Will GCSE grades be consistent between schools this year?

DS is in the middle of a full four weeks of internal exams in proper exam conditions. I am very thankful that he seems well prepared, and is taking it in his stride, but I know several kids who have just stressed massively for the past year, and are now in danger of under-performing as a result. These are some of the brightest kids. The teachers won't have the evidence to put these kids forward for the top grades they would have got. And at the other end there are loads of kids who just dropped off the radar in lockdown, and have missed so much they could never catch up. It's heart-breaking.
Total respect, sympathy and gratitude to all the teachers who have worked so hard this year, and faced so much.

DD2's school are grading on the assessments happening now, but are also collating portfolios of evidence to use if grades are queried externally. Frankly I don't care any more - this is on the government for completely failing to have plans in place in case of a second year where exams could not take place as normal. That planning should have been in place by September of last year.

@TenIsRackIt My DD has SEN and at times I am almost glad (!??) she crumbled with MH issues at the start of lockdown and hasn't been able to return to school or access much education.

It has meant that we gave up on doing a full set of GCSEs ages ago, and I am now in control (sort of) of the stress she is now under. I honestly don't think she would have coped even at her best with the current situation, and that is at a school that I think is doing relatively well to manage stress of their pupils.

I said last year when people were going on about the poor y11s then (full set of preparation, just missed on the stress of exams and their prom, teachers had all mocks and tests to go on) that our y11s would have it much worse.

I've given up worrying about things outside my control. What will be will be. All we can do is look after our young people the best we can.

Firstly, to all teachers, SLT and exam officers. This is such a crappy time, and yes I hold Williamson and the rest of the government responsible for the sh1t show. Thank you for doing all you can to make the best of an impossible situation.

I think the impact on teachers' MH and retention of staff will be huge. Schools will be affected by this debacle for years.

I also think the impact on year 11 and 13s' MH is very worrying. They have had to cope with so much restriction in a precious time in their lives, and then to face assessments/exams/uncertainty and inbuilt unfairness for these important exams feels cruel.

One significant concern I have is around those kids with SEND. While each school may have given their students the same opportunities to learn, certain groups of students would benefit from the normal consolidation work that happens in the run up to exams. Exam technique, specific revision plans, catch up sessions usually happen in March/April/May, which really help them reach their potential.

These small, extra boosts for kids with SEND can make the difference of one or two grades. There has been no time for this work this year. Kids with SEND are going into these assessments with less preparation than their peers in previous years would have got, and so will most likely underperform. While the school will allocate grades (most likely using ranking), it is these SEND students that will be disproportionately affected and do less well than they would have in any other year. There is no allowance made for this missed essential stage of learning in the official guidance - SEND students have been ignored (again).

Here in Wales, the situation is equally as dire. We counted up one of our pupil's assessments - 54. She'd rather have had a crack at the real thing.

I'm a firm believer in teaching our kids to be resilient but this is pressure way too far. I'm massively concerned for my Year 11's well-being as they navigate this. The inconsistencies between schools is also staggering and unfair - I've had network meetings with other Heads of Dept for my subject area and there are differences in the way the assessments are being handled. There's also uncertainty from our examining board (WJEC) as to some of the advice being given over one aspect of one assessment - it's totally open to interpretation.

These kids are stressed and it's relentless. I'm deeply concerned for them.

@noblegiraffe
However, we also have to manage the stress for the pupils, so remind your child that they are not competing against the other schools for grades. If the school down the road is giving their kids the answers, they’ll have to figure out how to award a range of grades when everyone scores highly. The school that sets a harder exam will be giving top grades to the kids who did best on those exams, even if their raw scores are much lower than the school down the road.

I hope you are right, if so that is very reassuring. But it isn't what some of DD's teachers are saying, a couple of teachers have told the kids how disappointed they are with their results so far (notibly the same teachers who did bugger all during lockdown) and to be aware that they don't need to award any top grades at all this year if people don't get high enough scores. DD has been in bits. She has also completely changed her A level choices, because it has become very clear which teachers are willing to be supportive or not.

So intense LynetteSavo I feel for them all.

And less revision time/study leave than they would have done if the official exams hadn’t been cancelled. Poor poor things.

DD did mocks before Christmas- she's now doing full exams with outside invigilators. Oddly they only have one exam for sciences and RE, Maths there are three exams , English and English Lit there are two. It's very intense compared to the usual exam timetable.

Today 20:32 Phineyj

Ours are doing their assessments in exam conditions with invigilators!“

Others are t so the answer to the question is likely no, they won’t.

Just as much of a mess with A’s. We’ve given up worrying now, they’ll do their best and it will be what it will be.

The grade descriptors are mad. The requirements for evidence are mad. The turnaround is INSANE. I am HOD of a writing heavy core subject where every Y11 gets 2 gcses (no prizes for guessing what).

Every single member of staff is drowning. We are damned whatever we do. In 10 years I have never seen so many senior members of staff in tears.

Y11 started assessments yesterday. Y13 was last week. I have already marked 70 papers and I have another 30 to do tomorrow. On top of reaching everyone else, trying to hold the kids' mental health together, my team's and then my own.

I love my job, but the last 3 weeks has pushed EVERYONE to the edge and we need to hold DforE accountable.

Ours are doing their assessments in exam conditions with invigilators!

A simplified version of the grade descriptions (this did make me laugh amongst the shit show we all find our DCs in):

9: Better then an 8
8: Not as good as a 9
7: Neither an 8 nor a 6
6: Could be better
5: Good enough
4: Not bad
3: Not good enough
2: Something
1: Better than nothing
U: Nothing

Can you give an example?

The grade descriptor for Computer Science GCSE for a grade 9 is “like an 8 but better”. The grade descriptor of a grade 8, is just 3 sentences.

They can all be found here www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Summer-2021-Grade-Descriptors-GCSE.pdf

We all have to produce ‘buckets’ of evidence per child. Physical evidence to bass a grade on basically.
This can consist of mock papers, assessments, NEAs or partial NEA’s, homework, topic tests etc.

Exam boards envisage between 3-5 pieces of evidence per child (inc A Level), according to the training webinar I had to attend. These buckets then need to show what evidence is high, medium or low quality (high being sat under exam conditions right in front of you, low being homework or assessment work done at home during remote learning).

These have to be moderated by at least one other person and signed off by two people in a dept. (If a one person dept then by SLT.

Each bucket of evidence has to then be matched to JCQ’s grade descriptors for each child and written.

Grades must not be discussed with pupils as that would be malpractice. The exam boards did say pupils could know scores, however.

This is just a small summary of what is being asked of, from pupils, teachers and school staff such as exams officers. Meanwhile, exam boards and DforE so sweet FA.

Oh ...I see what you mean. They may as well have written...

Grade 9 - brilliant
Grade 8 - not as good as a grade 9
Grade 7 - not as good as a grade 8
And so on ..

The MH impact of this is a worry.

Maths GCSE grade descriptors: twitter.com/just_maths/status/1375507484060774400?s=21

Gems like
Grade 4: Interpret and communicate information

Grade 5: Interpret and communicate information effectively

Grade 6: Interpret and communicate information accurately

Grade 7: Not as bad as a grade 6, but not as good as a grade 8

Grade 8: Interpret and communicate complex information accurately

Grade 9: Better than a grade 8

No, of course they won't be. How can they be?

@ChloeDecker is very accurate @TeenMinusTests - the majority of his students are doing the shadow paper though that was released (hes maths so it’s a lot easier to look up) and only teachers can access this on Edexcel Emporium (I’m sure there’s a black market though and I’m also sure other schools use diff exam boards). It’s just the way it is, students did this for mocks when I was at school and they do it now.

DP’s school are using everything up until now. They spent hours ranking every student and they match this against their final test results. This will impact scores but if a child was on a 4 all year but for an 8 in the exams, he wouldn’t get an 8 overall. Which I think is fair, exams do benefit those that are good at them rather than consistent hard work.

Also unfortunately every person DP has helped so far, he has got the paper right. There are three papers and a lot of the schools have already set the first.

Apparently it’s very hard for them to chop and change due to Mark scheme and grade boundaries

This is true. The grade descriptors for maths are laughable.