A mum has blasted a primary school who she says refused to let her son sit his SATs exams with the rest of the class – instead making him sit in a cupboard.
Donna Golding, 34, claims teachers “forced” her son to leave the rest of his class for “no reason”.
Teacher’s allegedly took her 11-year-old son, Charlie Golding, to the schools ‘storage’ cupboard to complete his English reading exam.
Donna also claims the cupboard was so small that no other monitoring person could sit in with him and make sure he completed the exam properly.
Mum-of-three, Donna Gold, said: “It makes me sick to know my son has been treated this way and has been excluded out from his own class like this.
“It is disgusting and that is an understatement.
“On the first day of his exams, they coaxed him out of the class room for no reason and put him in the storage cupboard.
“The cupboard was so small, full of cleaning products and CCTV cameras which film the school, a pupil should not be allowed in there.
“Especially to sit their exams, they should not have distractions from anything.
“My son says he could see and hear a teacher with his back towards him gossiping to the ladies in the office.
“The cameras which film the whole school were in there as well and that would have been a major distraction.
“Anyone would get distracted by CCTV footage.”
Donna says Charlie had been studying for months for these exams at Purford Green Primary School, in Harlow, Essex.
Charlie’s first exam taken May 14 was an English reading exam required him to focus without any distractions.
Donna said: “They have pushed my son to the corner and made him take an exam in a tiny room with rubbish in it.
“They took him into a cupboard to do his exam for no reason, a child is not supposed to sit in a storage cupboard.
“This is not right.
“I was really excited for him to start his exams because he has worked really hard.
“But when he told me that they sat him in the storage cupboard, I couldn’t believe it.
“It hurt my heart because I couldn’t believe a primary school would treat little children like this.
“To think of all the hard work he has relentlessly done since September just to be treated like this.”
Donna, of Harlow, Essex claims she emailed the head mistress to say how “disgusted” she was and instructed them to not do that again without reason.
She told her if they tried to move him out of the room again that he should refuse because he has a right to sit in the room with everyone else “just like every other child does.”
But Donna claims when the head mistress eventually emailed her back she explained that Charlie needed extra support.
Donna said: “My son does not need extra support and even if it was for extra support, they certainly didn’t supply it.
“They put him in an unfamiliar area with lots of distractions, excluding him from the class.”
Miss Bloomfield, headteacher of Purford Green Primary School, did not confirm or deny Donna Golding’s allegations.
She said: “We are obviously saddened to hear Mrs Golding has decided to go to the press despite the long running dialogue between the school and the family.
“As is always the case in any such incident it would not be right for the school to talk in public about specific young people or their families.
“The school is committed to supporting all children to succeed at their own highest level and will take whatever steps are necessary to do so.
“The Trust that oversees the running of Purford Green have made contact with Mrs Golding to plan how we can best support Charlie, and the other children in his class, over his last few weeks at the school.”
According to the Standards and Testing Agency pupils should be appropriately seated and supervised and displays or materials should have been removed or covered, as appropriate.
