To wonder what will happen if exams are impacted by Corona

[B1gbluehouse]

Starting to think they aren’t going to want halls filled with 100s of kids if it spreads more.

What will happen to GCSE and A level students if they can’t take their exams?

What is happening about Exams in Italy where the schools are closed ?

@B1gbluehouse it’s a worry isn’t it. Not sure what we would do other than private resits but I know that’s not cheap!

Nowhere in that article does it suggest using mock results. What it says is:

1. kids can have grades extrapolated from papers they have sat if they miss a paper
2. kids can get special consideration if they’re ill when they sit an exam
3. kids may miss out on qualifications

What I find concerning about that article is the amount of times it mentions parents taking their kids out of school. I don’t think that’s a widespread issue, (I’ve not seen it in my school), but, like panic buying, it will start to be an issue if parents think that other parents are doing it.

If GCSEs are moved to September, who will mark them? They’re mainly marked by working teachers who can only do it because their exam classes have left so school work is less pressured.

They can’t go by mocks. My son has been ill since last year. Had anxiety attacks and flu over Christmas. Missed half his mocks. He is better now. To not let him sit his GCSEs would be awful and un fair. His predicted grades are fine

As a teacher, a concern I have is not about the spread of the virus but the implications with GCSE classes etc.
Who is going to police the work they do if we have to close and we use other platforms to teach them?
Will I be to blame by my school if my classes dont meet their grades? The longer we keep them open o feel the less exam boards will take predicted grades.
Whilst this sounds selfish with people dying and becoming very unwell, it is something that has been on my mind.
Our school has put soap around the school and two hand sanitizer bottles where the pupils queue for lunch. Other than that zilch!

When WW2 broke out undergraduates left uni and went to war. Kids joined up under age from school. Who knows what happened about their exams? Many of them never came back. In times of emergency normal life is disrupted. We are not there yet but what is happening in Italy is unprecedented.

I'm concerned if we were to close how we would teach. I don't have a laptop at home so I wouldn't be able to do any online teaching. I guess that would be up to the school.

The holiday... I don't have a school laptop either. At a push I could go into school to work as I have no children living at home. However I live nearly an hour away so it would have to be worth my while going in.

When WW2 broke out undergraduates left uni and went to war. Kids joined up under age from school. Who knows what happened about their exams?

After the war there was a concerted and fairly costly adult education program of night classes, correspondence courses and so on that let people catch up with education that they’d missed. This also led to a revolution in education with the creation of the Open University and technical colleges. We don’t have such a wide-ranging view of education now nor the funding levels to cope with any demand like that so let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

Theholidayarmodillo

My friends school in China closed with no warning. Lots of staff haven't got computers. They've still had to produce online learning videos and materials. They have been expected to use their phones. Apparently throughout the month the teachers have self taught themselves lots of skills and are producing some pretty good stuff on just a phone.

If you have a work laptop you could try and get into the habit of taking it home if possible. Schools could also arrange times to have them collected eg school closes and no one in. School closure doesn't mean the same as proper self isolation, it's to reduce the big gathering of people all together. So caretaker can open school at a set time and then individual staff can go in and get what they need and then go home again, by car ideally.
In China some schools are open to staff at set times for individuals to go and video lessons in front of their IWBs etc to an empty class to be posted online later. Some have even done live lessons from emoty classrooms.

Our latest update (ME private school) is that if we are obliged to close - which will be a) if the government mandates it or b) if cases start appearing in or uncomfortably near the school - we will probably be expected to go in when the kids don't.

We will then be at our laptops at our students' disposal during their timetabled lessons. The expectation will be content posted on the Google classroom, a task set, & a chat window (probably google meet?) for student questions.

Students will submit their work via google classroom at the end of the lesson or after homework time, & receive individual feedback.

Chuff knows what will happen with exams, but probably small group invigilation for y11 & 13, & remote learning for other year groups during the exam season.

We'll have Ramadan in the midst of all this, so we'd be doing a reduced timetable anyway.

I can see that it will work reasonably well (ok, nightmare for art, drama, PE etc). Damn glad I'm not the one sorting out the technical & timetabling logistics though.

Also not looking forward to my own dc being expected to work online unsupervised from home whilst I'm in school teaching remotely. Apparently if teachers start catching the virus, those who remain fit to teach will be allowed to do the remote teaching from home to avoid giving it to each other...

Aragog that's really interesting about your friend in China. I imagine my phone would be good enough to use for some sort of working. We don't have work laptops nor do we have any laptops in school.
Good point about school closure not necessarily meaning that staff aren't in school!

I don't understand how teachers can be made to go into a closed school if their own DC are not at school??

It's standard here Piggy - anything like teacher training, staff brats are expected to be supervised at home by a coalition of nannies & trailing spouses. Mind you it's never gone on for weeks before .

Mine are all senior school age. They'll be fine - & I have my housekeeper in most days. Whether they get any work done is quite another matter.

Taken from the latest plans

The government is trying to prepare the public without causing widespread concern, with ministers already nervous about the effect on the economy from extensive disruption.

But, under sweeping contingency plans now on the table:

• Exam boards are drawing up plans to delay GCSEs and A-levels amid official predictions that the epidemic will be at its height in late April and early May. The exam period starts on May 11 and lasts until mid-June

• Teenagers who miss exams or underperform because of the coronavirus would be awarded “special consideration” grades in a bid to help pupils who miss exams because they fall ill or their school is closed

*Source ; Article was in The Times behind a paywall, someones pasted it into Reddit

www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/ff9ljz/comment/fjx3963?context=3

I am not sure any of those plans are officially known by anyone. The Times article was very much second hand info coming from a few teachers The Times always turns to for info.

Exams in Wales start on May 5th.

No mention of SATs.

I assume if SATS are impacted they will use teacher assessments if possible, and possibly moderate them like they do writing.

Urgh. The year of the SATs strike was awful in terms of data for secondary schools.

I know this is not such a huge concern but they need a contingency plan for NEAs being disrupted, too. This affects more subjects than many might realise and this is the key time of year for NEA work. Some subjects have in-school completion ts and cs.

If/when schools close it will be a country wide government mandate, and frankly the entire of the cohort wont be left without exams. Exam boards and schools are working hard to attempt to mitigate the impact of any closures on exams. Yes it may be inconvenient but the closures will only happen is absolutely necessary and people will have to work around it.

I'm more concerned about degree students if I'm honest. Gcses actually have very little bearing going forward apart from in a few expectional circumstances (I got straight A's but nobody ever asks what I got or cared).
Likewise A level results are more troubling, but at 18 years old students should be able to self direct they're learning with basic input from teachers as in less then a year they'll be at uni where the only way go get good grades is through individual self directed study.
Likewise if the entire cohorts a level results are impacted then universities will acknowledge and take into consideration the impact when accepting offers.
But even so if top grades are missed it's still possible to attend some pretty decent universities (with expectations of some very prestigious degrees).
My concern is if it impacts students doing their degrees it could have hugely negative consequences that could impact their entire lives, as the difference between a 2:1 and a 3rd can be the difference between accreditation and a pointless degree, likewise it can impact the possible choices for post graduate study where being accepted into the right institution for your needs and aims going forward is often critical and make or break a future career. And there are no options or flexibility to make it up at another point, or mitigate the results as is possible with gcse and alevel

@Little if my daughter doesn’t get the GCSE grades she requires for the A-Levels she needs for the Medical Uni courses she wants it will have an impact.

@LittleDragonGirl For those that won't progress beyond GSCEs, they really are important.