Any teachers out there? Wanting advice re. DSs normally high achieving school mock GCSE results.

DD does her school work completely on her own and has never ever asked for help or accepted any help or advice from DH or myself but she is weary and becoming despondent so often rushes, especially now as she is working on her own in her messy bedroom, refuses to open the blinds and I struggle to persuade her to go out for fresh air. We have tried to reiterate the importance of her school work since March which doesn’t go down well.
But I know for a fact that other pupils in her year group are receiving and freely accepting a great deal of help with school work when working from home from parents, older siblings and neighbours (with DT projects) etc.

@Randomrebel i guess some may stand out if they get an 8 and normally only work at a 4 , plus I am sure schoolwork will be taken into account not just the mocks.

I honestly think schools will do more tests march time to get a better idea plus classwork
As thats how they know roughly where they are , just told my ds to treat every work or test like thats the bit they will use.
As yes with whats missed feel he may end up with grades below his ability , but it does sometime go other way ds1 did his gcse a couple years ago mocks all 5/6's and constantly worked at that level ended up with 6 x 4's and couple 3's , why I think gcse should be 50% coursework , 50% exams

Of course no one will cheat online and will be a completely level playing field.

My ds not even done mocks yet were planned for jan, apparently may be doing them in a couple weeks online

DS is in Y11 and hasn’t even done mocks yet. He is predicted 7’s and 8’s but on the “tests” they were doing before Christmas he was getting 3’s and 4’s. Its just ridiculous and completely unfair. He fully engaged with learning over lockdown but nothing compares to in class learning and there are huge huge gaps.

@Randomrebel Your poor girl! I'm so sorry for your family.

I know a lot of pupils in DS class really struggled over lockdown. Fairly stereotypically in many ways...lots of the boys failed to engage because there were no consequences for not doing so and they aren't good at organising themselves. Lots of the girls really struggled with their mental health and not having their friends to support them and stressing about their grades.

I realise that's a generalisation and that teens are individuals, but I would argue that the majority of our Y11s are obviously not in the same position they would have been, either academically or mentally and emotionally, without the pandemic.

To judge them on their academic success without taking all this into account seems unfair.

Exactly this totally agree @NovembeR.

‘It's so rubbish.

DS is likely to be given CAG of 4 grades below his target. How shit is that? They are basically testing him on what have you managed to teach yourself over this two year course?...’

DD also had a grandparent die during lockdown one and had to say a family goodbye via facetime and attend a funeral alongside her studies. The nightmare still isn’t over for our year 11’s.

It's so rubbish.

DS is likely to be given CAG of 4 grades below his target. How shit is that? They are basically testing him on what have you managed to teach yourself over this two year course?...

Not blaming teachers, but the whole situation is dreadful. Wish they'd just award the whole lot of them their target grades and be done with it. How can they assess how pupils have done accurately? They've missed so much teaching - and some have obviously missed a lot more than others.

Thanks @muminthesummer did would be doing 6th form at her school if the grades can be improved its so sad for them.

Same as DD’s school @NovemberR she really lost interest and became withdrawn angry and moody with me trying to encourage her in lockdown one and her school were just dreadful. Its so sad. She/we are doing all the right things and she isn’t sneaking off having any fun with friends like some of them were in April and some are now.

They could have put too big a buffer on the grade boundaries.

As the grade boundaries move each year it's good practice to apply a buffer of 5% or so to account for this. Sometimes the senior leadership team get a bit too over zealous, with results as above - widespread panic and confusion in pupils and parents.

I'm worried about this too. DS (Y11) really didn't engage with the lockdown learning from Easter. It was just huge amounts of worksheets etc, uploaded with no one to ask about it, and no feedback and he struggled.

He had exams in Nov on what they'd learned (having also had 2 two week periods out of school because pupils in their bubble tested positive) and he (unsurprisingly) has come out on 3s and 4s. His targets are mostly 7s and 8s. Unsurprisingly, because he's missed massive amounts of teaching he's not getting those grades when he sits exam papers.

And now we're back in lockdown again and they are (apparently) going to do more Mocks in March. Can't see it improving!

How can he be given a GCSE grade of this is what you got when a pandemic fucked up half of Y10 and most of Y11 for you...?

Teachers say they need evidence of what he can achieve - but this is not what he would have achieved in normal times. How can it be fair?

Seriously ignore other schools marks. Each school sets their own mocks. Maybe old papers or may be written by their own teachers

This is all very well until you want to use those grades to apply for another local sixth form 😢

DD yr 11 isn’t massively academic and got mock results today and they were dreadful.
In two science subjects one of which she was going to do for A level she got U’s think her target grades were 6’s and 7’s for these and she got an 8 in one of the last tests of the one she was going to choose at A level. Also she’s dyslexic so was assigned 25% extra time and didn’t take it as the exam rooms were freezing cold, they were in jumpers, the invigilators were grumpy and didn’t seem keen on them staying behind and she was already tired and extra time would have taken her beyond the school day. I picked her up and can confirm she was shivery and practically blue in the face every day. In a chemistry exam they didn’t hand out the periodic table until well into the exam. Those entitled to extra time weren’t given a separate room. I have emailed headteacher and got a bog standard reply basically suggesting DD emails teachers in subjects she’s concerned about and ask for feedback. She is so quiet and doesn’t like a fuss that this will be the last thing she will do. Fortunately she has passed maths and English but her A level options are severely reduced. Have tried to talk to her and be supportive twice today and both times she’s ended up in tears and shouting at me. Its so awful, they have had such a rubbish deal and the nightmare is ongoing.

SEriously ignore other schools marks. Each school sets their own mocks. Maybe old papers or may be written by their own teachers.

It is possible that the marks are down a bit because of lockdown. However in my son's super selective he had a range of 5-7s in mocks and got eight 9s, two 8s and a 7 in the real gcses.

High achieving schools tend not to hand out high grades in mocks to prevent complacency.

This says only about 40% of pupils were returning work in lockdown on average (30% in deprived areas, 50% in least deprived).

www.nfer.ac.uk/media/4073/schools_responses_to_covid_19_pupil_engagement_in_remote_learning.pdf

Think there were a lot of kids telling parents they were doing work but not actually doing it or logging on at start of lesson and cameras off so can play on phone / ipad / zone out. But results were up quite a lot in the end:

feweek.co.uk/2020/08/20/gcse-results-2020-top-grades-increase-with-nearly-four-in-five-pupils-achieving-a-pass/

At our school they gave out stats on engagement levels during lockdown and they were really low and they said it was their best week so far - it was something like 25% of students did nothing, 25% did less than 50%, 30% did 50% to 75% and 20% did 75% to 100%. Timetable was reduced to 3 lessons a day rather than 5 and not always following curriculum. So would imagine there would have been an impact on results and a greater gap between those at private / grammar and comps and those with parental help / tutors / support and those without. I would imagine they will adjust up like last year.

DD is in y10 and she thinks their school are doing maximum possible justifable grade but each school will vary. If he's just a little down think it will be fine and adjusted up but would ask school if you are concerned.

What marks are students getting?

And what would they normally get

I have this same question so glad you asked it!
How can they have done as well as previous years in November mocks when they missed out April to July face to face lessons.
I selfishly want them to keep the good marks and be marked up and ignore the bad marks !
Surely if the whole class have done badly in one subject the teacher and school won't be happy with having very low marks for everyone?