A’Level disasters 😔😣

[OverTheRainbow88]

Any other schools been majorly hit?

The other option is everybody gets what the teachers suggested, but that discriminates against the homeschooled.

Appeal, if the course work backs up the appeal okay. Go through clearing.

Dreading GCSE results next week. I heard that done exam boards were worse than others for downgrading. Will be interesting to see if that is true. Horrible for students affected.

@SmileEachDay

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

I really, really hope this is online hyperbole and not how you present things to your child.

That's kind of rude. Maybe the poster is just reflecting on how her child might feel if that were to happen.

@WombatChocolate

Yes, historically in lots of schools, low percentages achieve top grades. In others, vast numbers achieve the very top grades. The national figures for %s at each grade hide vast differences between schools.

It’s not discrimination against certain schools. It’s the reality of the cohort in terms of its ability and background situation, along with the ability of the school to get grades out of its given cohort.

And I agree that some sharp elbowed people can only accept either top grades for all or top grades for their kids. Accepting that the vast majority won’t be getting A*-B and that one’s own child is probably within that vast majority, just seems impossible for lots of people. Instead there must be a discrimination or an error, not just the case that this is what this child was going to get. Sounds harsh, but there’s something in it.

And yes, this year group have had a shit experience and it’s been horrible and the continued lack of clarity about appeals makes it worse. But a shot situation cannot mean all children must be given the inflated ucas grades that were used or inflated teacher grades which were significantly higher than usual.

The system does need to be fair and seems to have some problems, but in the end, similar percentages should get the top grades and the pandemic can’t be used to say everyone must have high grades - or they are meaningless for all too.

It's easy to say that those who are very unhappy with the grades are sharp elbowed people who can only accept top grades for their kids but quite naive I think. I can see that there is a big difference in the results for the schools by me this year compared with other years which shouldn't be the case if the algorithm had correctly standardised the results.

@SmileEachDay

Re the rank ordering and appeals - just saw this on Twitter....

I’m trying to find the document it’s from.

Just had it confirmed by a reputable source that this is a load of rubbish, apparently started by Sky News.

My source says, "the ofqual consultation results explicitly says the opposite"

I can see that they might need to apply different approaches to large and small centres and cohorts within subjects - statistical distortion is a bigger risk for small groups.

They’ve also taken a different approach to subjects in schools with no previous data.

All these things might be unavoidable but do add to risks of unfairness.

I guess I’m the end it’s not possible to make it entirely accurate and entirely fair across all settings. They come up with things to minimise problems but they either don’t fully work or generate other downsides....but the gov had judged they are worth it for a net gain overall. And it is about an overall net gain, which might always generate some individual losers.

It’s easy to say there shouldn’t be any losers, but we are talking about a system healing with hundreds of thousands of people and nothing will be perfect and any adjustments to help one problem will harm another group ....unless you just say top grades for all, but that’s not fair either.

I’m sure there are problems which are avoidable but it’s not always easy to see which ones they are or how they fit with the bigger picture.

Just had it confirmed by a reputable source that this is a load of rubbish, apparently started by Sky News

My source says, "the ofqual consultation results explicitly says the opposite"

I really hope so.

sunglasses dds school lost one of her mock papers . It is for a subject she really should get a 9 in. I will be livid if she doesn't and we can't appeal.

Tbf to sky news, ofqual have said all along that they can’t allow appeals against rank order because that would affect other students. However, sky seemed to think it applied to appeals based on mock exams too and reported that as fact.

@ChloeCrocodile

I agree it has been weighted in favour of very small cohorts, cantkeepawayforever, but those in classes of 4 and 5 have definitely had grades changed and nobody is helped by incorrect info being shared.

Much like the “if one student has an appeal granted so their grade moves up another student has to have their grade moved down” which seems to be doing the rounds today (sky news were reporting it). Ofqual have said that isn’t true.

The point is, it has - according to a link posted by another user - been weighted in favour of all pupils in cohorts of less than 15, but then compounded by that 'cost' being taken from larger cohorts. Looking at my local press, I would say that is reflected in who is happy and who is not - small sixth forms (both private and state schools with very small 6th forms) are delighted. Sixth form colleges - not, with results well below 3-5 year average..

@SmileEachDay they're trying to get Sky News to take it down and preferably admit it's wrong, but they're not playing ball.

@LemonTT the difference this year is that in most years it’s not a complete shock because deep down most people know if they have ploughed a paper etc. This year they have been allocated a grade which is unrelated to their performance. Just because a previous year group got a certain spread of grades does not mean it will be the same this year especially for schools with mixed intakes.

The school produced a file of evidence for each CAG ( NB these are not predicted grades ) if Ofqual doubted a grade they could have called for evidence . If they felt a school had overestimated it’s grades they could have called for evidence , instead they randomly allocated grades.

Mentally that is inevitably going to cause issues, it’s going to be far more difficult to reconcile yourself to because you had no input.

@IloveJKRowling

If there is a child who is in a failing/inadequate school and they were expecting to get AAA then there are a very very small minority of the entries this year IMHO. They might be your child so get the evidence together, put your boxing gloves on and prove them wrong.

That's fine if those students have a parent to go to bat for them - but what if they don't?. If their school is downgraded on past performance, this kid loses out. If it's a kid who's in care, they could be the next Einstein, but who's going to get all the evidence together?

These are the kids who will lose out. They lose out anyway in multiple ways, but they're going to miss their chance this year and it matters more to them too.

Yes, they're a minority but the system is already so stacked against them and I do think it says something about a society how we treat children like this.

It's a bloody disgrace.

Parents don't get much say. The exam boards will only interact with the school and the school will only interact with the pupil (if they are over 18). It really comes down to whether the school wants to make the effort to appeal and in my experience it's mainly the private schools that bother. My DD doesn't hold out much hope that her school make any effort if her GCSE results are unfair next week and I think she's probably right,

If something had come back that didnt reflect this I would have pulled out all his reports, his mocks, his GCSE results and socked it to them and so would the school. I have all of that to hand. So should the schools.

I think individual parents aren't allowed to complain.

Speaking as a member of society I also thought my taxes were supposed to benefit ALL children, particularly the ones who don't have parents in a position to complain.

At least the kids won’t (shouldn’t!) blame themselves for downgrades. I was a straight A* student a few years back, but was ill, not sleeping and having a breakdown during the actual exams and so didn’t do as well as expected. I blamed myself but obviously on reflection I couldn’t actually help being ill. It’s always been luck of the draw with exams, and when it isn’t I think it’s more about personality than actual intelligence.

That being said, they do appear to have pulled some of these results out of their arses- Bs to Es with no precedent of the student getting Es etc

What a complete shitshow this is. Ds doesn't know anyone who got their predicted grades - he was downgraded from expected ABB to BCD and has not got a single offer. Phoned his top two today to be told they couldn't make him an offer based on these grades. I'm so angry about this - he had not done as well in his mocks as he should, but that's what they're for - to give them the kick up the bum they need to get them to work for the real thing. Which he was then fully prepared to do - but has not had the chance to demonstrate what he was capable of.

So there has been some impact on independent schools.

However, the overall effect has been to make an unfair educational system even more unfair.

From the BBC:

"For the top A* and A grades, independent schools in England saw the greatest improvement on last year - up 4.7%.

This compares to a 1.7%, 2% and 0.3% improvement for top grades for England's academies, comprehensives and colleges respectively."

I would think that there is a real issue here of comparative attainment when it comes to getting coveted places at medical school or top universities. Lets hope the admissions tutors have the judgement of Solomon when it comes to Clearing.

These are the kids who will lose out. They lose out anyway in multiple ways, but they're going to miss their chance this year and it matters more to them too.

We all lose out if these children don't get a suitable education/training.

It's not just children who get BBB rather than AAA, its children who won't get a Maths GCSE and will drop out.

Feeling so bad for all these kids. DH is a HOD. 20 out of the 24 A-Level students in his department were downgraded. Every year they get at least 2 A*s in the cohort, this year they have been awarded none. Some of the pupils have been downgraded so that they are now below others who were lower than them on the rankings that teachers provided. It's a total shitshow and so unfair to the students.

Witchend

I’ve just read the ofqual consultation document-

What it says is this:

1. if centres feel there has been an error with student grade calculation they can communicate this.

2. If students feel their CAG was wrong they CANNOT appeal this because it would have a negative impact on other students in term of rank order.

So it looks as though Sky have taken those two points and smooshed then into one.

Thank goodness! And sorry to anyone who believed my post - serves me right for not fact checking before posting.

So if all pupils have been downgraded surely the universities will have to reduce their entry requirements?

And if this is all unjustified, which it seems it is there is going to be a mass appeal by the schools?

Just to say again, that in an exam year only 16% of students get their ucas predicted grades. People are always surprised by this.

They are also surprised that most years in many schools in lots of subjects, no/one gets an A* and perhaps 2 or 3 an A. Most children aren’t in the top 2 or 3 in their year.

Only a tiny proportion have had their grades changed by more than one step.

Those who don't like it can use their mock result, or resit the exam.

I truly don't see any issue with standardising this year's scores against last year's distribution.

I can't understand the issue? It seems the mostly left-wing teachers just want any excuse to have a go at a Conservative government!

It would have been better to give predicted grades to all and had a massive grade inflation for all this year than this

Sadly that wouldn’t be possible. Because the unis couldn’t cope. If they make an offer and the student gets the results they are legally bound to give them a place, and the offers are done based on the knowledge that a certain percentage will not achieve it. If every single one did, then they would be fucked.

In addition they would have a load of students starting courses they were not capable of due to inflated grades. It will have to be down to individual appeals. And unis are being urged to keep places open till the appeals process is through.

But you simoly can’t have over inflated grades to the extent the schools put forward, the unis and colleges wouldn’t have been able to cope and it would have done kids starting courses they aren’t capable of no favours.

So it will be down to individual appeals to fix this. Whether they can cope with the appeals is a different question

As for fewer independent scores having their grades changed compared to state scores - this is statistically to be expected - consider the typical distribution of grades between the two and then you will see why this is the case!