How should I tackle this with the school? Any teachers with advice?

Zombie thread

What about when a teacher is instructed by his school to mark and remark drafts for each piece of coursework?

webwiz - it's OCR ,I think I'm just dense at explaining .
He does practicals ( interesting to read comments that can be resat 3 times in year ) but the coursework includes lab work as well .

That sounds a bit different to what DD2 is doing, she has to do practicals that are assessed within the chemistry lessons. One is qualitative, one quantitative and the third is evaluative. You can have three attempts at each over the year and the best marks are counted. Your DC's stuff sounds more like the salters chemistry - there is exemplar stuff on the website though to give him a hint. The salters stuff looks more like the old fashioned chemistry I used to do at A level!

Sorry ,not clear .
It was the coursework subjects ,they involve experiments and then you comment on them.
But some topics apparently offer slimmer pickings than others for commenting ,iyswim.
Thanks for info - will look on OCR site .

Why didn't the teachers pick practicals that would give something to be commented on then?! Hopefully he'll do better this year if he's repeating things. There are some specimen practical skills tasks on the OCR website with the answers if that's any help to show what he's aiming for.

webwiz ,thanks ,yes it is A level .
Dc struggled last year ( in year 13 ,he is currently repeating yr 13 )with the practicals and the coursework .
I really couldn't follow what the problem was with the practicals - something about the chemicals not reacting .
There was talk of perhaps the chemicals were old ...
But he spent ages after school - to the detriment of other things I think .
The coursework was tricky because it now emerges that the subject was one were it 's a struggle to find much to comment on .
I'm not sure it's worth talking to the school - it's recently been Academised and they seem stressed and worked to death .
With DC doing sciences I find it hard to know what questions to ask ,or understand the answers .
Aaargh ,sorry ,crap mother emoticon !

Is that A level gingeroots? It sounds as if the teachers haven't a clue - why didn't they just check with the exam board whether pupils could do the same assessment? DD2 is doing OCR Chemistry A level and she didn't need any extra time at all for the AS practicals it was all done within lessons.

At the moment she is learning how to do the longer practicals for A2 and they won't do any assessed ones for a while (I think that ties in with the theme of this thread - learning before assessment). I think I'd just want a bit of reassurance from your DCs teacher about how the practical element is taught especially as they are finding it difficult.

DC currently struggling ( as he did last year ) with OCR Chemistry coursework . ( 15% of grade )
Seems the teachers are learning alongside the students - last year it was thought that every student had to be doing a different subject .
This was problematical as some subjects are perceived to be more difficult to tackle than others . ( and DS spent hours after school in lab because of problems with practical element ).
But this year it's been discovered that students can do same topics .

" If a child or teenager is off-track and you know it, how can it be wrong for you to set them back on track? That's teaching."

Indeed. A running coach might cycle alongside Paula Radcliffe in training, encouraging, teaching, coaching. He doesn't get to do that in the London Marathon.

Same for exams. If you want to work with your child, great: there are 51 weeks of the year to do so. Teachers are doing that too. But the idea of an exam is to see what they can do on their own.

Anyway, this is all moot now. There's now no home-done coursework in most subjects, replaced with (exam conditions) controlled assessments.

realitychick, the time to help your time is not when they are completing assessed work

this is handed in on the assumption that it is their own work

so if you are helping them do it, you are basically encouraging them to lie

the time for teaching them to write essays is the years and months and weeks before they start the assessed work

Have to say I am beginning to understand why so many students are shocked when they are hauled up for plagiarism: they don't seem to realise that it is morally wrong to try to get a better grade by using somebody else's work.

realitychick, i don't feel helping your child with a subject is the same as helping your child with assessed work. At that point, the teaching and help is supposed to be something they can apply themselves, isn't it? [clueless]

I'm genuinely baffled at all the parents saying to help your child is tantamount to doing the work for her. How does anyone learn? By doing. And how do they know what to do? By imitating. We coach our kids to learn to walk and talk, play nicely etc when they are small by demonstrating. Why not continue this coaching? If a child or teenager is off-track and you know it, how can it be wrong for you to set them back on track? That's teaching. That's how they learn, isn't it? A teacher who doesn't help them redraft to get a better grade isn't teaching, they're coasting.

You can use any resits to count to an A and ou do not need an A at AS for it, merely an A overall, which means that scoring anything higher than a B at AS is overkill in terms of getting an A.

Source

It is a bad message to give to your child that her best is not good enough.

Pixie's right. A*s are only awarded at A2, and can't be issued on re-sits for A2 modules....

AS re-sits definitely do count towards A. I can think of at least two of our students who achieved A this summer, but only got the A that's necessary at AS after taking a January re-sit. (This is in English Literature.)

Where does it say that about the A* Pixie? I've certainly read that reits do count towards it for OCR.

Oh good - if she's only a few marks off a B I'm sure she can pull it up to a good A, given her other marks.

It is an unrewarding system, I think - not easy for her or for you. I only asked my question because it seems there's a very narrow line for parents to walk: don't get involved and perhaps the student is disadvantaged because other parents do help their children, vs. do get involved, and perhaps advertise to examiners/ university admissions that the student isn't entirely working on his or her own.

I hope she bounces back from this, and gets the results she deserves.