Coronavirus creating education inequalities North and South?

[helsteeth]

With the North West of England being the hardest hit for coronavirus rates in England, we've seen a corresponding rise in the number of children being sent home from school and having to do home working.

This was also reflected in Hull, where the council are urging the government to close all schools... whereas in other areas of the country which aren't being so badly hit, there are greater opportunities for children to have face to face learning.

I'm not criticising the schools up here (I'm in the NW), I can see they are doing their best, but from what I have seen so far, home working does not seem as high quality as face to face, and I imagine that it will be very variable from school to school. Some children are in and out of school at the speed of revolving doors at the moment, and their time in school is down to the luck of the draw. I have a child in yr10 and really worry that this could massively impact on his GCSEs in the future.

I still can't understand why government is choosing to press ahead for exams in England when other areas of the UK have already decided to switch to coursework, teacher based assessment etc. Surely the system would be fairer this way and even out the playing field for those who will be disadvantaged by the way the way they have had to learn?

Yes it's a nightmare my year nine son is on his second two week period of self isolation we are in the northwest , thankfully he's not in exam years ,it's very variable the cases even in my town some schools have got off lighter than others

Yep, it's ridiculous. Exams should be cancelled. I'm in the Midlands with no secondary aged children so no bias.

I think they're pressing for exams because the CAGs were such a fiasco last year that they're desperately trying to avoid doing that again. I think they're hoping that the situation will somehow be resolved far enough by June/July to run exams as normal, but unfortunately that runs the risk of everything changing at the last minute again like it did last year.

Speaking as a school worker/former teacher in a northern region, my own preference would be for exams to go ahead but for students to have a choice of questions (say there are five sections and they can pick any three to answer), to mitigate the effect on those students who may not have been taught the full course face to face. I agree that doing exams the same way as any other year would be unfair, but CAGs were a nightmare for both staff and students with the fallout still ongoing into this academic year. On the other hand, if it's not going to be possible to run exams it would be better to announce that now so that schools have time to prepare - but obviously no-one can be sure either way yet, so it's a tough call. At the moment we're trying to do a mix of preparation for the final exams and continuous assessment as a backup plan in case exams are cancelled, and it's stressing everyone out (teachers and students) and feels like the worst of both worlds.

Yes. My year 13 classes have had virtually 100% attendance and they know how lucky they are. One has a friend who has had only 2 weeks in school this year.

@psychomath

I think they're pressing for exams because the CAGs were such a fiasco last year that they're desperately trying to avoid doing that again. I think they're hoping that the situation will somehow be resolved far enough by June/July to run exams as normal, but unfortunately that runs the risk of everything changing at the last minute again like it did last year.

Speaking as a school worker/former teacher in a northern region, my own preference would be for exams to go ahead but for students to have a choice of questions (say there are five sections and they can pick any three to answer), to mitigate the effect on those students who may not have been taught the full course face to face. I agree that doing exams the same way as any other year would be unfair, but CAGs were a nightmare for both staff and students with the fallout still ongoing into this academic year. On the other hand, if it's not going to be possible to run exams it would be better to announce that now so that schools have time to prepare - but obviously no-one can be sure either way yet, so it's a tough call. At the moment we're trying to do a mix of preparation for the final exams and continuous assessment as a backup plan in case exams are cancelled, and it's stressing everyone out (teachers and students) and feels like the worst of both worlds.

Thanks psycho, it's really interesting to here it from the perspective of the schools as it's not something I had thought of, and I totally get what you're saying. Your approach sounds really sensible - if only that was reflected nationally! I was thinking the other day that it wasn't that long ago that they did away with course work contributing to the student's grades and was wondering how easy it would be to re-establish that sort of system so that there is a mix...

London here, gcse years, we've had lots of time off already due to outbreaks in the bubble and him testing positive. (He didn't transmit to me, I had it back in March).
Specialist teaching staff are still off, at least one since March. And many pupils off for mocks.

‘Speaking as a school worker/former teacher in a northern region, my own preference would be for exams to go ahead but for students to have a choice of questions (say there are five sections and they can pick any three to answer), to mitigate the effect on those students who may not have been taught the full course face to face. ‘

As a parent of a gcse student in the north who has missed school because of isolation (no criticism of her school who have been excellent) this seems best to me as well.

Centre assessed grades are no less likely to favour the more fortunate kids and I would rather dd goes into her A levels with the experience of public exams under her belt.