SQA?

[snowcoveredcampsies]

Any other teachers pretty furious at the SQA about now?

This time last year we had prelims as evidence- we don’t this year so need ‘May exams’, unfortunately.

My DD said their English teacher was so exasperated by not knowing what’s happening that he made them to do a mini RUAE exercise on that leaflet that the SQA have since posted out - the one that says all the grades given to the SQA by Teachers will be ‘provisional’ but won’t be changed by the SQA???

So basically the kids should get told the grades their teacher is handing over in June but they’re still going to have their ‘results’ in August, which won’t have been changed??

I laughed at this bit in the brochure ‘It is important that you talk to your teachers and lecturers about your progress as well as what provisional results are being sent to SQA’.

When’s THAT conversation going to happen. If I was a teacher I’d advise that it happens 5 minutes before the end of day on the final day of term and then run for the hills!

I think I SQA are calling the teachers grades provisional as they can’t have a school that historically year after year gets 55% pass rate suddenly getting 85% pass rate etc.... so teachers are doomed if they do and doomed if they don’t :(

@applesandpears33

In the higher subject I'm worried about my DC hasn't done any class tests since a disastrous prelim in November. In contrast with other subjects, that one seems to have very little evidence to base any grade on if a child has to miss the assessment in May. It is quite a worry. Other subject teachers have been more organised and have had timed assessments during lockdown.

Timed assessments at home? These will not be able to be used. Only evidence gathered in school can be used.

@SQAwker I salute that English teacher.
Our grades have to be sent to parents before the end of term to allow for "queries".

It's my understanding that no assessments done at home will count. Exceptions would be coursework sections that would usually be fine at home as part of the controlled conditions process.

@mummywithtwokidsplusdog

I think I SQA are calling the teachers grades provisional as they can’t have a school that historically year after year gets 55% pass rate suddenly getting 85% pass rate etc.... so teachers are doomed if they do and doomed if they don’t :(

Which is absurd, because of course attainment will go up. In a usual year there is one shot at showing off what you can do; this year teachers can do multiple assessments and pick the best one. Inevitably some kids flunk a final exam and it pulls down whole school attainment percentages; this year kids will sit more than one assessment making this less likely. Our school was one of the worst affected by last year's fiasco - 70% of our H results were downgraded by the algorithm. This was due to attainment history, not taking into account that our results have risen year on year for the last six years. I predict similar shambolic scenes this year.

Our school haven't said officially what will happen but my DS told will be exams exactly like normal nat5. Their grade is based on this alone.
3 weeks of exams mid May.
Prelims were done before (in school ) and in Jan (online). ALL prelims will not count even ones done in school as this isn't fair to the ones who happened to have more online!
The online ones were actually very difficult to cheat in - you needed to have revised a lot.
My DS so upset the school prelims won't count as he worked soooooo hard and did so well.

My friend's DD at another high school. Their prelims which were very low stress- just class tests will be counted and after Easter no formal exams just class assessments.

How can this be fair and equal?

Thank you to all the teachers working your way through this. I thought what DD was describing sounded awful like exams! Her teachers have been doing a fantastic job, and I have every confidence they are doing what they can to prepare the young people at her school. The payment issue and huge workload seems to me really unfair and sounds very stressful, though.

I've re-read the e mail I received from my DCs' school. One exam per subject and prelim results will not be used. No mention of provision for young people who have to isolate due to covid. It is very disappointing that other schools are doing a number of assessments and can pick the best ones to submit, whereas in our school if someone flunks an exam that will be the grade that is submitted.

Do you think the schools running basically a formal exam diet will give any heads up prior to pupils re content? For example subjects like English, Modern Studies and History have several essays for each exam to prepare for. If they were actually told what question would come up it would allow them to streamline their study. Time is now running out to start studying!

The SQA assessments are secure - teachers absolutely should not be sharing essay questions.

I've not looked at the essay Q's - I know that it might impact my teaching, even subconsciously. Kids knowing the questions ahead of time is cheating, essentially (or at least it is in my subject).

I agree- if pupils are told the essay title ahead of time it would be cheating in my subject too. I’ve not looked at the papers and have told my pupils that’s the case. One parent asked me to ‘do my pupils a favour and help them get good grades because of covid’ .... ie. Cheat. It’s only March- can only imagine this type of request is going to become more vocal as time moves along. I’ve just about had enough.

Same. We've talked about common patterns in essay Qs but that's very different than sharing and teaching to a Q.

I'm so done with it all. Bring on... August?! 😭

Have the SQA provided schools with nat5 and highers papers?

If so, why are all schools not doing the exams?

My child will be but I didn't realise the SQA were providing papers? Surely this is open for abuse?

Does each school just make up their own rules? It would be so much better for everyone to do the same

Don't get me wrong, I understand under normal circumstances that would be classed as cheating! However we are not in normal circumstances by a long shot. Will there be no allowances for this? It just seems there is a gulf between schools on how they will assess also. Some doing small class tests v some doing SQA full exams.

It does feel very much as though the system is ripe for abuse. As far as I can make out, each school sets their own timetable for the assessments. As the SQA provide assessment questions most schools will choose to use them. There is nothing to stop the children telling their mates in other schools who may be sitting the same assessments at a later date what the questions were.

I am starting to think it would just have been better to keep exams. Although the current situation will benefit children in some schools who are allowed to sit lots of assessments it will disadvantage those who only sit one assessment, such as my DC. People keep on saying that allowances will have to be made for the current S5s but I see no sign of what these allowances may be. At least exams would have been fairer as everyone would have had to sit the same paper at the same time.

I haven't looked at the questions either and I'd never give hints even if I had. Schools have the option to chunk down assessments, for example in my subject pupils sit two parts to one paper. They can now do each part separately. I'd hope most schools would take advantage of this.
I think it could have been better if schools had been able to organise the assessments but they were still somehow centrally marked for consistency. I know lots of people were really keen for decisions to be made early, and I absolutely understand why that may have helped some pupils at the time, but I wonder whether we jumped the gun. I guess decisions just had to be made with the information that was available at the time. I certainly don't think it had the stress-reducing impact on pupils overall that people hoped.
There is no ideal scenario in all of this sadly.

Can I just ask the high school teachers on here, have the SQA supplied exam papers for schools to use?
If so, why would some schools use them and others not use them?

SQA have supplied a set of assessment that replicate the exam (in my subject anyway, maybe it's not the same in others?). Schools can use this as their main set of evidence or as part of an evidence set. SQA are really clear that 'best' evidence (i.e. what will stand up in their eyes) is what most closely replicates their own model of assessment. Even if it's classroom assessments, it could be your schools are using the SQA material.

We've now heard the assessment plans for our school:

a diet of class tests in May using the exemplar SQA exam paper broken up into smaller chunks, plus other class assessments/coursework/prelims to give a 'holistic' grade. Students will have 'learning conversations' with teachers along the way and learn of their provisional grade before they break up for the summer.

Us parents have had no feedback (written reports or parents' evenings) since November 2019!!!! so I anticipate there'll be some shocks with the results.