So cancelled exams to be replaced with ... exams.

[motherrunner]

Just going to leave this here so we can all reflect on another “great” decision:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pupils-to-sit-mini-summer-exams-marked-by-their-own-teachers-vml307tqg?shareToken=0363c25400b3f5b8b1a4e924619b490e

@Piggywaspushed (trying to ignore the whole exam fiasco) do you have concerns for students moving on to the next level eg A-level if they have not completed the majority of the syllabus?

Pandering to the right wing of the Tory party who are obsessed with exams as the 'gold standard'.

This will be chaotic bollocks.

Would it be worth starting a petition to ask for summer exams to be reinstated? People should at least have the choice of whether to sit them or not.

@ineedaholidaynow

What’s happening in Scotland, can we learn anything from them? Other countries?

No, England apparently refuses to learn from anyone, whether on quarantine, testing or exams

Another fine mess you've got us into, Gavin

Not in my subjects no ineed. I can see for others it would be an issue but summer term bridging work could help.

They will have completed the majority, just not the entirety....

We will have finished everything and had 5 months revision. I think exams with choices of questions is one answer, but still not going to be fair. My lot will be drilled by then ! We have had no practicals so much more time to do theory.

Not true of all subjects though. Many are struggling to get through content remotely. Disparity between subjects in an issue that is not raised enough.

5 moths online revision. .. fun times...

How have some teachers finished the syllabus by now and others not?

Lots of factors! Attendance! Effect of virus! When they started the course. What the subject is. Student engagement. Student ability. Whether Ofqual trimmed content or not.

As a teacher I despair. We are going to have a form of exam, which I don't know how to teach because I don't know what it is or how it will be taken instead of an exam I know how to teach. How is that making things better for the students? You either cancel them or you don't. You do t cancel them and replace with an unknown exam.

It's still going to be vastly unfair depending on where you live (how much time isolating between Sept-jan), it provision at home and general
Parental support. There's been a lot of decisions I haven't agreed with but this one is the worse. I think we would have been better doing the exams but with reduced content (eg schools can choose 3 of the 6 modules for their students to sit depending on which bits of the syllabus they missed due to lockdown)

Couldn’t agree more @wanderlove the whole thing is yet another another shit show!

I've finished now because our course plan is designed to be finished by now. We had a text taken out that we'd not yet taught, and I was teaching online throughout lockdown.
Other subjects have lost nothing from the spec.

Yup! When you teach two subjects, the difference is STARK.

@ineedaholidaynow

How have some teachers finished the syllabus by now and others not?

I’m an English teacher. We start the GCSEs Jan in Yr 9 which is 2 terms before we should. My pupils are not and any disadvantage as we went to live lessons in March ‘20 immediately.

I think this is unfair though as I was a council estate kid - I want kids like me to have the best opportunities.

For those who start GCSEs in Y9 does that mean you don't complete the KS3 curriculum? Also I assume any schools that do that would be at a distinct advantage if GCSEs were to carry on as normal

Why aren't they using the same (crap) system as last year?? Beginning to think they're enjoying inflicting misery and chaos.

IGCSEs going ahead, or not? If so, why, when they were cancelled last year and when most of rest of world is in chaos? F*cked if I'm booking flights to the UK in the current climate.

Yes, iGCSEs are going ahead. (Thankfully!)

I think we would have been better doing the exams but with reduced content (eg schools can choose 3 of the 6 modules for their students to sit depending on which bits of the syllabus they missed due to lockdown)

This sounds like a much better plan than what they’ve come up with 🙄

Successive governments have been obsessed with terminal exams and now can think of no other way forward.

I had a conversation with a teacher friend the other day along these lines. I said I never agreed with a child's next steps being reliant on them being on top form and a particular day to demonstrate their learning over 2 years.

I said maybe one good thing to come out of this is they'll finally see the limitations of their "terminal" exams as you called them and update the assessment of gcse system.

Clearly I was giving them too much credit

My worry is that they will leave it to the individual schools to arrange and that it will not be fair, transparent or equal.

For example, mocks have been taken at different times and in different formats, some online, some with only a few modules, some being told what would be covered.

Some schools seem very honest and some seem to stretch things a bit more- although I base this mainly on what I have heard from friends different experiences last year and also anecdotal evidence from my teacher friends.

In my dept we have "formal assessments". They're meant to be fair and accurate. I don't give them the question in advance. I don't write hints on the board. I don't tell them what to write.
In other classrooms, other things happen. It's not fair, and it's not right.
Internally assessed work is absolutely open to all kinds of cheating.