time to cancel England exams?

[winechateauxjoy]

I see that Scotland have followed the lead of Wales and cancelled next summer's exams. Isn't it about time they did the same in England to make it fair for those children who have been in and onut of school like yo yos in some schools?

Well given the fiasco last summer where students from more deprived areas were totally let down before the powers that be backtracked and went back to teacher assessed grades I don't hold out much hope for a sensible plan on disparity this year.

@starrynight19

So how does this work for children who have missed months of school since September ? It won’t be ‘fine’ with three extra weeks for those. Or levelling the playing field when the extra allowances are made for every child when some have suffered no disruption since September.

Ok, there will only be a small minority of Y11 that will actually have missed "months" of education. Some may have had to do self/remote study for a few weeks, And THEY'LL BE FINE.

Plenty of kids miss weeks of education through illness/holidays/whatever each year and are fine, they catch up.

I am really worried about GCSE'S 2021.

They have missed around a quarter of a 2 year course (03 to 09/20). Not including any periods of isolation due to peers testing positive.

A 3 week delay just won't cut it imo.

@winechateauxjoy

I k ow of schools where year 11 have already missed 6 weeks of school since September. How could it possibly be fair to expect them to perform as well as a student who has been able to attend every day? What is they miss another 6 weeks next term as well?

Reducing the content or sitting the exam 3 weeks later for all students is not making it fairer for those who are mssing out on so much school time this year.

But they haven't "missed" six weeks, they just haven't been in school for 6 weeks, which isn't the same thing.

It's not like they were sitting in a room with no work/resources given to them at all.

Yes, they'll have to work a it harder and they're likely to need to catch up. Bit that's what the extra 3 weeks is for, as well as the moderation.

My y11 wants the exams to take place. Whatever system they use has to take account of the differences and difficulties and I don't k is what the answer is to that. My child worked reasonably hard at home March to September and has been lucky not to have to self isolate yet but I am very aware that she wasn't taught as much as the private school kids but has more benefits than the kids without laptops or good home environments on which to learn. It's a minefield whichever system they choose

Ok, there will only be a small minority of Y11 that will actually have missed "months" of education. Some may have had to do self/remote study for a few weeks, And THEY'LL BE FINE.

I disagree. Tier three area here , have been in a sort of lockdown for months. Had very high cases and my y11 dd is on her fourth isolation. She is absolutely not fine. In her school year 11 have been hardest hit. They won’t be fine either. She / this situation is not unusual in the North West.

How can you compare a pandemic where children missed months before summer and months after to children who get ill/go on holiday. It’s apples and pears.

@winechateauxjoy

Well given the fiasco last summer where students from more deprived areas were totally let down before the powers that be backtracked and went back to teacher assessed grades I don't hold out much hope for a sensible plan on disparity this year.

Cancelling exams hits the same students harder though.

I really do think that having something to work towards is key. Otherwise we risk even further lagging.

Except it won’t be fair.
England are making adjustments. Narrowing the focus allows for targeted teaching and targeted revision. The children are also old enough to be expected to complete school work independently. Shifting grade boundaries adjust to reflect difficulties in this cohort The main beneficiaries of cancellations will not be those in deprived areas or those from deprived backgrounds. Exams are not perfect but they the fairest assessment.
They are doing the right thing and this clamour for cancellations is tiresome and not in the best interests of most children. The commitment to go ahead has been clearly made.

Yes, they'll have to work a it harder and they're likely to need to catch up. Bit that's what the extra 3 weeks is for, as well as the moderation.

Three weeks to make up for months of lost learning are you for real ??? I am guessing those who think that’s perfectly doable don’t have any experience of how bad things have been for some kids.

As much as I know teachers work very, very hard to produce work for home it is nowhere near the same as being in a classroom face to face. Those students who have had no disruption to their time in class with their teachers will have had a huge advantage over those working from home. Also, please bear in mind that many of our most deprived students do not have their own PC or laptop. They may be accessing work via a smart phone, shared with several other family members. They may not have a quiet place to work. It is not going to be an even playing field.

Unless they actually do something to address the disparity I cannot agree that what’s been given up to now levels the playing field.
Let’s hope this ‘focus group’ comes up with something. I for one am not holding my breath.

Schools which followed the guidelines in March and suspended the curriculum may not be able to
cover all their content.
We continued with our curriculum for exam classes, but the gap in knowledge between kids is the widest it’s ever been- some obviously have had loads of home support and others none and actually looked after younger siblings all day so couldn’t do home schooling.

The gap between rich and poor will widen even more as the rich will have had private tutors throughout and 1-1 Support.

@starrynight19

Yes, they'll have to work a it harder and they're likely to need to catch up. Bit that's what the extra 3 weeks is for, as well as the moderation.

Three weeks to make up for months of lost learning are you for real ??? I am guessing those who think that’s perfectly doable don’t have any experience of how bad things have been for some kids.

...but every single person sitting GCSES will be in exactly the same position of having lost learning to some degree.

Which is why they're changing the exams etc.

But to cancel them will just be pointless, because otherwise they'll have to cancel next year as well, because the Year 10s may have lost "months" of learning as well.

And just like this year, the sixth form/colleges/unis etc are well aware of the issues and there will be concessions made.

Exams in England should be cancelled. Now. Not 2 weeks before they're scheduled.

The quality and quantity of online online teaching and learning has been so varied throughout lockdown #1, and currently there are so many kids and teachers off school again leading to patchy teaching and learning.

The current situation is creating more stress and unfairness. Moderated assessment from schools will be more accurate and fair for the students.

But they don't have an even playing field at the best of times...

Yes they should cancel, but they won't, because politics in England is ridiculous. I'm so tired of how ridiculous English politics is, on any given issue the government go the stupid wrong way.

@00100001

But they don't have an even playing field at the best of times...

They all have a school they can attend normally, this year is nothing like normal. Obviously.

But they don't have an even playing field at the best of times...

So let’s make that gap even wider

No, of course it's never a level playing field - but this year the difference between them is huge, and grossly unfair.

Isn’t it better to close the gap by acknowledging disparity

Cancelling exams doesn’t help the worst off

How could they acknowledge disparity post exams? That would require someone to have to look at every single student, every single school and calculate how much time out of school they had missed, how good their access to online learning was, how good their IT access was. An impossible task. Surely the fairest thing to do would be to trust the judgment of the professionals and use predicted grades based on available data. Had this decision been made months ago schools could have ensured that fair testing and mock exams take place as well as giving plenty of time to collate this information. Instead I predict a last minute U turn and frantic data collection in couple of weeks - just like this year. And look what a mess that turned into.

@AlternativePerspective

No they shouldn’t be cancelled.

And wales and Scotland need to stop political point scoring, you can bet any money that if England had cancelled exams Scotland wouldn’t have....

This ^

So many students are motivated by taking exams. They try harder and learn more. Taking this away is doing them a disservice.

Let’s see what the group says re disparity. This is what they are set up for.

@MarshaBradyo

Isn’t it better to close the gap by acknowledging disparity

Cancelling exams doesn’t help the worst off

Cancelling exams helps the worst off most - they will be more stressed by all the covid impacts so cancelling them gives that group a big break.

The disparity is even more pronounced than usual.

I write that as someone with a year 11 child who has worked extremely hard all through lockdown. Has her own laptop, phone, study area etc. She is one of the advantaged ones and I am so very worried about her results.