GCSE Mock English Literature

[JufusMum]

DD is in year 10 and the entire year will be taking English Literature a year early in the Summer.

Mock results just came back and her entire class failed (she is in 2nd set), nobody got more than a level 3.(old grade D)

Is there actually any point in them sitting the exam when they are clearly not ready? They can re-sit in year 11 but will have no English Lit tuition as they will be focussing solely on Language.

Thoughts anyone?

[mumsneedwine]

No, stupid idea. The new English Lit is hard (the old one wasn't a piece of cake !). I can't believe they have covered all the syllabus in detail as its huge. As is the speed and technique required to learn. Why take it this year and not next ? Some courses and Universities only count GCSEs taken in one sitting now so won't even count. Bonkers and I'd tell the school so too. Sorry, not helpful but this makes me cross as it sets kids up to feel bad about exams before they have to. They fro up a lot in the next 12 months.

[mumsneedwine]

Meant 'grow' up

[Bobbybobbins]

We used to do this but it is frowned upon now. Our lit results were not as good a year early but language were better. However it is silly for the school to do this now as literature has an equal weighting with language under the progress 8 measure which schools are judged on.

[Oscha]

This seems to be all the rage at the moment. I'm an English tutor and I can see that it benefits some children, but I believe the vast majority are failed by this approach-even if they do well and get the GCSE 'out of the way', they've still had a lot of stress unnecessarily and too young, IMO. Some Year 10s will be 14 when they sit the exams.

That said, I'm not sure there's a lot you can do about the school's decision. I suppose you could refuse to let her do it, and then get her tuition in or out of school next year, and have her do it in Year 11, but that will be complicated in quite a few ways. I feel for you and your DD-and the class.

[Oscha]

Also, many schools are suggesting now that the grade to aim for (for the old 'C' grade) is 5 or 6. I'm afraid a 3 will be fairly worthless. Though of course, she is likely to improve before the summer. It's not unusual for there to be a grade (or two) difference between mock and real results.

[JufusMum]

She is a summer baby so yes will be 14 when she sits the exam, what I don't understand is that she is predicted levels 6-8 on all other subjects including wordy essay subjects like R.E. How can the playing field be so different? I have been told if I remove her I will have to pay an admin fee?
I have just emailed the head of English, and I do thank you for all of your comments.

[Oscha]

The other levels will be taking into account the 15 or so months of further teaching, revision, maturing etc she will have the time to do before she sits those exams. In fact, that's quite a good thing for you to know, because you can reasonably say 'she is predicted 5s and 6s in other subjects for Summer 2018, what possible advantage can there be in her getting a 3 or 4 in Summer 2017 when a year of further learning could push that up by as much as 3 or more grades?'

[Oscha]

Also, as an English specialist, I bloody hate the attitude that Lit is something to get out of the way so the 'more important' Lang can be focused on. For a start, they are inextricably linked so studying one, practising critical reading, analysis, writing etc will inevitably help the other. And, even more importantly IMO, what sort of message are we sending kids that reading fiction, reading for pleasure, is something we have to endure and get finished up so we can focus on other things? I realise I am biased, but God, if we're not teaching them that Literature (and Art and Music and culture! in general) is worthy of time and study and ENJOYMENT, then what a miserable world we're raising them to live in.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

[LIZS]

Madness. Literature needs the language skills to support the understanding and interpretation. It is very unlikely they will do as well by taking it early.

[Danglingmod]

Quite, Oscha.

Plus, the skills in the lit exams are very closely linked with those in one of the Lang exams, so it makes much more sense to take them at the same sitting.

Early entry for lit is madness but particularly in this first year. They have no real idea where the grade boundaries are going to fall: why would a school deliberately disadvantage any more students than need to be disadvantaged?

[Applepieandcheese]

My son is also taking English Literature in year 10. In our case it is top set only but he really isn't ready in terms of maturity and knowledge of the content, exam technique etc - I feel your pain!

[HelgaHufflepuff76]

Oscha, I don't understand what you said about 5 and 6 being the new C grade.
I thought the new grades worked as shown in this image?

[MissMillament]

Another English teacher here who thinks early entry for the new spec is madness. My bright set 2 Y11 will (hopefully) do so much better this summer than they would have done a year ago. Teaching lang and lit in tandem really improves their skills in both as they are designed to go together. I would think very poorly of a school that entered Y10 for Lit as they do not seem to have the best interests of students at heart - more like a case of writing off their Lit results to focus on getting a decent Lang result.

[Oscha]

Helga they do but lots of people think that the 'C' won't mean as much as it used to, and that now a 5 will be considered the 'pass' by employers. You can see on that chart the 4, 5 and 6 all cover C and B, so it's not a direct comparison.

[noblegiraffe]

The 5 has been set as the 'good pass' by the DfE. It's what will count as a pass for the school in the league tables.

[QueenofQuirkiness]

Pull her out, as she will have already learnt all the material this year then in year 11 she can revise it, so she will be much better prepared for the exam and hopefully get a good grade

[pointythings]

That's madness, the new spec is huge and as pp have said, lang and lit support each other in terms of skills learned. I have a DD in Yr11 and her performance in lang has really ratcheted up over the last year because she has learned to think and analyse deeply through lit. Conversely, the skills learned for lang in terms of making a point and arguing it well have served her well in lit.

[HappyMum543]

My ds got a 5+ for english literature mock but still not received his English language results that's what I'm more concerned about.
Because he needs a solid 6 for language but will be happy with a 5 at this rate because maths and English exams are very hard compared to the previous years

[pointythings]

HappyMum I wonder whether 6th forms are going to have to adjust their criteria because of the new GCSE being so much harder.

DD1 was told that the requirement to do English Lit at A level (which she wants to do) was a 6 but that there was discretion and that they would take her with a 5 because they have seen her work and know she normally works at solid Yr 12 level already. Mind you, she's in with a good shot at an 8 so not worrying right now... She spent 5 hours on creating a MacBeth revision aid today (homework).

[Michaelahpurple]

Taking lit early and separately seems , I agree, madness. If anything it would make more sense the other way round

And I just don't understand why any school would enter a child early unless they were confident of he achieving an A (or equivalent). A blanket entry is just cruel, knocking confidence and staining the results record.

[Oscha]

Confusion over what is a 'pass' continues 😩

www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/gcse-pass-grade-confusion-deepens-ebacc-requires-grade-4-pupils-grade

[wifeyhun]

My dd was meant to be taking her Eng Lit this year (year 10) but fortunately they have decided to leave it till next year after the mock results and the top sets were even struggling.