If 50% of keyworkers DC are in, why couldn't the exam years continue?

[muminthesummer]

This is an absolute fiasco. Our exam year DC have really been shafted. Told the exams are cancelled and now what? No plans in place at all and teachers, parents and DC left with no idea on the way forward. At least if DC knew the exams were going ahead they would still have that aim. I walked past a primary school yesterday full of DC, why are exam years DC deemed less important than them?

Exam years kids are more of a transmission risk, and there has been a real difference in provision accross the country. Some have had online lessons from day one. Most have had far less, some cant access online because of no equipment, no internet or caring responsibilities.
When kids went back to school many had to self isolate more than once. Many schools had to close for a couple of weeks. When they were in then kids were tested on a regular basis, I presume because many teachers saw this coming and wanted data they could base predictions on.
The truth is, it's shit for this year-ds is upset, missing out, as they all are. But to forge ahead with exams would be massively unfair and only serve to further marginalise and disaffect children who havent had the advantages of a good education over the last year (and yes they are likely to come from group that are already socially and economically disadvantaged). The choices as I see them are between no exams, with cags, or starting each school year from the start in September. Cags is probably the least worst option.

@NellyJames

The disparity of provision for this GCSE cohort is vast. Some children like my DD (state grammar) have had zoom lessons throughout and pretty much close to what they’d have received on site. Other children her age received virtually no provision first time around and maybe only marginally better this time. Her music GCSE has been the biggest obstacle.

But how does this stop more children being lost? The same children had less but now demotivated may slip further.

If exam years were in “as normal” plus kw children that would be too many children in my secondary.

But let’s imagine they did:

Exam year classes would have to be split and be taught by different teachers (sounds a small thing, but many children find that hugely disruptive).

Exam year children who are ECV it who have family members who are ECV would have to stay home.

If the exam year children continued in school, it would be, for many, hugely stressful and not at all comparable to “normal school” (I know this because of the experience of the Y10 - this year’s exam group - children coming back for the summer term last year - it was very strange and difficult)

This group of exam year children have already had disruption in the first year of their course, to expect them to keep coming in during this period of such high numbers of people dying is totally unreasonable.

Does that make sense, OP?

@ineedaholidaynow we're lucky to have good facilities here too, but the lack of a plan is a shambles. I've told DS to keep working as if he's going to be doing GCSES but he knows he's not, there's all sorts of rumours between him and peers on social media they don't know what to think. It's a mess I just think they should have found a way for them to carry on with plan A (or had a really good plan B before they announced the scrappage of plan A).

I mistakenly assumed that exam years would have some priority, that someone somewhere would be endeavouring to keep these years in school enough hours - not necessarily full timetable - so that some kind of exam would take place.

At the very least, they should endeavour to get these exam years back in after Feb half term so schools who haven't yet done mocks can get their students to sit tests under exam conditions, to give the teachers more data. But I doubt it will happen.

A few years ago we had Gove set up the new GCSEs and A levels spouting rigour, an end to course work, linear exams, must prove you know 15 poems by memory, higher standards, too many inflated grades, exams too easy. And now we have this, where it feels like the education secretary has no regard for the current students and the exam system they have been part of. What a contrast.

[quote muminthesummer]@Lemons1571 but there's going to be the same issues when giving out grades. How can this way be any fairer?[/quote]
Presumably the idea is that the kids will be awarded the grades they would have got had the pandemic not have happened. It’s not 100% accurate but a reasonable estimation.

So for example, my son throughout his secondary school years, has been predicted grades of 6’s and 7’s for English. For his mock exam in December he got a high 7 nearly 8. So I would expect his teacher assessed grade to be 7 (with a small margin of error, plus or minus 1).

If he had had repeated isolations, no access to tech, below par remote learning offered, and the exams had gone ahead, he may well have slipped from a pre pandemic 7 to a disrupted 4. Through no fault of his own, as where he lives/luck put him at a disadvantage relative to the rest of the 16 yo population.

I would stress though, there is no good way to deal with the 2021 cohort. There is only the least bad/unfair way.

I agree OP. The exam years have been thrown under the bus and it is a fucking disgrace. I hope primary schools clamp down on faux keyworkers or put limits on places. So many people are now pleaing all sorts of excuses because it is just too inconveniencing or involves some hard work and taking personal responsibility. The hypocrisy of it is unbelievable - numerous people banging the drum for school closures and then whacking their kids back in as soon as this happens.

In terms of motivation -

I’ve been telling my exam classes from September that their “in class” - now remote - performance is even more important than usual. That if I have to grade them, I need to see evidence of what they can do. I told them this was “just in case” - now, clearly, it’s actually the case. That’s helped enormously with their motivation, I think?

@SmileEachDay yes thanks. I appreciate everything teachers are doing it's a nightmare. I'm just worried.

@SmileEachDay

In terms of motivation -

I’ve been telling my exam classes from September that their “in class” - now remote - performance is even more important than usual. That if I have to grade them, I need to see evidence of what they can do. I told them this was “just in case” - now, clearly, it’s actually the case. That’s helped enormously with their motivation, I think?

This is good to hear. I have tried to reiterate to Ds needs to get same grades, but I can see it’s a blow especially as he does best in exams. Fortunately he has had his mocks with exam conditions.

His school is excellent so I hope they are reinforcing that it matters, as their words will carry more weight probably.

The choices as I see them are between no exams, with cags, or starting each school year from the start in September. Cags is probably the least worst option.

There is no possible way to start the year again for a myriad of reasons not least space unless you planned to do that for all years down to Reception otherwise where would schools put them?
Also, the disaffected Y11s who will turn 17 next autumn will just drop out. There’s no way we’d manage to keep them motivated for another year esp if they managed to secure employment so they’d leave school with zero qualifications.

I'm concerned that exams are being replaced with exams by another name. My son sat mock exams in exam conditions in November and they have been told they will sit further mocks as soon as they return to school. The school will want robust evidence won't they. Some of these may be externally moderated to ensure accuracy and I wouldn't be surprised if they even use exam papers that the exam boards have not yet released.

I'm just worried

Of course you are. I completely agree that there is no “ideal” here.

as he does best in exams

I have some like this - and it’s absolutely a blow. I got mine into the habit of treating every piece of work I was going to mark like an exam - we had special paper - “is this a blue paper thing miss?”. That has helped, because a) they really tried and b) I have an excellent bank of evidence. I’m sure your school will be doing similar.

Having said all that, it’s so, so crap for exam years. I do really feel for them.

I don't think rates of students going in are anywhere near as high in secondary as they are in primary. I also think that secondary students are more likely to transmit the virus. I'm delivering a full timetable remotely to both Y11 and Y13 and these groups work extremely well under these conditions. We're getting very positive feedback from what we are delivering.

DS, yr 11, attends independent school who have provided full online school through first lockdown and again in this lockdown. During autumn term all classrooms were set up with online facility so any child could join the class virtually if they were isolating.
My work colleague who also has a child in a local, quite affluent, state school, was sent work sheets by email and handful of sessions late in the summer term. The school regularly closed bubbles and at one point closed the whole school for 2 weeks.
I really don’t think that it would be fair to go ahead with the exams when there has been so much disparity in provision over the last 12 months for yr11 countrywide.
Even with the excellent provision by DS’s school he is unlikely to be prepared for GCSEs this summer. Because he is taking iGCSEs in all subjects it is still possible these may go ahead. I do feel that this widens the gap massively in the future. IT IS NOT FAIR.
I’m not going to get into an argument about privilege because however much he is benefitting from a private education DS is suffering increasing mental health issues as a result of isolation. I am far more worried about our young people than I am about the elderly.

*work colleague has yr11 child

@nellyjames I agree starting the year again would be very problematic. I didnt list all the reasons why, as I think cats is the least worst of all of the options. The disadvantages of starting the year again are obvious, doesn't make it not an option/possibility if not a favoured one.

I'm concerned that exams are being replaced with exams by another name

I agree. We're talking about mocks and assessments and whatnot. Yes, exams are stressful for kids, but now they're going to be sitting mocks well before they would have sat the real thing (so not as prepared) knowing it will be used to give them their final grade?

Exams in June would have been bad and unfair, but is teacher assessment based on not as good exams in March or November going to be better? I'm not convinced.

Ok so assume exams go ahead and all Y11 are allowed in school and are tested regularly but people keep testing positive, teachers, kids, you. The kids would be in and out so much with isolating or positive they would not get continuous learning

Fast forward to May, your child and you have not yet been vaccinated and your child is told to isolate the first week of exams

You can't expect all to have access to online exams at home you can't have them all in as there WILL be positive cases

This virus strain is everywhere

@Nellodee

I don't think rates of students going in are anywhere near as high in secondary as they are in primary. I also think that secondary students are more likely to transmit the virus. I'm delivering a full timetable remotely to both Y11 and Y13 and these groups work extremely well under these conditions. We're getting very positive feedback from what we are delivering.

Nellodee the provision here is great, the school also gets a lot of very good feedback. I don’t want students in but do you think that those with poorer provision will be helped by cancelled exams?

I’m concerned students with less now have even less reason to move on. What we all want I guess is to get as many students as possible ahead as much as possible.

I think it's probably the right decision for this exam year as the whole of their Year 11 has been disrupted as well as about half the year of the last year too.

My DD was in last year 11 and theirs were cancelled even though most of their learning was complete. They literally had only a couple of months left at school and in a lot of subjects were already just doing revision. That was completely mad.

She was disadvantaged as she isn't a natural learner and after her mocks when she didn't do too well, she had a bit of a panic and we had private tuition and a real push on revising after the new year. She was doing so much better and I think could have managed to pass a few more subjects. She didn't with the teacher assessed grades and didn't get to go to the college she wanted.

She is now doing what she wanted to do at a lower level somewhere else. If she doesn't pass her maths and English this year, I'm not even sure what her options will be. I don't think they can go ahead this year though.

Why would it affect students motivation to study at all? I have found very much the reverse.

Students are often over confident, or else procrastinate to much, and feel like they can pull it all together in April/May.

It is totally different now. My y11 classes know that every piece of work I set could count as evidence towards their grade.

Not only are they happy the exam uncertainty has been settled, they are working harder than I have ever known year 11s work in 30 years teaching

Every option is unfair to some students. The problem we have now is that if CAG are going to try to take into account the fact that some students have missed great chunks of material how do they make the results meaningful. Do they cap the grade a student can get based on the percentage of course covered or do they award the student what they think they would’ve got with ideal teaching? Will they actually have the knowledge base to move successfully onto their next stage.

We know that last year some CAGs were inflated and I know a few teachers who resisted pressure to inflate CAGs and now feel that they let their students down as they didn’t do as well on paper as others. What will they do this year? Will all teachers honestly assess how much of the course they taught if they knew it would put a ceiling on possible grades.

I can’t help feeling it would be so much better to have ran the exams as normal for those that wanted to try. Those that got the grades needed to move onto the next stage - whatever that maybe could do so. Those that didn’t do as well or who decided not to sit them could be supported to repeat a year - extra funding for schools plus all benefits etc paid for school aged children extended a year where appropriate.

There would be some students who leave without any qualifications, but if they are able to get work and there are provisions in place for them to obtain the qualifications in the future- either by evening courses or day release - when they feel motivated, that seems the best outcome to me. Having disaffected teens in school won’t help them get the qualifications and will just disrupt those who do want to study.

As a teacher, I'd have rather they hadn't mentioned exams until they had a plan for their replacement. If they'd said assume exams are going ahead but we are considering options I think that would have been better - then announce the plan when they have it. Of course the best thing would have been to have already had a plan for their replacement and to have released all that information on Monday evening/Tuesday morning after Boris' announcement - it shocks me that they didn't have a contingency in place already.

I really feel for my poor BTEC students. The government seemed to have forgotten them entirely. There definitely shouldn't have been a situation where the exam board is tweeting 12 hours before the first exam that they don't know whether it is running of not and they were awaiting clarification from the DfE. Then all the changes to make them optional after some had been already sat but without knowing the alternative.

Because of the amount of schooling the students have missed. Not every secondary children of keyworkers us back in. Not rocket science.