The great catch-up plans and Autumn exams

[noblegiraffe]

Schools are now on the whole closed for the summer. So surely the plans for the great catch-up should be well underway? Recruitment of a vast army of tutors. Schedules for how this tutoring will fit into the new school day.

And presumably we all also know what will happen on results day for those kids who decide they want to resit, where this will happen and who will be responsible for teaching the last bits of the course that they missed?

So, what have your schools got planned?

[Piggywaspushed]

Nothing!


Are you surprised?

[JulyBreeze]

I wonder if the 11 August guidance will detail the tutoring, catch up etc.... just in time for results days?

[noblegiraffe]

Am I surprised, piggy? I don’t think so!

But all this money was announced to much fanfare, so someone must know what’s going on about the catch-up programme?

And resits - results day isn’t that far away, do we know when details will come out?

[Piggywaspushed]

They have [published he dates for those I believe?

[noblegiraffe]

Dates for resits? I can’t see any exam timetables on exam board websites?

[JulyBreeze]

Here we are, 5-23 Oct for A and AS resits, Nov 2-23 for GCSEs:

www.aqa.org.uk/coronavirus/key-dates-for-2020

[noblegiraffe]

But no timetable as yet. I guess exam officers won’t even know who is being entered for what till September. Then we have to hire invigilators!

October really isn’t long till A-level is it? It must be so unnerving for Y13.

[Hercwasonaroll]

F all plans here.

I think they're expecting minimal resits.

[noblegiraffe]

Oh look, the great summer catch-up is now rapidly heading in the direction of Christmas.

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-no-covid-catch-tutors-until-second-half-next-term

[Hercwasonaroll]

I love they've changed the focus from tutors to mentors!
2 weeks training and teach first to recruit.... I can't see this going wrong at all

[Piggywaspushed]

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-teach-first-find-covid-catch-mentors

Here is another article.

If these people have QTS, surely we want them teaching?

Some MNers will have a meltdown about all this!

I note the mentoring goes to disadvantaged areas, thereby leaving out, as ever, low performing pockets , and children, outside of the identified areas.

[Piggywaspushed]

Some more details here:

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/20/boris-johnson-to-unveil-pupil-funding-plan-during-school-visit

[Hercwasonaroll]

Really really strange, where are all these spare people with QTS? I don't really want a 2 week trained mentor to teach maths in small groups. I'd have to mentor the mentors!

[Piggywaspushed]

Ah, yes, that's more or less what it says in the last para of the Guardian article.

I also find it amusing that QTS get 2 weeks training ,a nd those without 1 week. Some MNers believe anyone can teach after a week or so, and that seems to support the idea that all it needs is an extra week!

I guess the gov believe , maybe, this will encourage more into teaching, if they give it a go. If my DS was out of uni now , tbh, I might encourage him.

The other thing of note is that it is all EBacc. I'd be fin with just En, Ma and science. Or even just Eng and Ma. To add hums and MFL is a political decision. Not sure how can they justify that without some rhetoric about them being 'more important'.

[noblegiraffe]

The majority of kids will get the grade they were assessed at by their teachers, and most will be within one grade:

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-ofqual-lowers-optimistic-gcse-grades-most-schools

That will allay some concerns.

[Rosieposy4]

I think there will be fuck all entries for the resits, especially at GCSE, maybe a few more at Alevel. Many might be disappointed by their GCSEs but once they have started sixth form they will rapidly forget about it.
Missing my marking money but don’t think this autumn will see it appearing.

[Piggywaspushed]

I can't imagine there will be any entries for subjects which normally have NEAs. It is ridiculous that these aren't contributing at all, and I am sure most students of subjects like music, media, drama etc will not resit.

I think Eng and Maths will at GCSE in higher numbers. I can't see there being many A Level resits because students won't be at school to gain any support with it and these days they do tend to think they can't possible do an exam without sixty billion organised revision sessions.

My school's policy is to let them on to A Level course with their CAGs and this worries me.

I think a look at MN on results day might tell us something about the appetite for resitting : at least among a particular subsection!

I am actually really dreading results days, and that is without the worry of my own DS's GCSE results!!

[noblegiraffe]

I think that even students who are unhappy with results and who think that they could have done better won’t resit because they know that they won’t do better in the circumstances of having been off school for six months. Have many Y11s been diligently completing their courses and revising?

Setting grade boundaries for the resits will be a nightmare. They’re normally all over the place for the maths November resit.

[Piggywaspushed]

No, I don't think they have noble but I wouldn't be surprised if some MATs insist on revision sessions :although I guess there is very little in it for the schools themselves. Any sensible school would not work their staff to the bone any further for this!

I already know of 3 markers who have declined the request to mark the resits.

[Piggywaspushed]

noble I noticed that GCSE students can't fall off the bottom of higher tier. That's good for those students, obviously. How often does that happen? Did that change decisions you made this year about tier entries? Did Ofqual even know the tiers when you entered the CAGs??

I still can't decide whether Ofqual applied whole school performance to each subject or whether they looked at fine data on each subject? If they looked at fine data, it'll be v hard for my new ish subject but will advantage it because last year's results were the best in the school. If it's whole school, it will disadvantage my subject.

The opposite applies for DS. If it's whole school his music result will not be jeopardised by the disruption to that subject. If it's done on the past performance of the subject, his class is doomed.!

[noblegiraffe]

We ranked the whole cohort without tiers so we had to decide whether a student who was higher tier grade 4/5 was better or worse than a foundation tier kid on grade 4/5. We weren’t supposed to grade them out of tier so a foundation kid wasn’t allowed a 6 but I don’t know if tier of entry was submitted with the CAGs - they wouldn’t have been finalised in March which is what the exam boards would have recorded so I’m not sure how relevant intended tier of entry would have been.

Kids do occasionally fall off the bottom of higher, not in my school though! I know someone who had a big issue in science the 2nd year of new GCSE because the grade boundaries on higher changed massively and a whole bunch of kids got Us.

[Piggywaspushed]

Yeah, I thought it would be unlikely you would enter by tier. I thought that bit in the report form yesterday seemed odd.

[Hercwasonaroll]

We had kids fall off in the first year due to HOD and ot listening re tiers! Reassuring they can't this year. Maths is one of the few that retained the grade 3 safety net.

Ranking the whole cohort was tough cross tier.

Did I read correctly that v small cohorts will likely be given CAGs? That's good news for our A Levels.

[hedgehogger1]

We had some fall off the bottom in science. Where they were entered for higher against the teachers recommendation by a combo of parents and slt