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.

I think it is dreadful exams are cancelled in England. I believe Scotland is keeping them going. I wonder if there is a way to bus children to Scotland to sit GCSEs there or where course work/modules allow let them sit international GCSEs instead in England just as Singaporean students sometimes might sit English GCSEs in Singapore?

Your child won't be sitting their GCSE exams this year. No matter how many times you suggest it would be fairer to let old people die so as not to stop exams. And no matter how many batshit suggestions you come up with.

It's terribly hard for them, I've just been speaking to a woman whose grandson is in the same boat and is terribly worried.

However - he will be able to do the exams eventually and at least he'll be no different to anyone else of his age. He'll gradually come round, life is full of disappointments but this one isn't going to scar him for life, he'll move on from it. Just be encouraging, mum.

Best wishes.

My son isn't looking forward to being teacher graded, he always does better in exams than he is rated in class. He is very quiet in class so is usually overlooked and then teachers are surprised by his great results.

Many pupils make great leaps in the final term. I used to tutor GCSE maths and most who were working at C or below in their January mocks and so came to me for help could get up to 8/9 by June.

I know it's necessary to close the schools.

I wonder what will happen to pupils due to sit IGCSE's as there is no coursework and they are used by Home educated kids who won't have teacher grading. I guess they'll have to delay and take exams in January or next summer.

@WhentheRabbitsWentWild
Your son has got all spring and summer to out together his own coursework portfolio to show what he can do. Colleges have quite a bit of leeway in a normal year to consider and accept unconventional applications. GCSEs are less about demonstrating knowledge than demonstrating the capacity to learn.

Worst case, he doesn't get Cs in English and Maths at GCSE through Teacher Assessment - but if he can demonstrate through his own self-directed portfolio that he's a good student he can still get his place and do those GCSEs alongside.

lyralala : No matter how many times you suggest it would be fairer to let old people die so as not to stop exams
......

has that really been said ? Apart from being unbelievably callous it doesn't make sense.

I think it is dreadful exams are cancelled in England. I believe Scotland is keeping them going. I wonder if there is a way to bus children to Scotland to sit GCSEs there or where course work/modules allow let them sit international GCSEs instead in England just as Singaporean students sometimes might sit English GCSEs in Singapore?

You're having a laugh aren't you? And I say that as someone with DC's due to take exams 🥺

I suppose some might do better with teacher assessments eg my son now at university got the highest grade in his year in his best subject, not his university subject. He was predicted A by the school and had very high marks and the school private in the subject. What grade did he get B - the highest anyone got in his private school in the subject. Had it been done on teacher assessment he would have got A.

I fell apart last night personally at the school closure announcement (even though knew it was coming) - it was the combination of how wonderful our little infant school is and the idea that we're going to be moving on from it without possibly even getting to really say goodbye and the loss of that (I personally owe that place a lot even before what wonders its done for my children) and the absolute terror that I'm now going to have to revise and sit university exams with two very very demanding children who never stop talking in the house - and that basically I'm going to fail as a result of that.

Keeping it together for the kids at the moment and crying on a night.

Your poor son, and all the other kids who are losing out.
This is causing devastation to so many people. But we will come out the other side.

I cried too. I think it's a mix of the whole situation of everything but the confusion is the worst.

Lynda07 it was said on another thread by the same poster.

Most of this thread is alien to me. My kids would have been jumping for joy if this had happened to them, not weeping and wailing, and the thought of being “heartbroken” and actually crying on behalf of strangers’ children is just bizarre. I honestly think Mumsnet is another world sometimes.

I'm in Scotland and DC are primary age so exam cancellations don't affect me directly, but this seems to me to be absolutely the wrong decision. It's DEVASTATING for all those who've worked so hard and will have a massive impact on kids' and parents mental health and well-being.

Why not just postpone the exams?? Why not plan to shorten the summer holidays and sit them in June / July? Of course that might need to be reviewed depending on how this thing pans out, but I cannot understand why it's a blanket cancellation??

And finally.... I'll get flamed for this I know, but here goes... Please, for god's sake, could at-risk groups (over 70s and underlying health conditions) please be put on official 'shielding' (lockdown). Simply advising them to socially distance is not enough.

The youngest generation is making a MASSIVE sacrifice to keep the high-risk group safe, they have been given no choice. It's time to balance out impact.

yomellamoHelly

So sorry your son is upset

My children are ok with it but it took a while for it to sink in for year 13 dd...in fact I don’t think it has sunk in

But i agree with others that its such a shame both for children wanting to prove themselves in the exams and the social loses of prom, end of year traditions and saying goodbye to people they may never see again

And I’m a bit tired of some posters telling others to get a grip or saying there are more important things to worry about

Of course there are, but people are allowed to be sad.....especially when it concerns their children

@Lynda07 Yes. It has been said. By Xenia. Who seems to think that cancelling exams is sacraficing the generation of children due to be sitting them

That said Xenia also thinks lawyers, which they apparently are, should be on the list of key workers

The callousness, self interest and short sightedness is staggering

@SafferUpNorth I'm assuming it's because June is expected to be the peak. So kids won't be able to go back to school until after the summer

If you then have to fit in exams then the next academic year will have to be delayed, which will affect every academic year ongoing.

Whereas if they find another option then come August (in Scotland) and September then hopefully the academic year can start with everyone having moved up, with no doubt catching up to do, and moved on and education life going back to some sort of normality

This website is like another planet.

Your child won't be sitting their GCSE exams this year. No matter how many times you suggest it would be fairer to let old people die so as not to stop exams. And no matter how many batshit suggestions you come up with

Her kids aren’t doing exams

And of course she hasn’t suggested old people die

Ds2 is also gutted, it's a really tough time for year 11's. Our school have been great and are really supporting the children so I know he will be okay. It's just the uncertainty and unfairness of it all. He did well in his mocks but a couple of subjects, he really hoped to improve on his grades so I hope it all works out.

@gingersausage I agree with you

The callousness, self interest and short sightedness is staggering

I wouldn't argue with this to be fair

Although i dont think she means to be callous

And of course she hasn’t suggested old people die

Yes she has. She said exactly that on another thread

@gingersausage because (some of) these kids have put hours and hours and hours of preparation and revision in and are literally weeks away from starting these exams which are the culmination of 3 years (GCSE) and 2 years (A level) of education. If you had worked full time (and overtime) on a work project for that amount of time which was pulled a few weeks from the culmination and presentation which would acknowledge and recognise that work you would be pretty gutted. Yes they will get perspective and yes life will go on, but right now many of them are devastated and need empathy and a bit of acknowledgment that yes, this is really shit!

And Xenia is well knowing for telling poor single mothers that they should take more responsibility and not look to the state to sort things out.
You do see what people are really like in a crisis though.

The stuffed penguin, yep I cried. It was the shock tbh, I know it sounds stupid but if you had a child that had worked so hard over the last few months you would feel the same. Of all the options I hadn't thought stopping the exams would be top choice-now they have chosen that I think it shows that absolute magnitude of this virus. It isn't just the exam situation that made me cry, it was the scale of the disaster unfolding.