Exam sleepyheads get wake-up call

Sleeping through the alarm may not mean exam disaster

A headteacher has defended a policy of sending school staff to wake up pupils who oversleep on the morning of important exams.

Mike Foster, of Oxclose Community School, in Washington, said every effort should be made to ensure pupils do not mess up once in a lifetime chances.

But concerns have been raised that the safety net could encourage laziness.

Mr Foster told BBC Radio Newcastle only one pupil had so far needed waking up, but others had confused their timetables and had to be brought in to sit them.

Life chances

Mr Foster said: "If the student happens to miss the beginning of an exam by not being there on time, then we will phone and we will go out and get them.

"This is not a regular occurrence, I think it has happened only once this year.

"I understand all the arguments about attendance and punctuality, but there is a question of balance here. We are taking about pupils' life chances.

"I think our parents support us very strongly in the fact that we take our exams very seriously.

"The parental and student support we gets means that 99.9% of our students are in the right place at the right time doing their exam. If someone makes a mistake, we will simply go and get them."

Steve Feather, head of school improvement at Sunderland City Council said he supported Mr Foster's approach.