GCSEs 2020

[DrManhattan]

Hey what do you all think about the way the government are grading GCSEs this year.

I have been told by school that there is no point in my 16 year old doing any more work. They wont take it into account
Is this fair?
They have worked so hard since their mock exams and they are going to be penalised now.

How are they being penalised now?

They can’t use anything done at home after the schools have closed as evidence-anyone could have done it.

I have a DC in Y11 and think it’s being handled really well.

What else were you expecting them to do?

In what way are they being penalised? All Y11 students are in the same position. Are you happy with the predicted grades he currently has? If you think he could do much better, then he can sit the exams in November or next summer and both grades will be valid.

I'm not sure what else they could do to be fair?

He could continue to work and sit exams, if he feels that is a better evaluation of his efforts.

They can’t use anything done at home after the schools have closed as evidence-anyone could have done it.

That's not what my DS's school are saying. The guidance published today by OfQual says any work produced since the school's closed should be treated with caution, but that doesn't stop schools creating opportunities for pupils to demonstrate their attainment. Obviously, they'll need to be careful about making sure it's the pupils own work.

I think they doing the best they can but am worried that if the final outcome isn't what the teachers predicted and my ds wants to resit then he will have had a long break from learning so might still not get the grade he could have.
I'm glad they've said they will release the results earlier if at all possible so there's less time to stress about them and more time to decide where to go after the results are given

realistically - if the schools where open - they wouldn't be doing any more work now anyway - just revision - the exams would have started (art etc) and begun in earnest beginning of May - not sure how it's penalising anyone - in fact it seems farer not to allow those kids with pushy parents etc to gain extra points just for doing work at home .

Sh05 Yes that's a good shout. I will keep them going with the maths and english just in case.

A message for all GCSE, AS and A level students this summer
I understand how unsettling the past weeks have been for you, since the
announcement that exams have been cancelled this summer, and that you
are urgently waiting for news. I wanted to let you know what we are doing
to provide you with grades. Our over-riding aim in this is to be fair to
students this summer and to make sure you are not disadvantaged in your
progress to sixth form, college, university, apprenticeships, training or work
because of these unprecedented conditions.
How will grades be calculated?
Your school or college will be asked to send exam boards two pieces of
information for each of your subjects, based on what they know about your
work and achievements:
• the grade they believe you were most likely to get if teaching,
learning and exams had happened as planned
• within each subject, the order of students at your school or college,
by performance, for each grade. This information will be used to
standardise judgements – allowing fine tuning of the standard
applied across schools and colleges
Your school or college will consider a range of things like your classwork
and homework; your results in assignments and any mock exams; any
non-exam assessment or coursework you might have done; and your
general progress during your course.

This is part of the letter from Ofqual

My dad is predicted a 7 in English and 9 in all other subjects. He also did computer science and Religious studies last year and got grade 9&7.
His English teacher has given revision work in case he wants to resit if he's not happy with his final grade, hopefully with the other subjects he gets what he's predicted

DS! Not dad!

How would you like the school to ensure that each candidate's independent work is validated? Presumably you wouldn't want Jonny who was working at Grade 3 surpassing your DS because his mum did it for him? This is why attitude to learning throughout the course is so important.

My son's school are saying that they most definitely will be using any work they do now.

“I wanted to let you know what we are doing to provide you with grades. Our over-riding aim in this is to be fair to students this summer and to make sure you are not disadvantaged in your progress to sixth form, college, university, apprenticeships, training or work because of these unprecedented conditions.
How will grades be calculated?
Your school or college will be asked to send exam boards two pieces of information for each of your subjects, based on what they know about your work and achievements:
• the grade they believe you were most likely to get if teaching, learning and exams had happened as planned
• within each subject, the order of students at your school or college, by performance, for each grade. This information will be used to standardise judgements – allowing fine tuning of the standard applied across schools and colleges
Your school or college will consider a range of things like your classwork and homework; your results in assignments and any mock exams; any non-exam assessment or coursework you might have done; and your general progress during your course.
This information will allow us, with exam boards, to standardise grades across schools and colleges, to make sure that, as far as possible, results are fair and that students are not advantaged or disadvantaged because their schools or colleges are more generous or harsh than others when making those judgements. That means the final grade you get could be different from the one your school or college sends to the exam board”

That’s the guidance from DS college.

@LotKell. It seems so inconsistent. I think we will all just have to wait and see !

Yes true. I think they want to assess their attitude to see whether they would have worked hard revising then they can assess if a student would have worked hard enough to get a good result.

I have a son in year 11. I’m accepting of the arrangement. I’m sorry but how can schools accept anymore work done at home? Not until school conditions? Anyone could have done it. My sons school has 4.5yrs of data on him so think they have enough. It’s not an ideal situation, can’t think of a fairer way given what’s happening. There’s always chance to sit exams in autumn if not happy

The important thing surely is that the teachers within a school treat all their pupils in the same way, so that the ranking they come up with is fair to their pupils. The standardisation process by the boards / OfQual then aims to ensure no school can give their pupils an advantage or disadvantage compared to other schools.

I guess the pupils who might have miraculously pulled it out of the bag in the exams after underperforming in class will this year miss out on the opportunity to jump up a grade. Equally, the pupil who might have had an off day in the summer and missed a grade will instead get the grade they "deserve".

My son's school are saying that they most definitely will be using any work they do now.

Ours has said they definitely won’t!

My dd is in year 11. I think what has been offered is fair. If yr 11 pupils aren’t happy with their grades then they will have the chance to take an exam and both results will stand. They can’t be fairer than that.
My dd has worked her socks off over the entire 2 year course for all her subjects and achieved 2x 7’s and 9x 8’s in her mocks as well as with her fantastic grades for tests through out the course. I’m sure that whatever grade she is issued with over the summer will take all this hard work into account.
I’m not sure how they are being penalised further?

My son did well in his Y6 SATs and was predicted 7s and 8s when he started secondary school. He worked really hard in year 7, 8 and 9 but due to certain circumstances (including being run over during his mocks as well as other things) switched off in year 10 and 11 and didn't really do well at all in any of his four sets of mocks that they did therefore his predicted grades went down.
The month before school closed he started working really hard and I truly believe he would have done well in the end.
I don't think it is fair for him to be graded on his year 10 and 11 work.
I am glad his teachers are looking at how much effort / work they are putting on now as they know he is a bright boy and I'm really hoping they can see that his grades would have been okay in the end.

@LotKell we are in a similar situation. Best of luck to you.

@DrManhattan thank you. Same to you.

They cannot and will not take into account any work done after schools were closed. How can they account for the different home situations?? Illness due to the virus, no access to the internet at home, etc etc.

Lotkell That is quite honestly ridiculous. They will not give your ds high grades based on the fact that he has been working harder for the last month before the schools closed. His grade will be decided on his performance thus far. If he has not produced much quality work or performed well in assessments thus far, it would be ridiculous to award him grades based on the fact that he worked hard in KS3. Of course he can retake the exams in November if you think his grades are unfair or that he could achieve higher marks now he is studying.