To want to know what will happen with my year 10s GCSEs next year

[bigbananafeet12]

It’s now looking like schools aren’t going back in June. If teachers unions are not happy to return then, I can’t see what will be so different in September so who knows when they’ll be in. They’ve already had 5 weeks of ‘home learning’ with another 9 to go until they break up for summer. My ds has not been required to submit one piece of work since he left school on March 23rd. He has to do the work in his book and mark it as completed on Frog. Subsequently he’s had no feedback on anything he’s done. I’ve asked him to ask teachers if they can look at his work but he’s 15 and doesn’t like making a fuss. I try my best to look at what he’s up to but frankly have no confidence in my knowledge of physics etc! I also know that if I try to get too involved he will not be happy and at least now he is attempting to do the work. I don’t want it to be a battle.
I had a glimmer of hope that if he was back even part time in June we could ensure he was still on track and it would help restore his enthusiasm but obviously this looks unlikely.
So how on earth will schools have time to teach the GCSE syllabus plus revise as all previous years have been able to do. I know we’re having a global pandemic but to be honest I’m so worried about DS.
This is not a dig at teachers.

I am really grateful that my elder 2 are Y11 and Y13 in a way as the decision has been made for them.

My Y13 had already accepted a place at uni, and my Y11 is going into the school's Sixth Form so whatever happens / the grades are, we're ok. Most of our friends are waiting on grades though.

Op YANBU - I do feel sorry for Y10 and Y12 with the uncertainty.

I think that this crisis has proved that teachers are not key workers my son in year 10 has received virtually no teaching. One got sent an envelope with some print outs 6 weeks ago and absolutely nothing since the other child has had the odd email but no work has had to be turned in. There are a few teachers and TA's with the few children attending school, my 2 attend different schools and only 5 children in each at the moment. Personally I feel that unless teaching is returned in a more formal way by all schools using a mix of strategies like zoom, TV, podcasts and work being taken in and marked and teachers being available in their allocated lesson time to assist the children, providing education then sadly I think that furloughing is the only option as they are not doing able to do their work from home. Even a half timetable would be better than the zero they are getting at the moment.
I know many teachers are going above and beyond and many are doing their expected work, but the only teacher doing his lessons for one of my sons is the drama teacher, if he can do it for a lesson which requires so much interaction then anyone can. 1 teacher across 2 secondary schools is awful.
also I am not alone in this my friends across the country are experiencing the same thing unless they are at private schools.

I do know 1 secondary which is working fully, and this is a church school.

I think that this crisis has proved that teachers are not key workers

No it hasn’t. And it’s proven.

I think that furloughing is the only option as they are not doing able to do their work from home.

Most teachers would take 80% pay to not have to deal with the rubbish they are putting up with right now!

teachers being available in their allocated lesson time to assist the children

What do I do with my baby and 3yo? Nursery and grandparents are shut!

Workercovid id be amazed if your sons dc aren’t being set work.

Have you checked on the school platform?

Let’s not turn this into teacher bashing. There’s good and not so good in all professions and having a dig is not constructive. We need to find ways to move forward together (parents and teachers)in the best interests of dc. Which is what the majority want surely.

I have a Year 10 Dd. Luckily her school is providing all work through Satchel one and it sends reminders of when work is due. It keeps track of what is turned in and send comments from the teachers.
Now Easter is over, they have began to send more work, they have rotated lessons so not every class send work every week. But she gets plenty to get on with and I can see what is turned and and when it's all due.
I'm really hoping school will be back in September so they can get sorted ready for GCSE's. I really feel for her best friend, she's yr 11. So heading off to local college for A levels without the chance to go back into the school to say goodbye or have closure or even the finals she's worked hard for.

The union says no marking, as it will disadvantage those who can’t access the work further. As this thread is proving! If every teacher/school had decided no work, no marking for the entire shutdown, everyone would be equally affected. But obviously, that would never happen - private schools in particular won’t go for that. (For what it’s worth, I teach in a private primary and I have been setting work and marking it.)

Some teachers have small children at home themselves. This makes live teachin extremely difficult - this is my situation. I am expected to do it and more than once my child has joined me on a call. Hardly conducive to good learning!! Not to mention, some are in achool themselves babysitting. Most teachers aren’t provided with a school laptop so may be trying to set work on an iPad or siemthing, and they may not have a good internet connection at home to run live teaching.

Regarding furloughing teachers - who pays teachers wages? The government. Who pays furloughed wages? Also the government - often topped up by the employer to make up to 100%. It would all be coming out the same pot! As someone else said, many teachers would love to be on 80% to sit at home and do nothing, rather than 100% to deal With the crap we are.

hear that's why I mentioned choices of questions : it was actually a history teacher on a staffroom thread who suggested students could leave a topic out from an exam paper.

I think history may actually be easier to resolve than, say, maths.

I don't know how the curriculum works precisely, I'd have to ask my son,but I'm guessing that they cover more than one topic per term? How many alternative questions would have to be included on an exam paper?

Yes History, English and Geography would all be relatively easy to leave out, or include a choice of questions depending on the units covered.

Maths would be ridiculous.

Why don't you see if the school will sign up to an online learning site? One of the ones I know if free at the moment - lots of content and instant feedback?

My yr10 (state) has been doing 8-10hr days, they are still getting feedback. Still thinks she needs to do more work. It will lead to big disparities. Those who get through will be more prepared for university level work.

She also uses Seneca to revise which she finds useful.

I don't think you are understanding hear. The students would have all the usual topics on the paper but would have not covered as many as usual , so would study ( or answer) fewer questions than in previous years. A subject so skills based would lose nothing apart from content. Most history teachers agree there is way too much anyway!

There is variation within schools not just inbetween them. DS is Y12 and having online lessons and quite a lot of engagement in two of his subjects, for the third (which is a language) he is having work set and marked. I don't think that is enough for a language so am looking for virtual courses he can do in the summer which he will love me for but I don't see an alternative.

His tutor also helpfully said that if they don't get the grades in their internal exams in June (whether done face to face or online) that may affect their ability to progress to Y13 which I think is very unfair. I think all should progress unless there was already grave concern about their ability to handle A levels by eg Feb half term.

How many alternative questions would have to be included on an exam paper

When I eg did A level history I had a 3 hour exam with 4 questions. There was maybe a choice of 12. So the exam board could offer eg 24 questions and allow the kids to choose any 4. They'll have the questions from this year they can use, too.

But I can't see how that can work for subjects which build term by term like Maths or MFL (and science?)

My ds was set to do further maths GCSE. I suppose this is unlikely now. I know in the scheme of things it’s not that important but I can’t help feeling disappointed for him.

Ofqual have just said that any y10s entered this year can be awarded grades using the Centre awarded grade process like y11. So if he was entered and the school so wish, they could include y10 in their rankings and he would be awarded the grade.

Piggywaspushed

I do understand but I'm not sure you understand my point. If say there are 10 topics to be covered in the syllabus (a made up number, I don't know how many there are,) but schools are free to teach them in any order, how will exam boards know if there are any common topics that all students would have covered and if so, what they are?

How can they set an exam ensuring that it's fair for all? What if they set a question on the Tudors but some students haven't covered the Tudors?

Or would you have open questions " describe a key historical event and how it shaped history" or something so that they write about whatever it is that they have studied?

My language teaching friends seem to think it's straightforward topic dropping again . I can't speak for science but there are definitely lots of topics so it seems to me there could be options.

If say there are 10 topics to be covered in the syllabus (a made up number, I don't know how many there are,) but schools are free to teach them in any order

You would put on questions from all ten topics and allow the students to choose any questions without restricting them so they can choose the topics they've done and ignore the rest.

When I was at school they used to recycle the first year history paper every year and there were topics we hadn't covered as teacher used to choose different things. But there were so many questions it didn't matter so you still had plenty of choice.

I guess for MFL you can drop topics but not so sure about the actual language? Perhaps if you drop some of the cultural stuff you have time to complete the language work.

Yes, some subjects it will be easier to do than others. To my mind, the more topics there are the more complicated it will be. Unless they can work out the topics covered by all of the students, or offer multiple alternative questions, I don't see how they can ensure fair treatment for all students.

Maybe they will just accept that some students will be disadvantaged?

I am keen to see what they are planning to do with some of the more practical subjects: drama, music, pe, textiles, technology, food tech, engineering where so much is being missed.