Am I the only one that thinks it’s not a disadvantage that the exams have been cancelled?

[PrettyLittleLiar20]

Ok so GCSE’s that would have taken place in may have been cancelled. People are saying that they will go by the children’s mock results instead. I don’t think that’s the case. My bet is the exams WILL take place but a lot later on. Boris said exams won’t be happening in may and June but he never said they won’t be happening AFTER that. I seriously think they will open the schools maybe in the summer holidays for a week and year 11s will go in and take there exams. To me that is an advantage. That’s a few more months of revising and getting better. For example a student that would of got a C in an exam can now master it and get a B. I’m just confused as to why people are beside themselves about this? It’s not the end of the world, the world may have stopped for a few months but it WILL start moving again and eveything will fall into place.

It's fairly typical for most students to go up a grade or two between autumn mocks and the real thing as their understanding improves and their exam technique improves.

I'm suspending judgement til I hear what the plans are, but it's certainly not a good situation for our students.

I presume that the kids will go onto further study or an apprenticeship or similar. So they will have opportunities later to demonstrate what they have learnt. Also I'm wondering if universities might get students to sit an entrance exam to demonstrate capability.

It is having a massive mental impact on the children who were due to sit their exams. These students have been focused on their GCSEs for at least the past two years. Constantly having it drilled into them that they need to do well in order to succeed in life, in order to go to 6th form/college, in order to get a job etc. and then in one statement everything they had worked for has been taken away from them.

They will never have a sense of achievement from gaining their GCSEs and they will always have it hanging over their head that they were the cohort who didn't actually do GCSEs

With every decision made there will be winners and losers. They need to announce quickly how they will give grades to stop the speculation. The current cohort at least have finished the GCSE and A level course work, the current year 12 and year 10's will be working from home for the foreseeable future and depending upon how the schools approach there will be winners and losers again. These are unprecedented times.

as GCSEs can be taken by adults at a learning centre. To use mock results when there are places to take GCSEs when you wish is strange.

Ok, let's run with this..

ANY child who has been denied the chance to sit their exams but later takes them as an adult has been DISADVANTAGED. The very thing you are arguing these kids will not be.

Any child who has studied and is now being denied the opportunity to sit their exams in the same way that kids have done every other year, and will do every year in the future is DISADVANTAGED.

Gav has said categorically that exams are cancelled and alternative arrangements will be made to award grades. That can only mean teacher assessment, at least as the starting point.

So yes, it's awful awful awful.

@bemoreeverything
Ok

He said exams will not take place in May/ June.
We will have to wait till Friday to see what that actually means in terms of predicted/ mock/ postponed.

I have one doing GCSEs and one doing A Levels. The GCSE one is relatively happy, and has scored consistently all the way through. The A Level one is more upset. He revises hard for his final exams and lifted his GCSE grades considerably for his final exams.

One of his A Level teachers said that his mock grade wouldn't increase (before we knew about the exams being cancelled) so highly unlikely that she would predict a higher grade. He feels that he has no chance to prove what he could do, and could end up missing his university place.

Yes, there are worse things happen at sea, and he will get through in one way or another, but I do see where he is coming from and that he has a lot of uncertainty ahead.

He said results will be out in August and exams would not take place. There's no possibility of them simply being delayed.

I think there will be mixed reactions to it. Some people will be gutted. Some will be relieved. I suppose it depends on if your predicted grades are adequate. My younger brother was due to sit his A levels. He's happy that the pressure is now off and he can relax! He doesn't want to go to uni though, he wants to join the police and has already applied. I'm assuming his predicted grades were adequate for that. I think they should have the option of going with predicted grades if they are happy with them. But if not, sitting the exam at a later date?

My Y11 son has literally just come back from a last tutor meeting at school and was told they would receive a combination of mock/predicted grades and will get the grades they need for their next step.

If GCSEs are moved to July or August they will be a disaster, especially for children already classified as disadvantaged.
DH's school has 70%+ Pupil Premium. Most of Y11 live in poor circumstances in homes where parents have little back ground if education themselves (less than5% have had any formal education beyond 16) . Their parents cannot help them and many are totally uninterested.
The children rely on the support and encouragement they get from every teacher and member of staff every day. Their confidence is low, they have no cultural literacy to help them make sense of exam materials. They give up really easily.
No one will be getting them up on time, settling them to work. Most have no ICT facilities at home or even a place to work.
They will stay in bed until afternoon and get up to play on their phones or walk the streets with their friends.
We are talking about an area where many postcodes are in the bottom 1% in the country for wealth levels.
All of the things that support them in managing the preparation are going- lessons, talking to staff, revision sessions, homework sessions, catch-up, breakfast clubs, holiday sessions, lunchtime sessions for anyone who wants to have some help, support staff groupwork, mentoring, school paid for 1:1 tuition.

It isn't extra time to prepare and revise for them, it is time to totally distance themselves from learning. They will do incredibly badly if they are asked to return to school during the summer to take these exams. Children in leafy, middle class suburbs and schools, with educated, motivated parents who buy them tutors at home may well be advantaged by it but the most disadvantaged children will only suffer further disadvantage.

My college has cancelled exams, can hand in an Assaignment instead. Can't express how relieved I am :)

It takes all summer to mark them so there is no point in doing them later because it will go into the next year and no one will know where they can study next and which courses etc .. it's better just to go with predicted grades .

I think they will have to grade up for the very reason that you usually get better in your actual exams ..

Op, cancelled means cancelled. It does not mean delayed, postponed, under consideration or any other interpretation.

It means cancelled. No more. Not to be held. There will be no exams.

What about home ed kids like mine?
No tutor
No mock exams

I think your child will have to take the exams at a later date as they won't be able to predict a grade