This year’s GCSE and A-level assessments are a total FIASCO from start to finish! Wales already have their results! GW has to go now!

[Lulalu]

I just found out via another thread that in Wales, “provisional” GCSE and A-level results have been issued and these are basically the results that will be officially awarded in August.

How can anyone take this year’s results seriously when schools across the UK can’t even stick to the same schedule for awarding grades?

It’s bad enough that every school has essentially been given free reign to devise its own assessment criteria!

At my DS’ school they have done three rounds of formal assessment per A-level and the results will be 100% based in this (except for subjects which include an NEA). Yet he had a friend over yesterday, who said at his sixth form college, they’ve had no formal exams whatsoever - just “mini tests” in class during which they could confer with each other and use phones to Google the answers!

Is this some kind of joke???

HOW IS GW STILL IN THAT JOB??? Sorry to shout but, I can’t believe it.

Please vote -

YANBU - GW has let students down and needs to go - NOW! This is a shambles.

YABU - No, GW is competent

Its been a complete and utter fuck up AGAIN…

Once in a pandemic you can understand, there shouldn’t have been a second

Education is a devolved issue. So it's up to each individual country of the UK how to handle it.

What difference does it make that one country has released results?

“Education is a devolved issue. So it's up to each individual country of the UK how to handle it.“

As I understood it (correct me if I’m wrong) a GCSE or A-level in Wales is the same qualification as one achieved in England? It’s not like In Scotland, where they have the Highers which are a completely different qualification.

Are Welsh GCSEs and A-levels different then?

The government have an 80 seat majority
They can do what they want
No need to worry what the plebs think for at least 2 more years

I see someone has voted that GW is competent.

Good morning Mrs Williamson

Given the social distancing (set apart exam desks) and rigid rules (silence) in ‘normal years’ in sitting exams plus only coming in for the exam, I don’t understand why they didn’t sit as usual.

(in usual years) Results are scaled and so if you had huges amounts of people doing ‘badly’ then the amount of marks to get an A, B,C would be less to reflect this.

I know it would be 1-9 not A* - G

Good!

I think mixed assessments are a better indicator than exams- exams taken in hay fever season in stressful conditions.

So many people get poor grades because they can't take the exam. I genuinely don't understand what exams achieve.

@SoupDragon

What difference does it make that one country has released results?

I don't understand this either.

Our kids got their results last Friday, other schools are doing it this week, before the exam board issues the certificates in August.

I mean, the whole exam thing has been a total disaster this year but I can't see how Wales releasing early has any effect on England or N Ireland.

I agree with the fiasco comment. And the inconsistency between schools. But I'm not seeing the problem with Welsh results being released on a different date. Education is devolved. Scottish results are also released on a different date. Always have been. Welsh GCSEs are not identical to English GCSEs - the grading system is different for a start.

Makes much more sense to release results now. I’m glad I live in Wales. Not perfect but fairly stable and generally do the right thing.

@Lulalu you need to read up on the differences between Wales and England in education.

Should have mentioned that here in Scotland each school / local authority is doing their own thing. It's the last week of term here, they have to issue results now as this time next week the kids are on holiday.

Even in a "normal" year Scottish kids get their results way before English kids, results day is usually first week of August and all results come out on the same day, by the time other parts of the UK are receiving GCSE and A-level results, our kids are back to school.

I think its up to wales what they do

But the question was whether williamson has let children down and should go…and yes i think he should

spotcheck - I have no problem with “mixed assessments.” You are missing the point.

Every school has been left to devise its own assessment criteria. Some some have used “mixed assessments.”Some have cherry picked the exams or pieces if work they feel will give the best grades overall in that school. Some have done so called informal assessments which were not invigilated and students can confer / copy each other and Google the answers (I’m not joking). Some have allowed students to resit exams or tests if they didn’t do that well the first time. Other schools have basically held formal exams and that’s it.

GW has copped out of any responsibility and has left it all to “the expertise of the teachers.”

The point is there is no consistency between schools. That’s bad enough. But on top of this, Wales already have their results now. So some students essentially know where they’re going to uni in September. If they missed the grades they can presumably be getting ahead looking at UCAS Extra, contacting the unis or making alternative plans. The majority cannot and will have to wait for the inevitable shit show in August. The difference is, this year, GW has absolved himself from any responsibility because he’ll just repeat ad infinitum that the grades were “rigorous” and “assessed by the expertise of teachers.” That will be his mantra. The man is a muppet.

*As I understood it (correct me if I’m wrong) a GCSE or A-level in Wales is the same qualification as one achieved in England? It’s not like In Scotland, where they have the Highers which are a completely different qualification.

Are Welsh GCSEs and A-levels different then?*

Welsh GCSEs and A levels are different. They haven't had the 9-1 reforms for GCSEs and the A levels are still the modular AS/A2 system.
As others have said education in Wales has been devolved, so the Welsh have a member of the Welsh parliament responsible for education and it's not GWs responsibility.

DD in England and waiting to see whether she has done well enough to get into 6th form if not it will be a mad scramble.

She is dyslexic and should have received 25% extra time in any timed assessment. But as most of her assessments were all done in class in lesson time. She only received extra time in 4 subjects.

Its been a complete fiasco for year 11 students.

Well, I voted YANBU because GW is clearly not competent. However, the Wales issue is irrelevant because education is devolved, and Welsh GCSEs therefore have nothing to do with GW. The situation in England is a shambles, though.

@Lulalu I don't disagree with you at all that GW is a twat, but Welsh GCSE and A-Levels are different, and the exam board here issued guidance on how to mark and papers to use (at least in the subject I used to teach). They've all continued to be assessed under exam conditions, albeit within their classrooms.

Yes I think I knew GCSEs in Wales were different because they still use A-G rather than 9-1. And obviously Scotland is very different.

But are Welsh A-levels different? Surely they’re all going for the same universities?

It is a total shambles. My dc school asked some pupils to come back the week after they finished to produce more work. Obviously they wanted certain kids to get specific grades and they were going to make sure they got them no matter what. Unfortunately not all pupils were given the option so how is that fair?

I just feel sorry for the schools and pupils that followed the rules and did things correctly.

Yes, they're all going for the same universities. And the universities have always had students receiving results on different days. At my daughter's university, about 50% of the students are from overseas and site a whole host of different qualifications issued on different dates. The admissions people can cope.

Sorry, my point being that regardless of reforms or lack of reforms, Welsh A-levels are still treated the same by university admissions as those achieved in England.

“My dc school asked some pupils to come back the week after they finished to produce more work. Obviously they wanted certain kids to get specific grades and they were going to make sure they got them no matter what. Unfortunately not all pupils were given the option so how is that fair?”

This has not happened at either of the schools mine are at (one GCSE, one A-level), but I’ve read about this happening on the education boards. Not fair at all.

Wales have done things differently throughout. I don't think GW has handled everything brilliantly, but if Wales have issued results early that's their issue, not GW's. This is because of Welsh devolution, Westminster had no say in it.