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.

* One of my young clients has special needs and has to travel by public transport to clean a school. I’m more concerned about his risk of dying from this.*

Well I mean that’s just odd!

I do have worries about some schools who are often said to unethical with predicted grades.

Don’t worry @Angryrant55, there will be at least 1000 threads on here to discuss the unfairness of it all 🤣

Will schools be monitored to prove the predictions are valid - more so if they allow them to be different from previous ones on account of more recent work.

My son is year 11 too, I had a little cry too, he however is quite ok about it. They are in it together and have access to internet/phones. They will get through it. No way could these exams go ahead, it’s too stressful without all this going on. Too many would be ill or have family members to worry about at the same time. I think it had to be done.

GCSE's- my dd is delighted not to sit them, she looks happier than I've seen in ages. That said, she did very well in her mocks for which she did revise, and so isn't worried about teacher grading either. Even if teacher grading is used, the results will be standardized with other cohorts/years, so that C will transform into an A. The exam board know how to do this, they do it every year to fix change their results.

University, whoever is in terror of revising and sitting university exams with kids around- don't be, the universities will put in place online assessment so you won't have to go in to take an exam. Yes, kids around is annoying but unless it's a huge amount of exams, it's actually going to be easier and more like coursework, I also expect it to be reasonably generously marked. Again, exam boards will not let an entire group get a grade lower, they will make sure the 2:1's and firsts keep going.

At uni, we are well equipped to work from home for some disciplines (less so lab based ones). Me and my colleagues mark from home all the time, so marking more online assessments will be routine for us. They WILL sort it out though, our uni (RG) is working overtime to sort out exams and assessments in a way to be fair, but not face to face.

Equally, even though everything will be ok for these exams and assessments, I think it's hard to adjust your mind when you have been focusing on this one thing for ages to suddenly deprioritize it.

For SATS, it would have been better had the system not been invented and then we wouldn't have enculturated an entire generation of 10 years olds to start sobbing when they can't take their really pressurized and useless exams at the end of primary (which should be such a lovely time). Perhaps we might all rethink where we ended up as a society, why so many of our children are on exam tread-mills, and whether we might like to do things differently.

for all the DC whose exams have been postponed or cancelled after so much hard work. For the parents too, who will be picking up the pieces.

I cried when I heard the news yesterday - for all the DC whose educations are going to be disrupted - for all the DPs who are now going to be struggling to work or just make ends meet while home schooling their lonely, bored and frustrated DC. I'm feeling overwhelmed by it all and my DC are not in exam years, but DS1 is in his first year at secondary and was just starting to feel more settled and happy. DS2 has dyslexia and until this year has struggled academically, but things have finally clicked for him with the wonderful teacher he's had in Y4. Now they could both be out of school for six months, isolated from their peers. I'm just so gutted for them and for everyone else. We're all in for a challenging and lonely time.

@gingersausage - Oh absolutely....when exceedingly clever Rufus only got his predicted grade 5 when he would have easily smashed a 9 in an exam...

Have parents here started popping hallucinogenics?
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
You do know ppl are losing family members? facing extreme poverty?
And here we have parents and teenagers sobbing over exams and missing their little school.
Completely wrapped up in their own bubble 🙄

Tell him to get a grip. It'd just gcses, it's not all about him. People are dying

TotallyFuckedUpFamily - "FFS people! Get a bloody grip! "

REALLY!!!! So is this what I say to my anxious teen who has worked her arse off to get into a very specialist school? So is she not entitled to be upset, confused, sad, disappointed? As a mum watching her deal with it do I just say "never mind love, people are dying". How about we support the mental health of our kids!!!!
Adults with decades of life experience aren't coping that well with this situation, why should we expect our teens with their fears, emotions and immature brain development to do it better than us.

Go give your head a wobble!!! I don't want people to die. I'm in a high risk category, but I'll also be hugging my girl and helping her through it. And, yes, it's tough as a mum watching you kid upset and not being able to just rub it better.

it is all very difficult and massively disruptive. But we can recover if we are alive and have a functioning society in which to do so.

if we let this thing spread we will certainly not have the latter (and that means no power, no water etc) and lots of us won't have the former. Think of it that way.

although blubbering about the prom gets no sympathy, in a few years who remembers their schooldays? In a few weeks who remembers a party?

Yes @airbags explsin this to your teen, more diplomatically of course. Tell her she'll get the grades she deserves either way and that the closures and no exams are for the good of the country

Guys it is crushing, but it's lifesaving measures, you have to keep telling them and yourselves that. Better to be alive, and for your family to be alive right. Terribly disappointing though, and scary for them.

I am sure when things get back to normal, and they will, that schools will do extra special events so these children still have lots of happy memories to look back in. Even for school leavers there is no reason why a later prom can not be organised.

I see the emotionally stunted who can only care about one thing at a time are out in force on this thread 👍🏻

something I saw today which really rang true to me was encourage them to write a diary or journal about the whole experience - this is an unprecedented time and when its history it will be good to look back with children and grandchildren and teach them about it and to have such a personal story would be amazing. It is also something that could be cathartic and helpful

* TotallyFuckedUpFamily - "FFS people! Get a bloody grip! "*

I reckon your user name speaks volumes

And teaching resilience means acknowledging disappointment and upset, but also teaching perspective. Not joining in and blubbing yourself.

do have worries about some schools who are often said to unethical with predicted grades.

Don’t worry. Schools will submit their predicted grades then people at Ofqual will have the whole summer to scrutinise and moderate.

A school that says its kids will all get 9s will be sat on quite firmly because they will be able to say ‘according to your last year’s results, only 2% got 9s and that was with a similar KS2 profile’.

I think they will err on the side of generous to avoid appeals and I’m not convinced the data will ever be published.

must have been a way for these pupils to sit their exams, perhaps using more rooms, spacing them out further apart. It means more invigilators I know

Exams are due at the peak of this pandemic in this country. Where are all the invigilators going to come from? What will happen with the children who are too ill to do their exams? What will happen to all those children who have absolutely no support at home and were reliant on these last 8 weeks for in school revision? What will happen to all those children who are dealing with serious illness or the death of their family members?

People ARE ALLOWED to be disappointed at missing out on things and it’s emotionally unhealthy to bottle it up and pretend things are fine.

It's far worse for the Y13s, to be honest. My daughter has an offer from Cambridge. If they go on mocks results, she won't make any of her university offers, let alone Cambridge. She was expected to do much better in the real thing. She could end up with no school leaving qualifications and no university place. And all this stupid talk of making them re-do the year. Insane.

@airbags
Support your child yes but also teach them how to be more resilient, Y11 I’m assuming are 17?? By that age they should be capable of coping with disappointment and understanding why.
My DD14 has work she was determined to complete for moving to Nat5(Scotland) she’s this week got everything sorted at school and understands this is unprecedented and she accepts that and will do the best she can.
There’s no definite that schools are closed until September.

I wonder if there is a way to bus children to Scotland to sit GCSEs there

Oh Xenia you have spent at least a decade on here telling us how clever you are, the smartest of the smart and you come out with this ...