Highers and AH cancelled!

[ScoldsBridle]

My DS is horrified!!

The SQA have been a joke for years.
Usually the laugh is on us as we try to pick up the pieces in the classroom of the latest inexplicable changes.

@DollyMixtureLulus our school isn’t closing on18th. It’s optional to take as an inset so teachers still in. Our school is all still in and working.

Very disappointing that so many are losing a rite of passage but very hard to see how it could have been made equitable without it becoming impossibly complicated. The English strategy of generous marking for everyone is doomed to failure and a political shitshow.

Yes it is particularly hard on those who have not sat nationals last year as well. They should stay on for S6 and hopefully back to normal then.

The SQA has been a joke since I was at school, and that wasn't yesterday. Massive fuck up with a few grades in H English in 1989 which was only sorted out by my Headmaster threatening to go to the press. In 2019 they lost DS's second paper in one subject, resulting in a D rather than a B - and after admitting their mistake it took unti Feb 2020 to get a new certificate. The Head of Department concerned said that the year before the SQA has lost ALL the Adv H coursework in that subject from our school.

Mind you, with a fuckwit like Swinney in charge, what do you expect? The SQA suffer from typical public service bloat - no accountability, no transparency, lots of nothing public sector jobs developing something or managing something or writing a policy on something. All when they can't get the basics of running sodding exams right.

I said at the time of my DS's mark fiasco that it would be lovely if schools had the freedom to do as schools in other parts of the UK do and choose which exam board to use. A bit of healthy competition in the market might make the SQA up their game if they're competing for "customers" with AQA or Cambridge or whatever.

At the moment they can be completely and utterly incompetent (and frequently are) and there are no consequences to that at all.

Wow - not sure what warranted that comment Bejazzled - I don’t work in education - just a parent. Am assuming you’re under a lot of pressure but all I know is that Lidl has been enormously helpful on this board and given me some great advice. My take was that she was worried about the extra workload more than anything. I think we’re all reeling from the news - maybe cool heads required?

@vivariumvivariumsvivaria

I really feel for the kids who's first experience of sitting exams will be at uni. That sucks.

My Ds is in 3rd year at Uni doing an MEng, he hasn't sat any exams yet so I wouldn't bank on them doing them then either.

DS2 in 2nd year and I think he may have sat 1 exam in actual exam conditions last december but not entirely sure.

Am assuming you’re under a lot of pressure but all I know is that Lidl has been enormously helpful on this board and given me some great advice. My take was that she was worried about the extra workload more than anything. I think we’re all reeling from the news - maybe cool heads required?

Well said.

It is the workload. Neeko's post nailed it beautifully. I am completely non confrontational but that was a personal comment (not a description of my attitude as poster then claimed) . I described how I felt about a part of another organisation's role being passed on to my profession. I won't report as feel the exchange should stay .

Thanks for support and I will return to my normal peace n love self .

Tomorrow will be another tough day as some kids will be bitterly disappointed, others downright despondent, many confused. So keeping my energy for them. Thankfully DD was ok as she'd been anticipating the announcement and has been working her socks off since day 1.

Sending support too @Lidlfix - I don't often comment but your posts are always enlightening.

I told my DS exams were cancelled cause I'd read it here. I'm not sure his first reaction was sorrow!

My DS thinks Christmas has come early! He has form for anxiety making him panic in exams and is one of those benefitting from continual assesments.

Lidlfix - I hope you are feeling ok today. The shock is wearing off here and we are again in action-plan mode. Lots of time being spent here reassuring pupils that they won't be disadvantaged.

My DS is dreading that all the assignments will be reinstated now there won’t be any actual exams

@Wbeezer

My DS thinks Christmas has come early! He has form for anxiety making him panic in exams and is one of those benefitting from continual assesments.

My ds who is sitting highers this year has had the exact opposite reaction. He is now more worried about the prelims he is sitting mid January as they will/could be used as part of the assessment!

We have been told last night the prelims are going ahead and they will be held in exam type conditions (in the main hall split into classroom bubbles)

@WeAllHaveWings DS tells me they are not going to have the traditional prelims, but i will wait and see what they are told now its official.

DS needs an A for Higher Art ideally and it's always a real struggle finishing the coursework at the same time as revising for exams so spreading things out should help. Empathy for those for whom the proper exams suit.

Seriously pissed off that the school has cancelled Prelims. Can't see any excuse for depriving kids of all chances to sit an exam.

The cancellation of prelims must be a LA or school decision, ds has been told again today theirs are still going ahead.

Individual schools where I am.

Our prelims are going ahead but not in January as planned. They're going to have a think about timing but I imagine it'll be March or April.

Prelims are an entirely school based decision

My S6 is finishing prelims today although I think at least one subject has a second prelim planned.

Yes, I think it's awful of the school to have jumped to cancelling prelims, which all the kids have prepared for already. Their chance of actually having the experience of sitting exams, revising for them, etc. No reason for the cancellation has been given.

Disclaimer: I have no real stake on the issue as my kids are years away from sitting exams.

Yesterday I was listening to Lindsay Paterson on the BBC and he claimed that exams have been cancelled not because of Covid. Indeed, barring a new zombie apocalypse, exams could have gone ahead, but the SG has "chosen* not to have them because the poorest kids have been most affected by Covid related issues (having to isolate, teachers isolating, etc) and they didn't want the attainment gap to get any bigger. According to him, things have not really changed and there is no any "new" reason to cancel exams that wasn't there in August.
However, the most interesting part of the interview was when he mentioned this scheme they have in England (can't remember what it is called) and that was set up exactly to help the kids most in need. Seemingly the scheme is working well, but the SG refused to take part in it again for political reasons (woe betide if you say that the English do something better...).
I NEVER knew any of that and if only half of it is accurate the SG has reached yet a new low on education (when, many fiascos ago, you thought they couldn't fall any lower and yet they seem to manage).

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000q3sm?fbclid=IwAR3s7GmyZterjgAwe1PA-W8o2bTlkBdkYj8SDwFHYO-SK7M-JDvrzcxFSSY
Assuming the link works, it is from 2h 36m.

I find that easy to believe. The outcome of this is that Scotland's universities will have yet more Scottish students who are way below English and (even more so) EU attainment levels. Always race to the bottom. It doesn't end well - a reputation as a crap country, with universities that are not worth attending.
Our school has cancelled prelims, even though the relevant year groups have not lost a single day of school since August.