Compute Science GCSE mess up

20 hours js quite a lot of time. My dis was about half way through when the plug was pulled. Clearly they want to get it finished now in minimal time as it’s not marked and they’ d rather spend time on exam prep. I believe they will now be allowed internet access during the allotted hours so I think DS plan is to get it done quickly with minimal write up and then spend rest of time studying/revising something else. What a mess !

That was the information my DS got, it won't count but they still have to complete the coursework. He is not happy but I am trying to convince him to see it as some kind of practical revision.

Note from our computer science department - they have to complete the task, the head has to confirm this was done and the exam board may visit to check apparently! One of the exams includes questions on programming although not the same as writing a programme.

So what now is the point of Computer Science if there is no actual programming in it.

A judicial review is unlikely to achieve anything, even if it is possible (haven't checked the rules to see if Ofqual decisions can be challenged in this way). A judge will only overturn Ofqual's decision if it is Wednesbury unreasonable, which basically means irrational. Given that it is clear there has been widespread cheating, it is difficult to see how else Ofqual could preserve the integrity of the qualification.

The component was compromised by the people who posted high control material online. The public body (Ofqual) had to act to minimise unfairness.

They've done it before.

I suspect there will be a judicial review. A public body should not be making retrospective decisions like this.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-42608372

course work will not now count - what a F* up. Feel for all of those , along with my DS who put hours and hours of effort into this.

Is there a public sector institution in this country that is capable of delivering the job they are supposed to do.

I dont think Roly's post was necessary on this forum...on one hand she is stating that it was a harmless comment and then on the other hand she was stating that I had highlighted the nature of the NEA to students who had not started the assessment when this is a parents forum.

I totally agree with Hulababy after the first session whether its 20 individual hours or 4 block periods then students would be available to seek help from the internet.

If you go to the student room there are realms and realms of coding posted for students to copy that these go back to September - further more I think student posts and a couple of innocent posts "after the consultation had been announced and where the recommendations were that the NEA would not form part of the exam" seem to be the least of problems - my understanding is that the big worry was teachers interpretation of Use others’ solutions to help conduct the NEA" and that cheating or should I say bending the rules seems to be ingrained.

I certainly don't feel bad or a need to apologise for simply mentioning what two of the possible tasks may be. The consultation talks about the solutions available and cheating. Simply knowing the nature of the task is not that. You need way more information than a two or three word description to get any further. And having been to 6 sixth form open evenings recently and read about more via friends with similar age children in other areas - the basic nature of the possible tasks has been spoken about by every single computer science department, and that includes those who haven't started it yet - starting January for many it would seem, though not in blocks in those cases.

I’m a bit confused by the outrage at @RolyRocks’ comment. ‘Innocuous means ‘harmless’ to mean your sentence seems harmless but OFQUAL have said this is exactly what they don’t want and Roly’s post went on to highlight that this was an example of how easy it has been for things to go on Social Media and that it is OFQUAL’s fault-not yours.

Technically the tasks are still live and I can assure you ‘Hulababy’ that many schools are doing the tasks in blocks. There are many thousands and of schools signed up to the course and plenty have done just this. But that was not the point I think Roly was making (and I hope they come back to confirm!) and i’m sure it wasn’t meant to offend. The fact is, that the tasks ‘have’ been mentioned on this thread and this is part and parcel of what has got OFQUAL in a twist. Of course, the horse has already bolted and I don’t think either of you need to feel bad or apologise but it is still a valid point that the tasks are still live, some schools still haven’t started it and yet you are talking about the tasks. Something we have been forbidden from doing (but impossible to stop!)

It would appear to me that it is a very small minority of schools do the 20 hours in a block over 4 days. Looking online about this mess up I've found evidence of very few at all. The vast majority do it over a period of weeks. And unless those children weren't allowed to go home each evening they've got ample opportunity to google for several hours then if if they were so inclined. So again, after day 1, then they have time and opportunity if they are the type to cheat.

I mentioned two of the tasks. There were more I believe. At this stage, on Mn, I that it was fine for the tasks to be mentioned briefly with no expansion or further explanation. This is a parenting website and I was talking from the point of a parent who's Dd has potentially had her final grade compromised by the acts of others and the lack of foresight if those agencies paid an awful lot of money to set these exams. I only know of the other task as other teachers at open evenings have mentioned it when we've visited the computer science departments. However, mentioning the basic premise of the task doesn't actually help a student to cheat - they know their own task in lesson 1 of starting the NEA. The brief mention of it on a site like MN gives them no further information. Obviously if we'd then posted an explanation of how to break the tasks down and how to approach it, or suggested some python (or whatever language) code that might solve it, it'd be a different matter.

Roly used the words - innocuous comments - if she had taken the time to read the comment before my post she would have seen that two references had been made to NEA tasks but she chose to highlight my comment... I am not a teacher but a parent of a child that has just spent 20 hours on an exam that for all intensive purposes was a waste of time ....I think its sad that a subject that allot of children were excited about will end up with 100% theory exam - Is this supposed to attract children to computer science ? I have a bright child who could have easily gone into this field BUT was turned off by 80% theory never mind 100%. Very sad indeed !

I don’t think Roly needs an idea of what comments there have been on the Internet if they are already teaching this but of course they can reply themselves if not but I think they were just highlighting how easy it has been for malpractice to go on with this NEA with comments about the tasks reaching the thousands, rather than personally attacking you.

There was already a comment on this forum stating what the two NEA's were prior to my comment but I do appreciate your comment....

There are 100's of comments all over the internet that go as far back as September !

This will give you an idea of some of the posts on the net :

I have just started my computing NEA. We have been given the quiz task. I have a fairly limited knowledge of python and so I need a lot of help with the actual code and possibly write up. I am hoping to achieve at least an A in the task. I know most of the marks are in the write up so if there is a template or example for an A* grade that would be amazing. Any help would be massively appreciated as my teacher from last year was poor and my current teacher can only do so much. Thank you.

DD's task involved writing a quiz (OCR) ...

I know that you completely didn't mean to and that it seems a fairly innocuous comment but this is an example of information about the NEAs being made 'available' on social media, easily. There will be students who are taking the OCR qualification who have yet to start their NEA. Indeed, some were planning to be taken off timetable over three or so days in Jan/Feb to sit the NEA in one go and be working on skills for it, right up until the end.
They would now know that the task is a quiz, they can now look up many solutions online and start memorising them - thus having an advantage over a student who didn't have this information, prior to starting.

Of course, by highlighting it, I am also complicit! But this was the argument that so many of us teachers told OFQUAL about the impossibility of keeping these NEAs a complete secret with 70,000 odd students/parents having access to the Web. It should never have got to this stage and OFQUAL should apologise for being responsible for a qualification that they were told wouldn't be enforceable.

I just reread what I wrote earlier and must have been in cloud cuckoo land - obviously the teacher marks all the papers not just 90%...DD is in a fairly small CS class - I think there is probably 14 of them in total. Not sure why DD thought only two would be submitted for validation.

DD's task involved writing a quiz (OCR) ...she should have completed all the 20 hours today but have not seen her to check how she got on - they went off to Winter Wonderland this afternoon to mix with the sixth form - I think they used Ipads to do their assessment because they use them for all lessons (they have their own Ipads allocated by the school)

Should be interesting to see what happens - ordered the OCR revision guide for her today because we are away over New Year so at least she can do some work whilst we are travelling before mocks in January.

Dd has now finished all of her controlled assessment. She was likely to get a very high mark from what we could gather as it was completed and fully written up, and after extensive testing was working after she had debugged a couple of small issues she'd found. Some of her friends in class still haven't quite finished - think they have 2 or 3 lessons remaining.but we're getting towards the end.

DD's class's task was a password generator and checker.
I think many of our local schools were doing a task which involved a quiz.

Bluebell - but the rest of the controlled assessment is linked to that coding - planning, pseudo code, the coding itself, testing, debug, write up and conclusion etc. But I would count all of that as coding personally, not just the bit sat in front of a computer typing python or whatever.

Sashh - that's what's Dd has had, no internet access at all during the assessments.

I know coding can be done off computer - I do some off computer coding with my infant classes before we go on iPads and computers. And obviously pseudo code does appear in one of the test papers.

But a gcse qualification in computer science should, IMO, always include a proper assessment of whether students can actually code, test and debug for real - on a computer or coding enabled device. It's ridiculous for it not too really.

kittyvoncatsington - Thank you for the useful link to the Pearson letter of 24th October above and the other information you have shared. I had not heard about that letter as my DC's school carried on with the new task, so I'm sorry for my mistake in my message on Wednesday evening, caused by my lack of knowledge of the full story!

In terms of marking she said 90% of the papers are marked by the teacher and two sent off for validation ?

Oh how I wish that was true! I also teach this but am with AQA. The sample size is 20 for all exam boards. So if you only have a class of 20 or less, all of them will have to be sent off to be validated. If you have a class size of more than that, then they will issue you with the 20 names they want, after you have sent off your results. Obviously though, this is probably a moot point and likely we won't have to send anything off. This debacle has caused a huge amount of damage to this already niche subject

I've read the Consultation and responded (by the way, so can parents, so send your response too on the link on the first page!) and their only options state that the two exams would be worth 50% each, if the NEA was to not count, so it's only fingers crossed at this stage that one paper would have more weighting over another.

DS2 got the highest mark in the class in the practice task, so was hoping to get a high mark in the NEA too. He is also v.strong in exams. It's unlikely that the decision will affect his grade either way (he is hoping for an 8).

However, I think it's unfair and unfortunate to change the assessment weighting when pupils are already 2/3 of the way through the course.