GCSE new levels 1-9

The only reason they are doing this is so they can very sneakily fit in an extra grade (8 being the lower half of A and 9 being the upper half of A).

True, I suppose in terms of college it doesn't help much but I think they do gain emotionally from being on a GCSE course.

Our current year 10 are particularly weak academically so we are coming up with new ideas. The current year 11 are all between D and F and I think all could make it to a high E or a D (or higher) by spring. Our year 9 are similar. Our year 10 really are the worst year possible to experience these changes....

The year 7s were I worked were all on their p scales so didn't have the problem of bat shit targets. Most of them were born with medical issues that made their development extremely slow. Some of them got GCSEs and it was deemed truely amazing progress. They were in special school because they learnt very slowly rather than because they had behavioural problems. (MLD rather than EBD)

"And entry levels don't really help them with regards to college courses."

Does having a grade G or F really help? The kids from where I used to to work used to do a transition course and then move on to a level 1 course if they had no GCSEs.

What is tough about the new GCSEs is that there is no coursework.

They do and we use them reasonably often in year 9 and 10 but there is a huge social stigma around them (our boys are already very angry and unhappy about being in a "special needs school"). Also a lot of our students' needs really kick in after year 6 so they all have lovely GCSE target grades based on their batshit SATs results so it is very hard for us to withdraw them from GCSEs.
And entry levels don't really help them with regards to college courses.

Blueemerald

Have they done away with entry level certificates? The special school I used to work at entered children in for entry level certificates as getting a grade g was beyond many kids with learning difficulties.

www.gatewayqualifications.org.uk/qualifications/ocn_eastern_region_qualifications/suite_of_entry_level_qualifications

Let's not forget that for English there will be no Higher and Foundation paper and they've done away with single science GCSE...

Blueemerald
That's good to hear they still have some options, especially with the L1 FE courses :-)

I've had another think - as long as it's got enough material in there to reliably discriminate between true 7s, 8s, and 9s, it's not actually such a bad thing for those students to have to learn to pay attention to what they think of as "easy" questions and answer them without being sloppy, but I really feel for those aiming for grades at the lower end of the Higher paper range as it could be very discouraging.

so if all 9 and top of 8 only are A how will the universisties that currently want A for medicine etc tell the siffernec ebetween a high and a low 8? I know, they will insist those candidates have 9s. So this is really just restoring the old order of less people going to university no?

That's a massive ability range to cover with one test - high A* to top end of E. The 8 and 9 students will be fruitlessly churning through questions they barely have to think about while the 3/4 borderline students will be faced with an exam half of which they can't possibly be expected to understand.

If they don't get 4 Ds they can access a level 1 college course and work up to level 2 and 3. They all do vocational courses. All young people have to be in education or training now until they are 18.

With regards to retakes if you don't get a C or above (not 100% if it will become 4 or 5 on the new system) in maths and English then you have to retake up to two more times. But the "pass" rates of these retakes are very very low.

We have just had our application for post-16 rejected by the LA so we are unable to help them directly at the moment.

^ I'm aware you could also do retakes at some FE collages.

Blueemerald
That is very sad for your students :-(
I doubt the government was considering their feelings when they designed this system!

Out of interest, for the poor DC who do not get their 4 D grades, are any of them able to / do they choose to retake post 16 at your school or another? If they succeeded at this could they then still access 1 year of govt funded FE?

Or can any of them do say, maths & English GCSE alongside a more vocational course at school?

Top of grade 8 and all grade 9 are A* standards - maybe you should have listened!

i am sure in an interminably dull training session, our bosses said in 2017 no one will be able to get an a* equivalent.
I dont know why, it doesnt affect me till 2018 so I wasnt really listening

Oh dear. Ds2 is in the first cohort of this nonsense. (Well except English & Maths where the poor sods the year before him will already have had a bash).

I wouldn't shout at you! The students at my school have social, emotional and mental health difficulties. Most also have some learning difficulties or ADHD or ASD as well. In terms of life skills they are "normal teenagers" and most of the gaps in their knowledge come from massive gaps in their education (due to a combination of long exclusions, mainstreams being ill-equipped to teach them, poor attendance and so on).

Most of our students will get 5 GCSEs and go on to college, about 70% get GCSEs they need to get onto a level two course of their choosing at colleges (4 D grades).

4+ and 7+ grade boundaries will be set so that they will be achieved by the same proportion of students currently achieving C+ and A+. So the grade boundary for a 4 will be set in maths by the mark achieved or beaten by 60% (approx) of students taking the exam. Except it will be more complicated because there are 2 tiers.

The 9 is set at the top 3%. I expect the private schools will hoover most of those up.

The 5 is the 'standard' achieved by the best performing students internationally. How that will actually translate to a % on a test not sat by international students is a mystery. However it is also said that the 5 will be set to be the top of an old C and the bottom of an old B.

What will actually happen is that they set the 4, 7 and 9 from the set proportions needed, then spread the rest out fairly evenly between.

Pisa exams are completely skewed as
Not every pupil takes them - for example all pupils in the UK are measured but only those in certain cities in China that attend particular schools - therefore the data is not actually comparable.

A level 5 is the new pass mark and is the equivalent to the top third of a C, therefore 2/3 of an old C will fail.

As for percentages for various grades these have not been given yet.

I'm hoping so, var123. We are also toying with a decimal system. That would also enable us to show progress as well as the difference between the top and bottom of 1. So you would go from being a 1 to 1.25 to 1.5 etc. That would be fine for staff (although meaningless to anyone offical) but my G grade kids don't really get decimals either so I'm thinking of a pictorial version of circles divided into 4 and we can shade in the quarters as we progress.

The whole thing is bonkers.

and the fact that the government can and have moved pass and grade boundaries to suit their own agendas..