Medicine 2021 - Part 4

[MaddieElla]

Fingers crossed for those final offers coming in!

Hope no one minds me starting the new thread...

@mumsneedwine please tell me they don't put their expectations in an e-mail !

My friend says it's all done verbally during lessons . No-one has gone as far as e-mailing her yet.

@SATSmadness both ! A few parents have sent me quite long emails explaining why I must give a grade. A few students have emailed me and told me what they need as they 'wanted me to know'. I stop reading as soon as know what about and send to HT. As do my colleagues- we've all had a few.
They'd not dare ask me to my face as I would not respond well as they've been told many many times not to do it. Year 11s have and I ignore and glare at them, but it's hard to look stern wearing a mask.

I just can't understand parents acting like this. What are they really going to achieve? DC gets a Uni place they are not up to and then what. Tutor them through Uni or go with them to plead their case for every exam they fail. It is not exactly setting them up for a happy life is it.

We have also been told that just because one is performing at an A level all year, that doesn't mean an A - but that seemed to be on the basis that (like with A levels) it is the three sets fo exams that count. Because we had the first set before parents evening, they could discuss with us what our DC had got in the exams in terms of grades - but it was very much a "you have got to continue to perform on that level - as they increase in importance as they go" conversation (at least in DS's case, because the grades from this particular assessment were good). DS is certainly not taking anything for granted, and has been studying very hard over Easter, just as he would have if it were real A levels, although it is nice knowing he has one set that were pretty good. Strange how different it seems (and I suppose they could do things differently at the end, but they seem to have communicated pretty clearly how they were going to be transparent with their grades).

I would have assumed that for DC who did not perform that well in the exams before Easter would have been told, you have got to pull your performance up in the next two sets of exams to get the result you want.

Surely such an approach takes the pressure of the teacher and means telling them what you "need" become irrelevant.

*off

@SATSmadness I remember an awkward pre-school conversation with DS about why he was on the giraffe table and his friend the rabbit table. At first he thought it could be because he was taller but then realised there were physically smaller giraffes than rabbits so it was couldn't be that. He decided it was probably because the rabbits hopped around a lot and didn't always pay attention. I remember suggesting he kept his musings between us and also thinking why oh why wasn't it just a red or blue table.

Wasn't allowed in my DS's state school @bimkom. All the DC were given their grades back and the teacher said they were not allowed to discuss or pass any comment on it, good or bad. It was not up for discussion at all.

Glad the rankings have gone though. I've heard the state selectives really struggled with that last year, having large numbers of DC concentrated in certain subjects (maths/sciences), many working at the very top grade and not much spread at all.

DD is at a state selective so that has been my worry. Here's hoping there's no such thing as ranking this year 😫

Same @MaddieElla.

Ranking was fine if at a school where everyone got A or A stars. Everyone would still get those even if ranked. Problems came at larger more diverse schools. We didn't give anyone a U CAG last year as no one deserved one. But I knew that because we'd had Us in the past whoever I ranked in last 2 places would get a U - because the algorithm says so. Was stupid.
Conversely a friend took over as HoD and worked her nuts off to improve the standard of A level Chemistry. Because of algorithm no one got an A star on results day and lots got C when predicted an A. All because of where they were ranked and previous school history. Took no account of her work in improving standards.
Ranking was horrible to do.

@opoponox but surely the students talk amongst themselves and you know what is a good and not so good mark? In DS's case, he came second in the school for biology in that exam (OK, teacher did let that drop), and he knows one boy who got higher than he did by one mark, so must have been top. In contrast he had not been anywhere near that previously (he had been getting just on As first term and nowhere near the top). On the other hand he got 87% in Maths, but there were a fair few over 92% (which he was a bit cross with himself about, as he was near the top in maths consistently earlier in the year, but made a couple of silly mistakes on the paper). Surely once you know the grades and you chat to a few people, you have a pretty good idea of where you sit, and what kinds of grades can be expected even if the teachers don't talk? And the teachers in this case are solely relaying fact, ie position in the class.

I can't believe parents and students are emailing teachers about grades! It's very unfair on the poor teachers. This is one thing ds has struggled with the most. He's gone from year 12 where he had a good relationship with his teachers, and them mentioning at every parents evening that he should reach for the A star marks, to total silence this year. He's not mentioned grade expectations, and the teachers haven't. It's very unusual I your final year to not be able to discuss grades, but ds understands why and has been trying to track his progress through marks he's been getting on assessments. His school are formulating their own exam papers for May. I don't think he's revising enough, but it's been such a crazy year I'm letting him decide what he needs to do. He's made a decision on uni choice but never seems to get around to firming his first choice!!

Manchester offer just came through. That's it for us. DS just needs to decide now.

@bimkom it's splitting hairs in his sets. It really all depends on the day between a number at the top. That's why ranking made me nervous.

@opoponax fantastic news !! Now comes the tricky part of choosing. My DD cried when she rejected the ones she wasn't firming or insuring. Seemed weird after all the effort that had gone into getting those offers.
Ranking is a bit bonkers. I got told on another thread that I was wrong in not putting it in references as it harmed students chances. But it's meaningless. Say I said this student is 4th in their class. Sounds great, unless there are only 4 and all struggling. If I have 600+ in my cohort (DDs 6th form college had this many doing A level maths) I could put you at 250th, but you are still going to get an A star. We have 69 students doing my subject this year and I expect over half will get A/A star. So being 35th is great. If I added up all their scores I bet I'd have 25 on the exact same average.🤷‍♀️

@opoponax - then hopefully any sensible school will give good grades to all of those in his sets on precisely those grounds, that it is splitting hairs between them. It is because of this that people are assuming that there will be fewer people missing their grades this year. But that should be for all DC, those with offers and those without. It has to be a slam dunk grounds for appeal if somebody who did objectively worse on tests/exams gets a higher grade because they hold an offer.

@bimkom exactly. The right to appeal to schools directly will focus most minds on keeping it transparent and fair. You'd be v foolish not too as press will be on any cases !

Excellent news on the Manchester offer! Congrats!!

Thank you @MaddieElla and @Mumsneedwine. I think it is really hard to make a decision when he would have been delighted with any one of his offers.

Just a question please to any Bristol parents please. Bristol is a contender for firming but DS has a niggle that there isn't a physical medical school there and lectures etc are physically seem to be spread across the University. I imagine this is less of an issue once you are out on placements etc. but in the earlier times they are going to be spending a lot of time in the University. Newcastle for example has its own buildings specifically for Medicine and he wonders if that makes you feel more physically part of the medical school. Is this something he should even be thinking about or is it trivial? In the absence of physical offer days it's hard to get a feel for this kind of thing.

sorry for all the pleases!!

DD has had a Manchester offer tonight too @bimkom. She is probably going to put it down as her insurance, even though the offer is the same grades as her first choice.

Re grades, DD is very concerned about achieving an A in Chemistry. The teacher is of the opinion that if they were doing exams they wouldn't have any clue what was on the papers so why should it be different this year. Friends at the other local school are being given mini tests on small parts of the syllabus and have all been asked what grades they need on a Google Form sent by the head of sixth form.

I am a teacher and have had numerous requests in person and on email asking how they can achieve an A/A which I've never had in previous years. We're actually giving out current grades to learners next week so they know where they're currently. This will give some pupils the kick up the backside they need and will provide fair warning for parents. However, even learners predicted A/A next week will be made aware that we need evidence of these grades in the upcoming assessments. There are no guarantees and I think it's more stress for teachers and learners than usual exams.

@opoponax can't help with the medical school bit but youngest is at Bristol (doing vet med) and it's a fabulous city, even this year. And the hospital is huge and has a massive children's hospital next door. Eldest DD has a friend doing medicine there and she's loved it.
I'm sure the medics will have their coffee place somewhere on campus.

DD s school had been given locked papers for mocks. What would the grade boundaries be? According the years paper or decided by teachers?