GCSE '18s (19) - New Beginnings?

[whistl]

Following on from the GCSE 2018 threads as our DC enter year 12.
This the first thread in our new home in further education

Yes I name changed because it was this thread that outed me to an acquaintance. I have no idea if she was a lurker or a regular on here. I knew a previous user name of hers but not current. I have no problem being on the list with kids and area but no previous names and have pm'd some of you with old username.

At DS’s school Maths and FM (which he’s doing) are treated as one option. Then because they all do 4 options in Y12 (then AS in the 4th subject and 3 to A level) DS is taking History on top of Maths, FM, Physics and Chemistry. I would have preferred a sixth form where Maths and FM are taught as 2 subjects - but DS was definite this was his preferred sixth form (big brothers went there and it does have the best results locally)

I’m struggling to see the point of History AS when he’ll be doing Maths or Science at uni. The grades he gets in Y12 end of year exams in his other subjects are going to be what determine his predicted grades.

PS I haven’t kept up with name changes - recognise those who haven’t changed!

pannetone that’s a huge workload in Y12!

Pannetone - History itself is an analytical subject and it will give him a good grounding in essay writing which may be useful for writing reports/dissertations etc going forward.

But it is heavy to be doing 5!

I'm still me.

Cherryburn i guess i could address that by just doing a snapshot in time.
eg user names as of 11/9/18 and usernames as of 11/8/18.

then later usernames 31/1/19 (versus 11/9/18)

Then no new poster who becomes a regular would ever need to know user names that predated their being on the boards?

@whistl - sooooo clever!!!!
But rather a lot of work.

I’m still me too Stickerrocks

Yes, I can see that would work whistl

@pannetone - same scenario with DD. Doing History, English, Computer Science and Maths. Because of the way the option blocks work she has to be in the class that takes FM (Maths Y12 and FM syllabus YR13).....they normally drop a subject. I suppose it will keep her out of mischief?

Aargh so cross with DS's (old) school. Took us a fortnight to prise his Eng lit and History marks out of them before deciding not to have remark.

Today they embed mass-emailed parents asking for permission to have some English Lang and Maths papers remarked. But haven't given us the raw marks so we can make an informed decision! And my friends are texting me for advice! I told them all to email the school asking for all the marks for all papers

Terf do you think this is to increase their league place standings or am I just being overly cynical
I wouldn't be pleased if DS's school was doing this on mass, as they can't even supply a teacher for all his A level classes!!

I don't know really. They don't tend to worry about league table places usually. I am now hearing about the other local comp 5 miles away (similar size, standard and demographic) who have told their parents that the eng Lang and maths AQA papers were harshly marked and they're considering a review for a majority of their pupils!

On the 23rd there was about six teachers plus HT in. I can't see why they couldn't just all be paid a days overtime (or a lieu day) to spend the whole day (or the 22nd) looking at all the marks and deciding on potential remarks, and then tell the parents/students. Then it's done before sixth form inductions and out of the way before the new term starts. A bit like Clearing, after A level results.

I can see how you would want to do it for those close to the grade 4, I think schools should push for the way Edexcel do things ie schools can down load papers for free, fairer all round, in fact if I was head I'd be changing to Edexcel for this reason alone

It occured to me yesterday, that the reason Edexcel made their marked papers available was to cut down on the number of requests they get to review / remark.

It used to be everyone was in the dark, but now the teachers are asked to look at the paper first to see if there are obvious errors before the exam board is asked to look again.

This way you are less likely to send a paper back for a review if the original mark was disappointing but fair, or even generous!

It was when I read a statement by edexcel to the effect that they are doing it to help inform the teachers for better exam preparation in the future. It just sounded like what you say when you want to make your motives sound honourable!

I bet AQA follow suit, when they realise that it benefits them.

whistl so actually its just very clever marketing on the part of Edexcel

AQA have said that they'll make the papers free to see by 2020

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/schoolsweek.co.uk/how-to-apply-for-re-marks-and-appeal-gcse-results-2018/amp/

But surely what Edexcel are doing is a win-win? If teachers can see that the paper has been correctly marked they won’t send it for review, saving money for school or parent.

...and no doubt use it as a carrot to entice schools to use them as exam board.

Which is why it education shouldnt be privatised!!! No One should be allowed to profit financially from our children

DS says that makes me a commie, by the way )

Dd said that the Edexel English syllabus was much better constructed than the AQA one too. (having looked at ds's syllabus)

I had the impression that AQA is the widely used board for English. Most of the guides (Mr Bruff / mr salles etc) seemed to focus on AQA and I got the impression from the after exam chat back in June that most posters were talking about AQA.
If it is the much preferred board for English, maybe its for historic reasons because this thing about the raw scores being difficult to look up and the remark requests going in blind aren't selling points..

I just looked up the numbers for English Language in June 2018:-

AQA 514,207
Edexcel 79,374

So, AQA dominates that market. Maybe things will change now, but I doubt it as the English teachers now have two years of experience of AQA under their belt and they'd be crazy to want to start all over again with a new board.