GCSE and A-level guidance has been issued

Newone wasn't bothered at interview as they take everybody as long as you get course requirements.

Is this an indie? State schools are explicitly forbidden by the Admissions Code to interview applicants (other than to assess suitability for boarding). They are, however, permitted to hold discussions with applicants re the suitability / combination of their intended subject requests, but must not base the decision on whether or not to offer a place on this discussion. Which would probably explain 'they take everyone as long as you get course requirements', because they are complying with the Code and adhering to their published admissions criteria. (Which must include how to deal with oversubscription, but they may never be oversubscribed? - looking at the size of some sixth forms vs the numbers their admissions policy allow for, it's obvious that some aren't, overall, and probably weren't even within the most popular subjects).

@nat6999 The school will submit the grade they thought he would get if he sat the exam in the summer. They won't just use mock scores, expecially if he was absent. Please try not to worry. If you really think he is in danger of not passing maths or English then encourage him to keep studying in preparation for a November resit.

@aut0replenish You can appeal the process having been applied unfairly. There is also the chance to resit if you really disagree with the grade given. Noble is correct you need to stop worrying. Your situation is the same as it would have been with exams being sat

Ah I thought originally they said there would be a robust appeals system.

I hope they don't use averages over the three sets of mocks towards deciding grades, ds didn't get a mark for the first English Language mock because somehow his paper went missing, he missed all the December Mocks before Christmas because he was off sick with something very much like Covid 19 & they only did core subjects mocks the week he went back to school after half term which he spent in southern Italy with school & subsequently fell ill towards the end of mocks but managed to get all his papers finished before he went off. He has had an awful three GCSE years, as well as being ASD & suffering bad anxiety & depression his dad was in & out of hospital which affected him badly, I hope the exam boards are sympathetic towards students like him.

Genuinely surprised that a year 11 at this stage has never seen a predicted grade, only a target grade.

I would say this is DS. In autumn half-term teachers & pupils came together to agree an aspirational grade. He knows Christmas mock results & a sense of working at until two weeks ago.

A couple of months back before all this it became clear school has a 'predictions database' which it doesn't share. eg DS was told you're a likely LK+.

What will be interesting will be end of year report. Will there be one? Will it just be narrative?

Wonder how on earth appeals will pan out. Will parents be appealing to schools who gave the grade or exam boards?
As I read it parents will only be able to appeal against the process not the grade. If GDPR rights have been parked for this info then I can't see any school giving you any info especially around how they came to rankings. If you think the grade is unfair/wrong then the option is resit.

They were clear they would be calibrated.

I hope the school has a rethink when ranking them. I wouldn't rely on your child getting the grades given 2 weeks ago.

I don’t know, they will have to add the ranking I guess but the rest of the guidance didn’t add any specifics did they?
The grades they created were specifically for this purpose. The school tests a lot and has a lot of data to use.

So the school can't be asked to do what they are supposed to be doing in the way they are meant to be doing it and instead are choosing to dust off some grades they found in the back of a cupboard a couple of weeks ago?

It was quite odd at the time, we were aware no others schools had issued this info and the guidance wasn’t out yet! And that other local schools were continuing to set tests which would help the pupils ‘improve their grades’. Needless to say, once the grades were issued, DS has zero motivation.

Not sure they could be bollocked by DfE as the guidance (not to) wasn’t out at that time they issued them.

Wow. Before the guidance was out? What were they thinking?

That school is stupid!! And probably going to get a DfE bollocking and a load of parental complaints.

The school are idiots then because the guidance about how to create those grades wasn’t issued till yesterday. They’re also incomplete without the ranking info.

They were explicitly advised to be the ones that would be submitted, taking into account a range of data.
They were different to mocks, aspirational & all others provided previously.

Our school sent the grades they intended to submit to us a couple of weeks ago.

Do not assume that these are the grades that will be submitted to the exam board. Those do not need to be submitted until 29th May and a lot of work will be going into them between now and then.

I did predicted grades after our most recent mocks, don’t know if they were ever sent to parents, but they were not the same as the predicted grades I put on a spreadsheet the day schools closed. The ones that got written for parents were kick-up-the-arse predicted grades.

Thanks. Deep breaths def needed.

Can’t do alternate Alevels. 2 are areas she’s really strong in and likes. Had to really work hard to find the third but it will be fab for her and she’s really excited with her choice. She’s def going to study the 2 supporting GCSEs just incase.Hope they’ll let her start the course if there was a disaster and wait for the resit results if needed.

But yes there isn’t much one can do so pointless fretting too much.Being cooped up 24/7 doesn’t help on that score though.

Our school sent the grades they intended to submit to us a couple of weeks ago. This is against the guidance now issued but we have that info already. I don't know what they expected us to do with the knowledge but I will get an idea of how much the school's grades are adjusted by (presume will only be downwards!).

1. she hasn’t failed anything yet

2. if she has failed anything she hasn’t yet been rejected from her chosen course (sixth forms have been told to be flexible with entry requirements)

3. if she does fail and is rejected from her chosen course then other options are available. Lots of kids change their minds on results day or even after starting college

4. if she does decide to resit it could be fine.

Deep breaths and stop worrying about things that haven’t even happened, might not happen and even if they do happen could be fine.

Sorry crossed post. Parents evening we obviously discussed concerns but got loads of advice as a while ago, was getting support with MH and had started prep for exams early. Nobody said what they thought grades would be. Wasn’t worried re not getting 8s and 9s as we’d be happy with 6s and 7s given how hard she’s worked on MH.

Now I’m wondering if we’ve missed something but can’t see anything.Most stay on at 6th form regardless but she’s not happy so has chosen to leave.New one wasn't bothered at interview as they take everybody as long as you get course requirements.

It’s getting on the course I’m worried about, 2 subjects needed supporting GCSEs and they want 8. She’s only taking 9 and a possibility she could fail 2. She absolutely would have passed all the exams as it was a case of simply learning course content, one was an easy subject she just had to park in order to deal with MH.

I know I’m worried re studying for GCSEs alongside Alevel prep. She loves one of her A level subjects and has been studying it already. Seems a shame to divert from that.

If you had no idea what your DD was going to get on results day from sitting exams and now have no idea what she will get on results day from teacher assessments then there is actually no change in your level of knowledge. If you weren’t panicking about it before (to the point where you hadn’t asked teachers at parents evening ‘what do you think she is headed for?’) then why panic now?

Opposite of my DD's school then.

@aut0replenish are you genuinely concerned your dd won't get into sixth form or is it just that she's going to feel she hasn't done as well as she could?

My dd has been saying she knows she'll be disappointed as she was planning to ramp up the work on her sciences and language over Easter and she knows she could do better. But I'm definitely not going to encourage any retakes. September will be a fresh start and she can focus on achieving her potential in A Levels. Those are the exams that really matter anyway. I think it would be hard to be revising for 3 or 4 GCSEs whilst starting A Levels and it could potentially cause some mental health issues?

I don't provide predicted grades, school asks us deliberately not to. However student know mock grades and I have conversations along the lines of if you work hard you should get a grade X.

You cannot know what the teachers will use. Every teacher and subject will be different. There will also be an element of gut feeling, particularly when it comes to ranking.