SQA. What on earth?

[Cismyfatarse1]

Sorry. This has been mentioned on other threads but what the hell are they playing at? There was a consultation for students, staff and parents that ended on 24th August. There were some ideas about how courses might change.

Then there was a leak 3 weeks ago suggesting N5 will be cancelled.

Then we were told Swinney would make it all clear today.

Then that was changed until tomorrow but the time he was scheduled to speak is the same time NS is now speaking.

I have been teaching these courses since mid May and run a department for a core subject in a large school.

How on earth are they getting away with this? How is there not a huge outcry from parents and pupils that we are now 3 or more months through the school year and we still have no clear guidance on what we are teaching.

Pupils are very, very anxious. They are being over tested as everyone is worrying about evidence. They may be doing work on aspects of the courses they will not need (we spent weeks on folio and talk which we were then told might change.

This Is not acceptable and yet there is not outcry. The whole circuit breaker thing which is not a thing but might happen but no. OK yes. Well, we will let you know......

Is that just to distract from the SQA thing? Or from Margaret Covid?

Can anyone tell me what is going on? And John Swinney's brother is in charge of English for SQA. So surely they could sort this out.

We usually have prelims in Jan, but this year are having two, one in Dec and one in March. Absolutely outrageous considering we don’t even know whether we’ll be able to use any of them as evidence, but everyone seems to be panicking and assessing the ever loving fuck out of everything where I am. We’re all absolutely exhausted.

Dds days seems to be assessment after assessment currently. So much so that I'm wondering when they were actually taught the syllabus?!

@dancemom

Is anyone else's school still going ahead with Prelims for Nat 5 even though actual exams are cancelled?

Yes, ours are planning to schedule individual subject prelims between Dec and March

@dancemom

Dds days seems to be assessment after assessment currently. So much so that I'm wondering when they were actually taught the syllabus?!

Yes, this! My S4 child has SEN and the current situation is causing her a lot of distress.

Further information issued to schools this afternoon

English and Maths out today. Some of the rest not due until mid a November.

I saw the SQA info, a lot of emphasis for English on evidence being produced at the end of the course.

So for Maths they seem to be suggesting the evidence is collected near the end of the course by potentially sitting a paper provided by SQA?

Is it just me that feels this is putting all the workload onto teachers and isn’t actually removing the exams at all just rebranding them?

I may have missed it, but have we been given a date for upload of estimates by SQA?

I can't see a date. Assuming similar to last year it will be the end of May. But, if they are expecting us to send in some examples 1/10 or 1/20 or whatever) then they will need time to check that and then adjust results or report back to schools before results are finalised

A timeline is vital. And we don't have an exam timetable for H and AH.

And most subjects have to wait 2 weeks for more information.

It is a fucking mess.
Swinney has just told the EIS not to worry about teacher absences as he will bring in retired teachers (to replace our sick colleagues). Heartless bastard.

If anyone is interested here are the links for Maths and English, looks like please make it as close to sqa process as possible inc. exams, but without the level setting of externally produced papers.

www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/files_ccc/guidance-estimates-n5-english.pdf

www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/files_ccc/guidance-estimates-n5-mathematics.pdf

I have read both these documents and now I'm thinking.. There will be exams.. Despite the govt saying there won't..

Or am I reading this wrong

OP here but back to my usual name.

Exams. But not exams. You pay SQA but you do all the marking, organising and printing of exams. You agonise over the results.

And then, when you get it wrong, we will tell you how teachers are rubbish at estimating grades.

Oh, and here is a secret paper which you can't share but which won't be a secret because kids and social media.

@Cismyfatarse

OP here but back to my usual name.

Exams. But not exams. You pay SQA but you do all the marking, organising and printing of exams. You agonise over the results.

And then, when you get it wrong, we will tell you how teachers are rubbish at estimating grades.

Oh, and here is a secret paper which you can't share but which won't be a secret because kids and social media.

Absolutely. When they got rid of SG they shed so much marking and must have saved a fortune. My colleagues and I were just saying that the SQA may see this as an opportunity to change N5 assignments and exam forever by giving it all back to the teachers who will do it for free!

There's no way on this earth any exams should be going ahead.

There are a small group of kids in S5 in my school who have been isolating for a total of six weeks across this academic year. Even with access to Teams there is no way it's appropriate for them to sit an exam especially when winter hasn't even started yet.

I'm feeling very disillusioned.

We have an exam timetable. Now starting on the 10th, not the 13th as announced by JS. An actual timetable. English is on Thursday 13th - H in the morning, AH in the afternoon.

Thanks for flagging up the SQA Higher/AH timetable cismyfatarse. My poor DS has Physics and English Highers on consecutive days and History and Music the next week on consecutive days. Bit of a breather before Maths of 4 days or so. Gawd I hope they get to take them this time!

SQA have published a timetable for when they are issuing guidance for evidence gathering for Nat 5s. Some won’t be issued until Nov 19th:

www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/95258.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nq2021&utm_content=n5estimates

It is so late. So late and so unfair on teachers and pupils.

I do not know how they can justify the delay. It's not as if (like school staff) they are doing other things, this is literally their only job.