A Level U turn

[Jargo]

Holy shit, now based on teacher predictions.

This has been a totally avoidable clusterfuck. Well done Conservative Party.

I hope they think about what's going to happen to next year's cohort when they take GCSEs and A-Levels - given the variety of education and learning they will have experienced.

Wasn't there talk that exams would happen later than usual to allow extra teaching time

Does the U-turn apply to BTECs, or just A levels & GCSEs ?

Just A-levels and GCSEs.

No news about other qualifications.

So they’ve raised the cap (have they said to what?), but top universities can’t magically produce 30% more accommodation and squeeze 30% more student into labs - particularly under Covid restrictions.

I fear what will happen is that students whose CAGs match their first choice uni’s offer will be encouraged to defer, creating further problems for the current Year 12s.

If some city universities can squeeze more students in this year, it might have a disastrous effect on the lowest ranked universities, who won’t be able to fill their places.

It would be so much better for students to be able to choose which to accept (so the best set)

As there will be loads of students who 'won' with the last set of results and some who the teachers opinion would have been better

I know there is no 'fair' way to decide but ffs

This is a fucking huge fuck up. Will people now get downgraded from Thursday's 'results' ?
I don't have DC or any loved ones affected by the results this year but really feel for all who are having to deal with this.

Because he is shit at his job. If you are incompetent you get sacked. A tory minister shouldn't be exempt from this. The rest of the world works in this way.
Because he is shit at his job. If you are incompetent you get sacked. A tory minister shouldn't be exempt from this. The rest of the world works in this way.

Exactly.

What some who are celebrating this change don't realise is that some centres hugely over predicted and others followed exam board advice about how to award CAG grades and the result is now that these centres are stuck having effectively downgraded their own students. Changing the advice at the end of the process means that those who didn't follow the advice win and those who did lose. One set of unfair results has now been replaced by another.

dwiz8, they’ve already said that no grades will go down. If the calculated grade was higher than the CAG they get to keep the calculated grade.

The most outrageous thing about this all is how they have left the kids hanging in uncertainty.

And those who were hoping to use their mock grade have had that knocked from their grasp.

@BigChocFrenzy

Does the U-turn apply to BTECs, or just A levels & GCSEs ?

They SAID it doesn't apply to BTECs, but who knows if that'll change 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don't have a child affected this year, this was clearly the only route they could take however I'm not convinced by it. I wonder if private schools will now come out even better and with the knock on effect of uni places this is going to ramble on.

I have a DC sitting A levels next year and I am worried about this, I think it sets a precedent given the amount of schooling many have lost already and, if there are any local lockdowns may lose in the future. I wonder if anyone in government is thinking about this, everything seems just so reactionary, it's very very worrying.

I think Gavin bloody Williamson needs to go. What an absolute shambles!!

@dwiz8 - you get the higher of the two

Maybe they realised that today's downgraded student is tomorrow's voter.

The whole situation is (yet another) pig's ear.

And those who were hoping to use their mock grade have had that knocked from their grasp.

As a school we had a few who had a higher mock grade than CAG (usually due to tutors using the same questions as the mock). Those parents / students really not going to be happy. But they’ll blame teachers / schools so Gav and BJ don’t care about that.

I should add I'm glad for those students whose results have gone up I'm just annoyed for those who are stuck with a low CAG grade because the teacher/centre followed the guidance.

I still have issues with my child’s CAG. It doesn’t bare any resemblance to his mocks or to his term 4 assessments. Hopefully there will be a process to appeal the CAGs. We also need news on the resits in October.

@PinkiOcelot

I think Gavin bloody Williamson needs to go. What an absolute shambles!!

He's somebody promoted beyond the level of his competence - you know, like he is worried that children from disadvantaged families may one day be.

The patronising little twerp!

Please spare a thought for those students - and there are lots of them - whose teachers who did not uplift their grades.

They are now at a disadvantage as their grades will appear low compared to those whose grades are “de-downgraded”.

Excellent news.

This doesn't affect DD who got her predicted grades, but it affects some of her friends who didn't get their first choice of University, as a result of being downgraded.

I'm delighted ☺

Hopefully there will be a process to appeal the CAGs.

I think this is unlikely, unless the school can demonstrate a clear error (such as typing the wrong letter in to the computer).

@bigvig

What some who are celebrating this change don't realise is that some centres hugely over predicted and others followed exam board advice about how to award CAG grades and the result is now that these centres are stuck having effectively downgraded their own students. Changing the advice at the end of the process means that those who didn't follow the advice win and those who did lose. One set of unfair results has now been replaced by another.

Exactly.

DS's school was rigorous about grading & ranking, and as a result his predictions as Lowe than we think it would have been in at least one subject had he been able to do the exam.

But don't suppose he can now appeal his CAG.

This was totally foreseeable and could have been sorted out at any time between the cancelling of exams and results day.

Students have been unfairly downgraded, lost their university place and have now been ‘upgraded’ again but their university place is still gone. All because of this government‘s inability to make a competent decision in a reasonable time frame.