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

My own family’s experience of learning in lockdown is not relevant here. We have been very impressed with the provision from the school, engagement from the SLT and staff, and DD’s application throughout.

Every year students change subjects in August after receiving exam results, with no dispensation expected or given for not having started after the exams in June, which would in any event have amounted to two to three weeks teaching.

Schools have been given additional resources, not least the NQ teachers who have been guaranteed roles this year, which can be utilised to provide additional teaching and support, to ensure that the entire course is covered.

It simply is not credible to say the syllabus for some subjects cannot be changed to protect the integrity of the result but yet large swathes of the course can be cut from others without doing so.

Unless the full syllabus is delivered, and examined, in each subject next year’s results cannot be accepted as having the same veracity as years prior to 2020.

I will respond to the consultation however there is clearly an enthusiasm a reduction in workload and so I don’t expect there to be many changes, if any, to what has been proposed.

I have not seen any of the additional resources Aghast other than hand sanitizers and antibacterial wipes. The additional teachers - we have 2 of last years probationers on contracts to October, in subjects that were well staffed. Maths, English, Support for Learning - nothing.

We can all respond to the consultation exercise and that's why there is one.

My input will be on behalf of my pupils who should not be disadvantaged by any restrictions to their access to learning early in the courses and in acknowledgement of how challenging the past 5 months have been. I am also considering how they are "reschooling" and dealing with their own anxieties and fears about what exams will look like.

Reduction in workload, well we can only fit in what we can fit in. Normally I'd have first drafts of a Folio piece and one poem covered . I have to assume that I am starting from scratch for most of my pupils.

My DD’s school has been teaching the Higher curriculum since April

Your experience of lockdown learning is entirely relevant. If your dd had not been learning the higher course since April, had had very little teaching (for many reasons) of the higher courses, was returning to a school that had lockdown related issues beyond purely learning, had the potential of further lockdown with variable remote learning provision, do you not think you would have an entirely different opinion?

@WeAllHaveWings my opinion would be the same regardless.

We need credible examinations next year, based on the full syllabus, in order to avoid another year where the results cannot be considered credible because of a lack of knowledge and application of the whole course.

It is in the interest of all those taking the exams that their results can stand up to scrutiny when assessed against those of years pre dating 2020.

Lidlfix, ds's school is much the same, no hoards of new teachers or extra resources. They haven't started folio, or any texts yet. Some RUAE exercises over lockdown only.

They were told they were doing Shooting an Elephant (nice and short!) before the holidays and to do some research on George orwell's background, imperialism, burma, Indian elephants etc before coming back. Understandably very few have done (ds read Burmese Days and did some internet research) as there was so much uncertainty for them while remote learning was so, well remote! Really feel for some pupils in ds's school. Now the teacher needs to decide whether to leave those who didn't research behind, or use precious teaching time to cover the background. A difficult balancing act.

Ds thinks they are doing Norman McCaig poetry as their Scottish text. I am considering emailing his English teacher and offering to buy the class the Leckie snap revision books just to give them books they can take home and a badly needed boost. Do you think that would be helpful or would it impact the teachers planning?

It’s a lovely thought, @WeAllHaveWings, but the Scottish poetry is probably the easiest bit to do without books to take home. All I need in the best of times is the poems, which I print out, and then we annotate them all together. Those wee Snap books are pretty good, but definitely not something that’s required.

You are probably right, much better for them to annotate as that alone helps imprint the learning in their heads.

I just remember last year they didn't have mice and men or sailmaker copies to bring home, true poems are much shorter.

The Snap revision guide for MacCaig is great . In these days of no shared resources and quarantined books a gift of books like that sounds amazing. As it's a revision guide I can't see how that would impact on teaching.

The RUAE Snap Revision is also pretty good too and bilevel (like the MacCaig and Duffy) focuses in in question types rather than death by past paper.

Thanks for the reminder, we actually have the ruae snap revision from last year somewhere, don't think he even opened it, he started on and used the Brightred NAT5 English course book instead. Will try to find it and remind him it is there for this year, if I remember rightly it had NAT5 level answers beside HIGHER level which will be a very helpful comparison.

I'll try to get his English teachers email address and offer the books and she can let me know if they would be useful. This isn't an altruistic offer, I want to help the class which in turn will help ds, he needs all the help he can get in English!!!!

DS found out today that they ARE going to do a novel after all so I’m pleased about that but couldn’t stop myself from saying ‘I’ve been telling you to read that book since April!!’ (In the nicest possible way) And they’re also doing MacCaig. For my sins, I’ve never read any of his work (Was hoping for Liz Lochead) so out of curiosity am reading some tonight. Am sure Brooklyn Cop will lead to some lively classroom discussions! That last line though - reads like a typo

Expect this face when he encounters "Basking Shark" . The rest are not too bad. What's the novel?

The Great Gatsby - a book I love. Women writers not getting a look in on this pick of the curriculum though!

@SheeshSheesh

The Great Gatsby - a book I love. Women writers not getting a look in on this pick of the curriculum though!

That's not unusual. White men dominate the English curriculum in Scotland.

I try to include female writers, BAME female writers, non heterosexual writers and the writers who couldn't use their real names in my senior phase courses. Thankfully Jackie Kay and Carol Ann Duffy make that a pleasure not an effort.

Well after telling the class, before the holidays, they were doing George Orwell's Shooting an Elephant and to research various related themes over holidays (which he did), his teacher told them today they are doing Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper instead.

Police, Guns, shooting, elephants vs Post natal depression/psychosis, medical treatment of MH issues in 1892, oppression of women

He read it tonight. You can guess which one he would have preferred...🤦🏻‍♀️

Probably a more challenging text once he gets into it!

Apparently DC is doing a film for English Higher?!

@rainyinscotland

Apparently DC is doing a film for English Higher?!

Film is pretty common at Higher. Pupils can write well about film as long as it's properly taught.

@Lidlfix

I try to include female writers, BAME female writers, non heterosexual writers and the writers who couldn't use their real names in my senior phase courses. Thankfully Jackie Kay and Carol Ann Duffy make that a pleasure not an effort.

Don't get me wrong - we're (mostly) all working towards including a far greater range of writers, but country wide, white men definitely still dominate.

True and I know my peers in other subjects are trying to bring more equality to their courses, we had a great Modern Studies/ History probationer who really enlightened girls and boys to the way that female figures are ignored.

Ds loved studying "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (although I think that might have been for Nat 5), which has left him with an ongoing interest in challenging films

Are the exams in Scotland going to take place at the usual time in May 2021? With children starting their exam courses for their next year in school at the beginning of June?

My son is moving from overseas to 5th year in Scotland in 2021 but will still be doing exams in his current school until the end of June, so just wondered if he will still miss the first 4 weeks of his Highers course, or if dates have changed? Thanks for any info!

The exam diet is planned for 26 April until 3 June. Obviously, if there’s further lockdowns then they might not run, but the plan at the moment is for them to run as normal. So your son would miss the first few weeks of his Higher courses. Hope this helps.

@LoopyGremlin - thanks for letting me know. BTW, why do they call it a 'diet'?? I heard this on the news and thought it seemed like a very odd turn of phrase for an exam session

@hosnav I assumed it was ‘ diet ‘ in the legal sense - prescribed dates to collect evidence.

Or something like that - I’m not an etymologist. I’m sure one of the English teachers here will know.