Secondary HOD English - GCSE Results

[EngHOD]

Don’t know if this is helpful to anyone but I’m a head of English. I’ve just finished crunching my numbers for school and have a couple of hours free if anyone wants to check anything re. their DC’s English Lang or Lit grades.

[Strulch]

My Son got 1 mark off a 5 in his English Language. The school got him to sign paperwork because they wanted it reassessed. With the grades you have seen this year how likely is it he will get a 5 do you think? Does the marking seem consistent with what you expected for students? One of his A-level subjects depends on a 5 in English Language. Many thanks

[EngHOD]

Hi @Strulch, if the school are suggesting an appeal, I’d always go with their decision. They know what they expected him to achieve and what he’s capable of. The risk is always that the mark will drop but as he’s only one mark off a 5, it’s very, very unlikely that a drop would change his grade so sounds like a good idea to me!

[StandingUpToday]

My DD got all 8 and 9s except English Lang and Lit where she got two 6s. She's always been brilliant at English, particularly English Language. She came out of that exam told me about it and it sounded like she'd done really well. Her mock had her at a 9. She's always done very well. Her History mark was an A* so clearly not a problem in expression or essay skills.
I've found out via her network that all her friends from school have the same pattern (whether high achievers or not), basically they're all a couple of grades lower than expected.
Any ideas what's going on? Could ot be the teaching or the marking?

[Catch21]

Similar to the post above. My DS got 9s and 8s in every other subject but a 6 and 7 in Eng Lang/lit. He was predicted 8s and felt that the exams went well. Any thoughts?

[EngHOD]

@StandingUpToday @Catch21 Sorry to hear this; that’s really disheartening. Unfortunately, what you’ve said suggests that the school may have over predicted based on the mock exam results, which is turn may either have not been marked adequately or may have been poorly chosen/ covered in too much detail prior to the mock exam.

The reason I say this is because in cases of examiner fault, you usually see an outlier; so you’d see a high Lang or Lit grade in comparison to the other. First thing to do is to contact the school and ask them the following things:

1. in their opinion, what has caused this big difference between predicted and actual grade?
   
2. ask to see the break down of marks per question for each paper. This will give you an idea of any missed questions or questions where DC has underperformed. It will also show you if a particular paper needs to be remarked. For instance, if DC achieved 60/80 on Paper 1 Lang but only 20/80 on Paper 2, that’s suggestive of examiner fault.
   
3. if the above suggests anything awry, request the scripts back (you could do this anyway if you’re curious) which won’t be available until 5th September but you’re then able to have them reviewed by school
   staff/ a private tutor for suitability for a remark.
   
4. again, if any of the above suggests undermarking, request a remark of the particular paper you feel is impacted BUT only do this if you/ the school is sure that the mark is going to go up OR your DC is nowhere near the boundary of the grade below. If they are a couple of marks into the grade, they could be pushed into the grade below.
   
   Hope that all makes sense.

[Mumoftwoinprimary]

As someone who writes technical papers for a living, can I just say that that explanation above was a thing of beauty. Well written prose, no jargon, correct level for the audience and no unnecessary waffle.

[EngHOD]

@Mumoftwoinprimary this has really made me laugh! Thank you: I will award myself a band 5 mark accordingly 😉