To think parents completing their childrens A level work is unfair.

[GlamGiraffe]

I dont mean helping a bit, I mean doing the coursework themselves.

DS is in the final year of a levels and goes to a school with a particularly high population of parents who are artists, designers etc by profession. He is battling to complete his work for both art and dt and despite working away at school and home is not managing to keep up to anything near the same level as a lot of the students. Recently they have been laughing and commenting about how their parents do all of their work, one girls mother apparently has written more than 80% of her history of art essay alone which comprises a significant proportion of the mark, another boys mother has produced all of his DT work and produced all the drawings etc. These are just as examples of the type of things that are happeneing).

I am aware we all try to help our children but surely there has to be a line (And we dont all have the same suitable skills). Children are not being marked against their peers any longer. A different marking system needs to be instigated. Perhaps smaller projects only carried out in school?
Am I unreasonable to think the system is now ridiculously unfair?

At my uni we are seeing young people who can't cope with independent study because parents have been heavily involved at school. It's so unhelpful and unfair on kids who are self-motivated.

No way would I do this Teaching my DC personal integrity is more important to me
I couldnt agree more with this. My sons school is famous for its bon pushy laissez faire attitude.its focus is on growing as a person. School nor I put on no pressure for his gcses. His results were good, but not amazing. I know every single bit of that work was done entirely by himself, hes not a clone who learns parrot fashion. I'm really proud of that.

non

That's awful. They have no pride or trust in their children's work or abilities. Assessed work should be carried out in a supervised environment students and teachers do sign to say it's all their own work. You could report the school to the exam board as the teacher must be at least suspicious

I would bypass the school tbh and report to the board.
I know how your child feels. I started my education in my 30's, finally got to degree level to find parents writing dissertations for their dc.
I had 3 kids and struggled to get it done, but I did.
The ones who cheated got a first and I got a 2.1. It is totally unfair but at least with A level they'll not get much further when they come to start uni. It will soon become apparent they aren't up to it.

It's not fair for your DS. Have you brought it up with the school?

My DD is doing a subject which i have a lot of experience in but she won't accept any help from me. To be fair it's all about knowing the marking critria, not just producing a good piece.

In A level Art it's 15 hours to produce a finished final body of work under exam conditions. Surely it will show up that the students have't been doing their own work if there's a significant drop in the standard of work between the coursework and exam work?

The fact my son couldnt do ant more for DT if he tried as it takes so long plus ome of these responses encpuragedme to mention the situation to the DT teacher today. He said he was well aware of the commitment levels of DS and some of the other pupils for whom the volume of work is impossible to complete and so has given them a few days extension and extra support with their portfolios. They are clearly aware of the situation I gather and do provide the examiners with full details of the students work and how it was achieved to propose grade for them. I feel better now even if it makes no difference 😊

Isn't this behaviour simply called "cheating"?

Coursework is shit, for more or less this very reason.

The other side of the coin I suppose is that exams are shit in the sense that cramming & then spewing out a load of stuff within a very short space of time is nothing like the real world of work or even academic research.

My FIL still helps DH write job applications- word for word. He's working for a prestigious company now, but I shouldn't complain.

@SandyY2K my mum was ill. My dad worked 7 days a week.

Not sure about the coursework thing: DD was not so good at exams and purposely chose A level courses that were 50% coursework. And she always did a grade or so better in the coursework than the exam. She did do her own coursework though.

I have certainly been guilty of throwing in the odd finely crafted sentence when my kids are pulling together UCAS statements or job applications, but I mostly leave them to it.

🤔

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-40946785

I have a friend who hugely supported her DDs with their school work, helping with homework, revision etc so they basically never did anything independently. They were clever but lazy. She is now completing her DD2’s uni work and writing up her lecture notes from recordings. She is worried about DD being thrown off the course (as basically too busy socialising to work) but this way she’s never going to learn from her mistakes or how to study independently.

We all want to help our DC to do well but it has to be in a way that encourages them to do it for themselves. Cheating by doing their work is not helping them. But apparently I just don’t understand as my DC are a little younger (GCSEs next year).

I know two students whose practical DT
Textiles coursework was challenged by examiners and it was found that both their mothers had hired professional teylors to make the outfits. There was a massive bust up at the school as the subject teacher had had their doubts but didn't address them. Both students were failed in the subject. It was GCSE work though not A level

Have to say my BiL, who teaches a practical subject, does a massive amount of his students’ coursework himself, because they are mostly lazy buggers and his salary depends on the grades they get.

When I was teaching I was told to write coursework for pupils at risk of not completing it. It didn't go down too well when I refused.

I can't understand the parents. I jumped through all those hoops years ago - no way am I starting homework again at my age!

Course it's unfair. It's fraudulent. All pupils have to complete a form confirming that their coursework is their own work.

What I always wonder on these threads is whether it's always gone on. I did every scrap of GCSE and A-level coursework myself, and never had the slightest bit of help or support. Chance would have been a fine thing. One of my parents once got drunk and tried to tear up my A-level homework because they didn't approve of me taking the subject. Discovering that my peers were not only not being sabotaged, but might also have been having their work proofread, edited and in some cases written for them has made me feel rather hard done by.

Wasn't there an allegation that Prince Harry's teacher had done his A-level art coursework for him?

I knew a guy who "failed" his PhD due to plagiarism. It's taken very seriously if found out and can really affect your future.

This thread just reminded how my DC learned not to ask for my help.....my oldest DD wanted me to help her with her mathematics in Primary 2....when her homework was returned all the answers that I helped with were wrong...never asked again🤣. I swear I thought they were the right answers!

Surely this is plagiarism and should be treated as such.

Many years ago, my dd was in kinder and some parents used to do their children's homework. I don't know who they thought they were fooling or what benefit they imagined there was for their children.

It is just one of the many advantages children of middle class well educated parents have over poorer kids eg grammar schools ,tutoring,work experience in friends businesses
Very unfair,but what realistically can be done

It starts in primary school.Your child takes in a wonky Easter decoration and is demoralised as others bring inthings that no 5yr old could produce.Everyone knows and they still give the parent made decorations first place.