My son is crushed. Just crushed.....

[yomellamoHelly]

Year 11. Spanish oral exam on 1st April. Drama performance within next month. Art coursework still to finish off. Written exams as per schedule.
It's all hit him as he looked at his Class Charts this morning and all the work that's due / been set. It's all revision / prepping for upcoming assessments. The enormity of the change has hit him.
I know something will be sorted out eventually, but so so sad for him. He's upstairs sobbing.

@itwasalovelydreamwhileitlasted What makes you think those 600,00 people were working parents though? And how do you know they were parents of Y11 and Y13s? All you are saying is 600,000 people in the UK signed it, so no, we didn't "get what we asked for".

I think most teenagers are quite capable of realising the bigger picture whilst being allowed to be devastated about their exams. I work in a school in a support role and whilst I agree GCSEs aren't necessarily the be all and end all, whilst you're in the education system everything is geared up towards them so they're going to be incredibly anxious. We need to allow them that and help them become resilient. In fact this scenario is the ultimate resilience training! Then they can start looking forward and I'm sure many will find ways to occupy themselves over coming months and many will prove to be helpful where they can.

Some posters need to have a bit more compassion. It costs nothing.

Very sorry for all school kids - but especially the ones who have been working hard for the exams

Being devastated, crushed, in tears about this is a clear symptom of a culture that places far too much emphasis on exams and creates far too much pressure on kids. We're always being told that kids face too much stress these days, rising mental health issues, etc. and that exam pressure is a major factor in this.

whilst you're in the education system everything is geared up towards them so they're going to be incredibly anxious

Perfect example here. Why is this the case? It's absurd. And we certainly shouldn't be saying "oh it's understandable that kids are heartbroken and crying". We should be asking why the hell we're making our kids so anxious over these exams that they end up in tears when they get cancelled.

I have lots of compassion for the teenagers, including my own, but it’s the adults some who cannot seem to rationalise this. There is a lot of drama coming directly from adults.
Our children need us to remain calm and guide them forward, while supporting them. I am not going to cry and be heartbroken for them as its very early days and I, hopeful something will get arranged.

I feel incredibly sad for all those that were due to sit there GCSE’s and A levels shortly.

My dd sat her GCSE’s last year and I remember only too well how hard she worked and revised to get the results she did.

At what is an extremely stressful time for them all, its the uncertainty of how they will be graded if they don’t actually sit the exams that would concern me, they must surely feel that all their hard work over the years was for nothing.

@AngelicaKauffman: mourn the loss of their exams"? I would've been delighted at not having to do exams! I'm sure most of my friends would have too!

Well, my dd is not you or your friends. She’s at a competitive grammar and is very focused and conscientious. The last two years have been totally focused onn the exams. It’s what the whole of secondary builds up to. Her teachers have been telling the girls how important the GCSEs are for years. And now this.

I'm also sad for the teachers.

She’s at a competitive grammar and is very focused and conscientious. The last two years have been totally focused on the exams. It’s what the whole of secondary builds up to. Her teachers have been telling the girls how important the GCSEs are for years. And now this

See my previous post. This is exactly the problem.

I think we need to think of ways some pupils can take exams - we need to see the Government's plans first probably out on Friday.

I think the lack of an announcement about what will happen instead is a lot of the problem.

If they'd said - exams in Sept - then the kids could process that and plan.
If they'd said - based on predicted grades, then again kids could process that.

They've left them in limbo, and that's adding to everyone's stress levels and unhappiness.

Ds is in year 11 and is autistic. He was upset at the announcement last night.

If I'm honest though much of what is being experienced by most is part of normal life for him. The social isolation is his everyday even without coronavirus. Anxiety and stress an everyday normal occurance for him. Feeling anxious about sudden routine change again we support him with that all the time too.

When this is all over and others have moved on Ds will still be isolated and still have severe anxiety.

It is a difficult time but it won't last forever for the majority.

Her teachers have been telling the girls how important the GCSEs are for years. normally very important for the league tables - but I'm guessing that won't be a problem.

The exam boards won't just go off mocks which are usually a few grades lower than the real thing, they'll go (if they do this at all) of a combination of mocks, in class tests, other pieces of work- my dd for GCSE has tests or presentations in class several times a term so there should be a lot of material they can draw on.

The cohort will then be standardized to whatever the last two years distribution was- so if you got a mock C, it may be standardized two grades higher into an A.

That's just one way of doing it.

It's not 'fair' as all assessments favour one group or another- those who are better at exams, those better at coursework, those with stable homelives, those in better schools with stable teaching staff and so on. But in general, if someone did two years of solid work, they will get a solid result from this type of system.

That said, I don't know what the government will do, but usually there is a way of standardizing or changing marking boundaries to get the desired proportion of results. If your little Jonnny did nothing for two years but was hoping to ace a 9, it won't work out so well for them but that might be a good life lesson at this stage.

Those crying over SATS? Really? We should be glad a whole year get to skip that madness, they might actually have better mental health than those pressurised age 10 to perform.

Angelica absolutely, we know it's not the case but while in the school environment it's like a conveyor belt towards exams which a bit of is needed to get focus but school doesn't always talk about options outside of their results, I guess because the school is thinking league tables. And most parents will be doing what they can to help them get perspective but to them, at this stage of their life, it's a big deal and that has to be acknowledged before you can move on.

going through same with my granddaughter also my grandson is going to comprehensive next year and usually they spend a lot of time at the school meeting teachers getting used to the school dont think that will happen now

We're in the same position with our DS's @labazsisgoingmad , both in years 6 and 11

DS2 is starting secondary in September and was meant to be having extra transition due to his additional needs and I guess that'll not happen now. No not the end of the world, but pretty gutting

mourn the loss of their exams"? I would've been delighted at not having to do exams! I'm sure most of my friends would have too!

My DDs both said that if it was the case that they won a lucky ticket that got them automatic results, or for some reason it was decided exams weren’t a good thing anymore they’d have been delivered. One even said if the school roof had caved in and just their classes had to be given results based on mocks they’d have been thrilled.

Having their exams cancelled because thousands of people in the country are at the risk of death from a virus isn’t giving the same feeling

That's Scottish exams definitely cancelled - it's on the BBC website. They will use prelims, coursework and assessments instead. My little sister was due to sit her Highers and she's gutted.

One newspaper is now reporting

"Students will get GCSE and A-level grades based on combination of predicted grades, mock exams, coursework and assessment".

That of course may just be a journalist's guess.

‘Two teenagers in South Yorkshire have been handing out care packages to vulnerable people during the coronavirus outbreak.

Matty Merry and Sam Hornsby, who are both 17, have been giving out bags containing items such as porridge, toilet roll and teabags to people in the village of Harlington who are self-isolating.

Sam said: "I really advise people to do it if you're actually able to and if you're willing to do it because I think at this moment in time, we really do need to pull together as a community.":‘

Wouldn’t this be a more useful activity for these ‘crushed and heartbroken’ teenagers who will now have time on their hands? Maybe doing something for others might give them a bit of perspective.

Well done to Marty and Sam.

@Fortyfifty, I have “lived through it” in the last few years though. I’ve got a 19 year old and a 21 year old. I’m not fondly reminiscing about School Cert and CSEs. However, unlike seemingly every other MN child, my kids didn’t spend every moment of their lives poring over their books and “working hard”. They did the bare minimum needed to scrape through, dossed about and got reasonable grades. I’m an absolutely terrible mother who wasn’t very emotionally invested in their GCSEs. I expected them to behave themselves at school and do their work or face the consequences. They would have been chuffed to bits if their exams had been cancelled, and I find the idea that any kid wouldn’t weird. I think the vast majority of kids are telling Mummy Dearest what she wants to hear. I bet if you examine their phones, there’s a hell of a lot more “fuck, yeah!”

But mocks are seriously unfair. My dc did them in November without having done some of the course. Others are sitting them now. My dc would have done way better if sitting now.

We have a very academic family of doctors and lawyers etc on the whole so exams are kind of key to our being! Families just differ.

I see more news on this now and a very helpful right (not much use for university entrants however) to do a kind of resit in the Autumn if you don't like the grade the teacher who hate you gave you which might help some and might come in.

UCAS will be difficult though as lots of the better universities over offer knowing lots of people will mess up and not get in. If now everyone gets the highest grades the schools over predicted there will not be enough space for the students in September/Oct.

@gingersausage Unlike you I have been 'emotionally invested' in my dds GCSEs as she's one of Mummy darlings children who has worked hard. She's not a naturally bright kid but has poured everything into the next few months.

So, he's been freed from child jail...and he's sad about it?

Wow. Indoctrination is alive and well.