To think 2021 exam results certificates should include a Covid disruption statement?

[rangadanga]

Given the CAG/calculated grade problems in 2020, it's unlikely that 2021 exams will be cancelled. There's lots of debate about how they can be made as fair as possible, e.g. cutting down the syllabus or having more optionality so all students can find questions on areas of the syllabus they've covered. In addition to all that, I think it would be good for each student's certificate to (optionally) include a personalised Covid disruption statement from their school to indicate how many teaching days they lost due to ‘circumstances related to coronavirus'. This information is formally recorded in attendance registers so would be easy to provide and would help to put individual results into perspective.

They should but it should read "my grades were inflated far beyond my abilities to stop everyone protesting" - just like 2020's results.

Should degree results also mention it?
I had to do do my degree from home, discussion in seminars had been minimal and of course library access is restricted.
Can my degree result have a star by it (also strikes last year)

@burnoutbabe

Should degree results also mention it? I had to do do my degree from home, discussion in seminars had been minimal and of course library access is restricted. Can my degree result have a star by it (also strikes last year)

The difficulty is that universities have been SO inconsistent. DH and I are both doing postgrads alongside working. My uni gave us our exams online and a no detriment policy where if I averaged lower in the June exams than the January exams, I'd get the average from my January exams - but if I did higher in June I'd get the total average. DH got his exams changed to coursework (completed without a library and without any childcare at the height of lockdown) and they changed nothing about the marking or detriment policy at all. My grades ended up being much, much higher than his.

@MakingShapes

They should but it should read "my grades were inflated far beyond my abilities to stop everyone protesting" - just like 2020's results.

As a teacher who spent many many hours agonising over assigning the FAIREST and most accurate results to each and every one of my students without straying too far above or below our projected trend figures I take great offence to this statement.

I can see where you’re coming from, but where would it end? Should we start putting notes on certificates if a student had an illness during the 2/3 years they’re doing their course? Or if they had a bereavement, or some other family trauma that made it harder to learn?

Children shouldn’t be losing teaching days anymore anyway, all schools are supposed to provide remote learning.

No. Nobody actually looks at exam certificates. Sure you might submit them to an employer as proof of qualifications, but they’re not going to read them for excuses.

Covid impact will hit everyone differently anyway. Because I was able to give my Y6 child 1:1 tuition in “homeschool”, she got a Maths GCSE level 5 (past paper at home when she should have been doing her SATS). What’s the point in putting data that doesn’t tell the story anyway? What if children who blossom with hone learning during isolation because they prefer than to being bullied at school?

It is enough, that everyone will know that they are “Covid” results.

I also think this is ridiculous

You obviously place more importance on grades than personals attributes.

I have two children affected by exams this June, both have worked hard, both will achieve their grades as predicted, because it’s always been the same results since junior school.

Life isn’t fair. Exams aren’t everything.

Teachers have had this dumped in their laps and now your suggesting they have no idea what grade a student could get? You honestly think that an A* student in class every day that completes work and hands in assignments is so how no different to those in lower groups barely managing to construct sentences?

I have one of each. I think the predicted grades reflect their academic ability.

What is doesn’t reflex is their hard work, resilience, people skills, communication skills, loyalty and honesty.

@whynotwhen As a teacher, you would know that 75% of students every year do not achieve their predicted grades. You'd know that, in this country, our exam board fuck over students and a large amount of a student's grades is pure luck on which exams the exam board made an error on or bothered to mark remotely correctly. Given that 75% of students don't achieve their predicted grades - how can you possibly think that this year's students didn't get higher grades than they'd achieved if they sat the exams? Do you really belief students taking their exams this year were just indescribable amounts more intelligent that every other year group?! Come off it.
PS - I'm a teacher too.

As a teacher who spent many many hours agonising over assigning the FAIREST and most accurate results to each and every one of my students without straying too far above or below our projected trend figures I take great offence to this statement.

@whynotwhen, were any of those students then given higher grades than their CAGs due to the algorithm? That was a huge contributer to the overall grade inflation. In the end nobody was pulled down by the algorithm but many schools found that some students were unfairly pulled up.

@NailsNeedDoing wrote:
Children shouldn’t be losing teaching days anymore anyway, all schools are supposed to provide remote learning.

With the best will in the world, no teacher can always guarantee to change to remote teaching at no notice without a class's education being affected in any way.

@rangadanga how do you know nobody was pulled down? Have you asked everyone?? Ridiculous statement

@MakingShapes

They should but it should read "my grades were inflated far beyond my abilities to stop everyone protesting" - just like 2020's results.

That’s inaccurate @MakingShapes kids were affected in both directions. My son actually had three of his grades predicted below his mocks. And a further subject which was performance based but the school hadn’t recorded the final performance yet and so wouldn’t predict above a B/6 for lack of evidence- even though in another major component of the exam he had achieved FULL MARKS. He was an 8/A* student in that subject. But hey, why let facts bother you.

[quote FlyingLoo]@rangadanga how do you know nobody was pulled down? Have you asked everyone?? Ridiculous statement[/quote]
FlyingLoo, because after the DfE u-turn nobody was given lower than their CAG, but grades that the algorithm pulled up from the CAG were allowed to stand.

@MakingShapes

They should but it should read "my grades were inflated far beyond my abilities to stop everyone protesting" - just like 2020's results.

Nailed it

@rangadanga

That assumes the predicted grades were right. Which they won’t always have been (certainly weren’t in my son’s case). Some students will have benefited in the 2020 results, but actually loads will have lost out to what they could have pulled out of the bag on the day. Allowing the predicted grades was not some panacea because they were based on a teacher assessment.

As an employer, I give weight to how prospective employees explain their interest in a role, and how they got to this stage in their career - including explaining challenges or gaps. My own cover letter explains my skills, achievements and my career and education progression. It's never failed to win me an interview.

I've hired people who failed to meet the criteria over people who did because they made a brilliant explanation of their circumstances, choices and aspirations. Whereas some people just "rest on their certificates".

I think careers guidance is more important than an asterisk on a certificate that no one is going to read.

Surely employers / universities / colleges will happen to remember a small thing like the pandemic? It's just a given. It's like saying anyone who graduated in 2008 and couldn't get a job should put the financial crisis on their CV. It just isn't necessary.

I do think that all schools and sixth form colleges should have to state very clearly what their provision was for each subject during lockdown. Some pupils received full online teaching for every subject, some received nothing. Most received a mix, even within the same school or college. For example ds had normal lessons for two subjects but only set work for the third.

sorry I meant to say "on a UCAS reference" so universities know exactly what the provision was. Also worth saying what the attendance has been up until now too as some colleges/schools have 95% attendance and others 65% (or less).

@MakingShapes

They should but it should read "my grades were inflated far beyond my abilities to stop everyone protesting" - just like 2020's results.

So none of the students in 2020 deserved their grades? NONE of them, out of thousands and thousands?

FlyingLoo, because after the DfE u-turn nobody was given lower than their CAG, but grades that the algorithm pulled up from the CAG were allowed to stand.

Not everyone's CAG was the same or better than previously predicted grades. Half my DS1's results were lower than predicted. Sure, some probably got a boost, but I think more teachers were like whynotwhen and trying to make things as fair and holistically-viewed as possible. Also, he never got a certificate - just an email of his results that we printed.

I think more schools need to be focusing on career advice like thecatsthecats talked about than trying to tweak what certificates say.

Plenty of teenagers have a lot of time off due to illness, it's the norm, do any of them put in for "extentuating" circumstance?

DD missed most of Autumn term of year 12 due to glandular fever. A friend missed most of her Spring term, due to the same. Many children have accidents, or illnesses. They may have deaths in the family. In extreme cases they have cancer treatments and take ALevels in hospital. They do remarkably well, even with the small uplift (I think only 5%) that they are entitled to.

@thecatsthecats

As an employer, I give weight to how prospective employees explain their interest in a role, and how they got to this stage in their career - including explaining challenges or gaps. My own cover letter explains my skills, achievements and my career and education progression. It's never failed to win me an interview.

I've hired people who failed to meet the criteria over people who did because they made a brilliant explanation of their circumstances, choices and aspirations. Whereas some people just "rest on their certificates".

I think careers guidance is more important than an asterisk on a certificate that no one is going to read.

@thecatsthecats but what if people are exaggerating the impact Covid had on their attainment? Surely it's an easy excuse that is impossible to corroborate without evidence? We have certificates so that people who are prone to over-selling their achievements don't trump people who have genuine, evidenced achievements. In many jobs (including teaching) academic certificates will/should be thoroughly checked as part of Safer Recruitment procedures.

Having a nationwide exam system is completely unfair when there is so much discrepancy regionally. Children in some locations are far more likely to have disrupted education than in others.

Also, by only isolating "close contacts" of positive cases, one pupil could be unlucky enough to be isolated several times when others are not isolated at all. DH is a secondary teacher who teaches only exam classes. It is relatively easy for him to switch to online when the whole class is isolated but very difficult to successfully engage a few children who are learning remotely while the rest of the class are in. His school has fixed desktop computers. The classroom setup does not allow the kids at home to see or hear him properly. No funding has been provided to kit out every classroom with the cameras and microphones etc needed to effectively stream the lesson.