Is the current Year 7 doomed?

Us parents will be the last to know

I only know it does my head in even trying to understand what the proposed changes will mean (sigh).

I have absolutely no idea who is doomed - As Mr Gove currently appears to let teachers know about educational reform through the papers, frankly your guess is as good as mine.

DD is in Y9. Can anyone tell me the likely impact on her? At the moment, the school are talking about her taking 3 science exams at the end of this year, and I don't understand how that can work now.

@noble Me too

PS Mordion, I love Hexwood :)

I agree maths needs to be sorted somehow anyway, but I'm worried that the genuine concerns about the current GCSE are going to get muddled with Gove's agenda and not enough time will be spent thinking it through carefully. Then a bodge job will be done to make it fit with the other new qualifications and a lot of kids will be left with no maths qualification at all.

The current problems with maths are much more specific than with other subjects though. Somebody somewhere needs to find an acceptable answer to the question of what we actually want to achieve through the maths syllabus and the maths exams. But I suspect that isn't high on Gove's agenda.

Doomed, maybe not, however they're not in a great position it must be said. No one has a clue what these exams will actually look like or what they'll contain (least of all Gove who simply wants them to be harder). Tiers? No tiers? (there had better be tiers in maths, or everyone is doomed). From what I've read there'll be two qualifications in maths, maths and applied maths. What the bloody hell does that actually mean? Does that mean functional maths or are we supposed to start teaching mechanics? Either way, we need to know ASAP. Y7 are currently going through our KS3 curriculum which has been planned to lead to GCSEs. But they won't be sitting GCSEs. Later year groups will have the advantage of sitting a secondary curriculum which feeds into the new examinations from the start.
Not all new exams start off well, curriculum 2000 at A-level was an absolute disaster for maths. I don't trust the people involved with this to get it right, or to disseminate information in a timely fashion.

It's not that many years ago at all that modular GCSEs were introduced. Most teachers have long enough memories to be unfazed and newer teachers will have others on the staff to ask.
Of course yr7aren't doomed. I would say that if the school they are at is disorganised, doesn't plan etc some children might suffer in the first cohort but schools these days tend to be used to adjusting to new exams. They will just get on with it.

I have a Y7 and a Y6 - I think the new exams are a good thing, and I think current Y7 will be at an advantage because of this - those who are taking the current GCSEs are the ones who will have trouble persuading people that their qualification is of equal value.

I am pleased for my girls - it means they get to STUDY a subject without continual assessment pressures and hopefully understand it before sitting an actual exam that counts for most if not all of their marks.

Senua, I agree. The number of students who get A grades now is utterly laughable and they certainly need to do something about it.

Hmmm - the City folk I know haven't ever had to show their O level certs, and the universities I have worked in again don't ask for anything below A Level (and that's rare - it's first and higher degrees we want to see).

Senua - I agree it's not a bad thing, but I do think years 9 and 10 are at more of a disadvantage than year 7 which is what the thread was about.

@titchy All city professionals anyway. Don't know what they do elsewhere. Although I know if you want to go work in eg Singapore on a secondment then they demand your certs too. Actually - lots of other countries do that, not just Singapore.

My husband has 3 degrees and never has to show his certs cos he is self employed. But when he was a uni lecturer he had to show all his qualifications. and that was a while ago before the more recent hoo hah about widescale fakery of qualifications.

If any year group's buggered it's the current year 9s and 10s who are doing GCSEs, but will find it harder to get good grades becuase of a) the linear methodology and b) political interference over grade boundaries.

I don't see this as a totally bad thing. I prefer honest grades i.e. your average student (and, by definition, they mostly are average) gets an average grade. I hate the current system where it seems that anythng less than an A is not good enough. What are we doing to our chidren if we teach them that only acceptable grade is "perfection" and anything less than straight-A in all subjects puts them on the reject pile. Do we really want a world of have v. have-not? What hapened to the middle ground?

Well IMO every year group is doomed until these wankers are voted out, but not just because of the exams they'll sit.

However, I do think it quite likely that this year 7 will be made a bit of an example of as the first batch to sit whatever it is they sit. It would be an odd political point to make to say 'look we gave them rigorous exams and guess what, results are actually higher!'.

Most HR depts ask for all certs?! I have two degrees and have never, sice gaining them, been asked about anything pre-degree! Likewise all the professionals I know! I think most people know if you have a degree you also have Maths and English GCSE or equivalent, and really I'd have to ask why GCSEs were so important if you have a degree.

As long as the current year 7s (I have one) do the next stage of their education within the same cohort (i.e. no years out, or at least not without having been offered a place), they'll be fine - they'll all be measured against each other.

Presumably if these changes go ahead (and if there is a change in Government they might not) they'll continue for a good few years and employers will get used to them.

If any year group's buggered it's the current year 9s and 10s who are doing GCSEs, but will find it harder to get good grades becuase of a) the linear methodology and b) political interference over grade boundaries. (I have one in this age group too.) Grrrr

I'm not surprised .

Although I don't get how Y7 are doomed?

Yes, with one doomed year 7 and one year 11 who is working her socks off for exams which she's being told are pointless and easy and of no value, I feel quite embittered about this!

I was in the first year to do GCSEs and don't remember them being a disaster!

What is different is that GCSEs were perceived at the time as being an improvement on the old system (they weren't!) whereas they have now become completely discredited. I feel sorry for Y11 now, having to study for exams that have been written off as worthless by govt and employers must be very demotivating .

The use of such an emotive word as doomed is scaremongering.

@piprabit For many jobs (professional ones anyway) you not only have to states your o levels (or GCSEs) A levels and degree class, you also have to provide the certificates. And most HR departments now do cross checking too, since certificates can be (and, increasingly, are) forged. The exam boards are doing a roaring trade in replacement certificates for those who have lost theirs over the years.

I shouldn't think that teachers will struggle with the revision - with children being able to resit I am always going back over stuff from 18 months ago.

In addition, I was the first school year to do all the SATs and the first year to do AS and A2 level - we really were an experimental year. Never harmed me or my friends though. I wouldn't worry too much about it - teachers aren't going to have to learn loads of new stuff e.g. Under old or new spec 2+2 would still be 4, it will just be exam technique that changes. To be honest teachers deal with change every couple of years as the government can't leave things alone so we are fairly used to doing things differently!

I did my GCSEs 10 years ago, and all of my exams were at the end of Year 11. Most subjects we also had a piece of coursework, that we did during Year 11 (although not all), but we didn't have any exams as we went through - we just had to revise at the end or not in my case I'm sure the current Year 10s and their teachers will cope fine with going back to that system in terms of revision etc.

My y10 dc is doing one English exam in 2014, no coursework, just the one paper.