SQA Arrangements for 2020-2021

[WeAllHaveWings]

www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/94837.html

Details per subject of proposed changes for next years NAT5, HIGHER and AH and survey to complete for feedback

For ds's subjects

English - no talking assessment and only one essay (ds is pleased!)

French - no writing assignment (ds disappointed as he thinks he would be OK at this)

Maths - mostly unchanged

Chemistry /physics - shorter exams

I'm not sure only one folio essay is wise, given the (hopefully slim) chance that there may be no exam next year. Surely some official coursework would be a good idea.

Agree it would be good evidence in the event of cancellation again next year, but will be a significant reduction in workload for candidates and teachers in a subject which has a lot of content to cover.

Hopefully with more time to prepare alternative arrangements exams will go ahead.

Will be interesting to hear English teachers thoughts on it - @Lidlfix?

Interesting.

30% on one piece is a bit of a double edged sword. From a teacher's point of view the rationale is correct it is a huge workload from fully marking a draft of each through to all the chasing up and admin associated. But do we do both both genres to allow pupils to play to strengths - no reduction in workload and tricky to fit in within time now? Or do we prescribe but then pupils may not be playing to strengths? For good writers really being able to focus on that one piece will give them a chance to make it shine. Grappling for a C candidates will be a bit overwhelmed by the magnitude of one piece being worth such a large proportion of their mark.

The removal of the performance aspect of talk is a bit meh as we tended to rattle through it but again it was going to take up time to carry out. My department WhatsApp was a bit frenzied last night after I posted the links to the consultation as we had planned to work on the talks this week.

There are a variety of views on what this year should be like. Some favour a Critical Essay in full exam conditions earlier in the year, some would like it added to folio , others would like Scottish Text binned this year. I suppose we all look at from a " what would be best for my cohort" stance.

My perspective, having only experienced the Scottish exam system for the 1st time this year (what a great start!), is that the emphasis on RUAE and the essays means that the English course is quite ‘light’ on the reading/learning of texts/literature. For Nat 5 my son didn’t have to read a single play or novel and his teacher is saying they won’t have time to do a novel even for his Higher. I think this is pretty scant especially when I’ve looked at the AH course and it’s a huge leap looking more like the first year of a degree course. So I’m in favour of them dropping one of the essays in order to do some more reading!

Good point Lidlfix, ds isn't a natural writer but enjoyed the factual aspect of his persuasive essay as he managed to pick a topic he really got into. The creative essay he didn't enjoy at all, I think this is where those with a lack of imagination and reading for pleasure (ds!) are really exposed. If the teacher prescribes creative for the whole class he will be very disappointed.

By the March lockdown most of his subjects had finished the courses and were in revision mode. His English class still had a lot of work to do to complete the course, their 2nd essay only had time for one review, they had only done act 1 of Sailmaker, and still had to go back over Mice and Men (for which ds had lost all his notes and was panicking about), a reduction in workload does sound like a good idea in English where timescales are already right.

I like the idea of doing the critical essay under exam conditions earlier to start getting evidence of attainment filed away earlier. An approach that could work for other subjects too.

SheeshSheesh, based on ds's NAT5 English class last year they would have really struggled to fit in a full novel along with other work in one year. They did the Mice and Men novelette which was read entirely in class/school time, and Sailmaker play, again copies only available in the classroom. He really enjoyed both texts, much more than the poems they did in S3.

Part of that, I think (in our school/classed as a deprived area) is they don't have time to read a full novel in classtime and they don't give the kids copies of the books home to read, or ask parents to buy a copy so they can do reading at home to get through it.

I'm not sure if this is primarily due to budgets (school and parents), or if it's not really practical to rely on all pupils to read the required chapter(s) each night before studying the next day as some students without home support or other activities out of school would very easily fall behind in reading.

DS, very happy about the cutting of the spoken element for English. For Art they are going with encouraging a pared down portfolio, quality over quantity, fair enough and shoukd be covid proof for DS as i can help with some elements of that at home.

The only impact I've heard is that DD won't be able to do a group discussion for her English Nat 5, it has to be an individual talk. She is unclear whether this will be in front of the class, or just with the teacher. She is also concerned about her Drama Nat 5 as this is nearly all group based.

DS is doing Adv H Chemistry and Biology and has been told by his teacher not to even THINK about making his research project covid related as everyone else will be doing the same thing.

SockYarn it says in the link (within the link above) for NAT5 English

removal of Performance–spoken language as a mandatory component for session 2020–21

So it looks like there is no need for a group or individual talk.

There are some details for other subjects such as Drama such as risk assessments and avoiding hair/makeup being done unless gov guidelines at the time allow etc.

Everything in the links is proposed and there is another link for parents, students and teachers to give feedback before 24th August.

Ah well, DD's teacher mustn't have been up to speed with the new stuff. DD will be gutted - speaking is most definitely her strength. And arguing.

For her, it won't really matter as she is planning on doing both drama and English to Higher so the Nat 5 is being seen as a stepping stone.

I think though that after the total shambles of this year, they are going to want to avoid another year of mess with exams wherever possible.

"Part of that, I think (in our school/classed as a deprived area) is they don't have time to read a full novel in classtime and they don't give the kids copies of the books home to read, or ask parents to buy a copy so they can do reading at home to get through it."

That's sad if it's a budget thing and surely not acceptable?! I hate this culture of endless, scrappy pieces of paper and excerpts being handed out to read that end up crumpled in the school bag. I lament the days when we were given actual books to take home (they may have had some interesting scrawls and endless underlinings but were still readable) What about library books? Surely the local schools could get extra copies of set texts to loan out as and when? Seems a real shame. And Glasgow City have just handed out lots of shiny new Ipads - surely the books could be loaded onto them to read at home. But then I guess many councils don't provide this. It's so not joined up is it?

My DS read of Mice and Men in class in S3 and they studied The Merchant of Venice in class but apparently didn't read it all (!). I just find it woefully inadequate and am not impressed at all. My child attends a state school in that sits just outside the top 20 schools in Scotland so it's deemed to be quite a good school but not in the same league as Jordanhill or East Dunbartonshire's shining stars.

Sorry for the derail! I too think that a critical essay performed under exam conditions would be a good idea but that wasn't on the list of proposals was it? Does that mean it won't happen?

The "classics" like Shakespeare and others which are out of copyright can by bought very cheaply, The Works have things like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for £1.50. Books like the (bloody awful) Cone Gatherers are going to be more expensive as it's more niche.

But agree that it is good practice to ensure that each student has a copy. I can afford to order DD her own copy of Macbeth from Amazon, lots of parents can't.

Wbeezer I agree about a pared down art portfolio being a good idea. I think they should choose between Design or Expressive too not both. I think the marking for Art is counterproductive in many ways. All this ‘showing development of a single idea through to a final piece’ is so formulaic especially when your Art teacher says ‘get your best final piece out the way first then do your development drawings after’ which is arse about face.

I looked at all the exemplar pieces on the SQA website and there were some beautifully drawn and painted examples that got marked right down because they didn’t show ‘development’ and some mediocre boards that marked high because they’d ticked all the right boxes. My DS was so disillusioned by the whole process he decided against taking Art at Higher. If he was passionate about it nothing would have stopped him taking it I know but I would have at least liked him to have enjoyed the process and then decide against it. He ended up doing deliberately shit preparatory drawings (after the fact) to ‘show development’

It's a consultation that was only released last night. So who knows . Consultation with SQA has been largely ignored in the past.

My DD's class has been doing both essays over lockdown. They wouldn't tell them what the books were, or they could have read them over lockdown.

@SheeshSheesh I also think you should be able to choose, design skills and expressive skills are rarely equally balanced and you should be able to concentrate on one, it all seems like a headlong rush to complete the folios with little time for actual teaching of skills, luckily I can teach DS at home and ive had to teach him really basic stuff!

Another English teacher here. Agree that there would be a reduction in workload with the potential removal of these elements, but also concerned about the impact on pupils. By removing one of the folio pieces but not specifying which, I essentially have to choose whether to teach both types of writing anyway or disadvantage those who don’t excel in one or the other. To me, a removal of the Scottish set text would be preferable - learning 6 poems/short stories or a whole play/novel only to focus on one small part has always seemEd like such an inefficient use of time.

On the taking books home front: we don’t send them home with pupils as my previous PT’s view was that we wouldn’t get them back. I’m not convinced this is the case, but hopefully now I’ve got a new PT we’ll be able to test the theory. It really cuts the amount of time you can spend actually teaching because you have to read the whole thing out loud (or play the audiobook). I think it also really impacts on pupils’ independence when you can’t even ask them to read a chapter as homework.

However, this year we’ll be doing short stories and poetry only - we can’t even share texts between classes as we’d have to quarantine them for 72 hours or however long it is.

Sorry, that got a bit off topic!

I am really concerned by this further dumbing down of the curriculum. The Scottish Government is promoting a race to the bottom to ensure that next year’s results have as little credibility as this year’s.

Whilst I accept that in a very few practical subjects such as PE and Drama there may need to be some amendments to account for social distancing there should be no need for across the board concessions. If subjects such as Latin are to have no changes so as to not affect the “integrity of the qualification” surely that applies equally to all black letter subjects where courses can (and should be) delivered in the usual manner?!

I’m not clear why this is at all necessary. It seems to be being promoted on the basis that there is no time to teach a full course. My DD’s school has been teaching the Higher curriculum since April; this year’s S5 will be better prepared than any year! If anything it should be expected that next year’s candidates can demonstrate a more in depth knowledge than previous years given the time they have had to prepare and more importantly the need to put this year’s over inflated qualifications into context.

I agree that Scottish qualifications have already been dumbed down. Not expecting 16 year olds who have chosen to study English literature to read 1 or 2 books a year is ridiculous. And parents should be expected to buy them, with a hardship fund. Set books would probably cost £2 on Ebay.

Other countries manage it.

Some pupils had no access to IT during lockdown and were unable to participate in remote learning and teaching . Some were ill, some caring for younger siblings to allow their parents to WFH. Some were just not in a place where they could learn at that point.

So, on balance no I don't believe that this year's S5 are better prepared than any. Sounds like your DD was physically and mentally well and able to access good quality learning and teaching from home. Many posters on many threads have recounted their DCs' experiences as very different. I provided good quality teaching but not every pupil was able to participate for many reasons. Some posters on various Scotsnet threads have described their frustration and disappointment at the quality and quantity of teaching offered to their DC.

I am taking over classes who have the whole spectrum of no engagement to full engagement for 2 months and I appreciate the recognition that this year needs to be different.

Not being argumentative just trying to explain why changes might be appropriate, credit to your DD for her efforts in such challenging circumstances.

Simplyaghast my DS has not been ‘taught’ any of his Higher English apart from being sent 2 RUAE pieces to attempt but no pressure to do so, therefore my DS just made a half-arsed attempt at it which I looked at and he struggled with, but refused to submit it.

He was asked to suggest a novel they could study and suggested one but was then told they wouldn’t have time to do a novel. Infuriatingly I couldn’t persuade him to read it, or any other novel, anyway despite gentle nagging on a weekly basis. There’s been a vague suggestion that they might do the SAME short stories that they studied for Nat 5 but I think that would be such a cop out but might guarantee better results (he was awarded a Grade A at Nat 5 and knew the short stories inside out)

So no work submitted since March and no contact from teacher to enquire about why no work submitted. What was your school’s lockdown teaching like? It sounds slightly more proactive but it might just be you have a more conscientious child