AIBU to expect the current GCSE / Y11 cohort to get concessions too?

[andyetanotherschoolyear]

Due to the (negative) impact of the pandemic on learning, each cohort so far have been given concessions to try to make up for this (e.g. not sitting exams - 2 years; being provided with advance info - last year) and I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the current Y11s should be provided with some sort of adjustment too. They did, after all, lose out on class room learning for a significant part of their GCSE courses too.

Thoughts?

Surely the major disruption was before they started Yr 9 anyway? My son took his GCSE's this year and the major covid disruption (when he had to WFH) was during the end of HIS Yr 9. So next years GCSE lot would have have been at the end of Yr 8 when the major disruption happened.

But all of those examples are individual things that, whilst unfortunate, could happen to anyone at any time. Teacher 1 could have been hospitalized for any number of reasons. Why would a teacher being hospitalized with Covid be more disruptive to a GCSE class than the teacher being hospitalized following, for example, a car accident? Similarly Teacher 2 with poorly kids. If your kids missed lessons because teachers were legitimately off work, then you need to ask your kids school why there wasn't cover in place. And similarly your own infections. This time it was Covid, but you'd have the same issues if it was glandular fever or chicken pox.

If we are going to call any of these things interruptions, then it stands to reason that every year gone past and every future year will have similar interruptions. The line has to be drawn somewhere.

Yes my son was in year 8 when the pandemic hit ,so most of the disruption was between March 2020 and March 2021 so the latter half of what should of been his year 8 and the first half of year nine
I don't doubt some schools were disproportionately affected due to teacher/ pupil absence over the past year however .

And the year 13's whose GCSE's were disrupted and so much time in the classroom lost to Covid, that the syllabus wasn't even finished in some subjects they were continuing at A level. Therefore playing catch up from year 12.
And also haven't sat a formal exam since the year six SATS (and they were the first cohort to sit the more challenging reformed versions of those too.)

Concessions for everyone in exam years since COVID. So those in year 10 and upwards since Sept 2019. This year to be the last.

GCSE is designed as a 2 year course regardless of whether schools start it in year 9 or 10.

Im disappointed we didn’t use pandemic as a reason to look again at the gcse though, think it’s flawed as an assessment.

Because it was a pandemic, they werent individual things. I have worked in education over a decade and we never had gluts of staff off, unable to get supply in this way before. A teacher being off with a car crash would previously have been covered with supply and it would be unlikely several other teachers were also off with the same car crash. Same with children, we see the odd stomach bug go round that impacts enough of the cohort to distrupt a week, but the covid thing just kept on going with bigger numbers of children off for bigger lenghths of time.

It really was different.

I think theyvwere disrupted at the end of year 8 (march 2020) and middle of year 9 (Jan 2021) in terms of closures.

I don't think there should be concessions this year. My dd is in Year 13, and yes, they haven't had a great time of the exam years, but actually, having missed out on doing "proper" GCSEs, I think they at least need to do proper A-levels.

When GCSE's were overhauled a few years ago it was supposed to knock out the schools teaching from Y9. It's a two year course - there's no way concessions will be made for a cohort who shouldn't be affected and only will be due to individual school choices.

It wouldn't seem fair for the current year 13's to be the only one of the four key exam years since Sept 2019 not compensated in some way.

What do you mean 'not compensated'?
Their whole GCSE assessments were changed to reflect the fact that different schools had had different conditions, and in general GCSE grades were higher than ever.

The most effected classes were the last 2 sets of year 11's as lockdown 1 started when they were in year 9. I think this cohort will be the least effected, they were in year 8 when lockdown started so no more concessions makes sense

What “concessions” did you have in mind?

the group which just sat their GCSEs had the curriculum for exams reduced. Ultimately that just gives subjects like maths and science a bigger gap to a level so no real advantage if
those are topics you want to take further

Affected.

Anyway it doesn't matter - if you apply concessions you blend the genera grades up for everyone. The high achievers will still be high achieving.

I agree.

And I think we need to remember that the only cohorts who have had any concessions are those who sat their GCSE or A level exams this summer. The previous 2 cohorts simply had their exams cancelled.

My school does GCSE over three years in my subject (so that we can take up fewer lessons per week, giving them more options). They have had plenty of time to catch up on missed work, and still have another two terms to fill in gaps. They don't need concessions, they need GCSE grading back to where it was so they can properly identify which subjects they are strong enough to continue to A level.

I do see your point OP (and my DD is in Y11 this year) but I guess because the whole country was affected there will be some sort of compensation in terms of grade boundaries?

Last years yr11’s didn’t get as many concessions as you may think.

Although GCSEs are a 2-year course, many subjects build on previous learning/knowledge. I'm thinking of English, Maths, Sciences and MFLs in particular. Disruptions to those subjects in Years 8 and 9 have had an effect. Also last year's Year 10s were noticeably less "mature" than normal in their organisational skills and independent learning skills. Even their social skills had suffered. No idea if concessions will be made for this but the long term educational consequences of the pandemic have not ended yet.

Yes, this too.

It was widely reported that there were lots of errors with the 'concessions' too - exams boards putting questions in exams on topics that they had specifically told students not to revise for example. None of these concessions were communicated to students until after Christmas. And don't forget the requirement to sit two rounds of mock exams during the final year in case the summer exams had to be cancelled again.

Schools are not supposed to start GCSEs in year 9

Surely if your DC's school starts GCSEs a year earlier than most schools they have loads of time to make up any missed work?

Totally agree with this. Due to testing, even those children/teachers who were not particularly symptomatic, had to take time out which would have been affecting the outcomes.

The easiest would be to let this year have some concessions. Not as much as last (2022) year's cohort but some.

I agree. Questions came up on subjects that DD was specifically told weren't included.

This year's Y11s have had minimal disruption to GCSE years.