Anyone work for the SQA? Exams and COVID-19

[BeanieBabe]

Does anyone have any insider information from the SQA regarding plans for this year's exams? Nobody seems to have heard anything but surely they're having discussions. Rumour in our school is that they will use prelim results - this would be great in our house but I know many others who wouldn't be happy. Obviously music, drama etc are filming their practicals and subjects with small numbers could easily have the pupils at desks spaced very far apart in the halls. But this would be impossible for other subjects

Thoughts??

I could weep. The fact that even the teachers can’t get the coursework back to use it to help them estimate the grade. Two English essays that my DS worked soooo hard on, a History assignment, Physics and chemistry assignments, an absolute belter of a music composition that his teachers were so glowing about. My DS is upstairs now doing some work for his history teacher - I can’t bring myself to tell him yet. I know I KNOW it’s not life or death, but fuck me this is harsh. I feel so sorry for the teachers too

And how does it work when there are multiple classes for a subject. How can two teachers agree rankings together 🤦🏻‍♀️

No idea how this it's going to work. I'm just glad ds is only NAT5 so will move onto higher and hopefully get proper marks then. More worrying for those reliant on higher/ah results now.

I haven't told my DDs either too consumed with what we are being asked to do. DD1 just completed her UCAS acceptance for a conditional that is now based on some poor sod like me .

It seems like a great way of making sure that private school pupils get awarded their 'generous' predicted grades while state school students will get marked down

Ok I’m just a parent so freely admit that I know nothing about it. But I read this to mean that schools couldn’t do that, because their predicted grades will be measured against the actual grades from last year.

I can see how this will work for large schools who have many students sitting a particular exam. You might expect 100 sitting nat 5 English at one school to have broadly the same marks as last year.

It will be much harder where there’s only a few Pupils sitting a subject, either smaller schools or more unusual subjects. Eg our school has started started doing nat 5 mandarin this year

@I0NA

Private schools will tend to have better results over previous years. So if you’re a borderline ‘A’ student, you’ll have a much better chance of getting that predicted A at a private school as they will have a larger number of students getting an A on average historically.

Sorry have I grasped this correctly basically poor teachers are being asked to rank their pupils from top to bottom for any given subject?? In the context of the schools performance in previous years? What happens in my dds case where their year groups results were exceptional at both nat 5 and higher so very likely A H would have followed a similar pattern and which again in all likelihood would be different from the previous years. I worry then that based on this list of pupils wont get the results they deserve.

Yep @Alittlewornout, it seems like teachers will be ranking pupils within each band so 'definite A', 'probable A', 'borderline A' etc.

If the number of pupils given each grade is higher than the school's performance in previous years, it will be a case of 'tough luck' for pupils who are borderline as the SQA will move them down a grade.

So if you're a borderline A pupil at a private school, you'll get the A whereas you won't necessarily at a poor performing state school.

We don't know what format the "ranking" will take as yet. How can we rank a year group when we are working remotely? Further instructions are to follow. As teachers we are trying not to speculate as it won't help us when we already feel rubbish.

God knows what they'll do in our school as it is a newly built super school combining 2 previously large schools, new head and has only been through exams once since the merger and didn't do particularly well!! Not much past school performance to go on...

I've just gone through the latest SQA release with S5 DS and he's fairly happy. His main worry was that it would all be on the prelim - he did well in 4 out of his 5 subjects, poorly in the other. School were predicting a much higher grade for him than the C he got in the prelim.

All the stuff about teachers' opinions - I have faith in the teachers to get this right. The teachers KNOW their Higher students especially and know what they would expect them to get.

No system is perfect, but I think this is the best we can hope for in unprecedented circumstances. At least our S5s are at an advantage compared to A-level students who are due to start Uni in October. Most will be staying for S6 and as I keep saying to DS, the absolute worst case scenario for him is that he gets a conditional Uni offer rather than an unconditional one - which isn't a bad scenario at all in the grand scheme of things.

I love the way there was a huge item on the BBC 6 o’clock news tonight about GCSE and A-Level students but not a single mention of Scotland. Par for the course you might say but then there was absolutely zilch about what they’re doing in Scotland with the ditching of all coursework and the estimation of grades on The Scottish news that followed! Education not important then? Did anyone see the STV evening news - did they say anything?

That’s the start of the holidays now and I still haven’t had clear guidance or clarification from our school to clearly stipulate that none of the work they’re asking my DS to do is going to be used to base any estimated Grades on. I assume that’s the case but haven’t been informed. Nor whether any of the ‘mock prelims’ are actually going to take place. They didn’t even link to the SQA announcement on the school Twitter account which surprises me. Anyone else had revised information from their schools after the latest SQA announcement?

Dd has done loads of Nat 5 coursework. Of course it's not "all for nothing". Pupils do coursework because it teaches them skills and knowledge.

I don't think schools will do any further prelims but if your child can send any other examples of good work in I would still do that.

@nicerainyweather in the context the coursework was set and competed and the theme of this thread it certainly was all for nothing.

It really won't be as teachers will know who knuckles down and did their coursework and will have seen at least some of it, so it will all influence their estimates.

I know that Dd has gained from doing her assignments and oral tests. In terms of work and organisational skills, working under pressure, etc.