CV in Scotland

[LizzieMacQueen]

(This probably will get moved to the CV topic but thought I'd start one in Scotsnet anyway).

Does anyone have info as to where the Scottish cases are and whether these are 'community gained' or direct exposure from a Cat 1/2 place.

Any thoughts on the impact for our youngsters due to sit SQA exams next month?

My DS is in his highers year. 2 emails from school last week suggesting self isolation for kids returning from Italian holidays in half term but quiet since then.

University has cancelled 1&2 year exams and finals to be conducted online. Interesting the university's are going further than the government advice.

Both my DSs at Uni (Strathclyde and Aberdeen) have now been told there are no more face to face classes taking place. DS2 in Aberdeen says that he's to find out on Monday from individual classes what their plans are re anything online and presumably also about exams. I think Strathclyde is similar but DS1 is currently finishing some bits and pieces for his assignments and no doubt learn more by email etc.

And Shetland's closed its mainland schools. That plus Lanark Grammar being closed makes me wonder if they'll just gradually close one by one (initially at least).

Shetlands ‘mainland’ schools? it’s an island 🤔

It's a group of islands. The largest island is often referred to as Shetland mainland.

Shetlands ‘mainland’ schools? it’s an island

Not really no. It's a group of islands called Shetland for short with that being the main island and the one on which the schools are currently shut.

Ds has been told they are finishing off pe portfolios on Monday (they weren't due to finish for another 2 weeks), and they are going to resit prelims week after next. Sounds like they don't have the adequate alternative evidence for grades that they should normally have for any pupil for exceptional circumstances.

Ds says one of the teachers said their prelims weren't hard enough and if sqa looks at for evidence they'll mark them down 🤦🏻‍♀️

www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/93499.html

Don't think schools will be open week after next!

Prelims are not longer used for evidence as a matter of course so they may not be viewed as robust enough. They may have been say much earlier in the year for example or with a limited range of questions. There are also no internal units now to provide evidence

As of Friday 13th March 2020

Maternity at QEUH Glasgow (Southern General)

Prelims are not longer used for evidence as a matter of course

What do they use? Let's hope schools have the evidence the sqa needs.

Dr has no idea what her college, N Lanarkshire are doing.
Glasgow Uni have cancelled F2F.

I'm waiting to see if Lewis Capaldi in Aberdeen will be cancelled, I missed him in Glasgow last weekend as I wasn't well and tempted to get a last minute resale and go up tomorrow.

What I was trying to say was - in the recent past we used to be able to appeal for almost anyone who didn't meet their predicted grade, and would use prelims to back that up. For the past few years appeals do not use the prelim grade at all, they involve a recounting or remarking of the final exam. So the importance of the prelim in that regard has changed.
Providing evidence for a pupil who is sick during the exam is very rare, I've only done it once in more years than I care to count. Doing it for entire classes would be a nightmare.

Schools and colleges should be gathering any alternative evidence on candidate performance as they would do in the normal way, and as per our guidance every year, to support any consideration of exceptional circumstances. This evidence should inform estimated grades, again as it should every year.

SQA site seems to think it is normal practice to have gathered evidence incase of exceptional circumstances as that is their guidance.

Do schools not do this routinely each year through set work and tests? ds seems to have regular tests in all his classes. I am not judging, my own companies business continuity plan is pretty shite too, just trying to understand the position.

I give a test, I record the mark, I return the test to the pupil with feedback. They would need to return all pieces of work to me, if they are willing/organised enough to do that that would help. But really we teach to the exam there aren't any unit assessments anymore either so we are not set up for this, in my subject anyway. But we will do what we can. It's not as if we knew this might happen months ago and were starting to prepare. Until this week although I thought schools might close early for Easter I never thought there was a serious risk that the exams would be affected (and they may yet find a way)

(I am really worried for the students in case I didn't sound like it - just worrying about a lot of things simultaneously!)

@WaxOnFeckOff

I’m a part time student at Strathclyde and we’ve been told it’s classes as normal. This link is updated daily.

www.strath.ac.uk/coronavirus/?utm_campaign=1697808_CLL%20Coronavirus%20Feb%202020&utm_medium=email&utm_source=%24Dotmailer_HASS%24&dm_i=2P47,10E1C,7FBSUG,3U7PG,1

I have a DC at Dundee and they are closing the library . Helpfully the gym is still open so they can all go there instead .

Teaching on her course is finished now as she’s final year, and some tutors have cancelled one to one meetings ( which seems a bit OTT ).

They are still playing inter uni sports games ( were at Edinburgh this week ).

So no logic really .

They have no diagnosed cases on campus but one at St. Andrews uni.

@Minesabecks
I’m a secondary teacher and, like you, collate marks but give the assessments back. Concerned my prelim isn’t robust enough as based on specimen papers. Also, their results are pretty poor as not taken seriously and diet is only 10 days so many had 2 prelims in one day!

Double, yes I understand that Strathclyde is not the same for all students. DS is doing computing and said that they'd taken the decision to cancel everything face to face for now but to keep an eye for further instructions.

Aye, exactly. So many kids go through the year doing the bare minimum, rarely finishing an assessment, putting in very little effort, then work really hard in the last couple of weeks to scrape a C! It's these kids who are going to really suffer if they're going by the year's assessments.

If they go on Prelims DS will struggle for an unconditional as he performed poorly in one of the subjects he wanted to go on with. But worst case scenario is a conditional based on 6th year results.

Currently only 190 IC Level 3 beds across the whole of Scotland. Yikes.

That was Chief Medical Officer (Calderwood) on R 4 just now.

190! 😮 they are going to fill up fast 😢

It's not just the beds its having the nursing staff experienced enough to care for ventilated patients. As an ex ITU nurse it's a highly skilled role so I hope they are up skilling nursing staff fast.

Sadly, ICU beds will be "rationed" more than ever.

People maybe don't realise that hospitals run at almost 100% bed capacity at the best of times. So there is little scope in the system for expansion.

I have heard that over 60's won't be ventilated. I find that horrific.

That's scary, both me and DD have needed ICU in the last couple of years because of our asthma and I just can't Imagine there not being a bed.