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Secondary education

What is known about this 'gaining evidence' for GCSEs and A level grades?

78 replies

Pebbles574 · 26/03/2020 12:02

Had a very vague letter from the school about how the Year 13s should keep making notes and doing past papers as this will be 'valuable evidence' to support their proposed grades from teachers.

I haven't been able to find answers to a number of specific questions about all of this:

  • if a student has ACTUALLY completed coursework already (e.g. Design/ Drama etc) will this be externally marked and the mark used or will the teacher now just look at it/ assess it?
  • Are schools meant to me keeping them doing revision-style activities all the way until when they were meant to go on study leave?
  • what is the schools' cut-off point for these grade recommendations?


Any teachers with inside knowledge?
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FlyingPandas · 26/03/2020 12:30

Not a teacher but from reading other threads I just don’t think anyone knows, including teachers, including the DfE in all honesty!

What is clear though (just reading the y11 thread) is that different schools are handling things very differently for the exam cohort - many saying they have all they need for grade predictions so no more work set, others still setting work/assessments and data gathering.

I’m presuming that in your case the school are wanting as much back up justification as possible in case their suggested student grades are challenged by Ofqual? Depending on schools’ recording of data justification I would imagine that some are more twitchy than others at having plenty of back up.

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KingscoteStaff · 26/03/2020 12:30

Both of mine have been told to carry on working, as if they do end up wanting to resit in September, they'll be very rusty if they haven't worked from March 23rd to results day on July the whateverth.

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mumsneedwine · 26/03/2020 12:31

As a teacher, we have no idea. Guidelines were promised in April. At the moment most of us are carrying on collecting stuff in case we can use it. But we don't know. Everyone is making it up as we go along.

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Piggywaspushed · 26/03/2020 12:33

Schools know nothing yet.

Info (such as it was) was sent out about BTec yesterday so I expect info will be out soon, although the DfE seem to be busy with other stuff. This said coursework 'already completed' constitutes useful evidence.

I assume actually already done coursework forms part of the evidence but it cannot be formalised since NEA submission deadlines were mid May. It is unlikely NEAs will be properly submitted as this requires extensive admin and , also, moderation both internal and external.

When the government announced all exams were cancelled they could have been clearer and , at that point in time, also mentioned coursework and vocational subjects.

Suffice to say, exam boards will not actually be asking for hard copy evidence of work!

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Piggywaspushed · 26/03/2020 12:34

kingscote's point about revision and not getting rusty is a perfectly good one, mind.

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borntobequiet · 26/03/2020 12:42

I teach in a College with a terrific online learning resource that tailors individual learning programmes to individuals’ needs, teaches lessons and marks work, gives skill checks, revision scenarios and exam practice. All set up to do this with email and phone support including messaging through the platform and some dummy of a senior manager has a better idea. “Give them practice papers to do”.

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TeenPlusTwenties · 26/03/2020 13:06

Our school have said ... will be sending out more detailed information about this process in due course but essentially it will include some combination of information from Teachers’ estimated grades and prior attainment information as well as evidence from work samples including trial exams and non-examination assessments.

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Pebbles574 · 26/03/2020 13:18

Thanks - that's useful.

My son's NEA were to be completed and submitted by next week so I wonder whether they will be 'properly' marked by external examiners and graded (at least for that module) or not?

I just don't see the point of endless 'make work' assignments running through the summer term to be honest.

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mumsneedwine · 26/03/2020 14:02

External examiners are just teachers from other schools 😊

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TheWordmeister · 26/03/2020 14:07

My son's school doing next to nothing. My friend teaches 6th form and her school are doing video conferencing, quizzes, tests, schoolology, another mock in each subject!

Their students are continuing to be assessed so they can show progression which can be used as evidence. They are allowed to improve their grade performance in this period.

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WeAllHaveWings · 26/03/2020 14:10

We had a similar message from the headmaster of ds's school (we are in Scotland) saying to do the work set by teachers as they "could potentially be used as supporting evidence (TBC)"

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monkeytennis97 · 26/03/2020 14:15

If it's any help I've been marking GCSE NEA all morning (music). Most are finished or almost finished. If any pupil can add value to their work they know I am available and will adjust marks accordingly. I've no idea though if I'm wasting my time...

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Piggywaspushed · 26/03/2020 14:29

I think you might be but time will tell .I have a pike of NEAs but some of it has tight supervision rules.

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Piggywaspushed · 26/03/2020 14:29

plie even!

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Piggywaspushed · 26/03/2020 14:31

I suspect the DfE will run a mile form allowing any work done at home (sp after a certain date) in case of parental (or even teacher) significant helping hands.

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ClassicallyConditioned · 26/03/2020 14:48

I'm a teacher. I would be surprised if exam boards ask for ANY actual evidence for most qualifications tbh. Maybe coursework in the few subjects that still do it.

At most, they may want teachers to write a few sentences justifying how they came up with the predicted grade they've given. Probably not even that though.

I expect teachers will be trusted to use their professional judgement and then these grades will be statistically adjusted to fit the expected patterns.

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OatMilkAddict · 26/03/2020 15:05

DM of an A-level student here. We've heard NOTHING at all from the school since the letter about imminent closure last week Hmm

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Piggywaspushed · 26/03/2020 15:18

then these grades will be statistically adjusted to fit the expected patterns.

I think this is the fear!

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Maladicta · 26/03/2020 15:21

Two private schools near me are setting heaps of work as they 'need to submit more evidence'. Trying to stop parents claiming refunds more like....

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hoxt · 26/03/2020 15:26

@TheWordmeister your ds’s school may have told him that (they’re allowed to improve their grade performance now), but there is no official advice anywhere saying that. If he’s happy working then great, but if it’s stressing him out then don’t push it.

I think schools all need to calm down. No one knows what’s coming next so we just need to wait and see and deal with it then.

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mumsneedwine · 26/03/2020 15:27

Anyone who tells you they know what is going to happen either works for OFQUAL or is lying. We are still setting work & teaching remote lessons but more to keep the students to some kind of routine. But I very much doubt any work done now will be allowed to count as evidence.
I think OFQUAL will do spot checks on a set of students data for each school - much like moderated coursework. And if found to be wrong the whole school will be looked at. But that's my guess.

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Songofsixpence · 26/03/2020 15:31

My DD was due to take A levels this year

She’s had quite a lot of communication from her school and quite a bit of work to do.

She messed up her mocks but has massively pulled her socks up over the last few months so her predicted grade was a lot higher than her mock results. I guess they want as much evidence as possible to back up the predicted grades

Having said that though, she has just had 3 of her uni offers changed from conditional to unconditional - including the one she really wants to go to. Her teachers think that most unis will probably do the same

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monkeytennis97 · 26/03/2020 15:32

@Piggywaspushed the rule for our board is that we have to see it three times during the series to verify. Most are completed bar dotting the 'i's and crossing the 't's. Would be nice to get some more guidance from DfE.

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Redlocks30 · 26/03/2020 15:34

I have children in Y11 and 13 and they are being set nothing! They both have good predicted grades and coursework marks which would get them into their preferred sixth form/university course.

I’m hoping it’ll all be ok...!?

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Piggywaspushed · 26/03/2020 15:38

I think do too mum

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