Year 12 and year 10

[googlepoodle]

What do people think will happen with these year groups - possibly the worst affected by this, especially if we have further lockdown in the winter. I have children in each year and I know the year 12 is particularly worried about the impact on A level exams.
There is also the closure of universities and not being able to go on open days etc to get an idea about courses.

I have a DS in year 10 and it is a worry. He has been given quite a bit of work to do at home and we have been told exams as son as they get back, but I don;t understand some of the work and worry about them being out of the school facilities e.g. DT, science etc. He seems to daydream and /or chat with friends over work on a headphone thing, not sure how much learning is really taking place. Will they have some allowance for grades perhaps? Guess it depends how long this all goes on for.

The grades a are usually evenly distributed, so let's say 5 % gets a 9, another 5 % an 8. Numbers made up as I'm not sure about the individual brackets. As it will concern the whole cohort, all students will be in a similar position. I do hope exam board will take the break under consideration when devising the papers too.

My dc are 13, 14 and 16. Tbh we have put those worries well aside for now.
Getting out alive is my focus for now...

The university open days are the difficult ones, especially for anyone (DS1) applying for Oxbridge or medicine, dentistry and vetinary courses as UCAS deadline is October, not January like all other courses.

Luckily we pre-empted this and already attended 2 open days before lockdown.

Year 10 I think is particularly badly hit as there really is no time in year 11 to catch up. But everyone will be in the same boat.

If you had a 4yo & a 15yo you'd think they were the most affected.

It'll all be fine, stop worrying.

Start reassuring your children that all the kids are in the same position and it will all be sorted out. Encourage them to take an interest in something new or develop an understanding of something or just to relax & read.

They don't need to be worrying about open days & A levels - everyone's in the same boat, they won't be left behind their peers!!

I’m really worried for my DD who has ASD and is in year 10.

She missed 1.5 years of school as she couldn’t cope in mainstream, and it took this long to get her an ECHP and a place in an autism unit, where she’s been doing really well.

She should be in year 11 now but was retained into year 10 as she’d missed so much school. She’s been in the autism school since September but only been going part time as she was finding it exhausting. She hadn’t really started any GCSE work yet as she was still catching up on stuff she’d missed in year 9.

Now she probably won’t be there until September at the earliest and she’ll basically have 2 terms to do her entire GCSE courses. I can’t see how she’s going to get a single GCSE, and that’s such a shame as she’s bright and well capable. This is going to make her future so much harder, and she was already disadvantaged enough through having ASD.

Everyone thinks the year groups their children are in are the worse affected! Mine are in y11/13-it’s shit. I’ve read people saying schools MUST go back after Easter as their child is in reception and if they miss out on transition between eyfs and Ks1, they will be disadvantaged and would call for all year groups to repeat the year.

We just need to wait and see what happens. They just need to do the work that’s been set-everyone is in the same boat.

@AmelieTaylor I take it you don’t have children who have been through A levels. University applications for some have to go in in October this year. The pressure to cover content is huge at A level and the time to do it in was already quite tight. Outcomes of A levels have a bearing on choices for life.
My question is about what people think might be put in place for these year groups.

It would be so helpful for some to have an extra year. I guess if needed it would be possible to postpone entry to uni and have a gap year, perhaps.

As an aside, I was a student who had an extra year due to heath reasons so it can be done. (at university) Different if it is a whole cohort though.

I’m worried for my year 6 son missing any transition to secondary school . He has autism so will need extra support with the move up .

I think it will work out ok but in one of several ways. Uni entry this year could be staggered, with a jan cohort. This could be replicated again next year, possibly including a shift to a levels running an extra term. Or they could cut content for exams. Possibly also coursework/staggered exams, although that might be too ambitious for the short amount of time.
I expect predicted grades to become v dubious. It might be the push we need to move to later uni offers, after exam results

This doesn't affect everyone equally. A small cohort, mostly private schools, will come out ahead.

Thankfully it isn't a regional thing, so the whole cohort will be affected and it will have a knock-on effect with grade boundaries. I'm currently pushing my Year 12s hard (biology and chemistry, and an applied science group) and have rearranged the curriculum so that we are now covering the more straightforward content (and coursework in the case of applied). All we can do is continue working and supporting the students ... as a parent you could make sure they have resources and revision guides (Kerboodle have released most of their stuff for free) and keep encouraging them to work independantly; there really is only so much we as teachers can do from a distance.

As for Year 10, I'll be honest I am very worried. I have 3 very weak classes with low literacy who can't even be left to work from a textbook as cover. Over half of the entire y10 at my school have yet to login to any of our online portals across all subjects and parents have more than once told staff to fuck off when they have been phoned.

As a teacher I'm more anxious for my y10s and y12s; I'm confident in the grades I'll be giving to my y11s and y13s. I wish we would have at least confirmation at this will be taken into consideration next year

I’ve heard they can’t cut the content for A level exams because not all schools teach the syllabus in the same order.

Repeating year 12 might be a good solution so that any lock down in winter wouldn’t make so much difference - but the knock on effects for universities would be too much.

They can do what they want and schools will just have to deal with it. But we'll see. It'll be a bit on the hoof. If they have any sense they'll bring in mini exams or coursework so it doesn't all ride on one exam period, but it's understandably not going to be a main focus of key decision makers right now so might end up being too late.

I do think there might be more mileage in the split year university entry with an extra semester of teaching for a level, but it's a logistical nightmare

If your child is primary age, missing 8 weeks of school is not going to have a long term impact on them. In fact I'd say you're fine up to year 9, although some schools start GCSE work in year 9, either at the beginning or eg ds' school started science work in the summer of year 9.

It really IS year 10 and 12 who have the biggest problem if this goes on.

I’ve heard they can’t cut the content for A level exams because not all schools teach the syllabus in the same order they can, they just make sure there is a massive choice of questions on the paper with fewer compulsory questions, so everyone can find questions they can answer (thinking about essay subjects). I don't know how it would work for the sciences or languages though where you are constantly building knowledge.

@googlepoodle the same applies for GCSEs, schools don’t all teach in the same order.

There is going to be a bigger gap between children who have invested parents and those who don’t as there are going to be many more parents who will not be able to invest due to work, illness, lack of technology, knowledge etc.

I completely agree ineeda I am lucky that Ds1 did GCSEs last year, Ds2 is covering the same content, same books for English, everything. So we have all of Ds1's revision notes, his flash cards and revision booklets provided by school in year 11. Plus as I helped him revise, I know a lot of facts already, how to plan essays etc.

Ds2 is year 9 and they have already started GCSE content, with the agreement of his History teacher at parent's evening, I taught Ds2 the revision stuff at home for basically one half of a History exam paper (one topic). He got a 9 on an actual past paper. Teacher said it is a win win.

Ds1 is currently doing past papers set by his sixth form (he is in year 12) over these holidays. Some children have not done what is being asked as we can see it says "7 students have not completed this work."

They don't need to be worrying about open days & A levels - everyone's in the same boat, they won't be left behind their peers!!

That isnt' true, yes, lots of children won't have started to even look because until you know what your grades are then you don't know where you stand a chance of getting into. Unless you are super organised, have already got a spreadsheet with the universities, plus their admission grades which vary widely. (Ds1)

Ds1 is looking at Cambridge which is a collegiate system so you apply to an actual college not the university. Each of the 30+ colleges are in different places, have different grade requirements above the usual A A A (specific grades for maths or physics which can put Ds under pressure to get 4 A* A level grades) each one is in a different geographic place, some are old, some a relatively new.

Lots of students would have been visiting universities over the summer. It is a lot to decide on when you are dropping £27k+ on tuition fees alone, plus living costs of £9K per year. So yes, huge deal and needing time to make a decision.

My sons are 17 and 14 and I believe that in primary school year 6 is the biggest affected group. Possibly followed by reception, but they have plenty of time to catch up. Year 6 won't have transition days to secondary, hugely important. Year 10 is horrifically affected as there is no time in year 11 to catch them up.

I think the best that year 10 can do is to make sure they demonstrate commitment and a good attitude to learning. If it comes down to predicted grades again next year and they spent the first half of year 10 messing about, they're going to need to show their potential if they know they can do better. Teachers can only predict based on the evidence they've got alongside their professional judgement about each candidate's capacity and drive to improve.

No one is going to come out of this well.
It’s a nightmare for Yr13 and Yr11... at least they’ve mostly covered their subject curriculum and it’s now predominantly revision for non existent exams so they can start their next stages academically prepared. If they don’t like their assigned grades they can still sit exams. All far from ideal but I’m not sure what else can be done.
Yr12 and Yr10 are missing vital learning. The head of our school has told them they’ll be the worst affected year groups as catch up will be tremendously difficult. Yes, all children will be in the same boat but there’ll be huge differences.

My daughter is in Y10 and even though her (private) school has really stepped up and started a full schedule of remote learning before Easter break, and have extended the school year by two weeks, she is concerned they will fall behind on the syllabus. But she was out for a month last year due to illness so I think individually she will catch up in the Autumn if they miss anything out in the summer term.
My son is at college and he was to achieve his first qualification this year. They have told him what he needs to do, but he won't be able to finish the practical experience essential for the course, nor likely to be able to work over the summer due to closures. His Y 12 mates are going fine remote learning- they will catch up, mainly due to the schools' dedication to ensuring the remote learning is up to scratch (same school as my daughter's).

There is going to be a bigger gap between children who have invested parents and those who don’t as there are going to be many more parents who will not be able to invest due to work, illness, lack of technology, knowledge etc.
This.
Some children transitioning Yr6 to Yr7 may find it tricky but I think that’s much less of an issue than the yr12 and Yr10.

What can be put in place? The curriculum is still being taught for both Y10 and Y12. We don't know when current situation will change. As a teacher of Y10 & 12 - I can not do anymore than I do. Bombardment through the curriculum for Y12 in particular, those who are committed & work hard will be fine as they will take it upon themselves to keep up and do well. We currently have so much support in school for these year groups and take up is small, maybe it will increase when we return? Reduction of curriculum will not happen, grade boundaries will lower if the impact is widespread.