Private schools opening over summer unfair on year 10s and 12s

[sunshineanddaffodils]

I’d just about got my head around the fact that even though my year 10 is missing a load of GCSE teaching, all dc are in the same boat and allowances will have to be made. Now I hear private schools are changing term dates and/or opening over summer so they can teach the syllabus as normal. How on earth is this remotely fair and what impact will it have on dc in state schools?

Ours isn’t either. DD is Year 12. They are teaching as normal via Microsoft teams. Tbh not noticing much difference other than DD can work from bed!

Well, as others have said, yes it's unfair, but the private school system isn't exactly built on a model of increasing social parity and mobility ;-).

As others have said, this virus is going to disproportionately impact those with the most chaotic and underprivileged homelives - who may not have devises to work on remotely, a quiet space, parents who will not, or do not have the skills to support their kids education (financially or emotionally). It will create a greater widening of the social divide, sadly.

Privately educated kids already have masses of privileges and will continue to do so regardless, so if I were you I'd ignore them and focus on doing the best for your DC.

Nothing about private education is fair though is it? The pushy affluent middle classes buy privilege for their offspring and then go on about their ‘financial sacrifice’ ... bollocks. Of course, the less affluent do it as well by buying houses as close as possible to any school deemed ‘outstanding’ because nothing but the very best will do. Nothing fair about that either.

Don’t worry guys, We’re paying full private school fees and still being sent shit from bite size. Hope that makes you all feel better!!

Right now I am wondering wtf we are paying for tbh.

Most IGCSEs have reformed to 9-1 as well now as far as I can tell.

Private schools get good results because they expect homework and revision to be completed - Saturday detentions if necessary at dcs' academic private school. On the other hand, if a pupil is struggling to complete the work because they do not understand, then teachers are happy to help at lunchtime and after school.

You are kidding yourselves if you think private school pupils don't work hard for their good results.

I would agree with the above, my children do an hour a night and termly exams. They’re in prep.

Actually I think the work ethic is probably one of the biggest benefits. You’re crucified if you fuck about.

A Year 10 student is perfectly capable of indepedent self study over the summer if parents have established good study habits from an early age.

our state school did igcse in English and they only stopped doing them because the government wouldn't include them in the progress 8 score.

Yes, @JustHereWithMyPopcorn.. The DfE won't include iGCSEs in the progress 8 measure because they deem them easier than the standard GCSE post 2017 and so not a fair comparison.

And yes, @Clavinova, you are quite right that there are new 9-1 iGCSEs, which might give the impression that they represent the same rigour. A student taking iGCSE English Language on the new 9-1 spec has the option of a 50% coursework element - and that's coursework, not the more tightly controlled controlled assessment which was introduced in standard GCSEs from 2010 to 2016. Even the old English Language GCSE was only 40% coursework, and that was deemed too easy and in need of urgent reform. It doesn't seem very fair that these iGCSEs are considered equivalent by universities to the standard GCSE, which is now 100% exam.

It’s easy for unis etc to differentiate between state and private so if you are looking at uni there is no problem. Locally we have more state pupils getting into the top unis than private and I imagine that will continice.

The UK has some peculiar attitudes when it comes to education. It is always the system, school or teachers fault.
Just do the work ...

I wouldn't worry about iGCSEs, most students do qualifications after GCSE and if the iGCSEs are easier then that is where the gap will show.

Not much about next year's exams will be fair, there will be inequality for so many that private Vs state will be only one of so many factors. There is no point in worrying about what other schools do as it won't change anything. If you want fairness there are lots of charities trying to support the most vulnerable students over this time, that is a good place to focus your efforts.

many private school pupils benefit from doing easier IGCSEs which are then treated as equivalent

IGCSE's are not easier, they have been reformed in line with GCSE's, they are produced and run by the same boards, they don't have coursework. I wish this fake news would go away. It really annoys me, you can tell, that for years IGCSE's were way more difficult than the un-reformed GCSE's but no-one had a word to say about he disparity then, because it worked the other way round.

Hello @Baaaahhhhh. I'll just refer you directly to the specification for Cambridge 9-1 iGCSE in English Language. The 50% coursework option is first mentioned on page 5:

www.cambridgeinternational.org/Images/414546-2020-2022-syllabus.pdf

I don’t understand why you think opening early is unfair, but smaller class sizes / better resources plus the myriad other advantages bestowed upon privately educated kids isn’t?

Mine are at private and I haven’t heard this.

Private schools get good results because they expect homework and revision to be completed - Saturday detentions if necessary at dcs' academic private school. On the other hand, if a pupil is struggling to complete the work because they do not understand, then teachers are happy to help at lunchtime and after school.

You are kidding yourselves if you think private school pupils don't work hard for their good results.

This was all true about my (state) school, including detentions after school, before school at 7:30am, and on Saturdays. Teachers (with only a few exceptions) stayed behind to help anyone and everyone who needed it. The private school system is still, by its nature, unfair.

Hello @Baaaahhhhh. I'll just refer you directly to the specification for Cambridge 9-1 iGCSE in English Language. The 50% coursework option is first mentioned on page 5:

Maybe, but I don't know of anyone who has done this option, certainly my DD's didn't do any coursework in their IGCSE's, and I don't know of anyone else within my friendship group, or anyone on MN, who has chosen to do the coursework element either. This option really only exists for international students.

DD1 did the GCSE English assessments and they were a joke. 100% in everything, they were so easy.

YippieKayakOtherBuckets - Note you haven't mentioned iGCSE's being MORE rigorous for years prior to the reforms, or did you not think that counted.

The PP talking about "predjudice" against private school pupils need to give their heads a wobble

Ah, OK. We'll take the statistically significant sample of 'the whole of Mumsnet' as a given, then. Would you care to retract your accusation of 'fake news'?

Note you haven't mentioned iGCSE's being MORE rigorous for years prior to the reforms, or did you not think that counted.

I don't really know what you'd like me to say about this. They used to be considered more rigorous but now they are not. That's a perfectly valid statement.

For what it's worth, DS1 (Year 13) took a mixture of IGCSEs and reformed GCSEs - he still managed to achieve 9s in reformed GCSE humanities subjects despite taking IGCSE English Language.

In fact, coursework forces a conscientious student to spend hours and hours perfecting their work, honing their writing skills. Private schools produce many successful authors and journalists of course.

That's what the parents pay for 🤷‍♀️ Their choice. There's plenty of free resources out there at the moment for people to use, should they do wish to.

A lot of Private schools have been business as usual online too. DN is taking one GCSE early year after next and has had 7-8 hours of lessons per day including PE and then the hour long GCSE study. They have online lessons with real teachers and help with homework too if needed.