To still feel angry about GCSEs 2021

[Stillfeelcross]

I’ll start by saying I know it’s not the teachers fault.
I’m so angry about the way GCSEs were graded this year and need to get over it. It’s the massive discrepancies between schools, some of who gave their pupils a much easier time than others. Some did mini assessments and then had the chance to take the test again if the pupils didn’t get the grades they wanted. In some schools the dc were told exactly what they were going to be tested on. Some schools did no assessments at all. Some poor dc did full on GCSE exams in exam conditions. It seems the JCQ basically agreed with whatever approach the school chose and exam boards barely moderated any work at all. In the future nobody will know which pupils went to a school with a tougher, more rigorous approach and all grades will be seen as equal even though they’re really not.

@a8mint and @cptartapp I especially feel for the dc doing A’levels this year who went to a harsher school. It’s absolutely awful for them. I really hope your dd gets the place she obviously deserves at Cambridge @a8mint.

DS school and college sat all day exams. My nephew had the teach and test experience in class. My friends daughter's school called students back in in June for another go if exam results weren't as expected. I still think both my DS would have done even better if national exams had gone ahead. DS1 did better than predicted in more than half of his GCSE's in 2019.
It is what it is. There was never an easy option for this year group. I just think at least the vast amount of online/self directed learning at home will stand them in good stead for the next step.

I have had a daughter go through the alevels this year and it was hard knowing her potential and seeing her not achieve it - through numerous reasons. When we look at her whole cohort she seems to have come out worse - but it is what it is.

It meant that she hasn’t got into the university she wanted her dreams change and shifted somewhat but we’ve muddled through. She still got a place doing the same course and at a good university - took a bit more effort but it got sorted.

As someone else said the ones who got lucky will get found out, not that I wish anything bad to happen but it will come out in the wash as they say.
We wanted to appeal but realised it probably wasn’t worth it - for us (I have a great respect for teachers so not a teacher bashing) the teacher who marked her two grades below her papers for whatever the reason we will never find out really it’s done.

@Stillfeelcross

I’ll start by saying I know it’s not the teachers fault. I’m so angry about the way GCSEs were graded this year and need to get over it. It’s the massive discrepancies between schools, some of who gave their pupils a much easier time than others. Some did mini assessments and then had the chance to take the test again if the pupils didn’t get the grades they wanted. In some schools the dc were told exactly what they were going to be tested on. Some schools did no assessments at all. Some poor dc did full on GCSE exams in exam conditions. It seems the JCQ basically agreed with whatever approach the school chose and exam boards barely moderated any work at all. In the future nobody will know which pupils went to a school with a tougher, more rigorous approach and all grades will be seen as equal even though they’re really not.

The whole point of the process was to ensure that it was not Gavin Williamson's fault. As long as people are angry that different schools did things differently then he is happy that attention is distracted from his utter incompetence and lack of interest in education.

I think GCSEs do matter and not just for the next stage of education.

For the super competitive courses like medicine, dentistry and so on, they will have offers based on and around these. Children at a disadvantage will therefore struggle to access these courses.

Otherwise, why not just encourage all Year 11s to get a handful of 5/6 grades and have done with it, as that’s all they ‘need.’

No? Well then.

My friends daughter's school called students back in in June for another go if exam results weren't as expected
This also happened at a school near me. I mean it’s a joke isn’t it along with the teach and test approach at another local school.

I'm a teacher, and I know we tried our very very best to give our students the grades that they deserved, but I do feel angry about the whole process too. It was a completely crap state of affairs concocted by a completely crap DofE and government. All the things that the government said would happen, didn't happen. There was no meaningful "guidance", no new exam questions written, no moderation and no standardisation between schools. All of that was done internally, it was literally every school for itself, from deciding on the assessment methods and evidence used, the questions set, and moderation. Some were cautious and conservative, due to the promise of scrutiny (which didn't really happen, at least not in any meaningful way, but the threat was there), and some gambled. It's not like all schools had the same exam papers and grade boundaries, and we're just marking them or something, so that discrepancies could be easily spotted if their papers were sampled, there was literally none of that, so deciding on grades was actually quite difficult. You're absolutely right that a Grade 9 on a small subset of questions, with notice of topics in advance, is not the same at all as a Grade 9 on the equivalent of a whole paper. But if the exam boards accepted that, they accepted that. One of that major problems with the whole process was that no-one really knew what the exam boards would accept until the assessments had been completed. Therefore they had to accept pretty much anything! The whole thing was a complete shit show from start to finish, and I expect another such shit show next year.

Yep. Parents were told some would get a text and some wouldn't!
Ridiculous.

100% correct @jgw1

It is unfair. But so is life. Sometimes you've got to accept the hand you've been dealt and make the best of it.
Kids who've got a sweep of 8/9's marked on half the syllabus may get a big shock at A level.

(And unfair to blame the schools and teachers, this is the government's fault)

@ejhhhhh

I'm a teacher, and I know we tried our very very best to give our students the grades that they deserved, but I do feel angry about the whole process too. It was a completely crap state of affairs concocted by a completely crap DofE and government. All the things that the government said would happen, didn't happen. There was no meaningful "guidance", no new exam questions written, no moderation and no standardisation between schools. All of that was done internally, it was literally every school for itself, from deciding on the assessment methods and evidence used, the questions set, and moderation. Some were cautious and conservative, due to the promise of scrutiny (which didn't really happen, at least not in any meaningful way, but the threat was there), and some gambled. It's not like all schools had the same exam papers and grade boundaries, and we're just marking them or something, so that discrepancies could be easily spotted if their papers were sampled, there was literally none of that, so deciding on grades was actually quite difficult. You're absolutely right that a Grade 9 on a small subset of questions, with notice of topics in advance, is not the same at all as a Grade 9 on the equivalent of a whole paper. But if the exam boards accepted that, they accepted that. One of that major problems with the whole process was that no-one really knew what the exam boards would accept until the assessments had been completed. Therefore they had to accept pretty much anything! The whole thing was a complete shit show from start to finish, and I expect another such shit show next year.

I think you are being unreasonable. The whole purpose was to keep Williamson is his job and out of the headlines. There hasn't been the same uproar there was last year, so it has been an entirely successful system.

Why hasn’t there been more of an uproar this year? It’s really surprised me.

You can be sure those at private schools / with sharp elbowed parents were less likely to miss out.

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/education/2021/aug/25/im-lost-poorer-pupils-lose-university-places-after-a-level-grade-surge

Employers really don't care about your GCSE results unless they're recruiting for apprenticeships.

I'm DM to a dyslexic DD who ALWAYS overperforms in exams compared to in class (ie when she has access arrangements) I am VERY VERY angry. Raging. Furious. But it won't change anything so I am focused on A Levels and her mental health and self esteem.

Lord knows what shit system we'll end up with next year, when they're trying to deal with two years or grade inflation too. They'll probably re-jig the entire system of assessments, all so they don't look incompetent, and we'll find out what this new system is about April time (if we're lucky).

@girlmom21

Employers really don't care about your GCSE results unless they're recruiting for apprenticeships.

But universities do, given that students apply before they have their A level grades.

I agree with you op.
I blame the government entirely.
My DS school had a really bad policy and lots of people complained.
Kids I know at private school all did well .
It's easy for people to say deal with it and move on but what about the kids that failed and have to do resits or a lower level course?
Do ANY schools get checked on their markings? Have any schools had any repercussions?

@a8mint

DD wanted to go to Cambridge and these are the only set of exams she will sit before applying (aside from some maths or FM AS) and she feels she has been robbed of her chance to shine. All A*s means nothing!

Not so stealth boast

I teach a core subject at GCSE and A-level. We had taught the full courses bar one small topic. We did the full papers (obviously not assessing the small topic not taught). We did hours of moderation of marking. Where a pupil was borderline for a grade, we offered the opportunity to do another assessment.

I can hand on heart say the grades we awarded were as accurate and fair as they could possibly be in the circumstances.

Yes, different schools did different things and that is hard to accept, however, the government and ofqual should have got their act together and sorted a proper criteria.

Goodness knows what this year will be like The Y11s I have this year started their GCSE in Y9 so it's all been disrupted.

It's easy for people to say deal with it and move on but what about the kids that failed and have to do resits or a lower level course?

If you can't change it, you still have to accept and move on.

Honestly, my DD was more impacted than most educationally over the last 18 months. But staying angry when you can't change it doesn't really help. Better channeling energy into moving forwards than looking back.

It was very unfair and I feel sorry for students who would have got all 9s if they sat their exams. My DS is at a grammar school and they used the year 10 and year 11 mocks (which were taken in November before the GCSEs were cancelled) and class tests so I feel they all probably got the marks they would have achieved if sitting the exam. I know children at the local secondary school who were allowed to take GCSE papers at home if they were isolating and it makes me wonder how easy they made the tests as lots of them got 9s in lots of subjects! However my DS has got what he needed to stay on for A levels so that’s all that really matters now and I feel like his results were fair.

What would they check though? How would they check? The exam boards didn't write questions or give grade boundaries, so how can they really argue against a school's judgement? Exam papers as a whole from previous years have grade boundaries, but they're not really comparable to what loads of schools were doing. Because of that, unless there's a really glaring discrepancy, (and a school would be quite daft to give a student a high grade when all their work has been mediocre, and vice versa), there was nothing to be done, it was the wild west. But there was always the threat that they would somehow check (probably if grades not inline with previous years) it was only apparent in the very late stages that the exam boards couldn't really do anything.

My DD did full GCSE style exams under proper conditions over the space of 3 weeks. She did very well but I think in some subjects she did better than any of us would have expected. Maybe she just did much better than normal (she did study very hard), maybe the teachers were too generous - who knows? I'm just happy she got through it and has the grades to go to her choice of sixth form college. No point stressing anymore. Hopefully they will get their act together for next summer but I guess that depends if schools stay open all winter or not.

@SpicyJalfrezi they do but they're not the be all and end all.
Worst case you can apply through clearing.