Another Path to Greatness - Part II

[BigWoollyJumpers]

Here we are.

SATS - well I did wonder about that tbh. If the grades were 90% determined by the mocks last year, I’m surprised there was grade inflation as dint students usually not do as well in the mocks as the real thing?

It’s so confusing because over the last few weeks, we’ve also had the whole “don't worry about individual pieces if work - we are taking a holistic approach based on multiple forms of evidence,” but then today.., “Oh, the first exam papers which essentially constitute your A-level grades are in two weeks. See you all Monday!”

My DS was told that no assessments or tests that were done during lockdown would count towards the final grade due to all the students working under different circumstances.
I've just received an email telling me that they are working on how the grades will be assessed and we'll know on the 15th March. This is a non selective state school if that makes any difference.
The whole system seems like a complete shambles, but at the moment I am happy with the way our school is dealing with it. For the Moment!

@quest1on that does seem harsh to only give 2 weeks notice for the assessments when they are definitely being counted towards the final assessed grade. The formal assessments at both my DC's schools start after Easter holidays.
I've always felt that exams (in normal circumstances that is) are the fairest way to assess a pupil's attainment, however like BigWoollyJumpers has mentioned, I too am concerned my DC have run out of steam. The stress associated with having to constantly work at 100% consistently (as they were advised that any or all work could or would potentially count towards their final grade) has taken it's toll. I'm not sure how much they have left in the tank. It looks like previous work will now have a much smaller impact on their final grade but by how much remains to be seen.
Chatted with older DD this afternoon and she mentioned her A'level teachers are currently trying to plan what will or won't count and for how much. I think for all 3 subjects she has been told they will do timed essay after timed essay in class over the next 3 weeks. It's possible any of these could also contribute and teachers may pick the best few. This is in addition to the formal mocks after Easter and second set of formal assessments in May. She's feeling down about the constant assessing (and this is from a girl who actually wanted exams to go ahead).
Having said all that, I realise my 2 are lucky to have been taught consistently over lockdown and have in fact finished the syllabus. I'm acutely aware of the unfairness for others who actually haven't even been given a proper education. Any debate over how grades are awarded doesn't remedy this fact.

Each school, to some extent, can make their own decision as to how they calculate their students' grades.

Last year again each school could devise their own way to ascertain their CAGS but they also had to rank the kids and in our school this is where the mocks were helpful (but not set in stone). The pupils were also told that it was unlikely that their CAG would be lower than the grade they achieved at mocks.

As regards the mini assessments set by the exam boards we have opted in as they will be happy with the difficulty of the paper and set the mark scheme. If a school sets a paper and the board requires evidence to back up it grades there may be a risk that the board says the paper is too easy and therefore the highest grade for it can't reach an A*. Hopefully no school would do that.

In a selective/super selective it is very difficult to separate some of the A*s from As as can be seen by prior A level results based on all the factors that an exam bring into it. By using the board assessments it brings some of those factors back in albeit they will not be sat in large halls etc.

With the mini assessments remember that the school selects the topics for them and will be allowed to tell the pupils what topic is covered. So it will not be the same as revising for all the course for all 3 or 4 A levels or PreUs.

Thus they will be more like end of topic tests.

Other than CIE who have already indicated to a large extent what they want (but are obviously not bound by JCQ rules) the full information has not yet been received by the schools and we are still expecting it by the end of the term (before Easter) so they will know more then.

However for anyone taking CAIE then A level results will be 12 August not 10th and Pre U results will be 19th August so who knows what effect that will have on UCAS track updates with uni decisions too?!

CIE have been quite specific about what they require for their A levels and PreUs.

Deter and Jalfrezi - it’s very confusing and, as you say, the final govt guidelines aren’t even out yet, so it may all change slightly again. DS has also been doing loads of timed essays and is disappointed to hear they won’t count at all. He’s worked so hard and is visibly exhausted.

Tbh, he’s normally quite chilled, but this got to him today and I could see it and got stressed for him really. I think underlying it all is this wait for LSE. I swear to god it’s more nerve-wracking that the wait for Cambridge! It didn’t help that I looked on TSR and the stress is just definitely escalating on there - and it’s global! They were clearly rejecting students from India yesterday. A few of his friends have now had rejections. It’s like dreading the UCAS pinging!

Anyway, gin helps...

@Vargas I do have a suggestion. They could have announced reduced syllabuses, where relevant, back in early Jan as previously promised, then continued with A levels as normal but with greatly increased optionality and a smaller number of questions and/or papers so that pupils that hadn't been taught everything could still answer enough questions, and there could be a back up sitting for every paper later in the summer term for those who missed for isolatin/covid. Could even have released samples of such exams for mocks in March so that they could be more familiar (and serve as back ups).
The current set up is just so annoying. DS still has no idea what the assessments will look like next term. Has done no mocks and won't have them when they go back. They will have less time to prepare than usual as all assessments have to be done before half term. Plus, oddly, pupils at schools that have covered everything are left with more challenging revision tasks as they will have to learn everything, unless schools choose otherwise, where those who haven't covered lots only have to learn that shorter amount of material.
I know it could be argued that the truly sorted student would already be beavering away at revision on an insurance basis, but after the year they have had, I am thing that is asking quite a bit when they don't know if the work will be actually needed.

Thanks for that info Season.

We have two schools here: the one where both my children (years 13 and 11) go and the one where my other half teaches.
Children's school have said they will have formal tests but not said exactly what will be involved, in two blocks - immediately after Easter and then again immediately before half term. They have said they will base the grades entirely upon these and upon NEA and not at all on other work done during the year.
Oh's school is having tests but they will only form a part of the picture and they will use their marks throughout the course to build the picture as well.
I do not think this will be a level playing field but it is what it is...

Thank you @Xenia and @PresentingPercy for the input into pathway to law contracts. Being a generation Z parent, I will keep my eye on the timeline 🙈

I am not sure what my input into the whole TAG thing is. The final plans for how they will be awarded has yet to be decided by DS school. However he had mocks this week and he found the papers much harder than expected. DH and I were a little concerned as he is now towards the end of his AL course. However AL ARE supposed to be hard aren't they? On the other hand how do we know if papers set by other schools would be equally hard? Even the same caliber schools.

I think I would like school to use external papers. Ideally I would likely them to be externally marked too but I know this won't happen. However I feel using exam
Board set papers is more "fair" but don't understand why it's up to each school fo decide . Why can't they use the questions set by the exam boards that would only be on parts of the syllabus they have covered?

In the attempt to level the playing feel I feel that the TAG's will mainly benefit the DC's whose schools have failed to provide them with an education the past year. However so it should right?

@Revengeofthepangolins that was my DS's thoughts as well. Whilst they have been lucky to learn more, they will have to study more .......

Quest1on to be honest I don't know why students are so stressed about LSE as they haven't given out ANY offers? I think it would be more stressful if they have given out to your friends but you haven't had an offer?

chop - Have you seen how crazy it is on TSR for LSE yesterday? Someone has photoshopped an UCAS page to make it look like they got an economics offer, but it’s a fraud.

It’s true that they haven’t made any offers yet, but I think what’s stressful is the steady stream of daily rejections to candidates with stellar grades. And just the fact it’s taking sooo long this year. In a normal year, a good proportion of offers come out in Dec / Jan.

An email dropped from our Headmaster last night. Still no detail of a decision on percentages or otherwise, of which work will count for what, noting that they still had to wait for guidance. However an interesting sentence on assessments. They have not had, nor will have mocks, they have planned two weeks of assessments directly after Easter. Following this, they have one week of "reflection" and discussion between students and teachers, and following that, THEN another two weeks for further assessments "for any departments who feel they need additional evidence to generate a grade for their students".

So essentially, they are providing two separate sessions of formal assessments, and I read, further evidence for those students who have perhaps not performed as expected?

This does also lead me to believe, however, that like pp's, MOST of the grade percentage will be coming from examinations, even though we had been led to believe that there would be none .

It seems that some schools will use the govt tests (have these even been published yet)? Some will use their own tests. But surely, the grade boundaries will vary between schools?

@quest1on

It seems that some schools will use the govt tests (have these even been published yet)? Some will use their own tests. But surely, the grade boundaries will vary between schools?

No not published yet.

Re own tests - schools set their own anyway for internal purposes and know where the boundaries are. Even though the students aren't ranked and bunched into grades by an algorithm schools will be at risk of being moderated if the grades are wildly different (?? to what though, normal year, last year, mix?) If a school is moderated and the exam is too easy the board could say there are no A*s available if too low a standard. A school would not want to risk that.

Teachers really do get a feel of what grades students will get generally. They will also know if their school policy is to predict as close as possible to what they expect or inflate to allow aspirational choices.

I would expect on results day most parents on this thread due to them being parents of kids who were able enough to submit an Oxbridge application will achieve the grades they expect (especially as teachers are not limited by rankings this year).

I hope you are right season

The fact that DC's won't be tested on the same paper does bother me a little as I don't believe exam boards will check to ensure fairness

Yes I did look at the student room and to be honest I don't have a good impression of LSE applicants there and hope in reality it's different

@Revengeofthepangolins - If only you were a government adviser! Your suggestions sound eminently sensible.

We had a bit of strange mixed messaging from ds' school when a parent asked if they will use the predicted grades at all. The academic Head said no, not at all, they are completely different contextually etc... but then the Head kind of qualified that with a 'but we wouldn't expect them to be terribly different to the TAGs'. So confusing. Anyway, we shall see.

In other news, still waiting for a Durham college for ds. It's been over a week since his offer.... He's a bit glum today as one of his besties got an offer, but for a different course and for a college he doesn't want to go to, so looks like he might go elsewhere. I'm not too sad for ds as although this boy is very nice, he is a bit of a party animal...whereas obviously ds is completely angelic at all times

@Vargas on the contrary I would like my 17 going on 70 year old very sensible DS to live a little 🙈

Anyone got any idea at all what will happen after these assessments have been completed? Do they all just kick about at home for another 4 months with nothing to do?? I am so sad that they have missed 1/3 of their 6th form experience with no chance of getting some back.

I know @BigWoollyJumpers . Feel sad about the same. We have not yet been informed what our school has planned but DS is looking forward to the cricket season

Our school has some cookery and personal finance stuff planned for end of Y13, but looks to all be optional. I hope I can convince ds to attend or, let's be really crazy here, maybe get an actual real life job??

It’s strange to think by the May half-term they’ll be done, assessment-wise.

One of DS’ teachers (who is also a head of sixth form) did moot something about taking them all on a survival skills week if at all possible. Interesting... But whatever they do, at least they can hang out and enjoy the last half-term without uni / exam pressure and also shops / cafes etc will be opening by then.

Vargas - DS hasn’t heard about college allocation for Durham either.

I’m almost certain he would go for a London uni now, but I can’t help wondering if Durham would be a bit more chilled and an “experience?” He has the impression it’s not his scene up there. I think he’d be fine anywhere, to be honest.

@quest1on just realised that apart from Bath and Leeds, our DS have applied for all the same Unis

I would love to have DS nearby but knowing how much he loves his current school (he is a day student at a boarding school), I think Durham will suit him to the T. Whilst he will be fine in London and quite like the idea of being a student in London, I think he will enjoy the sense of belonging to a college in Durham as he is so proud of belonging to his house at school.

In addition I think Durham will better facilitate his sports and allow him to continue to play his music effortlessly whereas in London it will be an effort as all the facilities are spread out which can be off putting. But not I guess if you go to a city school where facilities are not all on site.

Perhaps your DS might like to join a Durham Geography group chat?

Just sharing thoughts

To be honest, I think what maybe is influencing DS a little is that all our family (on DH side) are quite dispersed, from India to the US, but LSE clearly has a very international reputation because they’re all super-keen on it and he has cousins / uncles who have studied there or likely to apply etc. The international aspect of LSE or UCL it doesn’t bother him at all because his friends now are mainly expat or non-British born.

We’re not Muslim, but most of his friends are and in general, they don’t drink or do the whole party thing. They’re a funny lot, overall, as far as teens go. Also, on the Durham website, you don’t see many Asian or Indian students, really. I’m not saying that would be a problem as such, just different for him. On the other hand, he could apply for a choral scholarship at Durham and yes, the college system would give a certain sense of belonging which could be fantastic.