I'm just getting my head round Gove's changes to the exam system- and I am even mor horrified than I thought I would be!

An example - this year's Core Science CA in physics is about angle of incidence being equal to angle of reflection. One of the most basic physics topics in the syllabus. It's just too bloody easy, even WITHOUT the spoon feeding.

I've already got the majority of the marks for the two written papers, contained in the notes I took in class last night - and I've got a further two weeks to practice and write and rewrite it. By the time I've done that twice, it is simple to see where you have lost marks. You can then regurgitate that in the CA, and get far more marks than you would if you were only given the title 2 weeks in advance. Or if you came face to face with a paper you knew nothing about.

And again, I thank FUCK she's in Y11, and will avoid the fuck up that Gove's exams will be for anyone with SEN.

Nobody will convince me on the merits of CA's though, especially in science.

I DO disagree with the controlled assessments. It's shit. If my DD can get a B in a Science CA, then it's not an effective measure of true ability. It's just NOT. The amount of coaching MY adult tutor group (mixed ability class, grades likely to range from E-A) got last night in Science alone is ridiculous - if I DON'T get an A in the CA, I'd have to open my skull and try to locate a brain cell...

And there will be more coaching next week before we sit the CA the week after. I can't see how ANYONE can get less than a C in a science CA, given the amount of spoon feeding. And I can only imagine how much MORE spoon feeding there is for school age pupils.

Coursework was FAR more rigorous, constant bits of coursework, no coaching, a piece of Coursework on every topic, far more a true measure of ability IMO.

Not that I'm complaining about DD's B in her science CA last year - it brought her grade up to a D overall on a Foundation Core Science paper, and is her best grade. I'm hoping she does as well in additional Science this year...

My DD isn't a problem child - try reading the definition of MODERATE Learning Difficulties. She SHOULD be in a SEN school, or at the very least have the full statement that I fought for (and failed to get) for 13 years.

I would far rather she used that time to scrape a D/E in English, when she left Y6 working on NC lvl 2, and got her Maths skills (which, despite additional input, were at a 4yo's level when she was 11) than learnt an MFL. And the school were in agreement with that, as she had been TRULY failed by her Primary school, and she would have left school illiterate and innumerate if they didn't have those lesson times in which to do additional work with her.

And it HAS made the difference - she has a place on a level 1 NVQ in professional Catering after year 11.

She would have been unemployable had the school insisted on attempting to teach her an MFL, and not put those hours into basic literacy and numeracy skills.

DD is resisting just ONE GCSE - her Maths, as she is unsure that the November sitting she did will get the G grade she desperately wants.

And THAT IS the reality for some students in Comprehensives - they can work their bloody socks off, get hours of extra support each week, and STILL be resisting to try to get a G grade. And that G grade would mean the bloody WORLD to DD, because she's had to slog her guts out every day since she was 3yo to try to understand something her brain found impossible - numbers.

What use is algebra to a chef?!

Friends at other schools, I should have said.

20 years ago, before the pressure on targets and before parents started to do it for them, coursework worked as it should and was a pleasure to teach . i no longer work but can see that CA is a depressing, time wasting activity. My dc's school chose a different IGCSE English syllabus expressly to avoid it.

It is a school which would make the press if found to be disobeying rules and guidelines are rigorously followed but I know from friends that rules are as often as not, not followed and parents generally aren't especially aware they are not as they often chat happily about the support they have given. It makes a joke out of the process.

100% exam! Good job I don't teach maths!

leftover children of different levels respond to different levels of teaching - would you lower the level for the middle band and not stretch the higher band? Pupils are taught to the grade they are predicted but moved if they are overachieving - in English at the moment the Controlled Assessments allow for this, the 109% exam introduced by Mr Gove will not allow for tins, as different level texts will be studied.

Curlew, why can't the middle ability kids be entered for it? Don't you think they'll benefit from the higher level teaching?

Same here, but that's more like an interpretation of a rule rather than a blatant braking of it! They can resit but a different title, not take it home and get parents to do it!

But it's inevitable isn't it purplegirly?

Nowhere near that blatant here, but I'm already re-doing CAs with my lower ability y11 group (previously taught by an inexperienced colleague, now moved on, who fucked it up with them in y10).

& we're running extra sessions over half term for anyone with below target CAs - each of us is taking one task, one day, & spending the morning teaching then the afternoon writing it up.

Gah. Totally not how they were intended!

Makes me cross raven as much as I hate the CAs I hate the thought of cheating

Yes, but it seems that wordfactory's dd's school allows drafting of an essay based on the CA task, which is then taken home, tweaked, feedback given, & then memorised!

Shockingly dishonest & completely against the rules, but hardly unique, to be fair. & unlikely ever to be detected, except by the discrepancy between CA & exam performance...

No word, they can't. The CAs MUST be done at school ... Maybe your DCs school is not playing by the rules. Parents can neither check nor write the essay. Yes they can discuss it and help with background but they can't do any more than that, unless the school is cheating the system - hence the return to 100% exams

purple of course parents can help.

They can discuss the texts, they can help with ideas for the essay, they can check it, hell they can write it!

Where does help end and cheating begin?

The parents can't help word - they are done in class.

I'd be very happy to see the back of CAs, despite the fact that DD has done so well...

They're just not fair. If you're in a small school where the teacher can give you one-to-one, if you're parents will help, you're at an advantage.

Also they really stop the flow of the term. Everything stops and focusses on them. Grrrr...

raven me too - 33 top set, four hour Shakespeare and poetry exams to mark!

Sadly though the outline curriculum is so prescriptive I think it will be a nightmare to,teach. Sure my lovely bottom set, mostly boys will love a bit of. Romantic poetry!

Inclined to agree with you, TFM. Also, I have 60 of the buggers to mark this weekend! I wouldn't miss them if they went! .

It's a bit like Dallas when Pam woke up and realised that Bobby was alive and that whole last season had been a dream. That was mid to late 80's too I think. Co-incidence or inspiration for educational policy?

AQA guidance as to notes permitted for GCSE English.

It's hardly a draft essay - just an aide memoire. & the notes are sent off to the moderator alongside the essay.

Obviously, some unscrupulous schools allow students to re-do their 'official' notes page after completing the task. Dodgy.

The difference in practice between different schools, and between different departments in the same school, is why CAs need to go.