Year 10 and 12 students should go back to school first

[Bewareoftheblob]

More speculation in the Hate ahead of PMQ today. Link

Exams have been cancelled for this year, regardless of the consultation suggestions of 'optional' assessments from the exam board for the current Year 11 and 13s.

Should we actually prioritise the return of Year 10 and 12 students who have missed such a huge amount of preparation time for their courses?

I know it's dreadful for Year 11 and 13 too, but they at least had a good six months before schools closed in March 2020. Still shit though.

@Neverending21

There is no comparison between grades students were given last year and grades that will be awarded this year, as a totally different approach is being proposed.

That's what is proposed but I don't think anything will come of it. It will end up the same as last year. It's too messy and too late. By the time they've made their minds up it will be the end of February, and they were already saying they wanted results back to students by the start of July to allow for appeals. Hollow laugh.

OP You clearly only care about your child and not others, do you not think teachers are better placed
You basically have said all year 11 will get over inflated grades, with no actual proof.
My year 11 would rather sit his exams as people like you will always think they achieved higher than able.
There is no guarantee on what mini exams may look like and many have sat btech exams already.
The year 11 and 13 need to be priority in secondary with year 10 just behind and maybe a rota system could work.
But unless you have a year 11 and understand exactly what is going on then you don't understand at all

there was no priority ever for 11s. They have been bloody abandoned and I am so proud of my daughter continuing to work hard not just tokenism. I do think the current 12s are v vulnerable in terms of possible impact but please remember online teaching doesn't mean no teaching.

46Bewareoftheblob
I'm assuming you have a Y12 and Y10 child by reading your selfish posts.

Teachers will try to be fair but tend to over predict (generalization, of course), hence the higher grades last year.

To repeat again, not all students got higher grades last year. Some schools marked conservatively and internally moderated (so they didn't later get marked down under the external moderation that ended up not happening). Some schools did not. The biggest issue (to my mind) last year, was not the fact that grades were higher but the complete inconsistency between schools. Not the schools fault, they were told there would be external moderation.

I don't think any method that anyone comes up with this year can be fair. But at least if it is consistently applied, that is one element of fairness.

Remember yr 11s wouldn't normally be back in school after Easter

Op you are queue jumping just hold out

Wait for year 11 to do what they need to do and don’t write them off. Agree with op it’s insulting to say it’s over for them. Think about what you are saying

Year 10 and 13 have an entire year and a half to go yet, please don’t write off year 11 and 13, they have another six months of potential school to get through. Whilst I get you’re worried for your own children, this will largely be over by the time year 10 and 12 sit their exams, from an illness point of view anyway.

My dd will almost certainly do worse than she wd have as her school simply will not over inflate the grades and she is amazing at pulling it out of the bag in exams. You’ll know how it feels in a year’s time op.

Year 11 where I am would be back in school after Easter, the school my DC go to have always kept them in school for revision right up until the last exam.

@RB68 yes same my ds is doing online mocks this week and its very different , he has been doing all online lessons and all assessments best he can , as they simply do not know what will be used to support grades, also aware they may have to go in and sit some mini exams or not, .

I have a Y10 and a Y13. It’s been shit for both of them and they absolutely should have been in school in the summer term. But there’s no way I think my Y10 should be back to school as a priority over Y11 and 13. They need some face to face teaching and assessment. It’s all very well saying their grades will be based on teacher assessment but they do actually need to learn the course and be ready for what they do next.
For Y13, they can’t go on to university courses having completed 6 months of a 2 year A level course regardless of their awarded grades.
I agree that it’s probably Y12 who have suffered most with both GCSE and A levels being affected.
IMO get Y11 and 13 in after February half term for teaching including practicals that they can’t do at home. Then Y10 and 12 after Easter and Y11 and in for assessment in June. They need to be considered separately to primary schools as they will mostly be in different buildings with different staff and no need for high schools to suffer as primaries go back.

@donewithitalltodayandxmas

OP You clearly only care about your child and not others, do you not think teachers are better placed You basically have said all year 11 will get over inflated grades, with no actual proof. My year 11 would rather sit his exams as people like you will always think they achieved higher than able. There is no guarantee on what mini exams may look like and many have sat btech exams already. The year 11 and 13 need to be priority in secondary with year 10 just behind and maybe a rota system could work. But unless you have a year 11 and understand exactly what is going on then you don't understand at all

With all due respect, look at the difference between the 2019 results and the 2020 results.

I know that Year 11 would rather sit their exams; I would rather they sat their exams, but that isn't going to happen.

I never said write them off, rather the opposite. I think they should be as fairly assessed as possible, which unfortunately will be not very fairly at all.

I think Y11 and 13 need prioritising. They didn’t do end of year exams last year, haven’t done mocks this year. It’s going to be really hard for teachers to assess them accurately. They’ve missed so much of F2F education for their 2 year courses, a lot will be really behind on subject knowledge for their next stage, whether that’s A levels, level 3 courses or university.

I’ve got no skin in the game, my youngest is at uni in his first year. At least all he has missed was revision in Y13 and any F2F teaching at uni. But his uni has been really good at online teaching and he knows no different.

@Fortyfifty 'Selfish' really is the buzzword of this pandemic, isn't it?

It’s not all about whether they can be fairly assessed. It’s about how much they are lacking in subject knowledge. It’s not just about their grade, it’s about what they have learnt.

@MaddieElla

"It's over for 11s and 13s. But our 10s and 12s could have their courses saved if they go back, en masse their year groups are so much more important than any others."

The absolute arrogance of this post. Get to fuck!

Agreed Maddie

The arrogance of that comment makes me so angry on my Y11s behalf I can't even write a coherent reply.

@RedskyBynight

Teachers will try to be fair but tend to over predict (generalization, of course), hence the higher grades last year.

To repeat again, not all students got higher grades last year. Some schools marked conservatively and internally moderated (so they didn't later get marked down under the external moderation that ended up not happening). Some schools did not. The biggest issue (to my mind) last year, was not the fact that grades were higher but the complete inconsistency between schools. Not the schools fault, they were told there would be external moderation.

I don't think any method that anyone comes up with this year can be fair. But at least if it is consistently applied, that is one element of fairness.

Looking at the country-wide cohort, they achieved better grades. Yes, there are always individual examples of where it wasn't great.

You're right, nothing will be fair. But nothing will be consistently applied.

@RedskyBynight

Year 10 (the now Year 11) were prioritised last year as well, weren't they? They were certainly the only year group to go back at my DC's school.

In some schools maybe.

My children - current years 11 & 13 for mushed school in March and didn’t return to September.

Their school has said they will be the priority in returning to school which is absolutely as it should be. Year 10 will be absolutely fine (tbh year 11 I’m not that concerned about) but year 13 need to be the top of everybody’s priority.

OP, I presume that you have a dc in year 10? I honestly can't imagine any other reason why you would think that the year 10s should be a priority.

Fur mushed???? How did that happen?? finished

@Bewareoftheblob

Our Y10’s weren’t prioritised last year so why on earth should they be prioritised now?

So I should just tell my 15 year old son who is virtually on the brink of a breakdown that cause another bubble might burst there is no point in him going in cause there is no point. It doesn’t matter what bloody grades he gets given cause they don’t matter. Seriously have a reality check and ask yourself how you would feel in a years time if your child is in the same position as ours is now.

I keep thinking "think of the resilience, self motivation and drive they will be developing" then I get emotional for the fact that we celebrate when she leaves the house more than once a month, she hasn't seen a friend since before Christmas - no one person her own age, and is unlikely to given our distance from her friends (which isn't massive but would involve a car drive so considered unnecessary). They won't forget this.

I was talking to mine about Uni today and I said if I have been 1st yr uni this year I wouldn't have gone and would have got a job until things settled down as it was unreasonable to be paying high accom and tuition when basically you are being fed an online course. I actually think the same for this year - this would then hopefully reduce their reliance on debt and in the right job they may even get sponsorship/apprenticeship to do degree at same time as working.

@UncomfortableSilence I wasn't exactly coherent myself and it's a phrase never said before in my life, but FFS, what a nasty attitude to have.

You sound very bitter OP.

I realise my Y10 will get GCSE grades following 2 year groups who got their grades without external exams. It is what it is. We're taking small percentages of grade inflation compared to other years. I don't think it's going to affect my Y10s life massively. I'll ensure she does as well as she is able to do.