Next year's uni applicants severely disadvantaged

My year 12 will be going into year 13 on two days a week face to face. Those at the the college down the road are going back full time. The local grammar school are already back in cracking on with GCSE work. DS2 has at least two weeks to wait at his school

And Ofqual just merrily say none of this matters, it doesn't matter you've lost 1/5th of face to face teaching and we're barely reducing the exam content.

My ds goes back next week Wed to Fri, then has two weeks remote before going back for another week. He might be full time in college from the beginning of October. Or not.

@GetUpAgain what’s the petition wanting to happen? Are you able to link please?

I feel sorry for all the gcse and a level students, its been tough all round. I agree the biggest impact is on those with one year left of a level studies. I have signed the petition thats going round, not sure it will do any good though...

I also think one should try not to extrapolate what the impact will be for next years students quite yet when;

We don't know how many students are actually taking up offers of deferment

We don't know how many international applications will be made and granted visas

We don't know how many of our own Home students will apply .

We dont yet know, for this year, how many places have actually been filled across the WHOLE University sector (yes did you know there are Universities outside of the RG!?).

We don't know how Covid will affect this academic year's exams.

In short calm down. Universities are trying to sort the crap made by the govt at the moment and then this coming year's cohort will be considered. There is absolutely no use in being horrifically dramatic based on anecdotal evidence .

@Aragog great post and so good to hear your DD is happy and settled

I have a y11 dc but also family members and godchildren in years 10 and 12, and will absolutely be doing what I can (petition signing, MP emailing etc) to help make voices heard to ensure that next year’s cohort have as fair a deal as possible. But yes yes yes to “stop pulling down this year’s cohort.”

After all, this time next year the naysayers will be back, won’t they, and cheerfully sneering at the exams taken by the 2021 cohort (“Oof, well they all just took Mickey Mouse exams, didn’t they, results not worth the paper they’re written on! Bet they handed out answer sheets with the exam papers to make sure they all passed, heh, heh, heh!” Etc etc etc). Won’t be nice for that cohort to read, but you can bet your bottom dollar it’ll happen.

Regardless of what year groups we have DC in let’s try and support all of them without pulling down any of their efforts.

@Aragog put it better than I ever could.

I agree and think this will affect students for years to come. And I’ve said this to my DTs who are going into year 12 this year. They need to 110% from the start if they want Uni places.

‘Mickey Mouse’ is just plain nasty. Year 11 and year 13 kids have not had an easy time of it at all.

DD's predicted grades for UCAS were updated in January, following mocks and coursework.

Her cags were lower than these mainly as they didn't take into account nea and coursework as it was incomplete, not fully marked and not moderated (wasn't due in til after Easter) - in one subject this was 60% of the final grade. Subjects with nea have struggled under the cag system in many schools.

Some of the friends had much much lower. Her school were very strict with cags - too strict in some cases. I know of at least one parent who want to appeal but they are looking into if that is even possible now that triple lock was removed.

Dd is much more chilled than her parents. She's moved in. Her insurance is actually a higher ranked university for her course and needed higher grades. They moved her to unconditional in the strength of her application and work experience reference. She's happy and settled now, and excited about her course - thank you.

I just wanted to highlight that the media info of all these inflated grades aren't all they seem, and for many kids their grades are as expected or lower, not inflated at all.

And to please please stop pulling down these kids - and at 18y coming out of school they are not really fully grown adults no matter what they thing - and belittling their achievements. It's every single year and this year is even worse.

I will support year 12s getting as much support and concessions as possible, as I do believe they have been overlooked and currently will be disadvantaged unfairly. But if we want that support to continue into next summer than people have to stop pulling down this year's cohort too - most would have much preferred to have done their exams and at least lower grades that way would have been their own doing!

I've read the rest of your post now Aragog.

I'm sorry your dd has had a truly awful time, and I utterly empathise, particularly your family's losses.

I do get the rest. One of mine graduated this year. Online. Watching telly with her parents. No mortar boars in the air to celebrate three year of hard work. No meal. No holiday or festival. It is awful for youngsters. Really.

Not one of DD's friends got their full UCAS predicted grades, all are below them.

Good! UCAS predicted grades are NOT what the teachers actually think they'll get. They are usually slightly inflated in order to give the kids a chance to apply to some slightly ambitious universities. They are usually made at the very beginning in year 13, if not earlier.

The CAGs were decided much later, with pretty much the whole syllabus taught, and would thus have been a much more accurate assessment of the exam grade.

The vast majority of CAG grades were below UCAS predicted grades this year, as with every year.

I'm sorry your dc was disappointed though and hope they come to terms with it and have a uni place to go to.

Thank you Aragog. 100%.

Hear hear aragog

But the fact remains, there are a hell of a lot of inflated grades out there being celebrated.

And there are an awful lot who haven't. There are kids out there who have lost out on grades due to the way CAGs work. These kids didn't get their normal predicted grades - they got centre assessed grades which are very different. Not one of DD's friends got their full UCAS predicted grades, all are below them. My dd, and her friends, haven't benefited from inflated grades as you and others like to say; infact several have dropped grades due to the cag calculation when it came to a levels with high percentage nea and coursework.

They had an horrific results day with massive disappointments in some cases. Then an incredibly stressful 5 days waiting to see what would happen. I wouldn't wish that experience on people.

Every single year kids have to put up with being told 'oh the exams were harder in my day' nonsense and it's started for this year too - but even worse. Now these poor kids have to listen to sour minded people telling them that their grades mean nothing because they didn't do exams anyway.

Put yourself in the shoes of these year 13s.
My dd has had one hell of a nightmare year. Results day was the final straw. She's lost 4 close members of the family, 3 during lockdown down where we weren't able to visit, and in some cases even go to the funeral. She's has all her normal 18th birthday celebrations cancelled, like everyone she was isolated from her friends and boyfriend for weeks, she lost the normal expected 'end of school' experience, no end of school parties and holiday trips, etc. They had no choice as to whether they could do exams or not. It wasn't their decision and many kids I know feel cheated out of their chance. Whilst to older people this means nothing - go back to year 13 and being 18y and these things are important to them and mean more.

And it is perfectly possible to feel empathy and upset for the current year 13s whilst also hoping things can be sorted for the year 12s. I really empathise for the current year 12s. I think the proposals put forward so far are inadequate and unfair. I am hoping that something can be done to help. I have friends with children affected and will do what I can to support action to get the government to sort something.

But the more people who come out and spout nastiness and unfair comments about the current year 13s mean that you'll end up with less people feeling like they want to support you in your quest.

Come August next year I'm assuming you'd rather people were not coming out pulling down your kids and telling them their grades mean nothing, they didn't really miss out on anything just because school closed, etc.

You'll be wanting support and positive comments for your kids right now and in August. So why not give the current a level results kids the same!

Agreed, @RufustheSniggeringReindeer

Y11 parent here and I don’t know a single student who got any major surprises with their results, or was awarded a grade significantly higher than what they’d been achieving before lockdown. Quite a few who’ve achieved lower grades because they weren’t working well across the two years or because they stuffed up mocks, too. Yes the media is trumpeting about grade inflation but for the vast majority the CAGs will be accurate - that just doesn’t create such interesting headlines!

I do agree though that current y10 and y12 pupils are also going to have it very tough and the whole situation is a nightmare. They need some major concessions going forwards and I really feel for them all. But parents sneering at current y11s and y13: and labelling them Mickey Mouse is not the answer. Those kids didn’t ask for any of this and the proof of their abilities will be in the pudding of their A level and university studies going forwards.

Oh and if we are using anacdata (which to be fair is the only data i ever use)

The only children i know who are surprised by their grades are A level children where the algorithm gave them a higher grade

Parents are talking about Suing the local school because they aren’t Happy with the CAGS

Although i agree with the premise of the OP i do also agree with mumsneedwine

Not all grades have been inflated by any stretch of the imagination, most increases have been explained on many many threads and they aren’t mickey mouse grades either

I’m assuming people bandying that phrase around haven’t any children affected...if you do i really hope you arent telling them their results are inflated and mickey mouse

DD will be in one day a week and the rest distance learning for y13. The college also has another struggle to mange as they can't physically fit in all the students with the GCSEs that would normally get them on to A Levels. They are also aware that not all of the students with these grades will actually cope and thrive on A Level work so A levels are not in their best interest either even if they have a GCSE certificate that suggests otherwise given that they also lost 10% of their GCSE course time. The parents of these young people are also kicking up a stink locally and blaming the college for this. I suspect they will have to let more in than then want and set them a test in the first week or two to measure potential themselves then reshuffle them on to new courses a couple of weeks into the year which will cause even more stress.

At the moment the college are focusing on working out how to handle their new intake which may be a bulge year and take extra staff that have not yet been recruited, once again leaving the students going into y13 with fewer teaching and support resources.

They didn't have their last year cancelled. They lost March - June. I feel very sorry for current year 11's and 13's having been 'given' their grades and the stigma of being the 2020 cohort going forward. My nephew is amazed with his levels. They far surpassed his expectations.
I feel much worse for the current year 10's and 12's of which I have both. My year 12 will be going into year 13 on two days a week face to face. Those at the the college down the road are going back full time. The local grammar school are already back in cracking on with GCSE work. DS2 has at least two weeks to wait at his school.
Such disparity.

@Strawberrypancakes no. And not everyone has their last year at school cancelled due to a global pandemic. Not normal times. Just be kind when talking about years 13 & 11. They didn't ask for any if this and they've had it tough too.

The UK system is very flawed and this shows it!

I'm from Portugal and there each course has 1 or 2 main A level exams (depending on the subject) that count 40% of a student's grade. Big weight on your shoulders let me tell you. But EVERYONE applying to that course that year has to do those same exams. Even if you are deferring you have to repeat those A levels. It levels the playing field.

With the coronavirus situation students in Portugal still had to sit one or 2 exams of their choice (we usually do about 7 exams). Grades improved and everything went smoothly.

For actual Y12 parents looking for information this is the other thread, there are links to overseas student numbers etc which show that there are twice as many overseas applicants as EU so if a lot of them defer and consequently there is an increased intake of overseas students in 2021 which will more than offset the reduced EU number.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4000787-Going-into-Year-13-Uni-entry-2021-have-they-been-forgotten

@Strawberrypancakes I am assuming you haven't spent the last week with year 13s, crying because some computer told them they are not B student but actually a E. I gave CAGs that reflected my students on a good day - the only thing that has happened this year is no one has had a bad day. So they got a B not a C. The grades are based on 2 years work so not undeserved. I sincerely hope none of you say this to some of students who have been through hell, had their futures turned upside down because of this.
If public opinion says they are Mickey Mouse then I'm very sad. Poor kids having such thoughtless adults minimise their last 2 years work. My year 12s have been really supportive

I agree.

I have a dd applying this autumn so it's a real worry.