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

Christopher Surely his current school have an entrance standard for each A level subject. Do you think that your DS will achieve it- based on current attainment grades/mocks etc?
If you think he may be borderline it may be best to email school and ask how they are intending to treat ‘slipped’ grades since he won’t have had the chance to prove himself in exams.
Do you have a back up Sixth Form place?

Yes, his current school haven't said how they are going to allocate places or what the entry requirements are going to be for retakes etc - or will they not allow retakes and just require them to leave anyway. Surely not.

They normally lose some boys and replace with girls for DS sixth form.

@SeasonFinale will the 2% increase applied by the exam boards to grade 7 also be reflected in grades 8 and 9?

Thanks for the explanation crazycrofter and SeasonFinale that makes sense.

@ChristopherTracy has your DC applied to a Sixth Form and received a conditional offer of a place dependent upon GCSE grades?

But they don’t normally get their results till August, Christopher. This is the usual schedule. Many schools have sign-up on results day.

That would be the same normally though, wouldn't it?

If not until August then how on earth are we going to know which school/college they will be at in September.

Thanks for the explanations Piggy.

Yes the consultation documents says schools should not make the allowance for the additional 1% at grade 4 and 2% at grade 7 as the exam boards will be building that in to their standardisation.

@Zandathepanda there’s some guidance about that - something like 1% more should get a 4 and 2% more a 7

What happens to the grading of French and German GCSEs? They were going to be ‘easier’ ie in line with Spanish grades this year. Do teachers work on previous years then Ofqual bump them up?

The source is UCAS ( which were never meant to be accurate predictions to boards and are, therefore, often different) and apparently predictions submitted prior to 2015 , which were for different qualifications. Both of these are therefore very dodgy!

Within a large department you will get teachers who comment hit a barn door and teachers who are pinpoint accurate.

The whole statement also pre supposes that exam marking is accurate...hmmm...

Piggy : maybe the data used regarding teachers being "too generous" comes from the CIE board as they require forecasts to be submitted by schools/colleges prior to the exams being sat, or maybe they mean UCAS predictions which are notoriously over generous?

Yes, they obviously realised that was ambitious!

GCSE and A-level results days confirmed as original dates in August, not July.

schoolsweek.co.uk/coronavirus-dfe-confirms-august-results-days-abandoning-end-of-july-deadline/

Thanks Piggy, it is great to have the inside view. I agree that when it was first announced that there would be an appeal process, I assumed that would be for schools who felt they had been over-moderated. Nothing else is feasible, particularly as the boards are not going to see any of the students' work.

This is the actual consultation document. The stuff about appeals is convoluted . It's on about page 35 onwards. Once you decipher it all it does make sense , even if it will leave some frustrated students. At least it gets rid of all of the hanging around waiting for appeals to come through (which most of the time are unsuccessful):

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/879627/Exceptional_arrangements_for_exam_grading_and_assessment_in_2020.pdf

The link says autumn.

The appeals were always going to be based on processes not people. To be brutally honest, I think if these are any 'losers' in this, it might be some students who have made excellent progress since KS2 where they may have been under rewarded just as easily. This is often boys.

I say this with my own leg in the game, remember , as that describes DS2!

However, I feel, on the whole teachers are kinder than examiners about many things and it is more likely to be over generosity they are trying to temper than meanness (their stats back this up, although I am dubious as to where they get some of them from). Teachers will also spend a lot of time examining evidence and thinking about each student.

Thanks for posting that link, I can see why they want to minimise the scope for appeals as it would probably be overloaded otherwise. I'm trying to make myself come to terms with the grades DS gets may not be what he was hoping for but we will need to move on unless they are dire.

So appeal can only be based on data error? That’s not what it sounded like when it was announced. I certainly think the kids thought they could appeal if the thought the teacher wasn’t fair in the assessment. I certainly did. Doubt it would impact DD but I can see kids feeling hard done by in these circumstances.

(y10 parent butting in.) Have they actually said Autumn, or just 'at the earliest opportunity' ? Might the 'earliest opportunity' actually turn out to be May/June 2021 for many subjects?
I was wondering whether the Summer 2020 series of exams will be available for the '21 cohort to use as mocks, though without the grade boundaries available.

Yes that's correct. But the good news (and something that had been worrying me) is that centres can appeal. I think it unlikely but , say a student had been CAGd(my new verb!) and 8 and the exam bods had awarded a 5 or 6 , that could be appealed by the centre.

There was one interesting question ( I can't remember the wording) which was about whether schools themselves could be investigated for, as it were, finessing results (and I still think a few schools will do that). I'd have to do the whole survey again to find it ! And one about the trajectory of a school not being taken into account which I know will interest those of you on here who feel your DCs' schools have been making vast improvements this year.

I think it right that students should not be able to appeal their rank order and their result in a direct fashion. Appealing exam results had changed recently as being about processes rather than generosity or meanness of marking , after all (although in practice students were still successful). I have a particular student in mind who, if he doesn't get a 9 , and could appeal would become very vindictive and nasty. That said, he probably would/will anyway...just without a process to back him up!

My big concern is about their reliance on Autumn exams when everything I am reading suggests there may well be another lockdown/ peak in Autumn...?!

Sorry that should have been thanks to @Wrongdissection! Not quite awake yet clearly.