GCSE Support - the results are in

We are not bothering with a remark of the Biology. DD got a perfectly good grade (with a lot of hard work) and she is rightly proud of the effort she put in. She went up two full grades from her mock result and is very pleased, as she should be. She'd have been perfectly happy to have gone up one grade! The school hasn't pushed her to go for a remark, just said she can if she wants to. So no snowploughing here either.

Not sure if it helps or hinders your decision but I requested the AQA Biology scripts as my daughter was 1 mark off the next grade.
Thought I would have a look and then pass to her teacher to assess.
Now, whilst my A levels were a number of years ago, my interpretation is that her paper is missing a lot more than 1 mark! Its actually shockingly poorly marked and whilst in the the overall scheme of things it makes no difference to my daughters overall results it does make me cross that they didn't mark her work with suitable care and attention..

I'm still not sure whether to query dds music result. I'm sure she said whatever the teacher had marked at school was already a 7/8 so still struggling to understand how she got the highest mark of the year with a 5 and the majority of the class failed.
Got to say music this year has been a total shit show with different teachers, teachers not bothering to turn up as other things were more important and not starting music theory till 3 weeks before the exam.
She did say the head of music looked like he was going to explode when she picked her results at.
She's a 4/5 kid so this was going to be her sure thing top mark!

Similar situation here although ours did improve a bit since a new head took over just before covid. Also a lot of subs/turnover across the key areas of Maths, English and Science. I've never asked for an exam review before and DS is my 4th and youngest child.

Maths had such a high amount of subs through his entire time at school I did get him a tutor from Jan - June. To be honest without that input I think he could have easily ended up with a grade 3 rather than the 5 he got. If I had realised the schools prediction for English was way off I would've probably got him a bit of English tutoring too.

Really it was from reading here that I thought why the hell not ask for the review. If it was more than 3 marks away and he discrepancy between predicted and actual grades not so massive I probably wouldn't bother.

I'm not doing it for any other subject because although others are lower in some cases than what he hoped everything except Eng Lit makes some sense.

DD’s school is a comprehensive. They had all the marks on the sheets and a teacher with all the grade boundaries in front of them who advised anyone who asked on how close to next grade they were.

They had a form for remarks and if you were a mark off they advised you to take it and hand it in at the exam office. They paid if you were just one mark off. They’re not a particularly pushy school..so it isn’t just grammars or selectives. however they certainly weren’t advising it for more than a mark or two

Don't worry too much. I know of a young man who encountered a similar situation. He did really well on the L2 course, went through to Level 3 then on to Uni. It took him a year longer than anticipated but all was fine in the end.

If finances allow find him a tutor for English who understands dyslexic kids.

I hope everything works out for him.

I definitely do not fit in the snowplough parent category. My DD school has been for five years rated by ofsted as “needs improvement & inadequate” it’s not improved in the whole five years she’s been there! We are potentially appealing a 1 mark off a science grade as they failed to finish teaching the curriculum and had multiple sub-teachers it was quite frankly a shit show most of the last six months. Some parents do not have a choice of other options for schooling without being able to pay for private. We did get tutor support for 2 subjects, despite this DD passed all her exams but missed a key subject for two of her A level options, hence why we are seeing if there’s an option to get a review and gain that one mark.

The actual marks are all provided by the exam board when they send the results? nothing wrong with providing them to the student. Like PP said, it's useful for knowing how close or not they were to the grade boundaries. If a child is a few marks off the next grade needed for a subject at college why is it wrong or why the weird nicknames being given to parents encouraging their dc to seek a review or trying to get more info from the school? In this life the DC/YP will have many problems to solve by themselves, that's a given but thank goodness there are some parents can help with. Everything doesn't have to be a hard life lesson.

DS1's 11-16 comprehensive (so everyone has to go elsewhere after year 11) gave out sheets of paper showing the actual marks. When he came back from collecting them I was so relieved with the grades as it was clear that he had clearly met all requirements from his 2 most likely choices to study his choice of A levels. It was only from reading Mumsnet threads that I realised there might be extra info in the envelope, and also that the envelope contained more than one sheet of paper - 4 actually - one with a list of all his grades, and then results from 3 different boards (7, 1, and 1).

The grade boundaries were available online quite soon after kids picked up their results, so not only to schools or parents who prioritise league tables, and I do think the information is useful for students and parents who need to negotiate or make difficult decisions following results.

Absolutely this — it’s the next iteration of the helicopter parent basically. Actively clearing the path for their children. Well intentioned absolutely, but ultimately harmful because it both destroys the children’s self esteem and their ability to problem solve for themselves.

I’m assuming it’s similar to what Danish people (and I think other Scandinavians) call curling parents. People who sweep the way in front of their children so that they have an easier time and travel further in life.

Some schools and the parents who chose these schools just focus too much on their ranking and performance in the league tables. Delay the announcement of the school level exam result until the rival schools reveal theirs, and if the result is poor, embellish or disguise it in the best way possible. Requesting remarks and reviews of papers to increase the tiny percentage of chance for higher grades.

What’s a snowplough parent?! 🤣

I agreeit does seem to be a certain type of school who are keen for parents to go down this route. DSs school didn't provide the marks until I asked for them, just typed the grades up on some school letter headed paper for each student. So unless you were up on how this worked you wouldn't even know that the actual marks were available.

I find it very interesting all these (it seems mostly private or selective grammars) schools urging re-marks and are very next day set up ready with charts of the boundaries. I’m all for being an advocate for your children but surely at some point they have to make the grade boundary somewhere, and unless you suspect there is a serious marking error you have to move on and help your child understand that sometimes things don’t go their way and to learn from the experience rather than clear their path for them? prepares for flaming from snowplough parents

Same here at our boys grammar school. Ds was given sheets with his exam marks and grades. There were tables set up with teachers checking grade boundaries and advising based on that. We were strongly advised to remark as only one mark off, but have opted to request the papers first and go from there.

To be fair, the school don't generate the grade boundaries themselves and won't have a document of them all from anywhere to share with you.

Each exam board published their grade boundaries on their own websites either at or after the time the results embargo was lifted - schools literally didn't have this access any faster than the public and to search (yes, probably Google), download, collate, print and add to hundreds of results envelopes clearly would have delayed the results.

Thanks all
My DC's school is not the best most organised, and so it's helpful to know how other schools approached it. To be fair DC1 hit her predicted grades and has what she needs, so I don't have a horse in this race, but I am surprised that the marks weren't passed on if schools have them already.

Do most schools provide the scripts/marks with the results, or have you all requested them?

Ours had total marks for subject on the results sheet (aside from Eng lan which teachers on here say is due to a software issue) but I think candidate consent is required for schools to download the actual scripts ?

Sadly my DS didn’t pass English. He is severely dyslexic and passed other GCSE’s including Maths. The college have refused to let him resit English alongside his media/gaming level 3 course so he is not allowed to do the course. His only choice is to do a level 2 course alongside resitting his English. We were told that the rules have changed and, although this would have been possible a year or two ago, it is not now ☹️. Does anyone else also have this issue?

No not ours, and when I asked about grade boundaries they told to me to Google it.
Very helpful.

I had to ask for them.

We were given a slip with the grades and then all of the marks e.g. (made up numbers) French, 8, 165/240.

The teachers had a table with the grade boundaries for each subject so you could check how far you were away from them. They were also specifically recommending getting the paper to people on the borderline/with surprising results.

Do most schools provide the scripts/marks with the results, or have you all requested them?

I contacted Drama, Media, art and maths for DD.
Art teacher was, as expected, a twat who was so condescending. But I've now asked headteacher to look.
Drama teacher was brilliant as usual, said he knew she would be gutted about the results and he said regardless of waiting to start drama A'Level, there is the school production, and he and said of course she can continue singing as well at the choir (she took a step back due to studying). He genuinely said he was really quite shocked at the results this year, he said there has been some ridiculously harsh marking. He said she was 8 marks off a 7 due to written exam and in his view it wasn't worth pursuing as what she got was the highest of the class and it's costly to appeal.
Media said actually, considering mocks, a 4 which is a pass is fine and when linked with 5s in English she can do media next year.
Maths was so upset! Said she had been keeping everything crossed for a 4, but felt the grading was going to be the downfall and was. She told DD that when she got a u in January, now a 3, it shows she can achieve something when she tries. She has said she will of course help next year, her door is always open and to trust the tutor who deals with the resit class.

With regards moving school, we are going to look on the 4th at the sixth near our new home but she's adamant she's not interested. They don't offer drama A'Level. To her that's a deal-breaker. However, they don't prevent the students doing A'levels as planned whilst the resit maths. So why our current school told us this was a national rule I've no idea but will be asking them.

Meanwhile, DS is saying it's his hope to go now but there is a waitlist for this year's 11 from September, no surprise as we always struggled with school places for his Cohort.

She's far calmer now. Art still makes her cross. Her friends have been amazing, offering tutoring and kind words.