Those with exam year children...

[HigherHeaven]

How are they doing? I’ve got one doing Highers. They were all set up with their Prelims timetabled starting the week of Jan 11th and then the news dropped just before the end of term that they would not physically be in school until the 18th. I sensed from the school that they were exhausted/fed up and just put out an email saying ‘keep on revising as if the Prelims are happening as planned -we’ll get back to you early Jan to let you know the next plan’.

I can only imagine that the Head just sent her staff home and said ‘rest, relax, forget about school and enjoy your family time and we’ll return to business in New Year’. It must be so frustrating for them.

My child doesn’t know what’s going to happen with the Maths Prelim that they were meant to be taking W/C 11th Jan but is assuming they’ll return on the 18th to the rest of the Prelim diet.

But what if school doesn’t return on the 18th? Does anyone think they’ll extend this further? I’m worried that this year, unlike last, we won’t even have decent Prelim results to base estimated exam results on.

Meanwhile my DD is doing some solid revision and we’re trying to keep cheerful and positive.

I have a S4 and a S6. My older one missed all the exams last year anyway, and is now applying to Uni in a year where everyone else has much better grades than in years go by. He'd been hoping for a chance to "prove himself" with his Advanced Highers, but that's been taken away from him too. So he'll be starting Uni in October, only having ever sat Nat 5s.

DD is in S4 and should be doing Nat 5s. She is a much more diligent student and constant assessment will play to her strengths. School usually run prelims in January, but not happening this year. Most subjects are running regular tests instead based on old Nat 5 papers or prelims, and will use these as evidence of grades for the SQA. Her maths teacher told me that the SQA had released the paper written for May 2020 and never used, and that school was planning on using this one in April/May 2021 as their final test. My main concern for her is that the first "proper" exams she'll ever sit are the Highers.

But my kids are lucky in that they have their own rooms to study in, we have stable broadband, they have laptops and engaged parents who will encourage and support them. Other kids aren't in that situation at all.

My S6 DD, who actually has much lower Higher grades due to not being able to sit exams as a result of being a bit of a slow burner and not doing enough for her Prelims, is working hard. She went on the basis that exams could be cancelled again and has put in the effort since day 1. She's continuing to work toward the "assessment diet" her school had planned for late Jan. her school are scheduling a more Prelim type set of exams for April since SQA have said best evidence is secure prelims and the later the better.

Where I teach we were having an assessment cycle in mid January and still being told to work on the assumption that full return will happen on the 18th. And a similar April exam period planned. We had planned how to assess, moderate , verify and were confident we had a robust system in place. A monumental workload but were steeling ourselves for that.

How that will happen if we go much more than the 18th I do not know.

I will be following my timetable to be there for my pupils even though I am not permitted to do live or recorded teaching. I will set the work in Google Classroom then be available to answer questions or just to check in with.

This model is straight forward for me as S6 DD is my youngest so I have no child care requirement. Many of my colleagues are awaiting confirmation if they are required to be in the building and how they are supposed to follow a timetable if their preschool and younger school age children are not given places.

Yes - the "prelims" will be taken next year around the time the exams would have been taken. Seems to be what our school is planning too. The thought process is that January prelims (and some schools do them before the CHristmas holiday) aren't very fair anyway as the teachers have really only had August - December to cover the curriculum. At least by running a progamme of tests/exams/prelims (call them what you like) in April or May to show evidence for the SQA that gives the staff longer to teach the content.

DS has been told that they’ll have 3 Prelims and their final mark will be an ‘average ‘ of the 3. He wants to get all As and dreads doing a ‘mediocre’ first Prelim as he knows it will drag down his final mark even if he does well in the remaining 2. (And I worry this might demotivate him!)

Are your schools still using one of the English portfolio essays as evidence (persuasive/creative)? Our school is asking for that to be submitted but they have till February to submit the final one.

Lidl my DS has been trying their best to submit ‘their best’ since Day 1 as well. It’s been quite a pressure. His school just told him in December that no work submitted before January will be used to estimate their final grade - it only starts counting from now.

He’s hoping to perform better in his Science subjects and Maths than he has done so far because his knowledge and confidence grows in these subjects cumulatively throughout the year. In subjects like English and History he tends to do well from the start.

But I feel for everyone if they don’t get physically back into F2F lessons/Prelims on Jan 18th. So far our school has been only minimally affected by the virus. I’m keeping fingers crossed that this continues.

Not sure what DD's school are doing re Folio as she sat English last year. Where I teach we are using the best of the 2 Folio pieces to allow us to play to their strengths. We are looking at a similar submission date maybe slightly later. I don't envy the marking burden that 3 Prelims will create. It seems overkill when SQA are looking for (in English anyway I don't know about every subject) 2-4 pieces of evidence the emphasis on quality not quantity. That's a lot of stress on the candidates. Especially if one off day lowers the average.

Thanks Lidl I’m thinking that maybe they’re just putting the pressure on for them doing their absolute best at ALL times. But I think that pressure is there already? Good to hear the SQA guidance for English from someone in the know. I think my DS should do well on that basis. Most marks that he loses are down to exam technique and I know he will improve with practice - same with his History. He tends to know the subject well but omit to ‘evaluate’ and expand on a point to gain the full marks available even when he’s capable. He’s working hard though - put in at least 12 hours of revision since Monday (plus music practise on top) but is having today and tomorrow off.

I don’t think I ever revised over the Christmas holidays when I was a school pupil but I don’t think expectations were high in my 80s comprehensive school!

What do you think will happen with assessments and level/grade evidence if schools don't return properly until Easter?

My son is studying for two highers and four Nat 5s this year.

My eldest is S4 and has additional support needs. She was due to sit 4 Nat5 exams this year (alongside a Nat 4, obviously no exam) She's pretty screwed. One of the subjects doesn't seem to have had a prelim booked (Graph Comm?) and the others are over January/February. She can't 'do' study, its just not something she's capable of, or been worked with to find a technique that works for her.

DD school have pushed the Higher prelims back from w/c 11th January to the week after 1/2 term in February. DD has found the year of constant assessment quite stressful as it would appear her school were taking no chances and were working on the assumption the exams would be cancelled again (as were we and DD).

I wish our school would shift ours back like that motherstongue Who knows maybe they will. My DS has been doing some revision but he’s also been really tired and has slept for hours. I think they’re all pretty exhausted by the constant testing.

How will the assessment arrangements that were put in place in lieu of exams work now schools are closed? I understood that the assessments should take place in near exams conditions in class. How is this going to work if kids are studying from home?

When they do eventually return in Feb/March/April (anyone's guess), it will be assessment after assessment, very much like the exams themselves.

Surely this isn't fair on the kids? It's a s*t show.....

I don't think it's fair on kids at all. Making these judgements is surely unfair given the amount of teaching they will have missed. I expect online learning will be better this time round but it's no substitute for the real thing. What also of kids who aren't vulnerable but maybe have busy parents wfh and siblings running about. It's just unrealistic.

I have an S6 who sat prelims for her Highers and AHs before Christmas and I think most courses had more prelims planned for next term.

I have an s4 child and he was due to sit prelims in January.. Obviously not now!

I can't see the school reopening till Mid Feb to be honest..
Yeah the could sit prelims then... But that would be based on.home learning which seems really unfair.

I think the sqa have to step in with a plan

I can't imagine what those facing highers are going through

Its a complete shit show

I have an s4 child. Was so tough keeping the momentum going thus academic year (supposed to have prelims starting tomorrow). The minute the school opening was delayed she downed tools.
Was the same last time in March. She cannot work without teaching or constant supervision. She lacks maturity.

No idea what will happen. She got a report with 'working grades' before Christmas and results were just 'ok' but she hoped to improve. They did reflect her effort at the time.
Will they just get given these grades?

Last time they went over the new material in August and September- will that be possible this time if they go back in March? They will need to examine them ASAP and if work hasn't been taught! Like how can you teach a language though google classroom with a few random handouts.

Her 'private school' friends have a normal timetable of classes via zoom. The gulf between state and private really is vast now.

Ds is sitting highers. He was targetted 5 As but his last report card dropped 2 subjects to Bs, and a 3rd was nearly dropped too, after we had a few difficult weeks with his gran in hospital and dying with covid, he struggled for a few weeks in class and with studying so end of unit tests results were lower than he is capable of.

He has been studying hard through Christmas break for January prelims/assessments to get back on track and is just a bit lost now they have been cancelled and worried how he'll now prove he has got them back up.

School has said assessment cancelled and no remote assessments will happen (obviously) so just keep studying and engaging and we will replan once dates for schools opening are clearer.

Last year was hard but with support he mostly coped with school over the last year through his Nat5s, but now the stakes are higher he is starting to really feel the strain of the uncertainty.

DS was due to do Prelims next week - he’s had email communication with 2 of his teachers who’ve been reassuring and said just keep on revising and we’ll let you know when there’s a plan. God knows what they’ll base the estimates on - he was definitely needing to build upon his knowledge from tests he’s had since August. He wants 5 As but some of his subjects are sitting at Bs at the moment but he’s been working so hard and feels confident he’d get them up to A standard. What are these exams going to be worth when they might be based on so little actual work??

My DD2 sat her maths and chemistry higher prelims on the same day in December, the day after they announced the highers were cancelled and would be based on prelims, that went well

Just posting again because I’m feeling so sorry for my child who was supposed to be doing their Higher Prelims over the next 3 weeks. Before Xmas they plotted out their revision timetable meticulously - breaking it down into topics and putting it all on a spreadsheet. I was so impressed and they put the hours in over the holidays.

Today online learning has begun and they’ve just set lots of work that completely destroys his revision plans. In some subjects they are introducing new topics that wouldn’t have been in the Prelims and he’s quite at a loss and looking very down about it all.

He doesn’t want to compromise on the revision plan but also doesn’t want to piss his teachers off by complaining. And he doesn’t want to just dash off the work he’s been set because he knows everything is going to be used as ‘evidence’ for his final mark.

Some subjects are OK - but others he needed to intensely go over topics and now he’s having to ditch that somewhat to produce work that needs submitting by Friday of every week. I don’t know what to say. He says he won’t be able to go out for walks or have any downtime now. I’ve said he’ll need to speak with his teachers but he says he knows they are stressed and following a plan and won’t look kindly upon him saying he’d like to do his own thing. And to be fair they’ve got classes to teach and can’t cope with any pupils wanting feedback on their own bespoke timetables

I’m really concerned. He was doing so well and now he looks completely stressed . He wouldn’t have been doing any new curricular subjects until the beginning of February if his Prelims has gone ahead as planned - and now in his science subjects particularly they’re jumping the gun and ploughing on with new topics when he hasn’t finished revising or been tested on what he’s learned so far.

Anyone else dealing with similar?

Yes it terrible for kids at exam level. My child is doing Nat5 and was in the zone (mostly) with prelims January.
Downed tools now and straight onto new work.
She has so much revision to do for prelims but can't even think of that now when they have been postponed to whenever and also thinks what's the point revising for them if not back till after Easter. Will they even go ahead?

I've just said to ensure every class logged in to and every bit of work needs submitted on time. At the moment this seems just as vital.

Op your dc sounds very stressed, he absolutely should take time for walks and breaks, poor thing. I would say handing in all current work on time and to a good standard is more important than revising for a prelim that to be perfectly honest might not happen. We still don't know what the Sqa plans are, and I think they haven't been issued for higher as they don't know when schools will be back. I'm not saying don't do revision, but I know when it comes to my own H class I will know who has done their assignments and how well, I will have no way of knowing who has revised well until such time as there is a prelim sat in school.

Ds is in S5 too, everyone is in the same boat. We have seen the same for science, the new unit has started, the work he had for chemistry today took him nearly 3 hours to watch, pause to take notes and do workbook. I asked him to speak to friends after and they did the same tasks and took roughly the same time. Science have made excellent sides with commentary, pause to do examples etc and then follow up work but it is given daily and the volume is just too much, much more than they would do in school.

The impact is English and French who are giving out a weeks worth of work to do by the end of the week have not even been looked at yet as the immediate pressure is from science and 16 year olds are mostly too immature to plan/prioritise/push back correctly under stress with little support.

He has a drop in session with chemistry tomorrow and hopefully he'll be able to raise it with his teacher.

Until online learning has settled down, hopefully this week, he isnt revising previous work, it currently just isn't possible.

Kid doing Nat5s here.

Did anyone watch John Swinney's statement today?

They are pledging £45 million for new laptops and extra staff recruitment, HMIE inspections for remote learning, letters to all teachers advising of expectations and resources, SQA looking at assessment methods for exams due to move to remote learning, etc.

All the above leads me to believe that this is not a short term situation.

What is going to happen? My DS hasn’t even got to do Prelims yet. They’ll be rearranged but when? They’re not going to happen now are they? Exams have been cancelled but my child is under more pressure than ever. What are Universities going to think of these magnificent Higher ‘results’ that are going to be needed to be awarded?