To think that this is excellent news in the absence of exams

[scoutingfornarwhals]

Gavin Williamson has said - He also reiterated that there would be "no algorithms whatsoever" used in determining A-level, AS and GCSE grades, with marks "firmly in the hands of teachers".

At last, the government are showing faith in teachers, i can relax about the exam results as my DCs teachers know them and they will get appropriate grades whether high, average or low.

It's about bloody time.

The lack of parity between schools; the lack of any strictures about what schools must consider and what they may consider not as evidence; the offering of mini-exams which recycle past papers rather than brand-new questions and which do not have to be sat under exam conditions; the lack of any meaningful checks and balances on how schools arrive at the grades they do, so no guarantee that one A* is equivalent to another; the lack of any moderation of NEAs by exam boards; the massive grade inflation that is going to result this year - even worse than last year's; the fact that our DC's grades will always be regarded as suspect because of all of the above - yeah, not seeing this as excellent news, I'm afraid. It's an absolute car crash of a decision by the DfE.

I think its good news and what our school has been pretty much working to as we all knew this was likely.
So my ds has done some online mocks and they have been told to make effort with every bit of work they hand in as its likely to be used to help assess.

I trust my ds teachers and they can't just give what they want as they have to have work etc to prove it and it will be checked by others.
Its unusual for a child to go up loads in exams from predicted grades And I could argue exams are unfair as my elder ds dropped several grades on real exams compared to what he always worked to and all his mocks.
I think its time we went to 50% coursework and 50% exams as exams are not always fair on the kids who crumble and coursework is good practice for uni and even work, as work we have to work hard constantly not just sit an exam on a friday.
The system needs a shake up

I think a lot of parents on here who don't teach and have no idea how the teachers grade etc and are worried because they have a kid who last minute works and pulls it out the bag, like others have said you can re take or start working hard now and treat any mocks like the real things
Plus I am sure some schools will choose the mini exam papers on offer to help.
We have a quarterly report which tells is roughly what level my ds is working at / towards with ds1 his marks matched his mocks so I do believe the teachers knew him well and he was a quiet one in class. ( he crashed in real gcse due to being unwell and nervous )
Ds2 this year hAs got couple new teachers for some subjects but again as they are going in soon I think they will get enough work
Our school said months ago as work may be used again to tell our kids to hand in their best effort always , as we all knee this was a likely scenario .

Also those kids who leave it until last minute and are good at exams , does that actually set them up well for most uni courses and real life jobs , where you have to work.
Also some of them ( not all ) are the ones who mess around in lessons and distract other children who need to listen so they can get the grades they deserve.
If I was an employer i would rather employ someone who always works hard consistently and not someone who does the bare basics and once in a while works harder.
This is why personally I think GCSE need to be 50/50 exams and coursework as fairer on all

My child's school has been very clear with kids they shouldn't bank on exams and they need to work consistently because it could all be evidence for final grades.

Also those kids who leave it until last minute and are good at exams , does that actually set them up well for most uni courses and real life jobs , where you have to work.

Does exam performance actually say anything about real life jobs? In my line of work I am never in a situation where I have to write essays on a certain question with no access to reference materials or the internet. I never have to sit and write answers to dozens of questions with no access to reference materials or the internet. Coursework is a much better parallel to my real life job.

Are there jobs where your performance is dependent on exam-like conditions? I can't think of any.

Call me cynical but I don’t think this is the government “trusting teachers”, it’s the government dumping a very difficult problem on schools.

Last year my school was very cautious about grades as we were expecting them to be moderated and didn’t want nasty surprises. Our students were thus (relatively) shafted. We’ll be more savvy this year.

Schools will be handing on the problem to university admissions teams. Good luck to them!

When I started teaching in 1988 English Language and Literature were assessed 100% by coursework, moderated within school and by the exam board. It was a great system. Unfortunately some schools and parents decided to game that system (ie cheat) and it was reduced and reduced until it was finally removed as exams were seen as less easy to ‘game’.
For those putting so much trust in exams, though, how does this make you feel? rethinkingassessment.com/rethinking-blogs/just-how-reliable-are-exam-grades/
There is no scientifically reliable way of assessing academic performance. We are always doing the best we can to rank order and differentiate between students. This just makes it more obvious.

When I started teaching in 1988 English Language and Literature were assessed 100% by coursework, moderated within school and by the exam board. It was a great system.

Depended on the board? I took exams in both Eng Lang and Eng Lit in 1988. There was 50% coursework for Lit, but I think Lang was all exam (including a recorded spoken assessment.)