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Original poster

Year 9 and Year 10 GCSE students - unfairly treated by Ofqual?

187 replies

barbosska · 04/04/2020 17:27

Students in our school sit GCSE exams in Years 9,10,11. Each of these year groups has lessons in Math, English, Science plus 2-3 GCSE courses of their choice. Each GCSE course runs for a year instead of two, and students from Year 9,10 and 11 all sit together in the same lessons and then sit GCSEs together. They do not study any other subjects except for the above.

Yesterday's Ofqual indicated that Year 9 and 10 students will not be awarded the GCSE grades because they can do these exams in Year 11. This would however put them in a highly disadvantageous position next Year, as not only they would need to do remaining GCSEs in one year instead of two, but also to keep on top of the subjects they have learnt this year and for which they were ready to sit exams.

There are not many schools in the country who organise GCSEs this way and I would very much appreciate to hear from people in the same situation as us: what are you and your schools planning to do?

All these children have sat in one class listening to the same teacher, did the same job, had the same teacher and now Year 11 will get the grades and the rest of students will not - how is that fair? Ofqual should have at least left to the discretion of the schools whether to , but not just pull them all out from the exam registers. Ofqual said they will run a consultation soon, but who are they going to consult - just their internal departments? The fact they they have come up with the proposition already indicates that they have no idea how some schools structure their courses.

OP posts:
voddiekeepsmesane · 05/04/2020 21:27

Purposefully missing the point that they have a year in hand. I am not saying that they have not worked hard but they can wait year 11s and 13s can't or it would cause major upheaval for all

SpringUnsprung · 05/04/2020 21:25

@ voddiekeepsmesane

I get that your son has worked hard and needs to know in order to move on, like all Y11s and Y13s. The guidelines have said he will get allocated grades based on his work and will have the chance to resit if he is not happy with the grades. It’s crap and a difficult time for him and, no doubt, for you. However, that doesn’t mean that my son’s effort and work, and thousands like him, shouldn’t count. it is not mutually exclusive. Your son’s effort isn’t diminished by acknowledging my son’s effort.

Original poster
barbosska · 05/04/2020 21:24

voddiekeepsmesane

Believe it or not, but Y9 and 10 students worked as hard as your son to prepare for these exams. The only difference is that he will get his grade and they will not, if Ofqual current proposal goes ahead

OP posts:
voddiekeepsmesane · 05/04/2020 21:15

Your idea of aggressive and mine are obviously two different things. My DS has just spent the last two years working very hard and needs to know what his grades will be by mid August to move on to the next stage in his schooling as do year 13s. Year 9s and 10s have time another whole year before they NEED to know what their grades are for 6th form/college/apprenticeships/university

SpringUnsprung · 05/04/2020 21:14

@ barbosska

Let’s hope so.

Original poster
barbosska · 05/04/2020 21:13

SE13Mummy

Our school wrote to us yesterday that they are writing to Ofqual. Of course the life chance are not less with 10 GCSEs, but when a child worked hard, it deserves a recognition

OP posts:
Original poster
barbosska · 05/04/2020 21:11

SpringUnsprung

Of course writing to both will make a difference. The more of affected people write the better the chances of the authorities hearing these people

OP posts:
SpringUnsprung · 05/04/2020 21:09

@ voddiekeepsmesane

Nice Hmm. My priorities are straight, I’m concerned about my son as well as all the other kids affected at the mo. Not entirely sure why you feel the need to be so unnecessarily aggressive.

Original poster
barbosska · 05/04/2020 21:07

voddiekeepsmesane , do not worry about my priorities.

"they may have to do what a majority have to do and have exams at the end of year 11!"

majority in Y 11 do not do a GCSE in a year, they do it for two years

OP posts:
SE13Mummy · 05/04/2020 21:06

@barbosska I'm not sure what DD's school is going to do. We had a letter on Friday afternoon about it saying that Ofqual hasn't made a final decision yet, that it may be possible to take the exam in the autumn and that they'd keep us informed.

Ultimately, no-one needs eleven GCSEs so if DD doesn't get a grade for this one, it's unlikely to reduce her life chances.

Original poster
barbosska · 05/04/2020 21:03

Rosieposy4

The problem is not only to keep fresh in their heads what they have learnt so far to sit exam in a month's time, but that alongside that they would need to study two new GCSE courses in a year. They can of course just leave whatever they have learnt and come back to it next April to revise, but for the language subject this will not work at all, for example.

OP posts:
SpringUnsprung · 05/04/2020 20:59

I don’t know what the school are going to do, we’ve heard nothing from them and it’s now the Easter holidays so don’t expect to hear from them until after Easter. I am going to write to the Head and OfQual too, not sure that it will make any difference though. 😟

BelleSausage · 05/04/2020 20:58

Bloody hell! re-sits. Stupid autocorrect.

Original poster
barbosska · 05/04/2020 20:58

titchy

it is not Harris, but Harris may do the same, will need to check

OP posts:
BelleSausage · 05/04/2020 20:57

OP- you have spectacularly missed my point. The scraping of endless tears-sits goes hand in hand with discouraging early entry. Schools were just getting students to endlessly take the exams from the middle of Yr10 onward.

All this teaches students is how to take exams. It totally narrows their skills set. It is the exam sausage factory.

The only way a student can get the best out of the current exam set up is if they study broadly and in depth at the same time with a curriculum that is given the right level of challenge. The English exams require the kind of understanding of context you can only gain through wider reading and broad study- genre, audience, writer’s craft etc.

Gaming the system by taking subjects separately over three years is actually robbing those Yr9 students of getting to do something not on the exam spec that can help enrich their subject knowledge.

Original poster
barbosska · 05/04/2020 20:57

Rosieposy4

or the third option that they get the funding from the state for this number of 6th form students

OP posts:
Rosieposy4 · 05/04/2020 20:57

But barbosska, your kids can just sit the exam at the correct time, may/june of their year 11. They won’t have lost out at all, and can view the revision they have done now as an extra bonus to making their learning really secure. I would focus your efforts on making sure the school delivers this for them.

voddiekeepsmesane · 05/04/2020 20:57

FFS the fact that year 11 and 13 are being dealt with as priority by Ofqual is seen as "unfair" on other years is beyond me. Get your priorities straight IMO. Year 9s and 10s have time, boo hoo they may have to do what a majority have to do and have exams at the end of year 11!

Original poster
barbosska · 05/04/2020 20:55

KoalasandRabbit
It's a comprehensive school

OP posts:
Original poster
barbosska · 05/04/2020 20:54

SpringUnsprung

Thank you so much for responding to my message,. There are four of us now on this thread with early GCSEs problem and about 20 who are not in our shoes who are happy that our kids will have suffer because our schools are "playing the system", like if we had a choice.

Anyway, what are you and your school are planning to do ? I have written to our school today and will write to Ofqual too, as they embark on the consultation programme. If schools are playing the game and education authorities did not stop it, this is not our game and our children worked as hard as any Y 11 student and should be treated equally.

OP posts:
titchy · 05/04/2020 20:50

Harris academies. It's the sort of stunt they have a reputation for.

Rosieposy4 · 05/04/2020 20:47

It’s not a London school at all, unless this thread is total bullshit. A very quick scamper on the gov website reveals only 2 schools judged outstanding in 2014 and neither have a sixth form.

Rosieposy4 · 05/04/2020 20:39

Also the fact that only a quarter of existing students proceed to sixth form would be a very worry for me, you would expect most students to remain in their school sixth form, so either your school games the system again by only retaining the very highest achieving students, or the kids hate the GCSE system at your school so much they choose to leave.

KoalasandRabbit · 05/04/2020 20:36

I would guess one of the London grammars from curriculum and results focus plus outstanding Ofsteds.

SpringUnsprung · 05/04/2020 20:31

Our school do similar to the OPs. DS is in Y10, due to sit three GCSEs this summer and eight next summer. Two of the eight next year are meant to be started in June and completed in a year.

If this goes ahead as suggested, he will be at a disadvantage for next year. He will have to continue his current three (one of which is Art so he’ll need to redo at least the exam prep art boards) as well as picking up two new subjects to complete in a year, all when he is unlikely to get back into a formal school environment before September. There won’t be enough hours in the school day to make sure he covers the curriculum of the new subjects and maintain levels of the three current subjects. Something will have to give - either his predicted grades will go down, or he will be forced to drop GCSEs or he will be put under a huge amount of stress trying to squeeze in the two new subjects while keeping everything else going.

Whether you agree with the system or not is irrelevant. My son didn’t ask for this and had no say in how the school chose to run exams. He has worked hard to prepare for the exams, just like Y11s and should be given the same option to either accept the allocated grade or resit.

If the decision is made that he can’t do this, I know he will be devastated. I am very concerned about how this will affect him and his levels of motivation for the coming year.

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