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

Page 103 Aurea but no mention of mark distribution - hopefully it will be weighted more towards the performance rather than the theory (least that’s what my son hopes!)

Aurea the document seems to just state that they are removing the course assessment piece which for higher was worth 15/100 as a scaled mark. I can’t see anything about ‘re-scaling’. So taking out composition the remaining scaled marks equal 85 - my guess is that they will simply use 50/85 (performance), 35/85 (exam paper). Or could they could use the unscaled mark which would be 60/100 (performance) 40/100 (exam). Either method gives 60 40 (approx this for scaled mark) split for the two remaining elements.

Yes thanks. I saw that section but no mention of mark distribution. When my elder son did Higher music three years ago, I think it was weighted 60/40 in favour of performance and the composition element was pass/fail but did not contribute to the overall mark.

DD seems to have done most of the written assignments already. So now they won't be taken into account.

ds submitted the first draft of his creative essay in English 2 weeks ago, and is waiting to get it back, but he preferred his persuasive essay last year. He can't make up his mind for a single piece of work to choose to do a persuasive essay this year or just stick with creative that he has already started/spent a few hours on. I think he may be influenced by whatever is less work rather than what he will do best in!!! 🤦‍♀️

Out attendance has been pretty normal thus far. (Inner city Glasgow secondary) A wee flurry of absences caused by the back to school colds, but I've only had 1/2 pupils off per class, on average, and often 100%. We've had some self isolating but nothing that takes us above normal levels I don't think. Plus no training, etc means staff absence really low.

Re Higher music: I don’t understand why a minor reduction in performance time has been made. For higher level musicians who are used to playing longer pieces, this makes it more difficult to find 2 pieces that will be squeezed into maximum of 11 minutes. And if the exams do go ahead, surely the performance element will be a submitted recording rather than the usual live performance 🤷🏽‍♂️

Can anyone help me out here. I understand that the standard required for Higher Music performance is Grade 4. I think many students (particularly in Private Schools) will be beyond this Grade and wondered if it is frowned upon to play a piece that is way beyond Grade 4 ie. a Grade 7 or 8 piece. My DD’s violin teacher has heard rumblings that the examiners would much prefer to hear all students play at Grade 4 level than have some individuals play something beyond that standard that, if played well, will obviously sound more impressive. Any thoughts?

Someone else may have more specific information but when my son was doing higher music, he didn't and still hasn't studied and passed grades.

His tutor and school teacher estimated he was about grade 5. He chose a grade 5 piece for his Higher assessment and was recommended not to as he would get a better mark for playing at the correct grade as there are marks he would lose by playing a grade 5 piece, even if he played it really well. Something to do with the way it's marked.

He's a thrawn one (just like his mum) though and refused to play the other piece. I think he ended up with a C which didn't really reflect his ability. Teacher reckoned he could have had a B or better with a different piece.

Wax is right - for music you can play music of a higher grade. But you will be marked on the harder piece - so if you play a grade 7 piece but not well, you will be marked down even if you have demonstrated that your capability is at the expected level, i.e. grade 4 for higher. It’s a gamble that needs to be weighed up - keeping the pupil engaged in their performance element by challenging them or potentially putting them off by selecting pieces that are supposed to be ‘safe’.

Thanks both that’s really helpful. My DD only did their first grade exam last year - it was Grade 6. They’re going to skip Grade 7 and aim to get their Grade 8 in a year’s time or at least by the time they finish S6. They’ve not taken any piano Grades yet but are playing to Grade 6/7 standard but haven’t done the theory yet (they struggle a bit with sight reading) so they’re aiming to do the Grade 5 theory in 6 months time whilst continuing to learn Grade 6/7 pieces (if that makes sense?)

My DD is reluctant to play a Grade 4 piece on either instrument because ‘it would feel like going backwards‘ and they say they’d struggle to find two pieces long enough at Grade 4. Not sure if that’s the case or not.

They were marked as having achieved a Grade A at their Nat 5 music this year - the performances were assessed well before lockdown in January. I suppose I should check and see what mark their performances were deemed to have achieved - Although The SQA would not have processed those marks would they? Would the teachers actually know?

It’s all a bit of a mess but at least DD can concentrate a bit more on the Grade 5 theory now without having to spend extra time working on their composition now that’s bitten the dust.

In some ways I’m glad a lot of the course work has gone because I felt doing the History, English and Science assignments took up far too much time and actually interfered with their learning of the rest of the topics within the subjects. The History Assignment in particular - no love lost there.

They can play more then one piece per instrument to meet the time requirement. The sqa page in higher music is really useful. They page seems to indicate up to 8 pieces per instrument which I think is way too many, 2 or 3 is a good number. Having more that one piece is good insurance in case one piece fails on the day. Not all eggs in one basket!

If they’ve only started to learn pieces of a higher grade and haven’t had confirmation that they are playing to a high grade 7 standard then it would be very risky to throw in a grade 7/8 piece. Perhaps compromise and go with 5/6?

Hopefully your DCs school will have graded their playing at nat 5 and can give you the marks. They Shd at least have a prelim measure to share.

www.sqa.org.uk/files_ccc/HigherCATMusicPerformance.pdf

My elder son did Higher music in 2017 (he was in S4 at the time and played at grade 7 standard in two instruments). He chose pieces at grade 4-5 level and got 100% in the performance aspect. At the time, his teacher said he wouldn't get extra marks for playing a piece above grade 4 level.

I’ll check out the SQA page. And advise DD to do a Grade 4/5 piece then. Thanks for all the advice. Did your son go onto to study music at Uni Aurea? It was good he got the Higher done in S4.

No. He's studying second year law down in England, although music still is a great passion of his. He's started up his own Uni soul band and plays in the college orchestra. Music is a great way to meet friends at uni.

Also, his school music class was a composite of S4-6 all doing Nat 5, Higher and AH in the same five period a week class so they could do the level that suited them whichever year they were in.

Aurea that’s a great way of doing the Music exams. I don’t know whether our school could have done the composite thing but it sounds like a really good idea and a way to get an extra Higher under your belt if you then took 5 x Highers in S5. Obviously DD never ended up Taking the exam but they did do the performance part at least and it went very well (Grade 6 and Grade 5 pieces played)

Hopefully they’ll get to do the exams this year. I remember your name from the results thread last year (I lurked and got very invested in it even though my DD was only in S3!) I seem to remember that your son did very well - I hope he’s been OK through all this adversity? Is he holed up in student accommodation like the rest of the university population?!

I’m worried about ongoing impact of Covid on our children’s education. My DD doesn’t know yet what they want to do and we can’t go visiting any Universities to look round and everything is ‘virtual’ at the moment. I feel for the students who have had a huge chunk of their 1st year at Uni affected and are now entering 2nd year on a ‘virtual’ basis with all the lockdown restrictions and negative media focus. And of course there’s the 1st years arriving or not arriving in Lockdown - it’s bad all round.

I hope our kids end up being able to take their Highers this year. Already the courses aren’t as broadly challenging as they should have been (the History teacher is very upset that they are not going to do an assignment) But it’s all challenging in another way I guess. I hope they can get visiting Universities next year but we’ll just have to see.

HigherHeaven

Thanks for your kind words and thoughts.

My elder son is extremely happy at uni and has been very lucky compared to many others. He's studying law at Oxford (yes he did get all A grades in 6 Highers and 3 AH in the end). He's living the life of Riley in a lovely room (with its own lounge) in his college in a household of twelve close pals. The only negative impact for him is that all the music clubs/societies are no longer operating and all tutorials are presently online. Also, he may find it difficult to return to north Scotland at Xmas.

I hope your DD soon works out what she wants to do. It's half the battle really. My elder son was all set on chemical engineering and had initially dropped higher English (bad move for law), then changed his mind last minute and managed to reinstate higher English last minute. We had several manic trips round uni admissions talks scooting from one side of the city from engineering department to law department. He only decided in January of S5 that law was his calling. Everything become easier when he knew his goal.

I hope everything works out for your DD. My younger son is still in S4 but is absolutely set on computer science which makes things much easier.