GCSE summer 2020 thread 6 - Carry on Corona Cohort, Further adventures aboard the Corona Charabanc.

@Alsoplayspiccolo I think it is normal to publish Y11 results only, that is what happens at both our schools, but they added the Y10 for that cohort to their Y11 results - in DS's year the double science people did the lower paper in Y10 and the results were included the following year with the rest of their results.

In Scotland 10 students in the whole country had their higher results adjusted downwards by 2, and 6 in the Nat 5s. When you see those figures, it doesn't seem quite so doomsday ish.

@OrangeCinnamon1 Thanks so much!

I’ve looked at DD’s school’s results for the past 3 years.
One issue is that all subjects are ranked by A*, A, B, C etc, which doesn’t neatly translate into 9,8,7.
Another issue is that the school uses a mixture of WJEC , Eduqas and AQA exams (WJEC still uses A,B,C grading).
Finally, the results the school puts out aren’t totally accurate from what I can tell. For eg DD took a GCSE in year 10; if the published results are to be believed, all pupils bar one got A*, but we know this isn’t true as DD and her friendship all got As. Likewise, some of the core subject results don’t add up to the cohort number, which suggests that there were a few unlisted fails.

@FoolsAssassin there will be other people who got 2 or 3 grade 9s. Another source is the first newsletter of the academic year - if your school has a newsletter archive they might have a bit more info.

Your DS sounds like mine - hoping for 7 in english, but would not mind a 6 as long as he gets a 9 for maths. What is the other one he needs 8/9 for?

@BlueMarigold some schools seem to hide their results. It is worth looking at the prospectus for new Y7s which may have a statistical appendix as a separate document or in the main prospectus. You can also Google GCSE results in your area - local press tend to cover and may have got more details.

@crazycrofter they're supposed to receive the NI number in the three months before they turn 16 so your DD's may have gone astray as DS's did!

DS had his NI number but I think I managed to throw it away . Probably need to get in touch with them.

@aibuquestions Lucy Parsons Academic Coach should be able to help. She is great i think it's ok to link as you asked?

Drop her a line if you can't see exactly what you need.

Thanks for the reminder @singingstones. Dd hasn’t had her NI number either!

Bit of a random one but has everyone informed HMRC that their child is staying in education? If not there's a form you can fill in online. Child benefit will stop on 31 August if you haven't let them know.

I think many will have had a letter about this already (through the school?) but we didn't. Then again DS hasn't had his NI number either - phoned them up and it's because they have his address as where we lived two houses ago, we left there when he was 3!

Here's the link to the form:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/child-benefit-child-continuing-in-approved-education-or-training-ch297

Is there a way to predict how your child will do depending on the school they go to? If a school doesn’t publish their results in a subject/grade breakdown and all you have to go on is the stats on the compare school website? Can you work things out by ranking the schools in a particular way?

What has happened will benefit those who go to pieces in exams I would think.

This is definitely true . I predicted a girl a 7 who could easily have crashed and burned. It was nice to be able to reflect her actual ability, and not her anxiety.

I think that is the real reason why the teacher predictions have been higher than usual eventual outcomes : we had to assume everyone would revise , and that no one would have a meltdown in our exam , because those were total unknowns really. So, you assume 'on a good day' with everyone. like with UCAS predictions.

It doesn't really matter how much content had been done, or how many mocks : the mocks are a guide , really, for how well kids do under exam conditions. I always thought they existed mainly for the benefit of students to understand the pressures of revision,and what it is like to sit in a big exam hall. Mocks have increasingly been used ,though, to 'gather data' and 'make predictions' and so more and more emphasis is being put on them as if they are the real thing in miniature.

No teacher will have looked at mock and mock alone to predict a result : in fact, all the advice beforehand said not to do that but to look at a range of evidence. Apart form subjects with NEAS, what students do after mocks is rarely much different , in terms of skills : i's generally more of the same!

Can anyone recommend a careers counsellor who would be available via Zoom after results day to talk through grades and next steps with A levels and University plans?

@whoamitojudge I can’t answer your question I’m afraid but my DS is in the same boat, some of our mocks were only one paper.
Also in geography, they sat both papers but hadn’t finished the course yet and the last two questions on one of the papers were on a topic they hadn’t covered yet.
Also as my son was moved down to set2 in maths but still sat the higher paper, there were parts his class hadn’t gone over but set1 had.

I hope my question doesn't sound too strange,
When my DD did her mocks they only did one paper in maths and English Lang and Lit (as I understand it there is three for maths?)
Was this the same for everyone else as I was wondering apart from the rank order of pupils in the class how they could get a fair representation of what she's capable of from only doing one mock paper?

@ealingwestmum - you're very kind. Yes, anxiety building up now for Thursday. I feel a bit sorry for DD that her looming results are being overlooked because we're focussed on DS1's - but it does mean she is quite chilled.

DD also has a holiday in Italy to look forward to (as do I) on Saturday so we're not too hard done by. She'll be receiving her results in a rather stunning location 😀

Lily - no historical data they will use cags.

Neutralintelligence - sometimes those stupid SATS predicted grades just stay the same all the way through at some schools and are immovable. The teachers know this though and should still be giving the grade based on your DC's work and marks.

If their grades are markedly different I would ask for their CAG their rank and also what factors they used to assess their grades. If they say they used the SATS then I would ask them to appeal saying you believe it is an error in process to use them other than as a measure for prior cohort achievement at the awarding body's standardisation process.

Away for a few days but I just wanted to wish all the parents on here expecting results for their Y13 DC on 13th as well as being back again on the 20th...best of luck to you all! sandy; kingscote, monkey and others that I’ve missed!