Will GCSE grades be consistent between schools this year?

But Herc, they've also told schools that they need to assess pupils at the grade they are currently working at and they have told schools that they should be using grade descriptors to decide this.

The two aren't compatible.

I have literally no idea how they are going to achieve this. I don't think Ofqual have either. They are starting to panic...

They pretty much told schools it has to be. I expect a slight uplift.

I personally think the distribution will be like the y1 phonics screening tests (where there is a dip in the score just below the pass score, and a peak at the pass score). I am expecting fewer 3s and more 4s, as the top 3s are given the benefit of the doubt.

Schools with A level criteria of e.g. 6s won't want non capable kids continuing on to then screw up their stats in 2 years' time, so probably won't be tempted to push kids up to meet that borderline.

Countrywide the grade distribution should be similar to 2019.

I have literally no idea how they are going to achieve this. I don't think Ofqual have either. They are starting to panic...

What has really upset me is that some schools are apparently allowing students to pick and choose which assessments they sit on the back of a provisional grade.

This shouldn't be happening as evidence used is supposed to be consistent for each subject and across the whole cohort (as much as possible). The exceptions are tiered subjects like maths and MFL. JCQ are clear on this, students/schools shouldn't be cherry picking.

It's a clusterfuck. For those who go on to further study it won't make much difference. For those that don't, it could impact on them.

Countrywide the grade distribution should be similar to 2019. Obviously everyone's child is an individual in the system.

I agree that for y13s it is a different matter, and seems to be turning uni entry into something of a lottery.

Teen, unfortunately A-levels are being graded in the same way, so not much comfort for Y13!

My school isn't using the exam board assessments precisely because they were put online, so we had to write our own.

Not entirely sure what we are paying the exam boards for, what we normally pay them for is producing and marking exam papers and we're having to do it all ourselves.

What has really upset me is that some schools are apparently allowing students to pick and choose which assessments they sit on the back of a provisional grade.

My dc has been in and out of hospital most recently a month ago. She was told she had to sit all the assessments whilst starting new heavy duty meds. Picking and choosing would have really helped. She has done really badly on these assessments which will pull her grades down even further.

As an aside can I ask school to reassure her and attempt to boost her moral or will that be seen as fishing for info?

It’s so crap, we had all this last year with siblings. I’m so over exams.😩

It seems to me, that once you have got your A levels / BTECs or whatever that GCSEs don't really matter much. I personally don't think it will impact uni admissions as the pandemic will be recent enough for them to know not to set too much store either way on the GCSEs.

Similarly it doesn't take long for GCSE grades to be largely irrelevant on job applications.

At least that's what I'm telling myself as DD is now only entered for 4 and if she passes any we'll be jumping for joy.

We’ve been told that the bulk of their grades will come from the assessments they’re currently sitting

Same here. Had a frustrating parents evening last week where the only thing they were allowed to say was to keep working hard! No performance measurements allowed in case the parents interpret them into grades...

Send a fruit basket, paralysed! We're all maxed out on biscuits. Thanks lockdown.

There's a list of exam questions that the schools are using, that they've seen before and the kids could also see them before the exam? Have I understood that correctly?

The adults that matter (parents) will know how hard their children worked.
Once they are on the next stage the grades won't really matter longer term.

I personally think it would have been less of a mess to have more option questions in proper formal exams. But given that they had to make the call ahead of time and some areas have had massive disruption, I can see why they didn't.

Nothing's fair in a pandemic.

There are no new questions produced by the exam boards for schools to use to keep them secret.
Yet the exam boards still waited until the end of March to then release these publicly instead of the ‘new questions’ teachers were expecting.
Keeping teachers in the dark last term that there would be no new questions to fairly assess their pupils was shameful.
Exam board training (last minute webinars) has also included the need to inform pupils of topics beforehand.
Of course, not every school is putting together assessments from these questions and I can understand why they would choose not to.

Genuine honest questions though:

What did anyone think would be done, when the DforE scrapped exams in England (and elsewhere months and months before that) with no plan?
Did people really think no exams meant no assessment/work produced at all and teachers would just magically know what to award?
Did anyone think the DforE, when they were holding off for months telling schools what the guidance would be, (leaving it till Easter), did that because they were working hard to produce thoughtful, clear and fair solutions?

Of course not, the DforE just washed their hands of it like they did last summer and happy for people to be annoyed at schools and blaming different procedures schools/departments use, rather than the gov, Ofqual and JCQ’s laughable grade descriptors that are pure nonsense.

The thing that makes me so sad is that people will read these threads and threads like these, and assume all pupils from Year 11 and 13 do not deserve their grades that they do end up with and despite their hard work during a pandemic for pretty much the entirety of their qualification, whatever they get, it won’t mean much to the adults in their world.

I agree it's totally unethical @TeenMinusTests, but I think the government has to take responsibility for creating this situation and publishing the assessments online. It's incredibly unfair for those students who don't get that kind of help. I can only hope that the schools attended by @Lionsdinner's tutees decide not to use the assessments provided and produce their own instead.

Otherwise, we are essentially encouraging the kids with savvy, well informed parents to cheat. And as always, it is the disadvantaged kids without support who get left at the bottom of the pile. Frankly, I hope that schools are spoonfeeding those kids in order to level the playing field a bit.

It's such a mess and cannot possibly be done consistently when there are as many different approaches as there are schools. I do have faith that individual teachers will try their very best to give marks that are as fair and accurate as possible under the circumstances, but it's far from ideal and the government seem to have washed their hands of the whole thing. I guess it will be easy for them to blame teachers if it all goes wrong.

It's frustrating for pupils like dd, who were on track to do really well, because their grades will be devalued and nobody will take them seriously. It must be incredibly worrying for kids who are on the borderline of getting the grades that they need for the next stage - ours don't even know what data will be used for their assessments yet. As @TeenMinusTests has suggested, I think it would be fair to push any child on the border between a 3 and a 4 up into the 4 this year. These kids have had such a tough year.

The teachers must be exhausted. Ours have been absolutely fabulous this year, without a single exception - there is usually a dud one in amongst the mix, but they have all been brilliant. Would it be weird to send in a box of biscuits or something for staff, safely after the deadline for submitting any teacher assessed grades? I am already planning a letter to the head teacher.

I imagine they'll come out with what they would have got

That depends on whether you mean ‘what they would have got if covid hadn’t happened and they’d done the course as expected’ or ‘what they would have got had they sat national exams and were graded against kids who had never had to isolate, full remote teaching etc’.

Neither of which is what they are supposed to get according to the guidance, of course.