to think GCSEs will go ahead as normal next year?

[thisisthebestoftimes]

It seems too complicated to change the content and dcs haven't had enough time in school for them to be teacher assessed like this year. I wish there would be a definite plan for the year 10s, but I'm assuming they'll carry on as normal.

If year 11's aren't back full time in September (given the run of the school if need be) and remote learning continues, the disparity of educational provision between establishments will become a massive issue.

How do think that’s going to work? A year ten only needs to self isolate twice for a family cough/temp contacted by Zoe etc and that’s 20 days lost which is considerable amount of learning time. Added to the that the chances of full time learning from September are slim to none.

My dd is in year 10 and will be taking her GCSE's next year. So far she has missed three months of school. Although she has had good support from her school it is NOT the same as being in school for many reasons but essentially because many of her subjects are practically based (DT, Chemistry, Physics, Drama etc)

Her school have not arranged for face to face time

Therefore if she goes back in September full time they may catch up but 🤷‍♀️

However she has kept up to speed many kids in her class have not what will the plan be for them?

There should be some revision but looking at how the government has dealt with the school returns thus far I am not holding my breath

Whilst I'm fairly sure GCSEs will go ahead but there's bound to be some changes. The students have just missed so much schooling and there simply isn't the time to catch up.

DS has logged on for work each day but it's not the same as being in class and he's only been given 2 short days in school before the summer holidays.

We still haven't been told if they'll be going back full time in September.

I’m guessing the grade boundaries are going to massively change so that they won’t need as high a mark to get a certain grade as normal.

I don't think we can assume anything. I've told DC to just work like demons to stand them in good stead for either actual exams or some sort of grade allocation like this year. I agree the disparity between schools is a real issue. I know of some kids who are getting full online schooling inc virtual assembly/ academic lessons / sport / music from 8.30am whilst wearing uniform (fancy UK public school), some getting very little and others at a private school near here getting far less than you'd imagine the school in question would provide, so goodness only knows how account could be taken of the difference in offer as presumably no school would want to admit they gave rubbish support.

My ds is year 10 too and that is why I’m wondering. His school have been pretty good but I agree it is nowhere near what he would have had in pre Covid times. Just don’t know what alternative they could do that would be fair.

Saw in the telegraph the other day, there is a group of head teachers pushing to use this as an opportunity to completely revamp the education system.

Basically, making it similar to the American system, getting rid of GCSE levels, broad curriculum until 16 with a general certificate of completion and then 2 years either specialising in a few academic subjects (like a level) or specialising in a trade at college.

Not sure if it would work and not affected as my DC are older now but the article was saying it had broad support throughout private, state and independent schools.

Ofqual is drawing up contingency plans (as reported in the FT and Times and even the Daily Mail). They are looking at possibly delaying exams by a month and/or using coursework and shorter exams. Or neither. I don't think they will make any decision until the autumn.
My daughter, private school, has had full schedule online learning and is back one day a week for more hands on work, but even she is worried that they may fall behind.

Think exam boards need to think about this really carefully, and see if there are some parts of the content that schools won't have covered yet that they can drop.

I know a lot of subjects this might not be possible, but where it is it could take a lot of stress off trying to cram everything in to Year 11.

Maybe some sort of 'official' half mocks as soon as possible to get a baseline that we didn't necessarily have last time. You know, in case proper exams are disrupted again?

I know this time results have been moderated up or down dependant on how the school usually performs (to stop them inflating this years grades), so maybe if a whole school underperforms next year they could issue that school was shite during the crisis and moderate up?

Honestly though, schools need some bloody guidance on what the future might look like so they can get planning.

As exams are graded by their peers abilities, those who are engaging and being supported even if not fully covering the curriculum should be OK. It is the children for many various reasons falling behind now will have the problems and probably were already disadvantaged. I would say that when both my eldest did GCSEs their school was very good at providing catch up. The year 11 teachers offered multiple extra lessons including the holidays. It would depend on when full time can happen again.

I contacted ofqual as I read in paper they may delay them by a month ( no advantage to that ) looking at different format etc etc
Basically they say they hope to have an idea before break up for summer term so they know what to expect going back in sept ( believe it when I see it )
Personally I would rather see teacher assessments again as we could be in and out even next school year of virus is still around or kids have to isolate etc

The trouble with reducing content is that, for many subjects, it doesn’t usually matter what order you teach the syllabus in, so not all schools will have covered the same sections of the course. Eg for English, we have to do poetry, prose and drama texts for exam, but even within our department, each teacher might teach them in a different order. They can lower the grade boundaries, but not really make fair cuts to content. Next year’s exams are reasonably likely to be delayed or cancelled, I’d say

I hope that this is the beginning of the end of traditional exams.

@Annebronte apparently will happen according to education minsiayer he said gcse to go ahead and will not be like this year ( twat )and not be cancelled but may be delayed by a month - what a month will achieve I don't know when they have already missed 3 months and we don't know what sept will look like yet
Also ofqual looking at other options bit more idea what they can do lowering boundaries may work but some schools kids have had loads others nothing so still a big gap , content - all schools cover different content at different times
Personally they should plan to mark on teacher assessments and maybe some small exams taken in school I think as it's unfair to go ahead with gcse as normal with so much missed and so much uncertainty surrounding sept

@Annebronte I would like to see a new system as well as content gcse system isn't great

I know, I understand it wouldn't work for every subject but some, e.g. Science could do it.

In combined we have 6 modules for each science (OCR) and I doubt any school will have got to the 6s. You wouldn't do them out of order as they rely on previous knowledge.

Then we could give up some of our time to English if timetabling allows (might mean the science teachers take on more of the PHSE load or something to free up other teachers?

I don't know what other subjects would be fairly linear, but I'm sure even one or two would help spread the load out a bit.

If not I think schools might look at dropping some subjects for some students, probably to spend more time on subjects that fill the progress 8 boxes, which would suck for the less academic pupils.

I'm also hoping this will make them realise the current 'terminal exams' system is very flawed.

I disagree about subjects such as English. It would be easy to instruct pupils to answer on 3 of 4 set topics so it would not matter which order they had been studied in as long as they answered on 50 or 75 per cent or whatever was agreed.

Schools and awarding bodies need to be a bit careful. Exam specs specify a number of guided learning hours. If pupils have not been provided with these hours before exams are sat, they may well have grounds for claiming they have been unfairly treated. Full exams could be sat where full guided learning hours have been met, however.

Bert actually, as you well know, Ofsted have been encouraging us to not follow the prescribed order and to justify our own learning journey (bollocks). So, I for example, chose the units at the end of the course to set in lockdown as they leant themselves to independent study (AQA rather than OCR).

I'm hoping for more of a choice of questions, so kids can chose which one suits them.

I have no idea what they are going to do, and I'm a teacher of GCSE with a Y10 DS of my own.

I think assuming that the exams will be set 'as normal' is a bit optimistic to be honest. I don't see how they can be - but God only knows what Ofqual will decide.

It's likely to be badly thought out I imagine...

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Sorry, I've not been doing this long, none of the Science departments I've worked in/trained in have done them out of order.

We have set a bit of C6 in lockdown, but given how many Y10s have actually being doing the work it probably wouldn't make a difference.

A choice of questions would be good, but I worry that would be too taxing for some of mine, who freeze up if they see something they don't immediately recognise and would come out saying they were all on things we haven't done.

Maybe they could give them more of the Physics equations?