Exam changes next year

[Orangeblossom78]

So confused about this. First saying subjects may be dropped, then delays, then this

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-53325308

That's the heads pushing back on the consultation document that was out the other day. They want it to go quite a lot further in reducing exams and requirements, rather than just dropping practicals/some topics and being delayed a month or so. Nothing has been decided yet.

OK thanks, just have to and and see then...have a year 10...

The government consultation is here

If there is significant disruption to this autumn term (the longest term, where a lot of the teaching is done), then they will need to look also at changes to the 2022 exams, because those going in to years 10 and 12 stand to lose the very start of their courses.

If exams are slimmed down, then the start point for the next tier of education will be different too. Because although there is always the odd topic that might not have been covered well, it's quite a different task to patch that compared to dealing with larger gaps

The thing is some areas may be much more disrupted than others, due to levels of corona in some areas. Could mean regional disparity.

Also depends on the subject. Dd is doing humanities subjects - barely affected. Her friend doing sciences - struggling.

Yes we are finding problems with DT and music. The practical side. Rest if it not so much but these are tricky.

I have completed the consultation and submitted it as a parent. I don’t think they’ve removed nearly enough content - missing a few practicals is not going to compensate for 14 weeks + missed teaching ffs!

I have had a read and didn't see anything about dropping subjects in there. Maybe that has changed.

I think dropping subjects will be up to the pupil/school

These changes go nowhere near far enough. As pp suggested, even for the most motivated students, some subjects are much harder to cover at home. DS (year 10) is managing with Maths, History and RE, but struggling more with triple science (no practicals), Drama, English Lit (no group discussions about the texts to 'bring them to life') and Spanish.
Some kids will have hardly done any work due to home circumstances and will face a massive task to catch up - and probably never will. The pressure on schools will leave them little or no time to focus on mental health and well-being as students return to school - which in my view should be the priority. The gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students will be massively exaggerated.
And it's highly likely that there will be even more disruption over the next year as schools close or year group bubbles have to self-isolate due to local outbreaks. Even just having to isolate if a family member has symptoms/positive test result will impact on attendance. Plus some students will have shielding family members so may be asked to stay at home again if infection levels rise. None of this seems to be reflected in the proposed changes.

Totally agree with all the points made above. The initial govt proposition is not enough taking into consideration both learning time missed and kids' mental health on return.

I have had the stress of being asked to ensure DS does the NEA project for DT at home, meeting weekly deadlines during this time. I have no clue about it and struggling to help with it. It really needs to be done in school. I see it is still 50% of the grade in this document. I have to explain if these weekly deadlines are not met. It's added to the stress, to be honest. Also had quite a few assessed pieces of work to do as well.