the situation and it is being handled but she's so heartbroken about it. We have also complained to the head of the college and the head of the overall beauty and hair person.
 
You’ve complained to all the right people, I would await their response
 
Obviously, I’d see what the outcome from the complaints bring first.

However, is her attendance poor? Is there a reasonable explanation such as severe illness/disability?
Does she actually want to be a beauty therapist or has she just drifted into it because she couldn’t think of what else to do?
Plenty of youngsters do this but it’s a waste of everyone’s time.
If her heart’s not really in it, she should quit and find something else that suits her interests more.

However, if she’s serious about being a beautician, she needs to attend college regularly because she really wants to learn and gain a good qualification. No-one will employ her in a salon if her college reference mentions poor attendance.

Although, to be honest, she needs to be working towards gaining Distinctions in her assessments, as competition for good Beauty jobs is very fierce.
 
Obviously, I’d see what the outcome from the complaints bring first.

However, is her attendance poor? Is there a reasonable explanation such as severe illness/disability?
Does she actually want to be a beauty therapist or has she just drifted into it because she couldn’t think of what else to do?
Plenty of youngsters do this but it’s a waste of everyone’s time.
If her heart’s not really in it, she should quit and find something else that suits her interests more.

However, if she’s serious about being a beautician, she needs to attend college regularly because she really wants to learn and gain a good qualification. No-one will employ her in a salon if her college reference mentions poor attendance.

Although, to be honest, she needs to be working towards gaining Distinctions in her assessments, as competition for good Beauty jobs is very fierce.
Her attendance isn't poor like they say shes on 96%. The only time she has off is for hospital. She is suffering from stomach problems that the doctors cant find an explanation for she has been under top gynaecologists and everything, she does want to be a beauty therapist, it showed when we got a phone call from her salon receptionist saying she was half way through treating a client when she just fainted instead of her tutor helping out by taking over the client or even helping her when she came to and when she felt fine she finished the treatment off. There is a girl in her class that has an attendance of 25% and gets distinctions very easily so there is some favouritism from the tutor and the college is all ready aware of that. Her tutor has been marking her poorly and very unfairly as for her facial exam she only got a pass which I told her she should be very pleased about but then reading the clients comments and how the client marked her should of been a distinction and even the head of the course agreed but I've noticed her tutor likes to comment about confidence a lot on the graded practical exam every piece of paper her tutor writes "Didn't look confident enough" but then when it came to report time her tutor wrote that she was "The most confident child she had ever had on the course" and when it comes to client work she always comments that "her confidence with what shes doing puts her clients at ease" so I dont get whats actually going on. But I totally agree with you if her heart wasn't in it then we would understand and we would find out what she wanted to do. But weve also noticed some of her paper work has been missing in total shes done 245 clients but her paper work only shows shes done 45 clients so we ran this up with the college and the online system shows her doing those 245 clients so we dont really know where to stand. I'm not trying to make her tutor sound bad but she is trying to make her pull out from the course or at least fail. For waxing it says you have to do a full leg wax so I sat down with her and tried figuring out what she wasn't confident on and you know maybe help her with things to build up that confidence she told me that her tutor is making only her do a full leg wax but the others have to do 2 half a leg then they an mark it off as a full leg.
 
In that case, it does sound like there’s something not quite right that warrants further scrutiny. Is this a private training centre or a normal FE college? If you can arrange a meeting with the College Principal and HOD, ensure you have all your grievances fully documented (inc. any written evidence, if possible).

I’d be very concerned that the college are ‘losing client paperwork’ and maybe you could ask them that if they can’t account for the missing paperwork, how does this comply with GDPR regulations?

I briefly tried a private hairdressing academy but swapped to the local college because the tutor had a chip on her shoulder towards me compared to the youngsters on the course. I wasn’t going to let them claim the government subsidy for my enrolment and then treat me like dirt!
 
In that case, it does sound like there’s something not quite right that warrants further scrutiny. Is this a private training centre or a normal FE college? If you can arrange a meeting with the College Principal and HOD, ensure you have all your grievances fully documented (inc. any written evidence, if possible).

I’d be very concerned that the college are ‘losing client paperwork’ and maybe you could ask them that if they can’t account for the missing paperwork, how does this comply with GDPR regulations?

I briefly tried a private hairdressing academy but swapped to the local college because the tutor had a chip on her shoulder towards me compared to the youngsters on the course. I wasn’t going to let them claim the government subsidy for my enrolment and then treat me like dirt!
Thank you. It's a local college there was already a meeting with the principle and he briefly explained that this tutor was under "inspection" as my sister in law wasn't the only parent to complain. The tutor was then later called in the meeting and when asked about the missing client paperwork she had no recollection of my niece doing any paper work for 200 clients but when the students got called out one by one to see if my niece was following the rules by filling out the clients paper work and placing the client cards safely back into the locked cabinet they all said yes, I have spoken to a close friend of mine that has given me some complaint sheets that her class mates can write in but still keep anonymous to be handed in. But during her graded practicals there is another woman who sits in and marks the sheets off and has explained on numerous occasions to not only the principal but the head of the department that the tutor is marking her down but as she's only there to sign and say that she was present she has no say on the marking. But she quoted" the tutor was easily lead to a low mark on the facial as the client said the massage was a little bit disjointed". But we feel like this tutor does have her favourites and that is obvious even the principle said. We don't want to pull her out of the college and place her in another one because a) She's nearly finished the year.
b) She has made great friends over the year.
My sister in law feels like even though she has had a meeting with the tutor and the principle and the head of the department that nothing is getting done which is annoying her! But also during the meeting there was another parent going in for the same thing the tutor had sent out my niece's term report to this child's address. When brought up she explained that she got it mixed up which in my opinion she should have got told off but she laughed it off saying she has so many students considering she teaches a class of 10! To remember all of the names.
 
But also during the meeting there was another parent going in for the same thing the tutor had sent out my niece's term report to this child's address. When brought up she explained that she got it mixed up which in my opinion she should have got told off but she laughed it off saying she has so many students considering she teaches a class of 10! To remember all of the names.

THAT is a serious breach of GDPR regs. The college can get investigated and fined for that sort of mistake.
I suggest your sister-in-law tells the Principal that she will be reporting the Data breaches to the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) unless she resolves the difficulties with the tutor to her complete satisfaction.
 
THAT is a serious breach of GDPR regs. The college can get investigated and fined for that sort of mistake.
I suggest your sister-in-law tells the Principal that she will be reporting the Data breaches to the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) unless she resolves the difficulties with the tutor to her complete satisfaction.
I've forward what you've put and she spoken to one of the ICO online and they have given her a letter to give to the tutor within a timescale to reply She felt a bit stupid but they explained that because of her age she would be labelled as "Vulnerable" and they have also given her advice on the next action she should take. She had a phone call with the principal and explained that she wanted something to be done about it and he suggested that she reported the tutor to the ICO. For a principal to turn around and tell a parent that, something has got to be bad.
Thank you so much for the help.
 
Obviously, the Principal is hoping that the ICO will do the job for him and use this investigation to sack the tutor. However, that doesn’t reflect very well on the colleges management team.
 
If the young person in question is doing VTCT technical qualification then the other person in the room at the time is an IQA (Internal quality assurance). They are there to assure, among other things that learners are assessed fairly and equally. If this procedure is not robust then you are completely right to inform the relevant people. VTCT also will have an EQA (external quality assurance) who again ensures IQA & Assessor are doing everything correct. Poor attendance is not a reason to get a low grade. Poor attendance may equal the learner having less knowledge and know how but it doesn't automatically mean a low grade. So taking your grievance the steps would be: Assessor, iqa then eqa if it cant be resolved. The learner should write up a report, referring to the grading criteria, how they feel they demonstrated the relevant knowledge & skill to achieve a higher grade. You will find the grading criteria in the learners portfolio.
Regards the other matters sounds to me like the tutor/assessor is behaving unprofessional manner. As a tutor myself it does happen that learners can feel 'singled out', it is important to remember who is the adult/teacher in these situations and wether the feelings are justified or not I would be upset to know I had made a young person/oradult feel bad. Sounds like your niece is not the first learner to feel this way.
Do keep the 2 issues separate though. Hope this does not put her off continued studying x
 
Just a quick update her tutor decided to fail her yesterday overall, so we were wondering if anyone knows a course where she can get her level 2 qualification quick she is heart broken and the college has done nothing so we have no idea what to do.
 
If the young person in question is doing VTCT technical qualification then the other person in the room at the time is an IQA (Internal quality assurance). They are there to assure, among other things that learners are assessed fairly and equally. If this procedure is not robust then you are completely right to inform the relevant people. VTCT also will have an EQA (external quality assurance) who again ensures IQA & Assessor are doing everything correct. Poor attendance is not a reason to get a low grade. Poor attendance may equal the learner having less knowledge and know how but it doesn't automatically mean a low grade. So taking your grievance the steps would be: Assessor, iqa then eqa if it cant be resolved. The learner should write up a report, referring to the grading criteria, how they feel they demonstrated the relevant knowledge & skill to achieve a higher grade. You will find the grading criteria in the learners portfolio.
Regards the other matters sounds to me like the tutor/assessor is behaving unprofessional manner. As a tutor myself it does happen that learners can feel 'singled out', it is important to remember who is the adult/teacher in these situations and wether the feelings are justified or not I would be upset to know I had made a young person/oradult feel bad. Sounds like your niece is not the first learner to feel this way.
Do keep the 2 issues separate though. Hope this does not put her off continued studying x
Just a quick update her tutor decided to fail her yesterday overall, so we were wondering if anyone knows a course where she can get her level 2 qualification quick she is heart broken and the college has done nothing so we have no idea what to do?
 
I would suggest you research the private training providers in the area. You can do fast track but will most likely have to pay. Be prepared for them to ask what happened at previous college.
 
What happened when you put in a formal complaint?
Have you had a meeting with the Principal?
You should receive a written report detailing what steps they took to investigate your complaint and what offers of reparation they are willing to make. This will take time and doesn’t happen overnight.

The ICO complaint will be against the college not the individual tutor.
 
What happened when you put in a formal complaint?
Have you had a meeting with the Principal?
You should receive a written report detailing what steps they took to investigate your complaint and what offers of reparation they are willing to make. This will take time and doesn’t happen overnight.

The ICO complaint will be against the college not the individual tutor.
Yeah we had a meeting with the principal but he didn't have much to say he just sat there very quiet we asked for a letter like you mentioned but have received nothing at all but we've phoned up and have asked. He basically said that because we've taken action with the ICO letter there is nothing he can do at all so we "have to get used to it". We are just so appalled by the behaviour coming from the college! He decided to say that he would take action if we hadn't taken it first with the ICO apparently it was very very childish of us!
 

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