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.

The latest update on the sqa website says teachers should maximise teaching time, concentrate on the kids getting the knowledge .. worry about assessment later!

In other words there is no plan.. my son is nat 5 year but he's basically just doing what he needs to do and nothing else.. He's not interested in revising when he has no idea what and when

I know his attitude is wrong but i understand his feelings

@frasersmummy my DS3 is the same as yours doing the basics and nothing extra, good one saving grace is that he wants to go to art college and practising his art is something that it is straightforward to do by himself. Like an earlier poster said, i have just accepted that a year at college is probably on the cards before uni so i am not stressing about results, i think he'll need an extra year before HE anyway to catch up socially, he's happily gaming and playing with lego and Warhammer at the moment, he's missing out on the parties and teen drama that his older brother experienced at this age, i feel he will be a bit "young" to leave home right away IYKWIM. At least no one is majorly stressed or sad in our house, for that I am extremely grateful.

This is interesting from John Swinney today:

"We are also looking at the senior phased pupils because obviously they have certification processes coming up and we want to make sure that they can have access to all the learning and teaching they require to command those certificates."

There is no mention specifically of assessment. Is this significant do you think?

Wbeezer I agree about the social side being on hold. Fitness concerns me too. No stresses though.

I have an S3 and an S5 who are both doing the bare minimum. I’m worried sick about the S5, who has ambitions to do a high demand course at a high demand uni .

They have some recorded lessons but it’s mostly just worksheets on Google classroom.

We have offered as much support as we can but they are just bone idle ☹️😡😡

The local private schools have 6 hours a day of online live classes.

Connie, if they are bone idol doing worksheets they'll be bone idol in a live lesson. There's even less chance to persuade a reluctant student to participate online than in a classroom - we can't even make someone unmute their mic!
I don't know what the assessment arrangements will be but I know making sure every teacher has seen some good examples of your work will never not help. Grades will not be given without any evidence of achievement.

Our school has now announced prelims to go ahead online next week!
How can this be done? They don't have any live lessons so will they be given a paper to complete in a period of time?
How can this be fair to everyone?
Surely it's just an assessment and pupils will google answers or use notes. No plan of how this will be done. It seems open to abuse.
And in the middle of this announcement the new work is coming thick and fast.

That seems rather pointless and isn't what the Sqa have advised schools to do just now. I doubt I could use a prelim done at home as solid evidence as I have no control over what help they got! Might be useful for practice though if they haven't had that before.

We have been told that for obvious reasons no remote assessments can be done that will go towards a grade

But they are getting exam style tests at home to gauge engagement with remote learning and learning gaps that need to be plugged.

Soberjansucks my S5 DS would freak if he was told that he had online ‘prelim’ assessments next week. He’s struggling to complete the work that is set every week because some of it involves new learning that just isn’t happening as quickly without the support and instant response/discussion with teacher and fellow pupils. Before he knows it, the next set of work is there, waiting to be done and he hasn’t done ANY revision. He’s constantly chasing his tail.

It’s gone from ‘Highers cancelled’ to Prelims ‘postponed’ to... what? Are there going to be ‘exam-style’ tests? Actual ‘Prelims’? Or are the ‘Prelims’ going to be more like actual exams? And when? Before Easter? After Easter?

He is finding this far more stressful and harder to deal with than the real ‘Highers’ would have been and he’s not had the quality or consistency of teaching to get on top of some of his subjects or the space to take stock and revise. He was so down after a science lesson yesterday where a teacher’s disembodied voice (not in vision) set some tasks, explained a bit and then was silent for 15 minutes while they answered the question (their mics muted) It was such a poor substitute for the teaching he’d have got normally. The only good thing to come out of it was that it made him go out for a walk because he was so hacked off. Unfortunately he was gone for over 2 hours but as he hadn’t set foot out of doors for 3 days It was good he got some exercise and fresh air.

He was aiming to do really well with his Highers but he already thinks he’s not going to do as well and it’s really demotivating him.

@HigherHeaven I get overwhelmed when I see the school work notifications coming thick and fast every Monday on my iPad so no idea how they feel.
One of the teachers put a poll to say how did everyone find the workload. My daughter said it was ok but will be a struggle as now has prelims. Teacher replied saying they knew that but they were told they needed to keep giving new work and assignments regardless.
She just does not learn well this way. She's immature and if something is boring she tunes out.
I've tried to look at the work but this time round it's too much for me even to attempt. I'm working outside the house and other primary level kids need work checked and sent.

I'm wondering if it's worth all the stress. These results really aren't going to be accurate in any way.
Everyone during this time has had it tough. A small minority will excel but I'm more worried the mental impact this is having. Exam years are always stressful but they were also the fun years with your peers as your social life began so the good times and hard times balanced out. So the treat now is a daily walk!

I’ve spoken to all my S5 child’s teachers now and they are definitely having prelim exams starting 7-10 days after they go back to school. Whenever that is.

That will be one of the 2-3 pieces of evidence that are required and will cover the work they had done until Christmas, not the new work they have done online since.

Three of his subjects had finished the curriculum before Christmas but the other two still have work to cover.

I think they had hoped to do a second prelim later on ( I’m guessing April / May ) but they don’t know if this will now be possible. It all depends on when they go back to school.

That’s great C0nnie that you’ve got a clear directive from all your S5 teachers. I spoke to the Headteacher mid-week and they were saying they still didn’t know what the plan was but the only thing that was evident was that nothing would be based on ‘inferred’ attainment - everything would have to be evidenced. So none of this ‘we think that x pupil would have achieved X grade by April’ it had to be ‘here’s work showing clear grade X ability.

I’m envious that your child knows what to concentrate on ie. the curriculum taught up to December. My child is doing English and they’d done everything bar one poem by December; History was 2/3rds through - his other subjects have had quite a way to go since Jan and new subject areas to learn during this lockdown period.

It’s been stressed that we need to keep learning the subject and gaining the knowledge even if you don’t get a chance to ‘evidence’ it. I think that’s wise as otherwise they’ll be turning up to Uni with huge holes in their knowledge (and competing with kids who have had better online learning experiences than some) Although having said that, if you know that you’re only being assessed on work learnt by the end of December, then you could concentrate on just revising that intensely with a view to getting the actual grades that will get you into your chosen Uni. Once you’ve done that then I guess you can look to fill in any of the gaps once your place is secured.

I hope I can get some clarity like you have ASAP because that would help my DS enormously.

I suppose the spanner in the works will be if they don’t get the Seniors back in as soon as they’re hoping. I think they’re hoping it will be mid-Feb but that still has a chance of slipping back till after the Easter break.

I’m envious that your child knows what to concentrate on ie. the curriculum taught up to December. My child is doing English and they’d done everything bar one poem by December; History was 2/3rds through - his other subjects have had quite a way to go since Jan and new subject areas to learn during this lockdown period

It’s been stressed that we need to keep learning the subject and gaining the knowledge even if you don’t get a chance to ‘evidence’ it. I think that’s wise as otherwise they’ll be turning up to Uni with huge holes in their knowledge (and competing with kids who have had better online learning experiences than some) Although having said that, if you know that you’re only being assessed on work learnt by the end of December, then you could concentrate on just revising that intensely with a view to getting the actual grades that will get you into your chosen Uni. Once you’ve done that then I guess you can look to fill in any of the gaps once your place is secured

Sorry if I wasn’t clear.

The exam they are sitting the week after they get back is their “January prelim “ - that is the exam paper that was set last year for then to sit in early January , so it was on the work they did up to Christmas.

They will still be assessed on all the new work they will do from January - May . It’s just that that will not necessarily be in one big exam - it may be other forms of evidence such as class tests or folios.

In two of his five subjects ( Maths and Chemistry ) they had covered the whole curriculum by Christmas so the prelim can be on a whole course. Which of course is a more robust piece of evidence. But they need 2-3 pieces of evidence for each subject.

I think that the school had planned to run another set of exams in May, much like the actual Highers using past paper questions. But that’s looking less likely now, as the kids are missing so much teaching.

I assume they will use class tests to assess where they are all at when they get back and work out what do from there.

Online prelims? Any idea how they will work? Apparently this is a real possibility for our school hunted at my head teacher?
How can this be fair?

If you look at the latest papers issued by the SQA this week on various subjects and the method of assessment for them this will give you a fair idea of the way things are going.

In essence, there is to be a secure site with question papers that can be used to set assessments (not exams, cos they clearly don’t like them being called that) for the purposes of evidence. There is a ridiculous statement that pupils must be told not to share questions on social media. Yeah, that ain’t gonna happen. Another summer shitshow of exam results clearly beckons.

@cocopops yes I agree. The assessments taking place non stop in school pre lockdown were are farce.
Unlucky if you were the first class to get the test. If you weren't getting it till end of the week or self isolating you would get a copy of the test passed around. I'm sure the teachers knew but what could they do? Individual tests?
Personally I think all phones should be handed to front of class each test. Seems simple enough ???

Thanks for that steer cocopops - off to look on SQA site now.

Have had a look on the SQA site. Brain hurts. I’m still unsure about the Music Higher guidance but I’ll start a different post for that.

I need to have some clearer guidance from my school. I hope we’re not left waiting another whole week (though suspect we will be). I suppose a week tomorrow will be Feb 1st and then there’s a possibility that it will take a bit of time for the impact of whatever announcements are made on that day, to trickle down into a definite strategy for schools. Oh for a crystal ball!

Don't blame the school if you're waiting another week, quite a few subject guidelines from the SQA are to be published by the 29th so might be premature for the school to say what will happen - given the school has not firm idea what the government plan it would also be better to wait for their update on, is it, the 1st?

@higherheaven- The Higher music guidance has been published today on the SQA website.

Thanks cocopops have taken a look at that. Looks like there’s going to be an SQA paper? Non-exam-exam? To be taken in a supervised/controlled setting etc... and performances can be recorded at home and submitted.

Hopefully the school will disseminate this information and their plans when the bigger picture is clearer.

Hi all

Just wondering how everyone's exam year kids are doing?

My DS has been into school and has just recorded his higher music practical so that's one big relief.

Still waiting to hear what's in store the week of 15 March and also the plans for assessment after Easter. My son still hasn't finished the curriculum for many of his subjects so has not started revising yet which worries me.

Has anyone been told what's happening with assessments?

Also, am I right in thinking that the provisional exam results will be intimated to the students before the end of the school year so that appeals can be initiated before the holidays? Maybe this is wishful thinking.....

SQA moved the end date for grades to be submitted to them to the 24th of June . Lots of schools will be finishing that day or just before. I can't see grades going to candidates before the awarding body.

But as we have seen so many times that could change ...