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?

The making of a volcano or a Roman villa teaches nothing about geography or history and is simply to have on display around school. There are no learning qualities in it for a non creative child.

The 'art' in achieving a decent mark is to make sure that 'whoever' does it makes it look like a 12yr old non creative boys has.

Apart from the building of irrelevant models, my children surpassed my academic level long before yr9

This happened a lot when my children met primary school so I believe some parents will help their children cheat if given the chance. However, by A-level the number of parents who could do a better job than their children must be quite low. Plus, at my children's school much of the art was done in the classroom which would make it quite hard to cheat I would have thought. There isn't much coursework in most GCSEs and A-levels nowadays anyway how much help parents provide? Even if I could help I don't think I would risk it. Supposing they ended up with a low mark and I got the blame?

met were

I know loads of parents whose DC are at a school near the top of the league tables every year and they all talk quite openly about doing their DCs' GCSE coursework for them.

There isn't much coursework in any of the GCSEs nowadays apart from a few subjects like art. Being a doctor or city professional doesn't make you good at art.

There's coursework in all of DD's A-levels, and I know it's the same for several of her friends as they moan about it.

English, drama, art, history, French, DT, film studies -- those all still have a coursework element.

DD did history A-level recently and was no coursework. There was for English but it would involve a lot of work for a parent to do the coursework and unless they were an English teacher themselves they probably wouldn't do very good job. For art they have to do a lot of the work at school so again parental contribution would have been limited.

I guess it must depend on the exam board, then. Wish there hadn't been a history project to blight the whole of September, really!

Of course it starts early. When I worked in a library, with 2 good primary schools nearby, we always knew when a project was coming up, because the first sharp-elbowed mothers would be in, trying to clear the shelves of every single book on the Vikings, or whatever it was.

Once we twigged, it was limited to 3, and even that was generous since they all said much the same things.
But some of them evidently just wanted to stop anyone else getting any.

It is more than unfair, it is fraudulent.
I have never heard of anyone doing this and am completely shocked that anyone would consider it.
None of my children have done GCSEs or A levels with significant course work apart from the practical part of music GCSE anyway though. I didn't know it was still a thing - I thought everything was all final exams now. I guess that would be difficult for things like art and DT but I am surprised to hear that academic subjects are still coursework assessed. It is 5 years since my eldest did her A levels and they were all exams then (arts/humanities) and my middle child is doing his now which are 100% on the final exams (sciences). I've always thought that a lot of assessed coursework was a bad idea and having read some of these comments I am even more convinced.

My DD2 did History and English A levels with, I think, about 25% coursework two years ago. I don’t think I even proof read it to be honest.

DD1’s A levels were 6 years ago and she specifically chose ones that were 50% coursework because she thinks she’s no good at exams. She chose her sixth form college on the basis of the English A level course they offered being 50% coursework.

Ironically she worked so hard and improved her skills so much she got a solid A on her final English exam but her grade overall was a B. She might after all have got a better grade if everything was riding on that final exam.

I hate this also, it happened when I was at school and I’m sure it’ll happen when my kids get to that age (and, arguably, happening now at primary).

And yep - if it counts against their final GCSE, A Level, degree etc, it’s fraud.

It doesn’t help kids learn how to plan and do good work in the longterm, but it does give them an unfair advantage that they’ll be able to keep their whole lives.

I would also complain to the exam board.

And honestly, both my eldest were good but not amazing academically; think Bs, bog standard 2.1s, and they struggled getting those first jobs with some graduate employers looking back at A levels now.

But once in, they have both absolutely flown in the workplace. DS has been promoted twice and doubled his salary in two years. Maybe some of those As other people had weren’t so fully deserved.

That’s outrageous, it’s cheating pure and simple.

I’d never do this for my kids. I must admit I’m perplexed at parents who get heavily involved in children’s homework anyway beyond the early primary school years. I had no help off my parents after about Primary 4! I’d have no intention doing my children’s work, besides the fact no one helped me and I’ve got enough endless work of my own what does that teach them?

It happens at university too, especially in those degree with no exams at all. I've got a student at the moment whose mother clear does all her work for her. The student has literally no idea about the content whatsoever. (However the University won't do anything about it, because all they care about is a high proportion of 2:i and 1sts regardless how they're obtained).

It happens at university too, especially in those degree with no exams at all. I've got a student at the moment whose mother clear does all her work for her.

That must be unusual though as a parent would have to have a degree in the same subject, be up-to-date and even then it could be a lot of work. You sure it's not a friend of the student or a sibling who has the same degree?

It's definitely her mother.

The mother wants the student to have the same career as her (this particular student couldn't choose a flavour of crisps on her own). She didn't get into the professional degree (no one interviewing her would think her suitable) so is doing a (pretty easy tbh) somewhat related degree, in the hopes she can do the professional course as a PG. (she still won't pass an interview because her mother has clearly been doing all his work throughout).

'Her' dissertation is all about a project they run in her mother's workplace. And any work she brings shows (a) no engagement with the course and (b) no knowledge of the advice the student has been given.

Also I think your expectations of standards on the degree programme I work on are much higher than the reality. Students often seem to manage to get 2:is without appearing to have read a journal article at any point in their student life.

So depressing to find this carries on beyond the museum standard Celtic roundhouse models that could never have been created by a year 3 child ...

I'm an A level teacher. I don't know about art but I know for sure that my students' parents are NOT writing the coursework (which is a tiny percentage of the mark anyway). I'm pretty sure no parent would want to/could without loads of work/would. In writing it's always fairly clear the maturity of the writer I'd say.

Also I think your expectations of standards on the degree programme I work on are much higher than the reality. Students often seem to manage to get 2:is without appearing to have read a journal article at any point in their student life.

Okay but on the degree programme I work on there would be no chance of a parent having that much impact unless they had done the same degree very recently and even then it would be a lot of work for them.

Yes, @woodchuck99. I used to work on degrees (and at universities) with much higher standards too.

The student I'm talking about failed the module I run because I actually expect people to have learned what I teach if they want to pass. And it's not a subject her mum would be able to bluff her way through. But the exam board let her through to the final year anyway.

Ugh this is why coursework is a rubbish idea. Yanbu.

(I remember my art teacher randomly accusing me of having got someone else to do my sketching coursework (I’d worked very hard on it!) Totally ruined my relationship with that teacher.)

This shows the value of exam based qualifications.
Assignment based courses were always a little suspect.

I studied education for a time and one of the modules was about coursework v. exam based only.

The fact is there are a lot of genuine students who can provide decent coursework without fraud. Some subjects require coursework or a practical element.

Sadly these days there is a lot of turning a blind eye to plagarism for league tables, however, my view that coursework is valuable hasn't changed. The majority shouldn't be punished because of a few. There will always be people taking advantage.

In the long term they'll suffer for it.

This really pisses me off. I have a student at school whose mum is a teacher of my subject. She does his homework, it’s way beyond his ability/level. Drives me nuts. I asked told her to stop last time I saw her. She has not. His tests reflect his true ability. It’s so ridiculous. Another parent has done her child’s homework for 5 years. It’s now come back to bite her on the arse. The child has additional needs but his homework does not reflect this so the SEND assessment is skewed.

Talking about this at lunch in the Staffroom today and one teacher said he would do his child’s work. The rest of us were appalled. I said I couldn’t do GCSE A level work for some subjects! 🤪