How are this year’s GCSE results going to compare to normal years?

[Tonylepony]

Considering they’ve had massive disruption during the entire 2 year courses, some schools haven’t completed syllabus’s, loads of dc couldn’t/wouldn’t access home learning, no time for revision/consolidation work in school. As teachers have to assess what level dc are currently at, not where they should have been, are this year’s results going to be much worse than previous years?

If anything I think they will mirror last year and be a lot better than usual.

Teachers are way more likely to be over estimating and under estimating and there’s no doubt they will taking all the things you’ve mentioned into account and not measuring against a normal year 11 who has completed the whole course.

I’d be much more concerned about whether they have the developed the skills needed to achieve their potential on their next courses.

Teachers need actual proof of the dc being at a certain level from assessments so I don’t think they’re allowed to be over generous.

We're moving this thread over to our Chat topic for the OP.

I don't know. I trust the teachers though.

I think there could be an issue where a school has been working hard to improve grades over the last couple of years or so but doesn't have the historic data to back up any improvements iyswim?

I’m a teacher. The results will mirror previous years as they generally always do. As professionals we know our students really well and can usually grade them effectively through collecting evidence of class work and school based assessments.

They can pick that prof carefully though. As proved by last years results were way higher than usual.

On an average year so many young people will have a bad day on exam day, have things going on that stop revision etc and therefore don’t achieve their predicted grade. There’s less risk of that this year when work from multiple different days can be used as evidence.

I would be willing to bet a lot of money on this years GCSE and A level grades being higher than in 2019.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/inews.co.uk/news/education/gcse-results-2020-grades-inflation-7-above-grading-system-583624/amp

Grades were significantly higher last year without exams happening. This has been a horribly stressful time for teenagers and everything is being done to make sure they don’t achieve lower grades than they would have without covid.

Every school is handling this differently, but the teachers do have to provide evidence for their grades, they're then both internally and externally moderated.

My DD is in Y11, and they're basing grades on the following:

1. GCSE level quality of work done from Sep 19-Mar 21 - eg past paper questions, coursework etc.

1. A week of exams in March (using normal public examination rules).

1. A week of exams in May (as above) - these are effectively 'Paper 2' exams.

1. A week of short exams in June (no longer than 1 hour), where they will use the Ofqual supplied questions, selected to reflect what has been covered.

However, a local school is basing their marks on mocks done in November, and a series of in-class assessments, so very different. I think that school will be nearly finished for the year already.

It's a difficult, imperfect situation. My DD is absolutely DONE, and to a certain extent, she's just looking forward to the next thing (A Levels and a new school), it's been absolutely shit for them. Their whole GCSE period from March 2020 (Y10) until June, they've had to completely be constantly on their game, forever being told that every bit of work submitted may count towards their final mark (and sure enough it is). There has been very little extra-curricular stuff, and their lives have been enormously narrowed when they should be getting broadened. I know it's been a shit year for all of us, and for some groups more than others, and I include these poor older teens/young adults in that cohort - GCSEs, A Levels, starting Uni/apprenticeships/graduate roles. They can never regain that time when you grow exponentially.

@Busygoingblah I really hope so. I have a year 11 and the pressure they’re under is immense. They’re about to start 3 weeks of assessments (basically GCSEs) and have been told the marks for these will be their final grades. Seems really unfair after everything they’ve missed.

But the whole point of the assessments (which are not compulsory) being as they are this year is so teachers can tailor them to the content their particular class has been able to study.

@FluffMagnet ds’s school has somehow managed to complete the syllabus’s therefore these upcoming assessments could be on anything on the syllabus as in normal years and are the same length as normal GCSEs.