Article about parents and pupils pleading for good exam grades

‘Should schools and colleges be setting students new
work to inform the grade they submit?
There is no requirement to set additional mock exams or homework tasks for the purposes of determining a centre assessment grade, and no student should be disadvantaged if they are unable to complete any work set after schools were closed. Where additional work has been completed after schools and colleges were closed on 20 March, Heads of Centre should exercise caution where that evidence suggests a change in performance. In many cases this is likely to reflect the circumstances and context in which the work is done.‘

From the Ofqual guidance.

There might be students who have COVID 19 or there might be illness in the family. I think it would be very unfair to take work submitted after schools closed into account.

Your school is definitely not following the guidance sent out @LittleLebowski. For a start teachers shouldn’t be setting essays and awarding grades based on that. For a start how do they know how wrote it? They have been clear that no additional work is required now. Our school was setting GCSE work until they formally announced the process. They have now started setting some pre A level work. I wouldn’t dream of emailing the teachers like many have

Silly parents... don't they know we're all so lazy we never even check our emails?

Are any of you maths teachers? Are you still setting work and counting it towards grades?

Our school (independent) is pretty much doing the same as LittleLebowski's - especially for arts students who were mid-way through projects. All work up to the middle of May will be considered as supporting evidence.
No discussion of grades with pupils or parents, however the last school report with predicted grades for GCSE/A level came out at the time of lockdown, so we know where they are hopefully tracking.

Not sure other subjects still have work set though. Y13s are doing a 'University Readiness' course now

The whole year being downgraded is a real issue. Happened to my DSS - he spent all year complaining that the art teacher had a favourite student that was crazily overmarked. Bam...her work was checked, and they were all reduced by 2 grades.

No @Alsoplayspiccolo . Because the profile of final results will also take into account the profile of this particular cohort. Using GCSE and I assume KS2/year 7 baseline data. It's not going to be perfect, and a few kids will get better results and a few worse than they probably would have done. But hopefully the majority will be ok. Some schools will try and over predict I'm sure but I have a suspicion they will be caught and we have been clearly told that the whole year group will be downgraded if this happens. So really not worth it !

But what about teachers knowing that they can boost individual pupils without raising any suspicions, because the overall pattern of grades will be online with previous years?
Say, for eg, you are a selective school that has previously filled in-year places with “less-able” students, who would have got less than stellar results; haven’t you now got the opportunity to bump them up to bring the overall picture in line with other years?

They will hear about it as schools are not being discrete !! And there will be spot checks I'm sure on schools data and if they are fiddling things then they are going to get their cohort into a whole heap of a mess. Doubt many state schools are doing it as we would be slammed by OFSTED. School could lose their right to be a setting for exams - it has happened !!

Just another thought - surely OfQual could request to see letters sent home by school if they thought there had been massaging of grades post lock lockdown. Some schools seem to have been so overt about it, I can only imagine they have misinterpretted the guidelines.

Any school using work set after schools close to work out grades is running the risk of OFQUAL marking all their students down. The guidance is very clear. So work done now is useful in case students want to sit the autumn exams but any school telling students that they can up their grade is being v silly. As is giving any student or parent an indication of any grade. I am sure there will be spot checks on school data and it's also clear that if schools haven't followed the rules then the whole cohort may be disadvantaged.
I've had some lovely emails from students and parents as well as a few begging ones. Makes no difference- the grades will be set using data which we will have to justify.

@WeAllHaveWings My mistake! I’ve just read it again and it says,
Exam boards will be contacting schools, colleges and other exam centres after Easter asking them to submit, by a deadline that will be no earlier than 29 May 2020.

Thanking them! Not going to work. I sent a case of champagne to each of dd's teachers telling them how wonderful they were and responsible for the amazingly high grade she was going to get.

not really, but I bet someone's tried it

I don't see what a school has to gain from giving extra work and an extra shot at the target. End of day they have to put them all in rank order and if they are seen to have been over generous a fair proportion of their pupils will get downgraded. And surely that's only fair.

Just checked and ours says The deadline for receiving estimates is 29 May.. We are in Scotland SQA so must be earlier.

Ah ok, will need to be later then!

@weallhave the guidance said evidence will be asked to be submitted from 29th of May. So you won’t know exactly when evidence was submitted for your school.

🤦🏻‍♀️ Do parents really think teachers will give their cherub more, essentially ranking another child lower, based on a would have/could have email?

I was planning on emailing some of ds's teachers, 2 in particular I want to thank, but I had already decided I will do it after 29th May which I think is the date all evidence should have already been submitted.

Made me cringe a bit, the emails thanking them for teaching their child!

That’s a bit harsh.

I emailed several of my y11 dc’s teachers to thanks them, but I did it as soon as the school announced they were closing in March, and before the announcement that the grades woukd be based on teacher assessment rather than exams.

It had nothing to do with my child’s grade prospects, and everything to do with the fact that these teachers had really gone the extra mile to support and engage my child, and it was disappointing for the dc and the teachers to not be able to see it through.

I had a very emotional reply from one of the teachers, so I know it was taken in the spirit in which it was intended. :)

DS’s school are still delivering content, and intend to continue to do so until 18/5. They have said that they do not want to put students towards a-levels less prepared than they would be under normal circumstances.

After 18/5 students will be required to undertake pre a-level transition work in 4 subjects, whether staying on to school 6th form or moving elsewhere!

Made me cringe a bit, the emails thanking them for teaching their child! 🤢

You see I really want to do this and in any other circumstance I would but I’m afraid of it looking bad.

One particular teacher has been a game changer for ds. He has SEN and had to change schools after year 8. And as the teacher has a health condition that makes him vulnerable he was sent home before the schools closed so we never got the chance to say thank you properly.