GCSE’s summer 2020 thread 5 - And then there were none..

Hidden figures is in no way a girly film if anyone is thinking in generalisations that teen boys won't enjoy it.

Sorry, tomorrow . Tonight is The King's Speech.

Hidden Figures is on TV tonight by the way!

They’ve lots of evidence, so I think its fees, plus a genuine belief that its better for them to be working and revising as that what they would have been doing anyway. I just spoke to a friend who’s DD has had no work at all, and she’s really struggling with weeks of nothing to do. I just think they got the balance wrong, or more accurately some of the teacher have. Some teachers have been quite relaxed. I’m hoping they move to bridging work sooner than they planned. School has always encouraged girls to talk/feedback etc...they may be regretting that a bit!

Wheresthebeach unless the school are completely incompetent, surely they have enough evidence now? Why on earth have they taken that route? Is it an independent school trying to justify fees by setting lots of work? I think I would be coming down with a virtual sore throat.

Bridging work for A Level is handy though. I admire your Dd and friends trying to sort that out.

It would be great if this time could be used to encourage curiosity rather than more gcse practice papers! Sadly not the case for us...

Have to admit my opinion of DS's school has gone up since reading the poor provision that some Year 11s are getting.

They have now moved away from GCSE entirely and in most subjects are focusing more on "general interest" learning (so in economics they are being encouraged to look at what effect the pandemic is having on the economy; in biology they are looking at how viruses spread and how vaccines are created). They are also being encouraged to sign up for OpenLearn courses - school has suggested some that might be appropriate, but they are free to pick the ones that are of personal interest. DS has signed up for CyberSecurity (computer science) and Nuclear Energy (Physics). He's not spending masses amounts of time on schoolwork, but at least he seems a bit more motivated. Actually seeing what DS has to do, I wish education could be like this all the time, rather than the slavishly having to follow syllabuses (yes, I understand the need for core skills, but it's nice to have some flexibility just to enjoy learning as well).
So I'd suggest looking at OpenLearn if your school isn't really setting anything.

DD isn't getting anything from school.

She made an attempt to finish off the GCSE courses by herself and is now pre-reading for the A-level subjects she hopes to study.

DD is still slogging through GCSE work. A group of the students got together and asked if they could move onto A level work as they were finding the GCSE work was a poorer quality than they did in school and got shot down (in flames).

So generally they are pretty grumpy and now worrying that their grades will drop.

Gah.

And Callum is going to sit at the back of your Introduction To Arty Cinema class staring at you and plotting your downfall.

So, after my 'woe is the world' post of yesterday and my subsequent chat with him about all the things he could be doing, DS has just shown me the 1,000 word draft he wrote yesterday for his EPQ! He is also watching a lot of documentaries - I've just recommended the Beastie Boy Story to him (relevant for his EPQ and just interesting) and he's been watching some relevant YouTube videos and one from Harvard which he found really good. Yay!

He's got the last lessons today for GCSE. His English teacher is doing a video teams lesson so she can say goodbye to them all.

Thank you so much Piggy and Eww for these excellent suggestions which are far more imaginative and interesting than my original thoughts. And thanks too for the link to the old thread - that's the one I was thinking of.

Much grumbling from other parents at ds' (private) school about lack of structured lessons. They're not getting ahead on A levels because they have a big influx in sixth form. There's some sort of vague EPQ type thing but not a lot of actual teaching of it. I don't know what the right approach is but I do know that I don't want ds do nothing but gaming May, June, July and August...

Did you see on the news just now the students in South Korea taking their exams spread out all over the pitch in a football stadium?

This is quite a thought!!

And Callum is going to sit at the back of your Introduction To Arty Cinema class staring at you and plotting your downfall.

Oh Lord....

But this time their grades really are your fault, Piggy...

Oh, I totally get what you mean. I just can't see why extra exams are needed. But not my decision, thankfully!

@Piggywaspushed - typed my message in a bit of a hurry. What I meant was that in a "normal" school they will be giving grades across a wide range, so the number of students clustering around the margins of grades should hopefully be manageable. In a grammar or very selective private school, most pupils get 7,8,9 so ranking is much more difficult. The way the standardisation should work, schools are not competing with each other, but against the other students in their school who will be sharing their statistically allocated grades. I can see that the school needs a way to rank pupils in an objective way, so having an exam which all do to manage the ranking makes sense as long as their pupils all have decent equipment and internet access, making the exams fair.

The way each school manages their ranking should not affect the grades each school gets if they follow the guidance set out in the consultation.

Ds has now been set pre A level work by the school - he’s staying there but they’ve set it for everyone. There’s no way I could make him do GCSE work now. He worked so hard and did great in mocks and I think he will get mainly 8’s and 9’s (we hope, but shall have to wait) but once Boris said they were cancelled that was it, he didn’t do anymore work until recently. I don’t blame him, feels like a bit of a kick in the teeth to set assessments etc. I think schools shouldn’t be setting any further work as you can’t say for sure who did it if submitting assessments. That was made clear so schools shouldn’t be doing this. Understand trying to keep kids working but I think it’s time for them to move on now. Mentally as well. Still can’t believe this, they should have been in the final stages of revision now, first exam soon. Instead my once 9pm to bed teen and 6am riser has become a video game junkie and nocturnal overnight!

To be honest, I have had students blame me for their exam result over the years so it's not hugely new territory ...!

How is it going to affect the teacher/student relationship in the A level classroom if the student has a chip on their shoulder that the teacher gave them a 7 instead of the 9 they’re sure they deserved?

Piece of good news for DD - she got an Email saying she was being awarded the prize for top student in Religious Studies. So hopefully she should get the No 1 ranking in the list submitted to the Exam Board.

Bit of an ethical dilemma for the teacher - she and another girl got 7 in mocks but presumably the teacher could nominate 8s without rousing any suspicions from OFQUAL. I'll cheer for her if that happens but would be surprised if she'd got an 8 in the exam.

Anyway, she's pretty happy as we think that must have guaranteed her a 7 at least.

Dd is still undecided between three sixth form options. They are all setting prep work but it will be slightly different as one of her options is history - all three courses cover completely different periods of history. So she needs to decide some time soon so she can do the work!

I don't think it's about access to resources : it' about 'help' . In fact, the greater the resources the greater the advantage, thereby disadvantaging others not at that school... I think is the point!

It is a bit of a minefield for sure!

I think it is harder for the super selective schools to rank students. Our comprehensive will only be giving a few top grades - the schools doing exams probably need something concrete for their ranking - will also help them in any "discussions" with parents where students did not get the grades they wanted.

Worries about access to resources not so relevant for private schools.