Starting Year 11 GCSE 2021 Thread 2

Thinking logically, if one bad assessment can bring grades down, then surely schools would be doing fewer not more assessments?Otherwise every assessment they set would bring the chance that yet another student would panic, do less well, and bring their grades down.

Thus surely, the aim in doing more assessments (above a minimum needed) must be to give a chance to bring grades up?

Thank you so much. Today has been easier, only 2 assessments and she was aware of both. We are counting down too and preparing for if she doesn’t get what she wants (and in fairness deserves). As parents there’s not much else we can do. Just try to keep them calm and explain there’s more to life.

I’m so sorry for your DDs. It’s been an incredibly stressful time for them. GCSEs are of course stressful so I’m not sure people understand how different this is. But it definitely is.

It’s a vicious circle for them isn’t it? I’m so sorry your DD is suffering too. My DD had a panic attack during a maths assessment earlier this week which resulted in a very low mark (teachers are marking the assessments and telling kids the results) a day later she did another assessment that she was expecting so didn’t panic and only dropped a handful of marks. She has always been predicted an 8/9 in maths and wants to do it at A level and is now worrying she won’t be able to.
I honestly don’t care about what she gets in anything I just need to get her through it. The impact on children’s mental health is insurmountable and it really worries me.

I don’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed that this isn’t just my DD school. It’s just overkill.
They did mocks before Xmas then again just before Easter. Then returned from Easter to constant in class assessments. None of these are timetabled. They just get told the lesson before. My DDs mental health is at rock bottom as a result she isn’t taking note of when assessments are and then being taken by surprise. This is resulting in panic attacks during the assessment itself.
I have had countless conversations with school and spoken to my DD about leaving now. She said that will stress her even more. I am counting down the days until this is over.

whereas some schools can pick and choose the best pieces. they are not allowed to cherry pick. It has to be the same exams across the whole cohort. They could of course do 63 assessments and then say most of the kids did best in 50 and use those pieces. But those results will still need to follow the school’s grade profile, so makes little sense.
Our school is also doing millions of exams every day for a lot of weeks as they don’t have any evidence. There were no mocks and most work including yr10 end of year exams were done remotely. Some exam boards want at least 5 pieces of evidence. So given students take 10 or so GCSEs theres 50 exams. Way too much for the teens and the teachers marking & moderating. The whole thing is madness!
My own DD has had enough now. She’s one more week of exams (2 subjects a day) and that is supposedly it. According to her ‘everyone has had enough’ and I’m really not surprised. This has been far worse than when my eldest did proper GCSEs.

Uncomfortable- so good that your DD was able to go speak to HOD.
What a really unhelpful reply!

We had several emails saying grades would not be based on just these exams but I really don't believe that. DD and some friends went to speak to the Head of maths after the paper yesterday and her advice to them was to have a good cry!

I wonder whether some schools are giving top sets hard assessments in maths / science to really show they are level 7/8/9?

Why are some schools doing so many assessments? Will they just pick the ones the dc have done best in? What does this mean for my ds who is only doing assessments as per normal GCSEs? If he messes up they’ll be no other ones school can fall back on. It’s so stressful to think he’s only got one shot at it whereas some schools can pick and choose the best pieces.

Sorry to hear all the difficulties that we all are having. Things are so different from school to school, but 63 assessments!
It is overload here too but school and teachers have been consistent and been very positive and supportive but still the stress is huge. 4-5 assessments a week. They more or less finished the curriculum and so being tested on on everything .Some good days some not.
Lots of mood swings so I have been reading (hiding) in my room and giving plenty of hugs when asked. At times I'm not sure what to do- it is difficult to see her hurting whilst trying her best.
I'm trying to stay optimistic -so we will get through this and I look forward to a great result day in August!

iheart This seems to be a common theme here too, DD is doing higher Maths and she got really low marks on the last few assessments, equivalent to a 4, her friend only managed to get 6 marks out of 50, she said there were questions she couldn't even attempt as she has never been taught it?

I think it’s really hitting them all. DS is planning on doing A level Biology and normally gets great grades. He came home today and said that he got 18 out of 40 on a test yet that was the highest in the class. He is the top Biology set so I would have expected him to get higher (not a criticism of him!) so what are they being tested on to not be able to answer the questions?

Silence Thank you for asking, she is better than she was. And amazingly managing a very limited set of assessments from home which 2 months ago seemed almost unachievable. We're talking 1 subject per week. We were very strategic with which 4 subjects she kept which has helped.

Or have people been surprised that schools with previously good track records for care and organisation are willfully overloading the pupils?

This really, DDs school has a fantastic pastoral dept, a great community caring ethos to the school, they keep telling the girls that they can only do their best and not to get too caught up in these assessments!!

I just can't understand how they can't see the stress and pressure they are piling on with pretty much 8 weeks of solid exams. There have also been lots of issues with teachers maybe 'helping a bit too much' and kids getting mark schemes online etc so there is no consistency across the year group so how can they be marked fairly, we are just hoping for passes now but that's unfair and not reflective of her however at this stage I'm more interested in getting her out the other side of this mess with the least further damage to her mental health.

Teen I hope your DD is doing ok.

@TeenMinusTests

DD's school's pastoral team are understaffed but try really, really hard, SLT are shit and some of the teachers do the absolute minimum, although some are brilliant, but then they just get hampered by the SLT. Head is past it.

I'm sorry to all of your DCs who are suffering - I hope they can relax soon. I keep saying to DD once a subject is done just forget it - nothing you can do now. I want her to enjoy her summer without worrying.

I am totally shocked at some of this.
Is this schools with hopeless pastoral care and SLT just letting departments do what the hell they like? Or have people been surprised that schools with previously good track records for care and organisation are willfully overloading the pupils?

We're at breaking point in this house, DD has added up her timetable and has a total of 63 assessments, she has had two solid weeks of formal exams in the hall in between exams they are to go to classes as normal, candidate numbers etc the rest are in class, she's basically given up, she won't revise anymore, she's exhausted, so moody and miserable all the time.

Yesterday in RE they had to sit with the teacher and she showed them what evidence she was using to come to their grade, I told DD to speak up if she feels anything is amiss but she said she doesn't care anymore

I think that was the national guidance though. But agree, it's been conveniently overlooked in some cases. Probably by teachers who badly short changed their students in the first lockdown.