to think thank fuck we don't live in England with this stupid results system going on?

[ssd]

by christ Michael Gove has really fucked up with this, it seems to be a change for the worst and is very confusing

why was this introduced, it doesn't seem to be clear to anyone, this is an awful system for the kids to get their heads around, this gov should be ashamed of themselves.

Its perfectly understandable. They'll all be graded 9-1 next year, this is just the first phase.

I don't remember this hand wringing over A-E (O'Leve;ls) then 1-5 (CSEs) followed by A-G, then A* (GCSEs) . I'm sure we will all cope counting from 1-9

There's even an idiots guide

www.gov.uk/government/news/new-gcse-9-to-1-grades-coming-soon

glad it's so clear to you stilldrivingmebonkers, but you seem to be in the minority according to every news programme I've seen today.

I can't legislate for MSM editing to make the general populace look dimmer than a 40 watt light bulb.

The young people understand it, its been drummed into them for the last two years.

I think its just change when Scotland moved from standardgrades to the Nat's first year results was chaos nobody seemed to make heador tail of it according tothe news. Dd was the last year to do Standard grades so im not sure how they are marked,

It's totally pointless and massively unfair on students and that's my opinion as a secondary maths teacher.

I don't mind them creating an additional higher grade, I object to them combining lower grades making low achievers feel even more crap and substandard. I also object to them changing some subjects but not others.

And all the confusion over whether a 4 or a 5 is a pass is so unfair, this should have been clarified two years ago when these children started studying for the course, as should approximate expectations for each grade.

I feel very lucky not to have a child who just finished year 11 or 10, hopefully for those in year 9 or below teachers will finally have a clue whats going on. So far we have been left pretty much in the dark as to what each grade means.

Totally agree with Mrs Jayy - the Scottish government introduced Nat4/5 qualifications and that was appallingly managed too. Still causing trouble and still very controversial.

Hardly fair to blame Gove - he's not alone in meddling with education.

bonkers, you are making some sweeping statements there

Its perfectly understandable

The young people understand

what makes you able to speak for everyone on this?

And in a few years when the kids are starting to gain more 9's there is the option to increase the grades to a 10... or 11...

wasn't Gove in charge of education when these changes were introduced?

There was hand wringing about the GCSE introduction. But social media wasn't about to fuel it.

The new system is totally unthought through and unfair. It is change for the sake of change. Kids are expected to learn while sections of Shakespeare's plays etc which is absolutely pointless especially in today's world. It's infuriating.

Also the government were totally underprepared for the changes. There were no clear guides for teachers. Our kids have been taught in the dark

wasn't Gove in charge of education when these changes were introduced?

He was. But your thread title says "thank fuck we don't live in England" as if other parts of the UK are immune to fuckwittery. Welsh kids are doing the same new GCSE and Scottish kids are doing the Nat 5s, which were also a disaster.

So unless you're living in Northern Ireland....

There wasn't the handwringing about the move from o level/cse to gcse because there had been several years of trials (eg entering candidates for both o levels and cses to align standards) before the system went live, and the old exam papers/mark schemes mapped over to the new system.

So it had already been designed and the first alignment dual-entered exams had taken been sat before Keith Joseph announced in June 1984 that teaching for gcse wouid begin in 2 years time, first 'live' exams in 1988.

The problem here is not that there is change, but that it has been rushed through, and the absence of the period of careful planning that went with the changes of the 1980s

It's not difficult to understand the grading system. That's not the issue.

However, having children who have just completed A levels and GCSEs this year, I have no confidence that the marks they've received are an accurate reflection of their academic abilities. I'm sure plenty other parents feel this same and it's this aspect of the system that's screwed.

I agree with ethels and fruit

When/where I was at school we were graded 1 - 15 (1 the worst, 15 the best)

scholes

On another thread people are talking about remarks going up by 12/16 points!

Learning Shakespeare is far from pointless itsmetree

Don't school exam results only really count for the college or uni you want to go to? Do employers really take that much notice of the difference between 3 and 4 or b and c?

The colleges and universities will be comparing students from the same year so the same grading, so if student a is better than student b it'll be apparent in their results regardless of the system ?

Any exam system that classes a pass rate in maths as 15% is pretty screwed up.

What was wrong with grading alphabetically?

shoving

They ran out of letters

Notice that the new grades start at 1

I was doing a GCSE in 1988 that was still awaiting a syllabus halfway through the course

Thanks Rufus. Apologies if I am being thick, (v tired!) but do you mean that they already had A*, and couldn't squeeze in a higher grade after that?

Not even the government understand their own system, still, so it's impressive that you've managed to find it so simple.

Leaving some of the more problematic aspects out of the idiots guide does make it seem much simpler than the fuck up the government have made of it.