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?

Mick grades will be used to help teachers determine CAGs, not be the CAGs. Teachers use a whole range of information to determine the final result. Their experience allows them to judge what final result would be likely given the ability of the student and their current performance. Both my DCs were Y11 and Y13 last year. Their teachers had no idea how final results would be achieved for a while after exams were cancelled. They carried on teaching and assessing the students to make sure they had evidence.

Flags agree it’s the gap that makes it worse

Have we had more information about what teacher assessment will consist of, Noble? I was hoping we would get another informal exam in before the end of the year.

Yes, Flags, the government have been truly shit on this. No consideration for how the announcement and lack of planning will affect people, just 'we're cancelling exams, now it's up to others to sort out the ensuing mess'.

And the BTEC fiasco is just awful. There is a real issue with Gavin/Boris making announcements about schools without running them past anyone in schools first. People in schools know there are exams in January. It was the same last year when Gavin announced that kids would be awarded their mock grades and had to backtrack when everyone in education was horrified.

Currently 1 in 20 people in some parts of London are meant to have COVID, schools aren’t going to be able to carry on as normal even with fewer pupils in with rates like that

@Marsha, I am from the Humber area and some of our students missed 7 weeks before Christmas. I feel we are giving a better level of provision to our year 11s now than we were before Christmas. As for cancelling exams - I don't know. I am not certain that there is any possible fair solution for this year's cohort.

What I think we need to see is a real investment in post-18 education. We need to make sure that people who have suffered academically during the pandemic are given every opportunity to make up that disadvantage, whether they do it now, or in five years time.

My DD is yr 12. Her sixth form provision has been pretty good online, although teachers off sick have meant several lessons cancelled this week already. The online plan looked excellent but of course they can’t forecast illness and so one whole subject hasn’t been taught properly this week and they’ve been told this is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.
Also, she’s doing A Level Art. It’s a tiny class group so the teacher is doing his best with them remotely but they don’t have the materials needed at home. I’ve bought a lot of them but some have been near impossible to obtain with any speed. I’m lucky we can afford to buy the materials though; some parents can’t do that and those kids are then disadvantaged.
So may reasons why the playing field can’t be levelled out, so on balance, I feel there was no option other than to cancel.
My biggest concern is keeping her motivated; maybe for months. She’s losing hope and I can no longer reason with her, as she and her friends believe their life chances have been too compromised to recover from.

@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.

@NellyJames why do you say her music gcse had been the biggest obstacle? For DD it's been the easiest to learn remotely for. She due to have her first online lesson on Monday. We are both beyond excited although apparently I'm not allowed to join in

OP it's about reducing the spread of Covid. Secondary pupils can be left at home alone, primary school children can't. Schools are providing childcare. I'm sure some schools are managing quality teaching as well, but not all, and I don't blame them.

I don't think exams ever could have gone ahead or been fair this year. It's a massive mess. I very much hope my exam Year DC can both go back in at some point, and aren't just written off.

Thing is though yes it's the gov fault but many parents too. Not everyone has cauggt covud from work oe critical food shopping. Most probably parents have
Continued with dc activities
Brownies/scouts
Spkrts
Music
Swimming lessons

They have gone to pub and for food.
They have had play dates or let their kids gather in houses or have parties.
They have done these things in t3 etc.

And yes it is really annoying if you have tried to be careful. And yes these things have been open. But everyone always pushing and determined their child cannot miss even one thing has literally closed the schools for others (obviously those and gov not letting kids wear masks dont help)
The infected kids were 1000s per 100k by yr 13.
Selfishness by some has actually taken the exams and education from others. And honestly to see some people then take kids in as key worker kids after blatantly breaking rules (with playdates etc) is erm mkre than annoying.
This probably applies to Christmas too as in people breaking rules then happily sending kids back to school maybe to ecv teachers or classmates.

My som is year 11 and school have told them from the beginning to make sure all work they do from going back is best they can do as it could come down to work, so its not a bug surprise to a lot of them.
They have missed a lot of content and some more than others if bubbles have burst. Yet some maybe have had little interruption how can you assess kids against that? Its why we should go back to. Coursework and exams in subject at least then you have coursework done that will give a good indication if ever interruption to exams , incl children being ill one exams days etc

Also the yr 11's do need to still keep working hard as evidence is needed for their grades which won't be magiced up by a teacher and work they will be doing now and i next few months may also count, they may also be given mini assesments if they return etc
At the end of the day they should be engaging in online lessons and completing all the work, that is what my ds yr 11 has been told and is doing

@LynetteScavo, she has a wonderful voice so she was encouraged to take music based on that and being grade 3 at piano. She is naturally musical but had become bored of lessons so stopped after gaining a distinction at grade 3. Anyway, she wanted her composition aspect to be piano and vocals and school thought back at the start of Y10, that she had plenty of time to bring her piano playing up to standard so she was having more lessons in school and some at home. Then Covid struck and lessons stopped. She just feels that she’s not up to standard with the instrument and is disappointed to rely on her voice. School have said she needs to think of her voice as an instrument but she’s really lacking confidence at this point.

@NellyJames - your DD definitely should think of her voice as an instrument! , She needs teachers who can talk to her to build her confidence, which is so difficult the moment. DDs composition is the one thing she actually focussed on independently during the summer term, and she was in school enough to get it finished off, so at least there is evidence for her GCSEs.

Neither kids in school, nor online learning are getting a very good education right now