Moving on up... Uni/CollegeS5/S6/S4/Work

[Groovee]

Hey everyone

It's that time of year... school returns within the next week or 2, others will be preparing to start college or uni. Some will be moving out. Some will start work... so here's the thread for those in that position.

For me Dd is going into second year at Dundee Uni. She did a fantastic first year. She's off to be a mentor to those starting uni this year. Ds has just gone into S6 and has the world to consider in the next year.

Me... I need to find a job after losing my job in June! Done in quite a callous way that I am taking my time to be kind!

Thanks Lidlfix hope your DD3 gets her offer too.

I hope SQA do offer the option of an exam if students are unhappy. Looks like England & Wales are offering this - but my understanding is that they have had a resit process in place in the past whilst SQA hasn't had that option. Of course, in this circumstances this wouldn't be a 'resit'.

The Green MSP, Ross Greer is collecting questions. This tweet from him as a link to a web form for questions: twitter.com/Ross_Greer/status/1245797471768494081

Did schools get more info than what was published on the SQA website yesterday?

Am I right in thinking moderation will use the 3 previous years of attainment at the school for the subject/level (adjusted if the prior attainment of this year's cohort differs from prior attainment of these previous cohorts)? Did they provide a statistical justification or say anything about subjects/levels with small number of students (thinking Advanced Highers)?

Also are they allowing appeal on teachers assessment of band/rank? Or is it just a "clerical" check type appeal. If the former and appeal is successful then will other students in cohort have their grades adjusted as the ranking will change?

SQA coordinators might have in order to begin to facilitate what the process will be for their school. Classroom teachers (like me) only have what has been shared with the public too. I haven't a clue what the reality of what has been stated actually means for me.

Thank you. I've emailed the SQA coordinator but I suspect they have had lots of questions.

It's a tough job trying to get estimated results which are fair to the students in a particular school and fair across the country and fair to those who sat similar previously and will sit in the future. I am completely fine with the teachers judgement/ranking. Plus luckily for DD there is only one AH class and 2 H classes for her subjects. Wouldn't want to be head of department who has to rank national 5 english across 10 separate classes.

It's the moderation that I am bothered about or more to the point managing DDs expectations - despite good prelims she could easily be moderated downwards as previous results were a bit rubbish for recent S6 cohorts at her school despite similar S5 results (probably because of unconditionals). Not looking forward to results day.

What a minefield! It’s a shame they got rid of the NABS/unit assessments this year (although a few subjects for dd2 continued to do this).
I was just listening to More or Less on bbc radio 4 and they were discussing the predicted grades on UCAS applications: according to a UCL 2016 study, 75% actually get lower grades, 16% are correctly predicted and about 8.5% get better results (don’t know where the 0.5% went, perhaps they didn’t sit it?). This was for A level candidates but surely higher and advanced higher can’t be that different? It’s on bbc sounds, 15th April edition on more or less about 20mins into programme.

Clerkmaxwell, my subject is English and I want to have input. My PT hasn't had N5 on their timetable for 5 years due to their management time. I know the pupils and their ranking much better than a raw data set. I know the pupils whose prelim results don't reflect how they would have performed as they needed "the last pieces of the jigsaw" to be in place.

But how we do that as a Department in lockdown?

Could you not do a FaceTime call/zoom call with your PT Lidlfix? I know the NHS GPs and veterinary surgeons in my county and surrounding counties (family members) are doing this to keep up to date with procedures or discuss cases etc.

I'd forgotten your subject was english Lidl. I am with you that class teachers know their students best. I remember my DS2 with a C prelim result being predicted an A and when I questioned she had the full measure of him (picks up concepts quickly but never bothers studying until he absolutely needs to). I was sceptical but he got an A1.

The document I read yesterday did give some suggestions about each class teacher banding/ranking their own classes and then suggestions how to bring these together over all classes. You will definitely need to have a long teleconference.

I've just had this email response (identifying info removed) from Ross Greer, MSP (Green Party) who is being proactive on this:

Dear XXXX

SQA publish details of this year’s grading system

Yesterday the SQA published ‘detailed information’ on how qualifications will be awarded following the decision to cancel exams.

Read the SQA’s statement here

And this helpful summary by TES

Grades will be based on estimations provided by teachers, who are also to provide bands and to rank their students. The SQA will then moderate this information, taking into account each student’s results from previous years and the school or college’s previous history of estimating grades and attainment. Results are expected by 4th August. An appeals service will also be available to schools and colleges free of charge, and will be based on ‘assessment evidence’. Further information on the appeals process is still to come.

Frankly, this update creates more questions than it answers. I’m really concerned at the SQA’s approach, which appears to value getting a statistically average set of national results more than awarding each student fairly.

For example, it’s unclear to me why teachers are being asked to rank their pupils against each other and how this information will then be used. There’s also no detail as to how a school’s previous performance at estimating grades vs their final results will be taken into account. I’m not the only one concerned that this could see the SQA disproportionately revising down the grades of pupils at schools in more deprived areas, where exam results are historically lower.

The continued lack of any detail on the appeals process is also incredibly frustrating. Many of your questions, which I put to the SQA, were about how evidence such as prelims will be used. That’s still entirely unknown.

Parliament’s Education Committee is about to begin meeting online and I will be pushing for the SQA to appear before us as soon as possible to answers the questions they have failed to address so far.

If you have more questions following this announcement, please drop them into this form and I will put them to the exams authority.

If you wish to receive further updates from us, please opt-in here. Without your opting in we are unable to contact you again.

Kind regards
Ross Greer MSP

Apologies, these are the links Ross Greer, MSP mentioned which didn't copy across: (1) SQA statement: www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/93920.html (2) TES summary: www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-new-statement-scottish-qualifications
(3) Ross Greer's concerns: greens.scot/news/sqa-grades-plan-provides-more-questions-than-answers
(4) form if you wish to raise further concerns with Ross Greer: greens.scot/QuestionsSQA

Omg I feel I can have a rant safely here on Scotsnet. Just watched this UCAS live parents' question and answer session (just like last week's really which was for students NO ONE KNOWS HOW 2020 will pan out). But all the online questions were from parents in England with precious little darlings who are year 12 (they were stating how their year 12s would be affected) and haven't even APPLIED to Uni yet - "How will we apply for 2021 entry" and all that! So my understanding is they won't sit their A levels until year 13 in 2021? No relevance to people with offers for 2020 which is what you thought the programme would be about! Let's address this year's group of teenagers first!

This from dds school today Timeline and detail regarding the production of estimates in our schools

w/c 27 April: SQA estimates training opened in SQA Academy for all teaching staff who have responsibility for producing estimates. This training is mandatory.

Between now and 11 May, teachers will be producing estimates for all candidates. These are not based purely on prelim results. Teachers will consider all aspects of academic performance and any other relevant information about a candidate such as exceptional circumstances during the session and post-prelim changes to exam Assessment Arrangements in producing their estimates.Estimates will not be shared with candidates in order to guarantee the integrity of the process.

w/c 11 May: SQA Connect opens for data entry.

29 May: All estimates to have reached the SQA by this point.
Typically, each school will have 2000 entries at all levels.
Three pieces of information are required for each estimate.

Results
Results will be published by the SQA on Tuesday, 4 August as originally planned.

                     Candidates will be encouraged to sign up to the SQA’s online and text service ‘MySQA’.

I agree that teachers grades should not be shared with students but I understand this has not been the case in all schools. Wondered what others think??

I agree about not sharing estimates and ranking before results day. After results day then I would allow only if you wanted to appeal and possibly only for critical appeals e.g. not for those who have unconditional uni/college offers or subject being continued to a higher level. Not convinced how appeals would work except for clerical errors. If you appealed on estimate and rank and it is upheld then surely they won't downgrade someone else. But not doing so means results no longer consistent with previous years as no-one appeals too good a grade!

It is a shame there isn't standardized end of unit tests. DD did an S6 OU course with 3 unit assessments spread evenly over the year and an exam. Exam cancelled so unit tests used instead. No complicated grading just pass or distinction.

We have mused over what the post results service might look like this year . We wondered if a different presenting centre would be asked to look at the body of evidence for a candidate and see if they agreed. But that was just our pondering

@Lidlfix that would appear a very sensible approach to me as a parent.