Starting Year 11 GCSE 2021 Thread 2

It’s awful the way this situation is pitting parents against parents and schools against schools when all our dc have been shafted. I’m pretty sure we all think our dc has it the worst because there’s nothing fair about this.
@The3rdMrsdeWinter it’s bad your friend feels the way she does about the results but

@MoiraQueen and @passmethemilk thank your so much for your measured responses.

I was about to leave the thread as a result of recent posts. I have told my DD more than once that we do not care about her results we care about her and the inference that her current state of mind is down to parenting is insulting and upsetting.

My poor DD has had a difficult time prior to COVID as her previously fit and healthy DF had a stroke followed by heart surgery and a suspected heart attack. As a result we were already shielding once lockdowns were announced and have been very careful since. This has left our 15 year old DD feeling disconnected and anxious.

Prior to all this she was a high achiever, she “sailed through” everything. Perhaps as parents we have failed to make her more resilient but we have never made her feel that she was defined by a set of results. Unfortunately any pressure comes from her disorganised school and herself.

I'm very happy for the kids and parents who are sailing through the 'exams' this year.
However you do not need a grade 9 in GCSE Empathy to realise that isn't the case for many children and parents where each school is handling things differently!!!

But generally, most parents in the vicinity are maybe not over invested in GCSE's and perhaps this translates into slightly less pressure for the students, and a what will be will be attitude.

We don't put pressure on DD, there are only so many times that you can say, it is what it is, just do your best, before it starts to sound hollow. Some children are just more driven than others. Some kids don't cope with 4 or 5 exams in one day, often with no notice.

She wants to do well, sometimes I wish she was as blasé as kids who shrug it off. But she also knows that some universities look at GCSE grades too. Yesterday she sat a paper which contained an enormous amount of content that she hadn't covered. The couple of kids who sat it with her knew the contents as their friend had sat it the week before. But yeah, what will be, will be
My friend with a child at a good private school can't understand the angst, because her child has been well taught and sailed through the well organised assessments. Maybe your child has had the benefit of a good well organised school, not every child has.

The3rdMrsdeWinter I agree.

Ds yr11is handling it all ok (33 assessments since Easter and counting) and looking forward to breaking up for a long summer.

He is going to a new college for A levels. Hasn't set foot inside the building yet, but is excited by the prospect of the next steps.

He doesn't have tales of upset amongst his peer groups and is aware that his grades may or may not be better or worse than than would be.

But generally, most parents in the vicinity are maybe not over invested in GCSE's and perhaps this translates into slightly less pressure for the students, and a what will be will be attitude.

[quote The3rdMrsdeWinter]@TinyDancer78

Unfortunately, they matter a great deal to her and we are struggling to change her mindset

It's drummed into them from Yr7, isn't it? And it's wrong because A levels are their passport, they just need the grades at GCSE to get onto them, not a string of 9s like some of my friends insist their DC must get (their DC go to the two single sex grammars nearby).

One of my soon to be ex friends keeps telling me my DD's grades won't be the same as her DD's grades because the grammar is doing "proper" exams as opposed to the in class assessments my DD's comp are doing.

I smile and tell her the only grades that count are the ones on the certificate. Said friend also glosses over the fact that my DD has worked hard consistently, whereas her's has cruised.

Roll on summer![/quote]
Roll on summer indeed!

No wonder she’s going to soon be an ex-friend. What is wrong with some people? You are obviously much more patient than I am!

@TinyDancer78

Unfortunately, they matter a great deal to her and we are struggling to change her mindset

It's drummed into them from Yr7, isn't it? And it's wrong because A levels are their passport, they just need the grades at GCSE to get onto them, not a string of 9s like some of my friends insist their DC must get (their DC go to the two single sex grammars nearby).

One of my soon to be ex friends keeps telling me my DD's grades won't be the same as her DD's grades because the grammar is doing "proper" exams as opposed to the in class assessments my DD's comp are doing.

I smile and tell her the only grades that count are the ones on the certificate. Said friend also glosses over the fact that my DD has worked hard consistently, whereas her's has cruised.

Roll on summer!

@DarnSingQwean - DD's comp were woeful during Lockdown 1 but seemed to get their act together by Sept although most Yr11s had at least two periods of isolation before Xmas.

It's a poor show that some schools aren't doing prom and some colleges aren't having Open Days. The Sixth Forms local to us are holding them late June.

It seems like some schools/colleges just can't be bothered to make the effort.

Your DD might have more luck job hunting once her exams are over and more places are open.

Best of luck to her.

She is also at the local comp. The school didn’t provide anything during lockdown one and had very little engagement when they did. Personally I think they are panicking too and are passing that onto the pupils.

@ComplexNeeds - good luck. Maybe have a google to see some of the Centre Policy docs that schools have produced which sets out what evidence they will use. An example here: www.chalfonts.org/academic/exams/summer-exams-2021

If your DC missed one assessment, but the rest of the basket of evidence shows consistency, then I would expect that school would either provide an opportunity to sit a further assessment, or use existing work. They would then need to explain why there wasn't consistency of evidence in this one case, but it sounds like you have given them documents for this. If they do otherwise, I would certainly be jumping up and down. They have till 18th June to work on cases like this. Good luck!

I will definitely push! Thank you x

@ComplexNeeds I think schools are able to use alternative evidence - see the 'Types of Assessment' section. It will be their decision not to use previously completed work such as homework or assessments. I understand your point that it is more work for them, but hopefully not too many in any given subject.

It would seem against a student's best interests for completed work to be ignored and I would definitely challenge school if they said that they would submit a zero mark just because they were not prepared to do outside their plan given the regulations say that they can. It suggests to me that the school lack confidence in their professional judgement and are relying wholly on the limited data from assessments set now. They don't have to!

@The3rdMrsdeWinter It is good to hear your DD is doing ok at this time. Hopefully her school have got the balance right for her and her peers, and she looks on track for some very decent grades.

DD2 is looking at grades 5-7, I think, though some mocks were 4s (she was targeted 7s pre-pandemic, and could probably have achieved a lot of those if she'd had good quality f2f teaching and catch up lessons in the Spring term). She attends a comp and is middling ability there.

She's not looking forward to college really, because she's had to chose a college and subjects without having visited the place in person or done any taster lessons, so she feels really in the dark about what the next academic year might be like. She wants to take new subjects as school has not exactly inspired her, so it will be a leap into the unknown.

Prom was cancelled, and she is yet to find a summer job that will take her as an under 18. Luckily she has some good friends, but I can understand why a lot of kids are struggling with all this - there is a lot of crying going on in her peer group, and a lot of giving up . In contrast, DD1 found this time challenging, but there was a sense of fairness and normality about it all, rather than uncertainty after more than a year of their lives being on hold.

Thank you so much @DarnSingQwean I was hoping you’d found something that said the tags could be ‘calculated without’ all the evidence if an exam was missed. This seems to be about using alternative evidence in extreme circumstances.

Finding other evidence us the issue. It’s a lot of extra work for the teachers to find the evidence. They didn’t do mocks or end of years so there’s nothing instantly obvious. It means them looking at homework, and tests taken at home to meet the criteria - I think it’s quite a faff for them. The teachers are already snowed under. They’ve also said they need to be certain there was no help at home. There wasn’t but they can’t guarantee that to the boards. I understand their point of view but it’s incredibly harsh!

I was hoping you’d found a bit of info around ‘calculating without’ all the exams. All our school are using is the recent assessments as far as I know. If they could just use the ones already done that’d be great but apparently it’s not enough. I’m not entirely sure why. It’s all very vaguely as they can’t give results.

For balance ... my Yr11 DD(16) is tired, a bit stressed but that's to be expected during assessment time. However, she's not having panic attacks or breaking down in tears and as far as she is aware none of her cohort are.

Do your DC go to very competitive schools? DD is at the local comp and predicted a mixture of 6, 7, 8 and a couple of 9s. She'll be happy with what she gets because she's looking forward to prom, her summer job and starting Sixth Form.

Do some DC or their parents put too much emphasis on exams at this young age? Maybe explain they don't define young people or their futures and accept this is a weird year to be a teenager.

Hi @ComplexNeeds
Hopefully this helps, esp section under Sources of Evidence (incl para 3). Schools can decide, and I would want to know in your case what else they could use instead of the missed exam: www.gov.uk/government/publications/submission-of-teacher-assessed-grades-summer-2021-info-for-teachers/information-for-heads-of-centre-heads-of-department-and-teachers-on-the-submission-of-teacher-assessed-grades-summer-2021-html

@DarnSingQwean If papers have been missed, the regulations say that schools are able submit other evidence or calculate without if there is genuine reason to do so. where in the regulations does it say this please? I’ve read the JCQ thing and can’t find anything. My kid missed one exam - has doctors note & took other exams. school saying they may fail as not enough evidence. Thanks in advance.

How on earth can they be marked against "normal" standards?

Agree that GSCEs this year are far worse from a mental health pov for my Y11 DD than they were for her sister two years ago. The prolonged uncertainty and shifting metrics of measurement are hugely destabilising. I see many previously high achieving, engaged kids switching off in exhaustion and exasperation.

In terms of comparisons between schools, weirdly I am not too concerned. However schools chose to conduct the assessments, they will be doing so for their own cohort, so they have an idea of approx ranking within their school. They will then do an approx allocation of grades so that results are on a par with those attained in 2017-2019. Within that, if the current cohort came up to school with higher achievement, they will be able to use that an explanation for why grades are higher this year. Schools have no reason to under-grade their pupils as a whole cohort. They should only be assessing them on what they have learned, and raw scores can't be compared to previous years if they get students to sit papers where they haven't covered all the material. Where students are borderline, I think they will err on the side of upgrading.

This is not to say that individual students won't lose out. There will be injustices as they has to be with anything on this scale. But the exam system delivers injustices every year too. I think English Lang and History grading in particular is not consistent across markers in normal GCSE/A levels.

Having said all that, my DDs school has just sent an email saying that if anyone misses an assessment, they risk getting zero marks in that paper. If papers have been missed, the regulations say that schools are able submit other evidence or calculate without if there is genuine reason to do so. The reason DDs school isn't saying this is because it likes neat boxes and is very data driven. Mental health in Y11 is as you can imagine, through the floor as a consequence.

I can't wait for this to be over for all our DC. There is a huge amount of picking up the pieces for us as parents, especially for those students whose schools do not have a sixth form, who will in effect be cast adrift with no support until college starts in Sept. Teachers too are suffering massively with workload and pressure. There may well be an exodus of burnt out teachers once this is done.

As for blame - Johnson's govt's handling on the pandemic, Williamson's ineptitude, Ofqual's cowardice and lack or preparation, and (some) schools' insecurity that has put fear of being being seen as having less than perfect data over student wellbeing.

Fin.

I couldn’t agree more. I feel like GCSEs with timetabled exams would’ve been so much easier than constants “mocks” and “assessments” which is all my DD has done whilst actually in school this academic year and after the washout that was last year it just does not make sense.
What I also don’t understand is that mocks and assessments are being marked against old mark schemes in my DD school meaning they are being measured against “normal” years.

@PettsWoodParadise I totally agree!! It feels worse than GCSEs and last year!!!

This year is a nightmare...I am trying to maintain calm but inside I am thinking what the hell is going on!!!

Trying to motivate my ds for three weeks...one exam may go well and then he is on a downer...trying to be positive...

Thank god it is Friday!

DD was told they need four separate pieces of evidence minimum for each subject and work done at home won’t count, hence they will be using their November mocks, multiple assessments done in class and the latest set of exams. It has been worse than just doing the GCSEs for them and their teachers.

DS has Chemistry and Physics "assessments" today.
He's done so well in the last few weeks with revision, but telling them their scores has had a negative impact. He did really well on the last Physics mock, so he just stopped revising.
Not sure how he doesn't realise he did do well was because he bloody revised, so frustrating :(

I think they are doing more assessments to show achievement of all the specifications.