Why was there not a clear plan B for exams

[Whywasther55]

Just that really why when it was a clear likelihood did the DFE not have a clear plan in place for exams instead of leaving us all in limbo. Aibu to be livid we have been left in limbo?

Because our Goverment are incompetent, indecisive, unprepared to listen, stubborn, pigheaded fucking idiots.

@FrankButchersDickieBow

Because our Goverment are incompetent, indecisive, unprepared to listen, stubborn, pigheaded fucking idiots.

Is there anyway they could table a motion of no confidence in just gavin Williamson surely most torries don’t agree with this?

What clear plan can you come up with for exams? Why are you in limbo? Aren't teachers going to award grades for pupils? Isn't that clear? Are you a teacher?

It's a completely new situation, never happened before in living memory. These things take time to plan.

Oh, wait...

I agree. Absolute fuckwits.

@Wearywithteens

Why are you in limbo? The exam grades will be teacher assessed. We are living through extraordinary times and half the people want one thing and half the people want something different.

My dd is delighted that she won’t have to go through the stomach churning anxiety of exams. I am confident that she’ll get fairly graded.

These are exams that everyone moans about as being unfair every year!

What would your plan B be?

We don’t know any details at all and last years grades were a complete mess. Will they be going back to school can they do mocks can evidence from online be used? Respectfully it does your DD no favours to not go through them as it robs her of a right of passage and makes a levels or any other exams that bit harder. I’m not gavin Williamson so don’t need to have one the DFE should have had one ready to go at a moments notice. I see the Tory apologists are out in force tonight

Do you know what the DfE have spent their time doing recently? During a pandemic? Setting up their own teacher training institute because they don't trust schools and universities to do it properly.

There are already many routes into teaching and we're in the middle of a pandemic.

This was announced 2nd January.

www.tes.com/news/knowledge-based-itt-1k-teachers-year-dfe

[quote noblegiraffe]Do you know what the DfE have spent their time doing recently? During a pandemic? Setting up their own teacher training institute because they don't trust schools and universities to do it properly.

There are already many routes into teaching and we're in the middle of a pandemic.

This was announced 2nd January.

www.tes.com/news/knowledge-based-itt-1k-teachers-year-dfe[/quote]
I don’t think they could sink any lower in my estimation.

There is a clear plan, though. Teachers will assess them. It’s been announced 6 months before the exams which is as clear is it gets without a crystal ball. The difference for this year’s cohort of pupils is that everyone half-expected this to happen so took mocks, assessments etc more seriously as they knew they could count for something rather than be mere prep. Surely the only other option would be to award no grades at all.

@FrankButchersDickieBow

Because our Goverment are incompetent, indecisive, unprepared to listen, stubborn, pigheaded fucking idiots.

This...basically

Surely they should have had clear plan B in place and been able to publish that months ago so everyone knew

Thats not a plan twiddlet

Its a vague idea

why

Theyve had since august to come up with a plan B

@Twiddlet

There is a clear plan, though. Teachers will assess them. It’s been announced 6 months before the exams which is as clear is it gets without a crystal ball. The difference for this year’s cohort of pupils is that everyone half-expected this to happen so took mocks, assessments etc more seriously as they knew they could count for something rather than be mere prep. Surely the only other option would be to award no grades at all.

Actually in December the government guaranteed the exams would go ahead and there are still many massive questions: will schools be doing extra mocks, can work done online be used, what appeals process is there, will students have the opportunity to sit exams?

Somebody asked if the teacher-assessment plan can be made clearer - well, not until we see if the vaccine makes it safe enough for pupils to return to school and sit tests there. I’m a teacher, this is a mess but I really don’t know how anything more concrete can be decided upon when the outlook may change.

Not to meantion they said it would be “teacher assessed grades” last year

They didn’t guarantee exams in exam halls with external moderators would go ahead. They said pupils would still be tested / assessed.

@Twiddlet

They didn’t guarantee exams in exam halls with external moderators would go ahead. They said pupils would still be tested / assessed.

That’s simply not true they made clear that “exams” would go ahead semantics about practicalities are irrelevant

@Twiddlet

They didn’t guarantee exams in exam halls with external moderators would go ahead. They said pupils would still be tested / assessed.

Why are you lying?

Yes, there are questions but none of those could be answered 1) before we had a vaccine approved 2) before we knew about the new and more contagious strain. What if they’d said pupils could all go into school to be tested in regular lessons? That would now change. It wound be lovely if we all have the answers but I don’t and I’ve been a deputy head.

@Twiddlet

Yes, there are questions but none of those could be answered 1) before we had a vaccine approved 2) before we knew about the new and more contagious strain. What if they’d said pupils could all go into school to be tested in regular lessons? That would now change. It wound be lovely if we all have the answers but I don’t and I’ve been a deputy head.

So they couldn’t have had a contingency plan for cancellations?

They kept on saying exams wouldn't be cancelled because they thought that if they said it enough times then it would be true.

The criticism of you saying that your dc is in limbo is unfair. Kids deserve to know how it will be calculated and when they can stop studying.

I have a child doing exams next summer too and there clearly needs to be a plan for them too. But they won't admit it until the last minute (again!)

There’s no plan b. Those suggesting that CAGs are straightforward are in denial. Many year 11s have missed learning due to self isolation, many schools were due to hold mocks in the coming weeks. At my school we have one set of mocks at present. Many don’t engage with remote learning. The unions asked for a plan b months ago and were ignored. The pandemic started almost a year ago and the dfe have done nothing. It is shameful and as usual the blame will be passed to schools. I would be deeply concerned if I was a parent of a year 11 or 13 student. As a teacher I am looking forward to my dfe training on awarding CAGs...oh wait I already did that in the summer

We are pushing for a plan c for the current year 10s, you won’t hear anything about that though until Spring 2022 I imagine

Noblegiraffe, when are you talking about? I think we are at cross purposes. I mean in the recent announcements, they said pupils would be assessed, just not in formal exam halls. I’m not lying - bit rude - I’m either not making myself clear or you are talking about last year.