GCSE and Alevel exams in England

[SmileEachDay]

Should they go ahead?

Given the wildly fluctuating attendance levels at school at the moment, the continued possibility of whole year groups having to isolate and the very different teaching experience this years Y11 and 13 are having?

YABU - Keep going! Exams! It’ll be fine! Tally ho!
YANBU - Cancel exams and use externally moderated assessment pieces, plus teacher assessment.

Wales currently having this discussion, England isn’t...

I'm in the minority here, but summer exams will go ahead. Last year was too problematic. We plan to have secure mock exam grades in place, however, the exam boards are all set up for summer exams. Some papers have been removed or shortened to make it fairer. The grade boundaries will be adjusted as necessary. My contacts tell me they will go ahead as planned.

@EdwardBear1920 But exams aren't meant to be a test of intelligence (you have IQ tests for that), they are a test of attainment.

There is no fair system this year.

At least with exams and a reference from school a college / uni have the ability to put the results into context, whereas with the CAGs this year they looked fairer but probably weren't.

What matters for GCSEs at least is getting on to the right follow up course.

@starrynight19

The government were all over the ‘disadvantaged’ children when they wanted schools to reopen. Given it’s some of those children who are being most affected now radio silence.

Yup the government (and bloody us4them) love to use the 'disadvantaged' child for their agendas.. nothing that might actually help a disadvantaged child though.

@Maireas

I'm in the minority here, but summer exams will go ahead. Last year was too problematic. We plan to have secure mock exam grades in place, however, the exam boards are all set up for summer exams. Some papers have been removed or shortened to make it fairer. The grade boundaries will be adjusted as necessary. My contacts tell me they will go ahead as planned.

Hello Gav 👋

Hello, Monkey!

[quote Racoonworld]@cologne4711 ok I was thinking more of the science degrees which need knowledge of maths and science. You can’t just not learn a chunk of it and expect to go onto university, the courses are tough enough as it is and won’t be able to go over all the basics which should have been learnt before.[/quote]
Yes I imagine it's different for science courses, I was a humanities student

It may be that the universities have to offer more foundation years, although that obviously adds to the costs for students. Maybe a foundation year should be free (although you'd still have living costs).

I'm in the minority here, but summer exams will go ahead. Last year was too problematic. We plan to have secure mock exam grades in place, however, the exam boards are all set up for summer exams. Some papers have been removed or shortened to make it fairer. The grade boundaries will be adjusted as necessary. My contacts tell me they will go ahead as planned.

How does any of that address the disparity in how much face to face schooling some children are receiving ?

I think exams should go ahead, even if they have to be adjusted so that there are fewer topics to be tested on.

Having the opportunity to take exams this year was horrible for kids that make the effort with school and incredibly unfair on them. They will forever be left with the 2020 badge attached to their grades with people questioning whether their achievements were inflated and really deserved, despite the fact that they covered pretty much all of their exam content before lockdown and were only revising topics. Their teachers were able to make their grade judgements based on very nearly a full two years worth of work. That won’t be possible for the 2021 exams, student would be better of taking their exams and getting grades that they deserve.

It doesn't, starrynight . It's a problem. Then again, so was this year's algorithm.

With A-levels though, there’s only a term and a half to go as study leave basically starts after Easter. If they did exams now and again after Jan, these would be good enough evidence for grades.

I do think the teachers know the kids best and, in the majority of cases, they could have a reasonably good guess now as to which students would get which grades. Of course, many students will be borderline between two grades, but that is why they could do various tests between now and Easter to provide the evidence.

Surely, this preferable to carrying in as normal and then a big flap if exams are cancelled in March / April because the reality dawns on the govt? Or there’s been so much disruption it sparks protests... ?

@starrynight19

The government were all over the ‘disadvantaged’ children when they wanted schools to reopen. Given it’s some of those children who are being most affected now radio silence.

They even voted not to feed them and just took away a lot of the laptops they were going to use for remote learning. They don’t give a shit about disadvantaged kids.

The papers will be adjusted, NailsNeedDoing.

DS1 sitting A levels has spent the first four weeks out of seven this term self isolating from college. He is still only in for face to face teaching two days a week, so has had six days face to face since March. In comparison, the college down the road is in full time. No closures so far.
DS2 GCSE's is currently on his third week of four self isolation. Lockdown consisted of mostly revision sheets and 'tidying your file'. Only two of nine teachers attempted remote learning. Many admitted they were too busy at home with their own DC! Outstanding school supposedly.
Both my DC are bright and we hope they do sit exams as historically perform well, but the disparity nationwide between educational provision and experiences of self isolation has to be addressed, even if by introducing some sort of sliding scale to give extra marks in exam papers for those most adversely affected.

Very difficult to test classes too at the minute, with only half - two thirds of the class present at any one time.
NW. TIer 3.

The papers will be adjusted, NailsNeedDoing

For all children or just those who face many more months out of school ?

That won’t be possible for the 2021 exams, student would be better of taking their exams and getting grades that they deserve.

But will it be the grades they deserve if they are constantly out of school ?

Cancel exams and use externally moderated assessment pieces, plus teacher assessment.

What’s an externally moderated assessment piece? Sounds like an exam to me.

I certainly don't believe in teachers assessment, in our school overmarking too much. (prepandemic issue)

No-one will get individually adjusted papers, starrynight. I agree with you and other posters, this will impact some students more than others. We've still got many months to go, as well.

I think even if grade boundaries are adjusted for exam results it is not a fair playing field. It probably never is but I think for this year students who will be taking exams in June it is worse than ever.

I think it is important that A level students continue to study as much of the curriculum as they can especially if they plan to go to university because the subject builds on skills and subject knowledge that they will need.

My son Is now in year 13, and he has had to teach himself a lot this past year, most work at home was working through text books during lockdown. It has been relentless since he has returned to school because the school are trying to catch up and ensure they have evidence for centre assessed grades. He had exams after the first week back, then class assessments and after half term he is going back to mocks. No let up! I feel these students have had it so hard and on top of that their lives have been restricted socially at a time when they should be beginning to really start to spread their wings.

@hopelesschildren

I certainly don't believe in teachers assessment, in our school overmarking too much. (prepandemic issue)

Teacher assessments also imply that teachers won’t have any absence from school.

I think exams should go ahead, even if they have to be adjusted so that there are fewer topics to be tested on.

The problem with this is that as schools don't all teach the topics in the same order, some children won't have covered the chosen topics whilst others will have had in depth learning.
I think that they should cancel the exams and use internal moderation this year. Dd has missed most of year 10 and a week of year 11 so far. She's stressed.
The government will probably cancel them the night before the first exam is due to take place though going by previous decisions.
Cancel them now and give the dc some certainties, they have enough to worry about without this.

But surely teachers are being paid to provide an education to children, and if they (children or teachers) are self isolating, then they need to provide a high quality remote option instead? They are professionals being paid a salary to do so? So a good quality education should be being provided by schools regardless of whether bubbles burst etc. The only difference will be if it is at home or in school? And there has been massive investment in Oak Academy too, no?

I think exams do need to go ahead.
I think the grade boundaries will be lower.
I think those who are self motivated and would have done well without Covid will still do well. I think those are less motivated would have done less well Covid or not.

The only problem is if schools/teachers are not providing a high quality education, but surely most of them are professionals and will do so? If not, then Heads need to deal with underperforming teachers, and Ofsted needs to deal with underperforming schools.

But its always been the same - some schools are better than others, some children's home lives are more supportive than others, some children work harder than others, and some children are simply brighter than others. There isn't, and never has been, a true level playing field. We don't cancel exams every year because of this.

My contacts tell me they will go ahead as planned

Who? The DfE?

I don’t understand why so many schools are isolating the whole year group if there a single case. The schools mine are at just isolate a handful of “close contacts.” Plus all lessons are filmed anyway and they are expected to still participate in real time via Google Classroom / Zoom (or whatever it is). I have kids in 3 different independent schools and nine of them have missed a day (except when they were ill themselves). If anything, they were working harder during lockdown. The whole thing seems so unfair and I can’t believe there were kids told to “tidy files” or “here’s some worksheets” last term. Teachers in independent schools or state schools that provided full online. school have their own kids too, but they were told to make it happen.