Surely they can't cancel GCSEs and A levels again

[Marcellemouse]

Heard there are calls for it. After what happened with this years cohorts surely it can't happen and it's a terrible idea.

Looking forward to the government paying my extra school fees if exams are delayed. Our school year finishes at the end of June.

The only solution I can think of would be to do region/school specific grade boundaries based on how much teaching time has been lost. Nightmare to implement though and subject to all kinds of manipulation

All schools were closed for the same length of time during lockdown.

@duckme I’m assuming your daughter has been provided work throughout those periods off school and she has the technology to access it (my Y11 DS’s school is the same).

But what about those students from schools where there was little or no provision, maybe because the school couldn’t afford the technology or were following the Government guidance that the curriculum was suspended. Or the student who goes to a school that provided work but they weren’t able to access it because they didn’t have the technology.

There has always been a gap because of various disparities but the gap has never been wider and changing the grade thresholds won’t narrow the gap.

@duckme I feel the same as you. DS worked during lockdown, and kept up with the syllabus. It's like saying he should have just had 4 months off.

@ineedaholidaynow
Yes, my daughter had work provided throughout the entire period and she did have access to technology to do the work. The school also contacted us regularly to ask if there was anything we could do and they posted out work to those who didn't have access to technology. I understand there is a gap and it obviously only got worse during lockdown but I'm not sure shelving the exams for another year is the answer.

Government guidance that the curriculum was suspended

Seems totally and utterly mad that some schools followed this for exam years!!!!!

I heard a representative from one of the Universities on the radio the other day and what he said actually made a lot of sense. What they are asking for is a decision now to cancel 2021 A levels and instead use teacher assessed grades. His argument was that if a decision is made now there is time to agree a sensible and fair way to moderate assessed grades (involving educators not algorithms), pupils/teachers would know what to expect and how to gather evidence for grades, grades would be known in time for pupils to make decisions about the next stage in their education etc.

Judging by the last few months, if something appears a sensible, logical and well thought-through approach, it probably won’t be happening.

It’s pretty mad that the Government suspended the curriculum, but I think part of their reasoning was that they didn’t want the educational attainment gap to widen as some schools/pupils wouldn’t be able to provide/access remote provision and they wanted it to be a level playing field. But obviously that backfired! I also think they didn’t expect schools to be ‘closed’ for so long.

They have changed the guidance for this term and schools do have to carry on teaching the curriculum even if they are closed for self isolation etc. Pity they haven’t provided funding for this apart from a promise of a few laptops

It not necessarily going to be a few lessons a year though.

I think they have missed a lot and will have to introduce some kind of teacher grading, but unless things get a lot worse it doesn't need to be like this year and have no exams at all. Why not have the teacher grading offset by an exam which covers only part of the syllabus and counts only as a percentage of the grade? They could then spend time focusing on making sure the topics for the exam are covered, and there will be some indisputable student performance to compare with teacher estimates.

I have DC in year 11 and 13. One has had two weeks self isolation, now the other. Hit and miss remote learning. Lots of revision sheets over lockdown. Not enough DC in class at any one time since Sept to run tests.
Meanwhile my nephews two hours away haven't missed a day, are in full time and had online learning since April when in lockdown.
Such disparity.

I think part of their reasoning was that they didn’t want the educational attainment gap to widen as some schools/pupils wouldn’t be able to provide/access remote provision and they wanted it to be a level playing field. But obviously that backfired!

I'll say! Mine had full online school and are now way ahead of where they need to be, EPQs done and dusted, exams taken and graded and all ready for mocks in January.

But which part of the exam would it cover. There’s no particular order you have to deliver content in, so you couldn’t just do part of the content as students might not have covered it.

Oh look another thread about exams where random suggestions are made because it suits one demographic but screws over the rest....I'm alright jack approach.

What is the purpose of the exams?
To show that a learner has the knowledge and skills to progress to the next course of study or employment.

To reduce this content removed the knowledge and skills so devalues the qualifications for that year group. Yes they have had a rubbish course but to allow them to progress with only half of the content will just defer the issue to next year when they don't have enough base knowledge on the next course.
To change the assessment will result in increased pass rate - if you have 10 border line kids, you cannot predict which of those will succeed on exam day and which won't so natural increase is in place as you give all the benefit of the doubt.

It could be opened up to allow schools to decide when to sit the exam and offer additional exam periods. So they are enrolled for exams when the content has been covered. This would have impact in schools in terms of funding and staffing and space.

It's no longer an emergency response to a problem and the y11/13 lost less than 10%of their course time when cags were awarded. This cohort have lost 20-30% (depending on closures/term dates) of their courses so cags are much less reliable and too much is lost to be equivalent to other year groups.

The schools have to now put in place plans for how to run exams in a local closure so that they can go ahead....an exam has to be socially distanced already so it's doable (yes lots of additional things to factor in but that's what the good exams officers are doing - planning for this, looking at can they do online exams can they facilitate this)

My personal preference would be to have students select a personalised learning plan of reduced options and drop a couple of subjects and put that time into others - if they know what they want to do for the next step (gcse to a'level) you could prioritise and offer half GCSEs to those which they don't need - all anyone cares about when you are an adult is if you have maths and English anyway!
Unis could identify the priority subjects in their offers and allow alevel students to drop grades in one or defer these to later to allow a focus on specifics.

Apprenticeships and industries can defer the exam or again offer priority areas Those unable to prioritise would need to look at deferring or reducing grades by taking the exams.

It needs a coordinated approach from across industries and government. And that there is the issue! We need a managed approach which appears to be an impossible task!

where random suggestions are made because it suits one demographic

Yeah, they are called opinions. I wouldn't presume to say what's best for a demographic that I have no part of.

Let's face it whatever the imbeciles in gov decide a large portion of current yr 11 and 13's will be severely disadvantaged. My DS is one of the unfortunate cohort to be sandwiched inbetween the uplifted GCSE's and A Levels grades of last year. He hasn't been in a science lab since early March, half his year group have already been sent home to isolate as has all of yr 11 in his school. I'm not sure what the answer is-to defer exams for 3 weeks certainly isn't.

noteven over 70% of students stay at school or go to full time college. Helping at a charity shop is not training.

Even if there was full remote learning of the curriculum, it is not the same as in school learning. Some subjects are also much harder than others to teach remotely...

Do you think now Scotland have cancelled their equivalent of GCSE’s, England will follow suit?

I don't know why they cancelled last years: the syllabus should have been long finished by mid march, the schools would have been empty and you sit quite far apart in exams. A small minority may not have been able to sit them, as every year there are reasons why some children can't, but the vast majority could have.
My daughter is due to do her GCSEs this year and as she is moving to a new sixth form it is vital she gets the required results. She just sat sort of mock mock exams, and the teachers told them they were important - I think they are thinking that if exams are cancelled they will have to 'prove' why they predict the grades they do, so from here on every exam will be part of that.
We are fortunate that our private school had a full schedule of online teaching. However I think a 'here are six questions answer four' would go a long way to help missing teaching, though that would not work for sciences and math and some other subjects the children need in full in order to take them at A level.
I believe universities and employers will take the 2020 results with a big pinch of salt and expect many 'A+' pupils to keep proving their worth.

HipTightOnions

So you think a child that could have got a 7 but will only get a 5 now, due to missing so much of the curriculum, shouldn’t be awarded the 7 on Teachers grading. They should only get a 5 because they haven’t learnt all of the course, and so that is fair? Even though their teacher thinks they would have achieved a 7?

So now the child can’t take A Levels even though they are capable of it because they haven’t got high enough GCSE grades.

You think this is fair?

A lot of universities have upped their requirements for courses.

ABB is not AAB

They are aware of increased grades via CAG OR they predict an increase of students having deferred this September for next September.

Either way universities are out to make their money back.

I absolutely hope the exams go ahead. They can lower the grade boundaries to take into account missed content. Ofqual have already exed chunks from various GCSE subjects eg MFL, History, Eng Lit. CAGs permit non-consistent grading across schools. One school may mark stringently to ensure integrity, the one up the road marks more easily to boost overall school attainment levels. How is that fair, especially to kids who have actually worked hard throughout lockdown and since the return of school?

How is that fair, especially to kids who have actually worked hard throughout lockdown and since the return of school? because many children didn’t have the opportunity to work hard! Surely you can see that?

Do they do quizzes, assignments and tests across the year? Surely they could get an average grade from those if they do. But they need to snap off a decision so it can be organised whatever the solution is