A’Level disasters 😔😣

[OverTheRainbow88]

Any other schools been majorly hit?

@MrsFogi

I think one of the unfair outcomes of this will be that private schools will throw money and resource (not to mention lawyers) at the appeals process whereas state schools simply won't have the resource to do so. So there will be a double whammy given that I assume private schools will have had more of an incentive in the first place to inflate predictions.

Private schools have to follow the same process as everyone else so will be at no advantage here, and certainly won't be bringing lawyers into the process as it would be utterly pointless.

Also, inflating grade predictions doesn't help anyone as they only end up having to explain away the final result so its not in anyones interest.

The government has let the students down by not having an appeals process in place ready for results day, when they have had plenty of time to arrange this. The schools, whether state or private, have done everything they can for the well being of their students and are all now having to deal with the fallout. Its incredibly unfair for everyone concerned.

@WombatChocolate that doesn't explain schools getting worst ever results with better cohorts.

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.
My son's headmaster has reassured me that there are random downgrades, and they are examining the algorithm now.

Private schools have to follow the same process as everyone else so will be at no advantage here, and certainly won't be bringing lawyers into the process as it would be utterly pointless.

There is a cost to appeal so many private schools will be in a better position to do that. Especially considering the financial strain schools are under at the moment

@lyralalala

Private schools have to follow the same process as everyone else so will be at no advantage here, and certainly won't be bringing lawyers into the process as it would be utterly pointless.

There is a cost to appeal so many private schools will be in a better position to do that. Especially considering the financial strain schools are under at the moment

Exactly, this is the issue.

I’m sure it’s obvious that children in private schools will have a better chance of the school appealing, and then the elite private schools an even BETTER chance.
Children in underfunded state schools just won’t have access to the same money to appeal their grades.

it's so sad, I saw that poor girl on the News crying about being in the wrong post code and losing her uni place.
Basically, they just have to get on with it and lower their expectations, and try clearing.
It's a complete mess and I feel so sorry for them. It's tough for GCSE's too, but at least these kids may get a chance (covid permitting) to take A levels.
The poor A level students, there is no hope for them.

The poor A level students, there is no hope for them

That’s a bit dramatic isn’t it?

@MrsFogi. - I teach in an academic independent school. We didn’t ‘inflate’ predictions. We knew that a statistical model was going to be used so that would make no sense. We spent a long time, as did all teachers in all sectors, ensuring our rank order and grades were as fair and accurate as possible. The issue is that the statistical model doesn’t take account of individual cohort differences and so some students are inevitably losing out.

Are they really worst ever results when compared to. 3 or 5 year period?

And to someone who said the ranking was changed, I really don’t think that’s correct. Individual grades might have risen or fallen around the borderline schools set for the grades, but the rank order of final grades issued should remain. This I think was the key strength of the system.

That’s not to say there are clearly problems and errors. Even when exams are sat, vast numbers are marked incorrectly in some way. Whatever system is used is sadly quite unreliable.

I say these things to try to help people understand how the expectation between likely reality and student expectations via ucas creeps in and solidifies itself in student and parent minds, especially when there is no exam. Often exams are hard and students know they haven’t done brilliantly even though they might have high predictions and have done well in the course. The real, final unseen timed exam is quite different and often students know they didn’t produce top answers. So by the time the grades come out, they’ve lowered their expectations a bit. But not this year with no exams to struggle a bit with and just some very optimistic ucas grades to feel more and more sure as their right, with a long time between school and results removing perhaps the sense of genuine performance.....oh and a government reassuring them they’d all do really well!

I think the algorithm is flawed and that was why the late night announcement about the mocks happened when it was realised it was going to cause anomalies (which not every school will necessarily see.)

I am not sure it is down to postcode area at all though. That is just something picked up from the results in Scotland. Another thing to add into the mix is that the rankings were done on a subject by subject basis with different students taking various subjects. Also different subjects might use different exam boards who have moderated grades. Some may look random but this could be why. In my school subjects have faired better than others due to the number of students taking the subject and exam board used.

It is random when students who got top grades in all their GCSEs and consistent A* in every piece of A level work done over 2 years get B, or as pp have said, students who have B in mock and B predicted, based on work completed during the course, get a D or even E. There’s a girl on a BBC video on fb who got a D in a subject, she says she’s never had as low as D in her life, how is that fair?
Loads of students have lost their uni places, it is life changing for them, not just “one of those things”. It’s alright saying “my employer has never asked to see my a level results” if you then got a degree because of those results, but if your chance to get that degree has gone you’ll never have that employer.

So for me, schools are to blame, for submitting results saying their students would achieve thirty percent more than the school has ever achieved. Forcing the downgrading and impacting the individual.
My son's school prides itself on the accuracy of the predicted grades. They have very stable results year on year and a large cohort, selective intake. They have been downgraded to a set of results that is worse than any of the past three years. It makes no sense.

@WombatChocolate yes. Worst including 3/5 year average. The results do not make sense at all in many schools. This is beyond anything I have ever seen.

@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.

I now wait for them to destroy my child when the GCSE results are given.

This - i've said to my son - make sure you put on your CV that your results were covid related

PurpleDasies

I meant for appeals and obviously losing uni places can't be undone.
Not that they are all washed up at 18. Sorry my wording wasn't good.
If when they appeal it changes other peoples results what school in their right mind would appeal results.

Our school has records of every result of every piece of work every pupil has submitted over the length of their course. I’m guessing they don’t do this for fun, and every school has to have these records. Teachers have used these and knowledge of their pupils exam performance to give their predictions. Surely if predictions looked too high ( or low) for a particular school these should have been given as evidence. That would be fair, what has happened isn’t.

They have been downgraded to a set of results that is worse than any of the past three years. It makes no sense.

If the process had been followed correctly, that couldn't happen - so the fact that it has, repeatedly in different schools, suggests something has gone wrong.

I wonder whether it is something to do with the mix of subjects taken? So for example if more students than usual took English, but English had a really off year at some pint in the last 3, or simply had lower typical results than other subjects, the moderating down in this larger than usual subject would pull the whole school average down?

Don't just assume the university will withdraw the place, especially if they've gone through interview. Lots will choose to overlook the grades if they've interviewed the candidate and made their own assessment of their ability. It's worth asking.

@Toptotoeunicolour wait. A teacher at your child's school has managed to speak to the Schools Minister? Seriously? How did they manage that?

Yes the algorithms could be flawed. They delivered the ‘right’ national results but messed up with individual schools. It’s certainly possible.

However whether this is the case is a very different issue to people saying students should have had their ucas grades or their teacher grades - either of these would have led to vast grade inflation which would remove credibility of the system for years.

Standardisation and consideration of school past performance was vital, along with consideration of the ability of the cohort ....but these need to be done correctly and it looks like it hasn’t always been done correctly.

But one last thought - if nationally the results are similar to usual and so mNy schools have actually been downgraded from usual patterns (I really wonder if this is actually widespread as people think) then other schools must have seen significant increases in results than they expected it compared to their historical norms BUT we don’t seem to see any mention of these and one can’t exist without the other. So where are these schools seeing big improvements compared to historical norms or is it that actually they don’t exist and there aren’t really many schools who’ve seen big drops compared to their norms?? Are they just saying this to try and appease student and parent disappointment?

I agree with @WombatChocolate students normally go into results day feeling doubtful and unsure as to how the exam went. This hasn't happened this year. I am also starting to wonder who is filling all these uni places that so many seemed to have missed out on. There must be some students out there who got the results they were expecting.

They have been downgraded to a set of results that is worse than any of the past three years

Then I assume the school has grounds for appeal. However they are managing it at the macro level not the micro. And if individual schools have been downgraded below their average I assume they have come back?

Judging by our local paper it may well be the ones who are publishing headline data Wombat, a fair few on ours are declining! Just a hunch as haven’t really read through in any detail.

Even in "normal" years my understanding is that state schools are extremely limited re appeals by their budgets. Whereas private schools (and, if necessary, parents) are less constrained in lodging appeals. This particularly applies to appealing for a group of students.