Changes to GCSEs 2021

[SusanAmos]

Hello all,

New mumsnetter here, so please bear with me.

This thread was just to ask what you think of the newly announced changes to GCSE 2021.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/education-55160374

Thanks, Susan

@Orangeblossom77777 in one way, it seems unfair that the timings are so different for mocks (i.e extra time) but then again, I do feel sad for kids who have theirs after Christmas.

And what about this year's Y10's who will be impacted by all this year's disruption when they take their exams?

DS's school have just done one set of mocks (usually Paper 1s I think) and then having second set after Christmas

I guess mocks won't matter so much as we know the main exams are doing ahead

The stressful part was schools saying they might be used as the real exams, putting pressure on.

That's it. My son's lot were sort of bargaining on the mocks being the real thing. I'm sure it wont hurt them though. Good revision practice.

Thank you everyone! Would love to hear everyone else's opinions too x

What do you think about it Susan have you a DC in one of those years?

I presume "susan" is a journalist or research bod.

Yeah. I'll wait and see what happens.

Not got any faith in Gavin Williamson or anything this government has done with regards to education. I'm not shouting Ooh hooray! at the BBC story. It's more puff without substance. Teachers still don't know what topics etc. It's just a headline with nothing behind it as yet.

Nothing can really makes months and months of lost classroom teaching time, vs “private school live lessons since March”, “fair”. Some state kids lost 20th March - 1st June, and none since. Others lost 20th March-1st Sept plus 8 weeks this term and 10 weeks next term. I can’t see anything that can really close the gap to make it “fair”.

It’s a bodge.

Agree that in a few years no interviewer will remember or care if the results were a pandemic year or not.

It's lip service I have children in both sitting gcse and a level uni's will still only be accepting the top % of grades that apply for each course is respective of what those grades are eg entry in 2018 might have been ABB now because of inflated grades will be A*AA the number of places either at uni or to carry on from gcse to Alevel are not infinite. I hope this is the final "decision" though our children an teaching staff deserve much more than this

I am glad the exams are going ahead. There are no easy answers but I do agree with having contingency exams in July for any child that had to isolate - that is fair.

I do not agree with students being told what will be in the exam. As far as I can tell, this will just squeeze the grade boundaries. A difference of 5 marks could mean the difference between a 6 or 7.

To give an analogy, if you were learning to drive you would expect the examiner to pass you unless you were competent to drive. Why are GCSE different?

Life is unfair. DS has worked so hard for his GCSE. Every school has had access to online text books. There is BBC Bitesize (worth the licence fee just for that).

What would be unfair is for students to go on to A'Levels and not be able to cope.

I would have preferred a system that instead of all the exams being taken over 2 weeks they were more spread out. That would have made a difference. What DS struggles with is learning so much content and being tested on it over such a short space of time. Why not spread the exams out?

@Wynona I agree with you about spreading out the exams. It would have given the children time to focus more on one subject at a time.
I'm supportive of knowing topics as surely that's less revision.

Reducing content has unintended consequences. The margin for error in marking is going to be so small. Lets say that 27% of students will get grade 7-9. What determines that difference will change. A few marks difference will make the difference between grade 7 or 8.

I cannot imagine that this is what was intended, but that is what will happen.

Yes overall I think the changes are good. No I’m not a researcher. Thanks for all the additional replies.

Thanks again

Why on earth have they waited so long to narrow down the topics. It is so unfair on those year 11s who have had repeated time away due to self isolating. I would be very frustrated if I was in one of these schools, working flat out to deliver the spec, to discover the topics I had taught since September were now not needed for the exam. They could have given out the info on topics back in September.

In an ideal world of course all students should cover all of the spec in full - but this year is not ideal. I think that there will be issues at A Level and degree level in the future because students will need to complete any topics they missed out during the GCSE years.

There was no easy option I do agree that an earlier decision would have been useful. Could someone explain the mocks point to me?

"Those young people taking vocational and technical qualifications will also see adaptations to their exams to ensure fairness."

Nice of them to throw that generic comment in. Once again, BTEC students are left dangling.

From my dd experience of mocks they were told that these might be the basis of their exam grades if they didn’t go ahead. So lots of students felt very worried about doing the mock exams as in some ways they felt to them like the final exam they could potentially do.
In dd school they have already done them in the last two weeks. As it’s become obvious so many children have missed them due to isolation they have decided to do another lot of mocks after Christmas.
Some children will be sitting them when they return from isolation , so potential for cheating as they know what’s on the test. Same as those who have been asked to sit them at home.
Also as they have all taken place at different times that will impact on how much time children have had back in school before sitting them.
If exams do go ahead mocks will have much less meaning. Other than to likely identify how big the gaps are and put increasing pressure on staff and students.

Why are you asking @SusanAmos? Do you have a Y11 child?

@ineedaholidaynow erm why?

Thanks again for all the responses great all the opinions there have been so far

Pleased exams are going ahead with adaptations

Thanks @MarshaBradyo