Gavin Williamson addressing parliament now about what is replacing GCSE and A Levels

[bumblingbovine49]

Live now if anyone interested

news.sky.com/story/covid-live-news-latest-uk-updates-government-accused-of-over-promising-on-vaccines-ahead-of-commons-lockdown-debate-12178867

Exams not going ahead

Range of contingency options - Details to be confirmed but basically -

Teacher assessed grades will be used but with training and oversight being applied to ensure they are done fairly and consistently

Regular testing in schools will still go ahead when pupils got back to school

Will continue to provide alternative for 'free school meals'

Can't even...

Anything about public exams 2022?

Yes, I know there are considerably more urgent issues, but this is just as important, and it's a chance to show leadership and plan ahead.

Exams when the candidates have has one term disrupted (at random, depending in SI) or entirely online (likely for at least half of this term, possible beyond that), then the full syllabus becomes unworkable. This is the time to show leadership and sort it now, so that if schools need to prioritise topics within the syllabus then can do so, rather than just cross fingers and hope the order they teach topics matches the what will eventually be examined

I mean if that guy could stop saying 'hear hear' that'd be a start

The government seem to be on the ball at least and have this covered. Good to see firm plans so quickly.

How is this 'on the ball'?

Teacher assessed but how are they going to ensure fair weighting across all the schools during their interrupted education. I trust the teachers but that is a lot of responsibility to put on their shoulders for grading a cohort that has had a mucked up two years.

The government seem to be on the ball at least and have this covered. Good to see firm plans so quickly.

In what way are these 'firm plans', exactly? And this could have been decided months ago, as it was in Scotland and Wales. So not 'quickly', either.

On the ball? I presume you didn't spend until midnight on the phone to students cancelling their BTEC exams last night when the email telling us to decide arrived at 6.30pm? We had to cancel after all of our invigilators dropped out (staff cannot do it) and students started to withdraw themselves. We had to call last night as the exams started this morning.

Today we are dealing with the aftermath, and once I have done this I will be helping colleagues with the whole cancellation of GCSE and A Levels. Not only have I had staff crying today but also students and their parents at how poorly this has been handled.

This isn't "firm plans"
This is nothing, as usual.

Why did switching to remote learning coincide with cancellation of exams?

Remote should mean fewer isolation periods.

I hope there is some kind of external moderation. That's a lot to put on the shoulders of teachers.

I also how they release the grades to students long before mid August. One positive the year 13 students deserve is having earlier certainty about their next step.

The rage I feel watching this shameless man

@Whyarewehardofthinking

Sorry to hear this. My DS in year 12 has been in school since Tuesday mixing with year 13’s who are doing BTEC.

The stress and strain on them is too much.

Some were due to take their mock GCSEs this week. How they will gauge these grades I don't know.

We're getting training? Will Gav get the army in to give us Webinars?

Teachers are furious that with everything else they’re being thrown at the moment, Gav encourages parents to go to Ofsted to complain if they think the online teaching isn’t good!

@Orangeblossom77777

Some were due to take their mock GCSEs this week. How they will gauge these grades I don't know.

I wondered that too.

Our school said they will do the mocks in February. But there are many talks about schools been off until April.
In that case, I’m not sure how they will do that evaluation.

Dc2 is gutted. He wanted to do the exams as he thinks he will get better results..

Some schools such as private schools going ahead with exams, reported in the Times today. Ours (state) emailed to say they hope to do the mocks when they go back, and will be doing some kind of online assessments too.

This is what was promised prior to the new announcement

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55160374

[quote Orangeblossom77777]Some schools such as private schools going ahead with exams, reported in the Times today. Ours (state) emailed to say they hope to do the mocks when they go back, and will be doing some kind of online assessments too.

This is what was promised prior to the new announcement

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55160374[/quote]
Orange cancelling exams has been my biggest frustration to date.

With remote learning disruption should be lower. Do you know why they were cancelled?

Due to the new lockdown I guess as was announced at the same time. Seems wrong after being so clear that they would go ahead really with changes

They also delayed the exams to June I think, do they think they will not be back in school by then. A worrying thought

Well I hope the unions pull their finger out and protest about this. It sounds like another big thankless task for teachers.

In that BBC link - seems a lot of thought had gone into looking at changes

Extra measures to "boost fairness and support students" will be used for next summer's GCSE and A-level exams in England, ministers have announced.

More generous grading, advance notice of exam topics and additional papers are promised by the Department for Education to make up for the disruption faced by students during the pandemic.

Those who cannot sit exams due to self-isolation rules will still get a grade.

Heads said it was "a reasonable package" of measures for the situation.
The DfE says it has had "extensive engagement" with exams watchdog Ofqual, exam boards and senior leaders across the education sector.
The measures mean:

more generous grading than usual, in line with results from summer 2020, so that this year's cohort is not disadvantaged
students getting advance notice - at the end of January - of some topic areas covered in exams to focus revision
exam aids - such as formula sheets - provided in some exams to cut down on the memorising required
additional "backup" exams - to be held in July - to give students a second chance to sit a paper if they have to miss main exams or assessments due to illness or self-isolation
and a new expert group, which will monitor variation in the impact of the pandemic on students across the country.
In extreme cases, where a student misses all their papers, a teacher-assessed grade will be given.

It feels like a reactive decision just based on timing alone and what it looks like

There’s no reason that secondary education would be more disrupted now it’s remote

And those extra provisions linked below were good

Lockdown is to reduce cases exams don’t increase them. But they do motivate and provide normality

And not to say what will replace such details. Some vague thing about teacher assessments.