A’Level disasters 😔😣

[OverTheRainbow88]

Any other schools been majorly hit?

Would be interested to hear if anyone else has spoken to headmaster and what is being done?

DD's HT is absolutely furious. There's no logic to a lot of the changes they've received. They're just a standard decent comp. They've got their worst results for years. Three straight A students have been downgraded. Also randomly two kids have been upgraded (the kid himself told us as he's DD's best mate so not the head giving confidential details) - one of whom has been given two B's despite being a C grade pupil the entire time. He's bemused and baffled.

If they're allowing mock results as the basis for appeals then they could have used them as part of the grading process.

They're either useable or they are not.

I totally agree that the grades had to be modulated to avoid grade inflation. The problem is that the algorithm that did the modulation has some nonsense in it and spews out some random results. Once you can prove that the maths behind is nonsense, they haven't a leg to stand on.

Glad I decided on an Access Course rather than A Levels now. I got my grades as predicted last month.

My WhatsApp group chat for King's College London is full of people missing their offers and losing places 😩

@lyralalala

If they're allowing mock results as the basis for appeals then they could have used them as part of the grading process.

They're either useable or they are not.

They are unusable. They shouldn’t be using them to replace grades on appeal. It’s shocking that they are proposing to do this.

@Marlboroughdreams

Jaxhog, there is something there. If for example you have ten borderline C/D pupils, in the exam, a few will have not had breakfast/had a row at home/cock up the question etc, and so you will have a mixture of Cs and Ds from them. Any of them could get a C on a good day, and any of them could get a D on a bad day. How do you predict ? It isn't wildly inflating grades to predict them all Cs, but it isn't what they would come out of an exam with.

Our worst one was a boy who interviewed at Cambridge, As in every essay, mock, coursework etc, and then has been given a D. Depending on the fine print of the mock offer, we'll be appealing that one!

So what's the alternative? Predict 5 of them Cs and 5 of them Ds? How do you decide who gets what?

Every year we have small number of students who on course for an A or A* and have a disaster on the day of the exam that we couldn't possibly have predicted. How could we have factored that in this year? Surely the only fair thing to do is predict what the students are capable of on a good/typical day?

Everyone thinks their child’s year group can buck the trend of performance that the school delivers. But statistically it’s just not true. Low performing schools don’t suddenly get loads of top grades. So if your child is at a low performing school where only 1 person in an average year gets an A*, they need to be the very top of the year to get that grade. It’s not discrimination, it’s just that with the abilities of the cohort and teaching, the school can only get one student there. Historical performance tells you a huge amount - not just for years like this when it’s relied on, but it really does show (if an average of 3 or 5 years is used) the ability if students and capacity of the staff to achieve certain grades.

So if you are one of those feeling your child has been given vastly lower grades than they should, look at the historical data and consider how many in previous year groups would have got the grades hoped for and was DC really in the top X amount to secure that. Some students will know this but lots won’t - they don’t realise how few get the top grades from their school or college or where they sit in the year group. It’s hard for schools to get the balance right between boosting students confidence with good ucas grades etc and the fact that no one knows exactly how individuals will perform.

Schools can predict a cohorts performance fairly accurately, but exactly who all the top performers will be is harder to tell. On MN and in the country at large most people seem to think their child has been given less than they deserved ....but given overall performance is still up, everyone must see that not EVERYONE can have been given less than deserved. This means lots of students (including lots on MN) were never really on for these higher grades in reality.

Dd school seems to have been badly hit. Good/outstanding comp in a “good” area which usually gets high in the national rankings. Everyone I’ve spoken to has been unfairly downgraded, even pupils who have consistently had level 9 / A* results all the way through school.
It really worries me for GCSE results for dd next week. I’ve been constantly reassuring her that her record of all submitted work over the 2 years shows where she’s at, her mocks were ok and she’ll be fine for her A level courses, but today has shown none of the evidence means anything and someone is sticking pins in lists of names and awarding them random grades.

They are unusable. They shouldn’t be using them to replace grades on appeal. It’s shocking that they are proposing to do this.

I don't disagree, but if they've decided they are usable - which they have - they should have used them earlier and looked at the bigger picture and made it fairer overall. This late rush for appeals is going to scupper some kids massively.

@Toptotoeunicolour

I totally agree that the grades had to be modulated to avoid grade inflation. The problem is that the algorithm that did the modulation has some nonsense in it and spews out some random results. Once you can prove that the maths behind is nonsense, they haven't a leg to stand on.

I agree. Something is wrong if the some schools are getting their worst results ever whereas others are getting the best.

@quizqueen

I think generally teachers over grade, to be honest, and certainly they will have almost sure to have done this time. I was disappointed with my own A level grades, which I felt I had worked hard for, but I obviously wasn't as good as I though I was - that was in the 60s.

Grades have been too high for years, in my opinion, since the comprehensive system overtook us, which points to a lot of the work being too easy. If your children had actually taken the exams, their grades may have been worse and they can retake later in the year to prove their real competence.

They would have started taking exams in early May so only missed a few actually teaching weeks, many of those would have been revision times. I wonder how many teenagers actually knuckled down in lockdown to continue full time home study. Not many, I would guess.

No employer has ever actually asked me for my grades in 45+ years of working! Mumsnetters have to be enraged about everything.

We really didn't overgrade as we knew we could be asked for all the data to back it up. I have every assessment for every student time and date stamped on your system showing how they have done over 2 years. Showing how well they did in mocks (moderated by me; a GCSE and A level examiner) so we were bang on with our CAG, I can promise you. Even down to calculating how many more masks per paper needed for the next grade up and down, then discussing as a department if they would get them.

If I have said that a student is a A grade student, with consistent A grades throughout the 18 months I had taught them, they are an A grade student, not the C they were given (and this is science, so no subjective marking).

@Pregnantandredundant

A friend who is a teacher said over 60% of the grades that she had provided for students had been changed

Unfortunately then your friend was one of those teachers that clearly over predicted what her students were likely to achieve. When you see the nationals results if some regrading hadn't happened they would have been even more fucking worthless than what they are.

Some research was done and many teachers estimated on a "best day" scenario and some cheeky ones just estimated A's for the whole class....what do you do with that as blatantly untrue. Some HT reigned these in to put them more in line with previous results.

dayB1Day - these kids would have achieved worse grades presumably, if they freak out in exams. Although they had already sat GCSEs which are public exams. And anyone “away” for mocks generally has to sit them when they are better, at which point they know what the questions are so, again, would have done better.

@Sandyfeet101 we looked at how they had done in previous tests under exam conditions, and thought who would be more likely to have stage fright, and which ones had received unconditional offers and stopped bothering, and their coursework... It wasn't an exact science, but it was as close as we could get.

Please get in touch with your MP if you are not happy . It's bad enough that the government has totally mishandled Covid situation and now screwing our DC' S education and hope of a better life.

To those whose DC were downgraded, but they received a higher grade in the mock...my understanding is they can appeal and be awarded their mock result.

I understand the disappointment today...but that should be rectified.

DD got A A A* and is delighted, but some of her friends were downgraded and are appealing.

It's been a very trying year.

today has shown none of the evidence means anything and someone is sticking pins in lists of names and awarding them random grades.

No! It’s not random. Lots of grades have been changed at my school. It might look random to the individuals concerned, but the ranking we made has absolutely been maintained.

@Wheresthesanitygone

Dd school seems to have been badly hit. Good/outstanding comp in a “good” area which usually gets high in the national rankings. Everyone I’ve spoken to has been unfairly downgraded, even pupils who have consistently had level 9 / A* results all the way through school. It really worries me for GCSE results for dd next week. I’ve been constantly reassuring her that her record of all submitted work over the 2 years shows where she’s at, her mocks were ok and she’ll be fine for her A level courses, but today has shown none of the evidence means anything and someone is sticking pins in lists of names and awarding them random grades.

I'm worried about GCSE results too. I'm not reassuring DD that they will be good though as I think the whole thing is a shit show. I'm more focusing on the fact that they are just a stepping stone and universities and jobs won't be very interested in them anyway.

@Yellowbutterfly1

I’m absolutely disgusted that this has been allowed. If the mental heath of a lot of these children has not already been affected they sure as hell have destroyed it now.

Oh ok then...so assuage the mental health of the children we better give them grades they probably wouldn't have achieved. Covid isn't fair, life isn't fair but if they all get A grades how on earth do se this not make them utterly meaningless

[quote Normalmumandwife]@Pregnantandredundant

A friend who is a teacher said over 60% of the grades that she had provided for students had been changed

Unfortunately then your friend was one of those teachers that clearly over predicted what her students were likely to achieve. When you see the nationals results if some regrading hadn't happened they would have been even more fucking worthless than what they are.

Some research was done and many teachers estimated on a "best day" scenario and some cheeky ones just estimated A's for the whole class....what do you do with that as blatantly untrue. Some HT reigned these in to put them more in line with previous results. [/quote]
Surely if the exam board thought grades were overinflated the next step should have been to request the evidence to back up the grade?

I don't know any teachers who were asked for evidence before their students' grades were changed.