Exam diet 2021.

[wingingitwithgin]

So we were told no National 5s or Highers last term.
My child has been continually assessed and tested week after week. Prelims in school before Christmas and online after Christmas.

Online learning better than 2020 but not great. No live lessons. Lots and lots of new material given but not taught.
Today announced exams to go ahead start of May as planned. Prelims disregarded as some done online so all prelims even school sat ones won't count.
Exam in May will determine grade. If pupil is self isolating /COVID they will use other evidence.

My child is burnt out by the switching of goalposts. Another month doing new material, no study leave then exams like normal (only the poor teachers marking them)

Ok this would seem fair if all schools doing this but their friends at 2 different high schools say they are just continuing with mini class tests like autumn term. Madness the difference in approach.

What are your schools doing?

By the end of the month. (Today) Then SAS was challenged in parliament snd said she would make a statement but that has not happened today, so must be tomorrow.

Madness.

No sign on the Parliament website until Thursday when there is a debate on Education.

To Ciamyfatarse and all the others who are going above and beyond for their pupils as a parent i thank you. I feel heart sorry for the schools, pupils and teachers being left to deal with this mess. The appeals situation worries me immensely as Cis said if the marks are low they can't be upgraded by magic for an appeal but if the kids have had home learning for months how can this be measured as some will have done fine at home and others who need more in school guidance and help will not be at their full potential. That's not fair to the teachers or the kids. My child is now finished assessments some went ok others not so good and i have absolutely no idea what the results will be like . She said many kids in her school have had access to questions before the assessments and she feels if they pass and she doesn't how can that be fair when she has done it all by the book and struggled with home learning but tried her best. I despair.

Poochie I entirely sympathise. I hope they try and do right by our children. My DS worked his socks off. Found Physics and Maths Higher particularly tough because he was having to teach himself stuff via YouTube videos as these were subjects that suffered the most from being taught online. The online provision wasn’t dire but it wasn’t as good in terms of learning as the classroom experience would have been. So revision wasn’t just going back over learning - it was often filling in the knowledge gaps and then revising - at the same time as being constantly tested.

He thinks he’s done OK but was aiming for As and will be disappointed if he misses out through the boundaries being mucked about with. If I was a teacher I would not be looking forward to sitting across from a pupil and having to deliver their projected grades. Dealing with the fallout of that, when the pupils know the teachers themselves have marked the papers will be tough. I know the teachers will have done all they can to be fair but it will be the ‘borderline’ results that will be tough.

I too await with interest, the news of the appeals process. Maybe the ‘handover’ from John Swinney is taking a bit longer than expected. I bet he’s delighted it’s not his baby anymore. I wouldn’t like to be in Shirley’s boots.

ds did the same with higher maths/physics/chemistry and used the youtube videos to support anything he struggled with, although it was tough he felt at least he had somewhere to go when stuck. Don't know where he would have been without those videos.

English and French he found the hardest as there was very little easily accessible to support where he has problems. He is most worried about his grades for these two (and maybe chemistry as he had two teachers and there were some Qs in the paper he thought he had never seen before so he thinks there are gaps in what they were taught). In hindsight wish we had got him a tutor for English to help him along a bit.

There was an open consultation on the appeals process a couple of months back, our school sent us the link (and I also saw on SQA twitter/facebook feeds) to the SQA page to fill in, if I recall correctly when I filled it in there were over 5,000 submissions at that point.

Still nothing from SAS or SQA. My school has just decided to plan for when to release grades even though we have not got the information we need.

It is actually beyond shocking. Pupils have worked so hard and yet, if they want to appeal, we don't know how that will work. And SQA needs marks in 24 days (and while we do work weekends it is at home and not in departments, determining grades.)

We are just going ahead with what we know but might have to adjust a few of things change.

@Cismyfatarse

Still nothing from SAS or SQA. My school has just decided to plan for when to release grades even though we have not got the information we need.

It is actually beyond shocking. Pupils have worked so hard and yet, if they want to appeal, we don't know how that will work. And SQA needs marks in 24 days (and while we do work weekends it is at home and not in departments, determining grades.)

We are just going ahead with what we know but might have to adjust a few of things change.

Completely agree.

I've messaged the union. Fat lot of good it will do. It's a joke.

Any word from when your schools will issue predicted grades?
My child says they will come with their report before end of term. I hope it's posted and kids aren't under pressure to open in front of friends?

Our school was doing 100% exams for grade so they aren't sure how they have done. I'm worried as they should pass but grades will be inflated with lots of kids having seen papers. My child is so worried this means their B might get downgraded to C if lots of A grade papers! 🤯

Also they are now back to S4 having completed all their exams, sitting in double periods of subjects they are dropping!! Another total waste of 3 weeks. Obviously can't do any new work as lots in class won't be taking forward. What a mess.

We are been told predicated grades will be by 23rd June at the latest.

Pupils allowed to resit assessments in ‘shambolic’ system

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pupils-allowed-to-resit-assessments-in-scotlands-shambolic-system-hp6x33mq8?shareToken=38c51e9f6164feddff93aeb6c85e7014

Given the announcement at 2pm today, and the frequent leaks to the Times, I wonder if there will be a U turn or "clarification" which changes things.

I can't take another change Cis, I really can't

Me neither. We have a DM at 2pm (coincidentally) and so will spen the first part watching it.

Fuck! I want to say something more erudite but I have nothing left. Like the the poor pupils I am done

Also they are now back to S4 having completed all their exams, sitting in double periods of subjects they are dropping!! Another total waste of 3 weeks.

Ours are the same, 3 weeks of sitting doing nothing in most classes. Maths are catching up with the areas that weren't covered which is good for ds as he is taking AH Maths, but most of the class doesn't care so are messing about. In English last week they watched Shawshank Redemption over a few periods with their teacher. The other 3 subjects/18 periods they are just sitting chatting among themselves or to the teacher bored senseless. ds had them all answering driving theory questions from his app in some classes!

Teachers are very obviously pissed off and telling pupils it is a waste of time being in, while the HT is sending emails to parents saying it is important they are in, that he has had a word with the teachers to make this clear 🤦‍♀️ and anyone not in will be contacted.

Would have thought it would be much better to send them home and give the teachers lots of free periods to get on the grading process during the school hours instead of babysitting/entertaining senior pupils and delaying the start of S6 by 2 weeks.

My DC in S5 finishes the assessments on Friday. I've told him he doesn't need to go in to school next week. They start the new courses the following Monday. He's not taking most of the subjects on to S6 and it seems utterly pointless for him to be in school. Also, covid rates are rising in our area so wouldn't it be better to keep the pupils who have finished their assessments out of the school building?

Yes, seems pointless the exams years going back in. My child is s4 so would normally be moving to s5 which isn't happening so another month of learning lost.

Apparently the maths higher course starts after Christmas prelims as it's so intense and can't be fully covered in one school year, so this years cohort are 6 months behind before they have even started. Goodness knows what next year will hold. Let's get over this year first!!

Apparently the maths higher course starts after Christmas prelims as it's so intense and can't be fully covered in one school year

never heard that before 😮 seems very early, ours normally starts the maths higher in June, after their exam/study leave and has it covered by February. So we will be running 2 weeks late which isnt too bad. Doesn't seem sensible to start the higher content while they should be completing and still revising for all their NAT5s.

At our school they blast though the nat5 course so it's finished for prelims at Christmas then start the higher course in January till mid March when they usually go over nat 5 revision.

Good to know your school only starts it in June and gets it completed in time. I worried they would be chasing their tail next year. They do this as apparently the maths higher course is content heavy and hard to get though in one year. I'm sure allowances will be made next year if schools can't manage it

The NAT5 course is fairly easy to get through for a top set maths class. At our school when they complete the course they ask the class if they want to do NAT5 Application of Maths in the time left and ds got another NAT5. Sounds like starting Higher early is just another way to use up the free time with something useful, but it isn't unusual to only start Higher in June.

Lovely report on BBC news channel with their Scottish correspondent in Glasgow. All about how the SQA are asking schools to take down posts from pupils that are showing the assessment papers and allowing cheating. Apparently a site called Anti-SQA has had 6000 visits and there’s papers up there and answers. The news report inferred that these visits were made today - aren’t most assessments over now?!

How on earth are schools expected to police this?! I know assessment papers have been circulating and I think it must be really hard for kids NOT to overhear the chat that’s been going on about all this.

The most depressing thing was the message that this means the Scottish qualifications this year are going to be severely discredited. I guess this will have most impact on pupils that are applying for courses outside of Scotland (not a huge amount of pupils I guess?) But Scottish Universities too will have to be convinced that a pupil hasn’t cheated and how are they going to know that? And are teachers expected to make these judgements when they’re marking assessments?

And as for the session in parliament this afternoon? Not a huge amount of substance there. There seemed to be quite a resistance to the idea that grades could go down as well as up if appeals went ahead. Oh and that the appeals process can be initiated from June when the initial grades are delivered by teachers. What does everyone think about what was said (particularly the teachers)?

I think the circumstances under which a child could actually appeal don't really exist.

I can't imagine a scenario where a school wouldn't have made a grade based on their strongest evidence.

So now we have exams that aren't exams and an appeal process that isn't an appeal process. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It is Schroedinger's appeal.

I haven't talked to colleagues much but I am, personally, pleased there is the stick of going down. Most appeals will be on the 69/70 or 49/50 border. If at all possible, we have found marks and pushed hard to get grades for kids.

However, if I supply carefully cross-marked evidence to SQA for a pupil who has 69% and they go up to an A then I will be delighted.

However, it dragging on into September is not ideal. Like many teachers, I just want to put this year behind me and move on. It also affects choices and destinations so drawing it out is not ideal.

Hopefully, pupils will get grades in line with, or above, expectations and will then be able to relax for the summer.

The cheating was being explained to me today by some pupils. Not much in my subject (and we mixed up several papers and did not use SQA like other schools). They were pretty shocked at the scale of it. They also told of the collusion of private tutors in going through papers and helping to prepare answers.

However, teachers know their pupils snd a 90% after several at 50% is going to be questioned.

What happens then if they are awarded a C and appeal - who knows. If we can't prove they cheated then Will SQA give them an A?

Lovetomato - quite a few assessments still going on

Are there Mistressiggi ?

Well if people didn’t know about the cheat papers, they do now!

We have a stack of seniors isolating so will be assessing late next week.

Not an usual scenario I imagine.