GCSE and A-level guidance has been issued

On

Don’t know what I’d suggest but just hope they remember they’re kids not adults with life experience and there is scope for taking into account the shitty realities of life for some.

So we can discount Sats/entry assessments and subsequent predictions you constantly get referenced to having any involvement at all? We were looking at what little info we have and trying to second guess possibly grades and thus what to focus on.Like sticking the tail in the donkey blindfolded.

Sorry @itsgettingweird, we cross posted! No, not at you, that was to aut0replenish. (FWIW I also have a DS who has achieved far more during Y9/10/11 than could have been predicted at KS2 SATS - due to late DX of SEN and support being put in place - I hear you).

Thing is for every DC who has struggled in more recent years but did well in KS2 SATS there will be another who did less well in KS2 SATS but has done better in more recent years. So hopefully the process will be robust enough to produce fair grades for both scenarios.

If a child has been doing really well in mocks and assessments then there is zero, and I mean zero chance that they will revise that grade downwards based on what their Y9 science teacher said about them.

I would like to think that the child's current and demonstrable levels are what the teacher will use. If a kid did well in mocks, and other year 11 tests a teacher would be totally unreasonable in ignoring all that evidence and only using their year 10 work. Exams officers and I think senior leaders will have to sign off predictions so hopefully assessments will be genuine.

Was that aimed at me flying?
I haven't said I don't agree with the system but that if a child is currently achieving well and consistently at a certain level I would hope prior achievement from years ago wouldn't pull the grade down.
The same as parents who are saying their child didn't take mocks seriously and have worked hard since are worried they'll count for too much.
My ds worked hard for mocks and proved a lot of people wrong about their assumptions of what he could achieve.

Yes. It’s hard. But what else would you suggest in the current situation, if you were in charge? What would you have done differently? Taking into account the demographics and issues across the country and not just the needs and issues of your own child?

I'm concerned about the bit about prior achievement in schools.

Ds moved secondary schools because his first couldn't give a shit about send law. I then won at tribunal whilst at new school and he got an ehcp. He's managed to really improve the last 2 years with the right support and also because his MH has been stronger.
Also there's some anomalies over the years when he's had teachers who don't really understand asd and so he's not achieved well.

His mock results and all assessments in school he's done the past year or so are way above his predicted grades. I'll be bloody pissed of if they ignore what he's achieving now frequently and consistently.
Especially because in one particular subject he got highest marks in mocks of all year group and a 9. His year 9 science teacher predicted him a 4 and said he'd never learn or achieve because he couldn't socially engage with his peers and his handwriting is illegible.

I'm sure they have a solid system - they'll have to because everyone will be scrutinising it closely.

But some of the statements do have a less clear and decisive feel about them.

Bit

So I guess all those that are worried need to just keep plodding on alone with most of their subjects alongside preparing for Alevels. Not a small job.But if a nightmare if you get a nasty suptuse and don’t prep.I wonder when we contact 6 th forms to ask for advice.

@aut0replenish but she can ‘move on and sit some of them’!

But probably not till November, which is the usual ‘resit’ timeframe.

This is an unprecedented situation, there is a worldwide crisis, the regulatory boards are doing the best they can in a hugely difficult situation. Of course you want the best for your DD as we all do for our children, but scheduling exams in August / September would be neither realistic nor reasonable. Let’s face it we don’t even know if any students will be starting back in September, given the pandemic situation; they could easily be out till January.

At cohort level yes - KS2 attainment for the entire cohort - ie all 16 year olds in the country, are used to determine grade boundaries. They're not used at individual or centre level - so it won't matter that private schools won't have KS2 attainment data.

Attainment of precious GCSEs at centre (school) level will be taken into consideration.

There is no way resits will be in September, within days of schools reopening and in the midst of another wave of infections.

@TheletterZ I work in an independent school. Most do baseline testing. However, this won't factor much into the grade awarded, the key we have been told is the rank order of students, then, previous results from the school will be factored in to check reasonableness.

No not at all but thought they were included in a small way. Isn’t there supposed to be a correlation between Sats and GCSEs? Not sure where I read it.

And of course the other way round: 'Bobby did very badly in his SATS at age 10 so despite him working at a solid grade 7 I'm only going to predict him a 4....'

@aut0replenish students will have the chance to sit their exams if they are unhappy with the grade awarded. No dates given for this yet, but hopefully in the autumn.

You can't think it would be reasonable for a teacher to say 'Billy's results have been solid grade 3s throughout year 11 but he did really well in his SATS when he was 10 so I'll give him a 5 prediction'

Dd just wants to move on and sit some of them. It’s hard as don’t know which and should priority be GCSEs or A level over summer. November will be ages away. Shame they couldn’t be end of Aug/ Sep.

So they won’t even look at the Sats per child.😩 I thought the predicted grades from Sats would be a small factor ( along with many others things they’d use). That would have been a small plus as dd’s were v good.

@LynetteScavo see link for info. Yes, at centre but not individual level.

www.gov.uk/government/news/how-gcses-as-a-levels-will-be-awarded-in-summer-2020

Does anyone know if Y6 Sats will be used for GCSE results?

Not to award individual grades no. That will be purely on what the teacher thinks the student would have got, then moderated by the exam boards.

At a whole cohort level, KS2 SATS help determine the overall expected grade profile of all year 11s, and will be used to make sure awarded grades overall match that expected, exactly as they would be if students took exams - that's one of the reasons grade boundaries change from one year to the next.

@Aut0replenish which is why the grade recommendations will NOT be based on mocks alone. That ‘big gap between them and the real thing’ will be factored in to teachers’ grade recommendations, according to the documentation issued today.

I honestly don’t know what else parents are expecting the DfE and Ofqual to do given the global situation we are currently in?

Exams can’t happen. They just can’t. And even for those convinced their DC ‘would have done better’ in exams - they have absolutely no way of knowing that. You never know what is going to happen on the day. Especially, sadly, for those DC with mental health issues-they are probably even more at risk than the average of suffering a panic attack or stress related illness on the day and not performing as well as they might have done.

I am saying this as the parent of a Y11 child with SEN and fairly fragile mental health btw. Yes, had he been able to take exams, he might well have done a grade or so better in several subjects than he will potentially be allocated in August. He might equally have crashed and done a lot worse! We are very aware that whilst not being able to sit the exams has denied him the opportunity to prove himself, it has also provided him with something of a ‘safety net‘ too. Albeit one that he never wanted to have.

Does anyone know if Y6 Sats will be used for GCSE results? They've been used to set targets, so I'm wondering if they'll play a part in helping teachers assign GCSE grades.