Starting Year 11-GCSE2021 (title edited by MNHQ)

I read it as just one of each maths & eng lang before half term. The point being that if they then got ill they would still have done those papers so could be marked on them, I think.

DD's timetable would have had 1 week with 6, 1 with 4 and 2 with 5 iirc.

Today (12 October), the government is announcing the summer exam series will start on 7 June and end on 2 July for almost all AS/A levels and GCSEs.
Results days are Tuesday 24 August for A/AS levels and Friday 27 August for GCSEs so students will start the following academic year as normal

So, they’ll do all the maths papers and both English Lang & English lit papers prior to half term.? Then all the other papers 7th June onwards? If I remember rightly there’s pretty much 2 papers per subject. So they’d get 6 prior to half term and the rest (14 for my DD) after. So maybe 4 exams a week, rather than 2 every day for several days like my DD1 had.

The waitlist is a nightmare teen
If you need support there’s a thread in the general mental health section for supporting our kids.

Donna Referred to CAMHS in May. Still waiting ...

Unbelievable as if 3 weeks is going to do the trick!!!

So let me understand this...delay exams by 3 weeks ( having missed 4 months of school!! I can see the ratio???) but just cram all the exams in a short space of time...so our kids will be exhausted mentally.

So the well being for our kids has gone out the window!!

Speechless!

@TeenPlusTwenties so sorry to hear your DD has MH issues. I hope she’s getting lots of help & support. It’s all so shit isn’t it?

My yr11 is disappointed that it’s Exams as also thinks she has to continuously give 110%. Im inclines to agree with her.
My yr13 wants exams to go ahead as she’s in a super smart cohort and worried she’d be ranked very low.
Either way, it’s still remains stressful for them both. As we all know nothing is cast in stone and it could all change again!

@Titsywoo Yes she has covered it already. AQA decided that poetry was too important so dropped the post 1900 novel instead. So frustrating.
That’s not entirely true. My DD is doing AQA and they’ve dropped poetry and continuing with Pride & Prejudice. They’ll still have to do the unseen poetry. But don’t study the poetry book. Your school has chosen this option. Maybe they think they need to study the poetry book in order to teach poetry analysis for the unseen poetry.

It makes me almost glad DD has had a MH breakdown, isn't in school, isn't doing any education, and if she gets better in time will be taking a drastically reduced set of GCSEs.
If she were in school I'd be looking hard at exam timetable when they come out to see whether there was anything she could drop.

They've also got to continue with a high level of performance in both coursework & mocks "just in case". The pressure on them will be ridiculous. I admire the Scottish for making the bold decision just to cancel now & allow the kids to complete the full curriculum of work. Shame on GW, he's as bad as Gove.

No break will disadvantage those with SEN. Average of 1 exam per day means they will have to have learned everything before exams start and then just a quick refresh the day before.

Agree this is totally ridiculous and of course it means they will now have four weeks of exams without the usual week off in the middle. The whole thing will just become a test of endurance.

titsy iirc after their U turn, AQA kept unseen poetry, but the anthology is now optional.

Cuddling 3 maths exams and 2 English Lang (for DD's boards anyway)

This whole nonsense about pushing exams back by three weeks - What us the actual point of this? How will it reduce inequality? Those who have coveted the syllabus as normal (as mine have) will just have the extra three weeks to consolidate learning. It’s just prolonging the stress for all.

This GW is beyond ridiculous. That’s all he’s managed to come up with in months?

One maths and one English GCSE exam will be held just before the May half-term, giving any Year 11 pupils who are affected by Covid-19 the best possible chance of still sitting a paper in each of these core subjects.

What does this mean? Are there more than one exam for maths and English?

Not really sure what to think about the 3 weeks exam delay (although that doesn't include maths and english). Sure it will help a bit but they were out of school for 14 weeks! Either way I'm glad the exams won't be cancelled.

www.gov.uk/government/news/students-to-be-given-more-time-to-prepare-for-2021-exams

Has she already covered Inspector Calls? I thought they’d drop whatever they’d not yet covered (unless it’s the compulsory Shakespeare).

We've just had a letter from the school re Eng Lit exam content for AQA. They are dropping An Inspector Calls. DD will be upset. She hates the poetry and the amount of memorising quotes that it entails. Plus she is just better at writing about novels.

That’s the whole problem portico schools set their own mocks. They’re not standardised in England.

I don’t quite understand Mocks. Are the schools being given the same exam papers to set their students. Or do they make up their own papers. If the board sets the papers, I assume they will leave it to teacher to assess only on content learnt for the teachers to mark it. I am unclear about this bit.

I've got a DS in year 11 so joining the thread. I've just told him that he should treat all work as GCSE coursework and all exams as the real thing just in case.

@Toobuktim oh know!!!

I totally agree teachers can definitely not be replaced. I feel for them they really do have a hard job considering they still dknt know what they working towards.

My ds has just completed his exams that he would of done in June. They didn't go so well and he is normally on his game...his mocks are in Jan. Am really hoping teachers take that under consideration if they are used in any form...since he has been off since March.

He was down and I really feel for him- normally he gets the results but now he is worried he wont do well! Trying to boost his confidence...