Page 3 | Teachers - do you know your students results?

mummabear1967 · 2020-08-12T12:42:41+00:00

Hi Any teachers on here - when predicting grades for your GCSE & a level students, how did you do it? Did you just look at all their mocks, classwork and homework and decide “John deserves an A and Charlotte deserves a D” ? So when you predicted grades, is that what they’ll actually get, so do you know their results already? Or do you submit your predicted grades to exam boards and then they change them if necessary?

Original poster

mummabear1967 · 12/08/2020 18:44

@wantmorenow

unlikely but a definite possibility. some of my students failed to submit multiple assignments and missed deadlines, extensions and did not submit any evidence at all. My teacher assessment for a few of them was that they would indeed have failed the course so that's what they will get tomorrow. I have 10 years BTEC experience in FE and there are a few that do nothing yet expect to give in a few pages of drivel, months late and expect to pass. They will have the chance to do resit year possibly. FE teachers bend over backwards with flexible submission dates and really do chase up, support and reteach topics endlessly to compensate for poor attendance and poorly engaged learners but eventually thread to come point where if the work isn't done, they fail. Maybe as him if he had met the earlier deadlines for other assignments and tasks and met the minimum standards to pass the other units. If he had then I'm sure they won't fail him for one poor unit out of 6 or so.

Thanks. I’m hoping he won’t have failed. They did say any assignments due after lockdown started wouldn’t be counted, even though I’m sure most of the class would have completed and submitted most of those assignments.

For example, one assignment for one of his units was issued in February - I’m sure most people had this done in May, then the teacher turned round and said that they won’t be accepting them because the exam board has now said that those grades will be based on grades attained in the first term.

So I find it strange why this teacher wanted them to do a past paper after lockdown had began

He is so worried

OP posts:

wantmorenow · 12/08/2020 18:40

Sorry. Using tablet stylus very poorly .

wantmorenow · 12/08/2020 18:36

unlikely but a definite possibility. some of my students failed to submit multiple assignments and missed deadlines, extensions and did not submit any evidence at all. My teacher assessment for a few of them was that they would indeed have failed the course so that's what they will get tomorrow. I have 10 years BTEC experience in FE and there are a few that do nothing yet expect to give in a few pages of drivel, months late and expect to pass. They will have the chance to do resit year possibly. FE teachers bend over backwards with flexible submission dates and really do chase up, support and reteach topics endlessly to compensate for poor attendance and poorly engaged learners but eventually thread to come point where if the work isn't done, they fail.
Maybe as him if he had met the earlier deadlines for other assignments and tasks and met the minimum standards to pass the other units. If he had then I'm sure they won't fail him for one poor unit out of 6 or so.

Original poster

mummabear1967 · 12/08/2020 18:35

@OverTheRainbow88 sorry I meant he completed 4 units in year 1 and year 2. So 8 units in total

OP posts:

Original poster

mummabear1967 · 12/08/2020 18:34

@OverTheRainbow88

I haven’t taught Btec for years but I think they are given a pass, merit of distinction.

Seems pretty poor teaching if he’s never done any tests/assessments before lockdown.

I thought Btecs involve different units which he must have been completing as he went along?

Yes he completed 4 units over the two years.

For this particular unit, teacher was off sick for first few months. She came back just before Christmas. All they did was do PowerPoint presentations from then until March when the college closed.

When his course went online, his teacher for that unit asked the class to do part of a past paper and to send it to her as she’d mark it and use that as the predicted grade.

My Ds did not do this. Yes he has completed other units. Assignments due after lockdown began weren’t counted, so will he be hindered because he didn’t do this past paper?

OP posts:

frustrationcentral · 12/08/2020 18:32

We tend to know these students very well, (my son is one!).
We would use our professional knowledge and grade up, but in all honesty, this year we might have been hauled over the coals for this. We had to present evidence to SLT and speak about each students strengths and weaknesses against the assessment criteria, but without firm evidence of 'but this is the type of student who pulls it out of the bag in the end' they would probably be marked down.
It is these students who I feel most sorry for this year, as they will probably not get what they would have done had it been a normal year.
The students who will benefit the most from this year are those who crumble under exam pressure.

@HappyKatieA , this worries me so much. DS is bright, his teachers had high hopes for him but he was the type to do the minimum and hope for the best with the plan to really go for it in the end event

Fortunately he hit the grades he needs to get into college during his mocks so I have every hope he'll at least get these grades, but he'll be very disappointed

lanthanum · 12/08/2020 18:30

@Pieceofpurplesky

OP if you results in the department are not the same as last year you will have those grades downgraded. It wasn't worth a risk, even if a teacher was unprofessional enough to choose favourites.

We are a school that had a boundary change for this year - so a very different cohort - and our kids this year were due to get much higher grades. Sadly they won't as we are judged on previous years

That is why, as well as looking at the school's previous results, they are also looking at the KS2 scores of the cohort. That should mean they have picked up that your current year 11 are a much stronger cohort than previous ones, and will allow them correspondingly higher grades.

It's not going to be an exact science - I know that when a school I worked in got a suddenly much stronger cohort, it actually helped raise performance by more than the difference in intake scores - the effect on their peers meant individuals might have done better than they would have previously.

lilgreen · 12/08/2020 18:28

Op what grade do you think he deserves ?

OverTheRainbow88 · 12/08/2020 18:25

I haven’t taught Btec for years but I think they are given a pass, merit of distinction.

Seems pretty poor teaching if he’s never done any tests/assessments before lockdown.

I thought Btecs involve different units which he must have been completing as he went along?

SaltyAndFresh · 12/08/2020 18:25

I’m just so curious to know - but have you yourself given any students a higher grade than what you think they’d actually deserve because you get on well with them and then have you given any students a Lower grade because you don’t get on well with them?

Oh my goodness. We have to be able to evidence the grades we arrived at (as accurately as possible under the circumstances). Of course it's not about like/dislike.

borntobequiet · 12/08/2020 18:21

I teach in FE - Functional Skills.
I submitted calculated grades for a number of learners. Some had attempted the exam before; for me to calculate a Pass, they had had to have achieved >= 50% on a previous attempt. I then required them to undertake about 20 hours of learning on an online platform and attempt three practice papers, the last of which they had to sign a declaration that it was all their own work and done within the allocated time.
Anyone who didn’t do all this (and clearly improved) failed.
A couple of new learners did similar, but I carried out a “mock” test to start with and tracked additional learning.
It was very hard work for all of us.

Original poster

mummabear1967 · 12/08/2020 18:07

Can any teachers answer a question I have please.

This relates to FE so you may not know the answer.

My DS does a Level 3 btec in IT at college. He also gets his results tomorrow. He was due to sit on exam in May and obviously it was cancelled and a predicted grade will be issued.

There were no class tests or mocks. His teacher had asked his class to do part of a past paper and email it to her so she could mark it and use that as predicted grade (this was in May) DS never done this. He said he just kept putting it off. Would a teacher just give a U in this circumstance?

OP posts:

TheletterZ · 12/08/2020 16:49

@Letseatgrandma

The government has now over turned this and it is now calculated grade (no-one seems to know if this is teacher or exam board)

I don’t think anywhere has reported they are now using the teacher assessed grade rather than the exam board issued one, have they?

That would be huge news.

*I don’t think anywhere has reported they are now using the teacher assessed grade rather than the exam board issued one, have they?

That would be huge news.*

tweeted AQA about this and they gave a very vague answer

Teachers - do you know your students results?

OverTheRainbow88 · 12/08/2020 16:48

if kids know their grade will be based on their work the whole time, they’d be more inclined to behave and work for the whole course

Yes!!! I was saying this to my OH the other day, now lots of kids that usually bum around for 1.5 years then suddenly pull it out the bag for final exams (having distracted their friends for 2 years) may work harder throughout incase this happens again.

lilgreen · 12/08/2020 16:44

Do you agree @OverTheRainbow88?

lilgreen · 12/08/2020 16:43

Interesting. DD awaiting results next week. She did very well in her mocks and coursework, works hard all the time but struggles with exam pressure so I’m hoping it will favour her. I really think this is the way forward as if kids know their grade will be based on their work the whole time, they’d be more inclined to behave and work for the whole course.

OverTheRainbow88 · 12/08/2020 16:40

It’s very worrying, last year I predicted 4 A level kids a C and they all got As!!! They had never got any thing above a D in 2 years and I thought a C was being generous. It just so happened 3 essay questions asked were topics we had revised together the week before!

OverTheRainbow88 · 12/08/2020 16:38

Yes, sorry I teach a subject all student take so we had 258!

Alsoplayspiccolo · 12/08/2020 16:36

Overtherainbow, do you mean 1- however many students took that subject, ie only English, maths and science would be 1-250?

OverTheRainbow88 · 12/08/2020 16:32

Also the whole cohort of 250 children (in our school ) in the year group had to be ranked from 1-250 for each subject.

MrsHamlet · 12/08/2020 16:01

The exam board wouldn't email to ask for evidence for one student, no.

Letseatgrandma · 12/08/2020 15:51

The government has now over turned this and it is now calculated grade (no-one seems to know if this is teacher or exam board)

I don’t think anywhere has reported they are now using the teacher assessed grade rather than the exam board issued one, have they?

That would be huge news.

HappyKatieA · 12/08/2020 15:50

@OhCrumbsWhereNow

Just out of interest, how do you grade those students who are very bright, but inclined to coast, will quite probably flunk their mocks, terrify their teachers and parents but then pull it out of the bag at the last minute and achieve top grades in the actual exams?

Just recalling one of my siblings who could spell FUDGE with their mock GCSEs and then got 11 A* a few months later with no discernible increase in work ethic.

We tend to know these students very well, (my son is one!). We would use our professional knowledge and grade up, but in all honesty, this year we might have been hauled over the coals for this. We had to present evidence to SLT and speak about each students strengths and weaknesses against the assessment criteria, but without firm evidence of 'but this is the type of student who pulls it out of the bag in the end' they would probably be marked down. It is these students who I feel most sorry for this year, as they will probably not get what they would have done had it been a normal year. The students who will benefit the most from this year are those who crumble under exam pressure.

Letseatgrandma · 12/08/2020 15:49

I’m just so curious to know - but have you yourself given any students a higher grade than what you think they’d actually deserve because you get on well with them and then have you given any students a Lower grade because you don’t get on well with them?

I don’t think any teacher would do that.

HappyKatieA · 12/08/2020 15:44

^*I’m just so curious to know - but have you yourself given any students a higher grade than what you think they’d actually deserve because you get on well with them and then have you given any students a Lower grade because you don’t get on well with them?

Of course, I’m not implying you have, I’m just curious to know. That was a concern this year that some teachers may flout the system to give higher to those students they are fond of and to penalise those students that they maybe don’t like so much*^

No, I would never and have never done this. I have had to make decisions every year about grades, and moderate with colleagues, so the evidence is what's used, personalities are taken out of it with marking.
I'd love to give every student the highest grades, but that's neither realistic or fair. In all honesty, I don't know about other departments or other schools, but I know in our department it's a fair and honest reflection of the students' past and current attainment, bearing in mind anything that may have happened outside or inside school that has caused a particular result to be low.
I know my students very well, I take pride in this.