Guilt Free Railing 10

[WouldBeGood]

Is the end nigh?

My DC went through the English education system.
2 DC were summer birthdays and although they went to school at 4 years old, they went into more of a Kindergarten set up.
All the summer birthday children were in the same class together for the first 3 years of school which worked brilliantly and allayed my fears about children starting school at 4.

The year prior to the year they sat GCSE’s, so 3rd year wasn’t so intense and that was a good stage in the teenage years to keep the focus on academic achievement but also all the extra curricular hobbies and general support for that stage of teenage development.

My DC all sat 3 separate Science subjects and had a great range and breadth of choice.
They sat 8 GCSEs. English was divided into English Language and English Lit.
Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth were entirely devoted to A Levels.
AS levels were still in existence 4 years ago, so my DC all have an extra AS level in a different subject from the 3 A Levels
They left school more than ready to tackle a 3 year degree at an English university.
There is a huge variety of options in England, including different exam boards.

The problem with starting school later is that there has to be excellent early years education in place for ALL children, otherwise the attainment gap just keeps getting wider.
It strikes me that 6th form is a bit of a waste of time for many Scottish students and then there’s the 4 year degree which has so many strengths but there seems to be a fair bit of treading water for some Scottish children while their peer group elsewhere have their heads down.
The whole system from nursery to university needs overhauled.

Exams, continuous assessment, deferred entry dates, kids who are 17 when they leave school etc etc
No system can cater perfectly to each individual child but there MUST be proper commitment and therefore hard cash spent on less advantaged young people.
There cannot be a levelling down as I suspect is happening in Scotland now.
While we need to ensure that young people aren’t burnt out, stressed out, exam machines, they still need to be ambitious and competitive with the wherewithal to cope with the demands of higher education and the modern world of work.

@Scottishskifun

😂 *@ResilienceWanker* I can tell you that other than Elizabeth the 1st, James and the Stuarts scottish history is not taught in England.

Oh, I know. I definitely know more about interwar Germany or life in Ancient Rome than I do about Scottish History. In fact, half my A level was English History 1399-1603, so the Scots were totally always the Baddies. Soz.

More class assessments and less emphasis on one final exam can only be a good thing and more realistic to real world requirements.
BUT it needs to be done in controlled classroom environments otherwise it's just open to abuse from "help" from parents/tutors ( I'm looking at you English folio!)

H geography is an excellent example.
They learn investigative techniques then choose their own subject and go out and do the investigation in class time.
Then in the class they interpret their results and draw conclusions.
Then in a timed IN CLASS assessment they write up their investigation and it's 20 or 30% of mark. can't remember which.
The sciences do something similar with an experiment.

So each subject could expand this to 2 investigations making up more of final mark.
DC1 also did a H in a creative subject with lot of coursework but it was all done in class time, had to be done in certain amount of hours and couldn't be brought home.
So there's plenty of good examples of better balance of coursework/final exam which could be expanded on
Unfortunately DC1 never then got to sit the final exams last year

@ResilienceWanker @Scottishskifun
I did higher history 100 yrs ago and can assure you there was nothing Scottish about it!
1st world war and the rise of hitler
Russian revolution
And a 3rd topic which was obviously the boring one as I can't remember it but definitely didn't do anything "Scottish "

Class assessments in Uni made sense but we had a mix of open book assessments (ie your own notes, not Google), coursework handed in and exams.

But one of the most pointless things I have ever done was a Higher coursework that I'd spent ages on doing in my best handwriting at home, only to get told the final draft had to be done in school so they knew it was your own work. So I then spent the next hour rewriting the bloody thing and I've no doubt the handwriting wasn't as neat and you can guarantee they'd have been more spelling mistakes.
Despite making it to Uni via college, and never failing anything in college or uni. I failed my Highers in school twice!

I should have left after 5yr at 16 and gone to college instead of wasting another year. But hey you live and learn.

Primary 5/6/7 for me was a lot on old Edinburgh, the clearances by reading the desperate journey. I enjoyed our topic work.

But @Lockdownbear you wouldn't have wasted time doing stuff at home to have to redo it in class if
it made clear at beginning that all your notes were staying in school and all work being completed in class
Fairest way to include coursework in final grade but make sure it's all the pupils own work at school level.

Uni is different as I certainly know I will be no help whatsoever with subjects DC1 going to study

DS1 managed to make it to the end of third year at Uni before he had to sit any exams - then he did one. Set at a particular time with a time limit on-line so effectively they were all sitting it together but not really enough time to go searching for answers either. I wonder if 4th year will bring any more exams.

question - what grade do you need at national 5 to get into Highers?

Back in my day, you only got grades 1-2 at Credit to do the Higher

But now you can get grades A-D for National 5? Do they all get accepted into the Higher then, or is there a grade DD should aim for?

I worry about her English, its her least favourite subject (and one of my favourites when I was at school)

A-C grades allow you access to Higher.

If a candidate struggled to get the C though I'd have concerns about them managing at Higher.

But@Lockdownbearyou wouldn't have wasted time doing stuff at home to have to redo it in class if it made clear at beginning that all your notes were staying in school and all work being completed in class
Fairest way to include coursework in final grade but make sure it's all the pupils own work at school level

It was one of the first years of doing the Revised Highers. There was no expectation that note had to stay in school. Just the final draft had to be done in school but they didn't tell us that bit.

It turns out the worst kind of online exam is a 24 hour one, which some departments set to allow their students who had gone to ride out covid in other countries to do it at a sensible time. So saying that the exam should take 3 hours, but they could do that 3 hours at any time over a 24hr window. (Also allowing people with caring responsibilities or similar a bit of flexibility in timing). Great in theory. Of course, in practice, everyone started it as soon as it was "released", and carried on as long as they could, because their peers would be and it gave them time to refine their answers. And compare answers with their mates over that 24 hours . And then going onto another one the next day, with about 2 hours sleep! In terms of academic misconduct (which DH also deals with) and student mental health, they were shit shows...

I never considered the possibility that parents would do help with coursework, but I suppose that is a risk. Or these days online "essay mills" presumably. I think it used to be assumed that teachers were sufficiently familiar with their students' work (and handwriting) it would be obvious, but with increased workload over the years I appreciate that isn't so much a given now. Maybe coursework with a short oral exam, where the teacher can question the student about their folio to ensure they understand what they've submitted and can discuss it - like vivas in uni?

I think DS2 had some of those type of exams @ResilienceWanker but he is doing Politics alongside some history modules so I expect that the marking would be more subjective and also checked for plagiarism? Honestly not sure.

DS1 has mainly not needed to sit exams (MEng in CS) as he has scored well in class tests and assignments so was exempted. I think his exam being fixed and live seems quite fair. Not sure how it worked for some students maybe being in a different time zone though.

We'll need a new thread soon.

Back to work tomorrow. I'm quite excited. Gousto arrived for ds to cook for dinners.

Alarm set. Must remember masks.

Yes, who could believe so much railing?😂

I love your enthusiasm for your job and the wee ones @Groovee. Hope it’s a good day! Gousto sounds interesting too.

I’m a bit sad ds going back, weirdly but am watching the new series of Grace and Frankie 😊

In good non railing, I am enjoying the removal of bouncers and stupid one way systems from the supermarkets.

I'm not liking the alarm so early when Mr G has snored all night.

Mr G physically returns to work today. Phased in return. It's 7 months today I waded on to a thread terrified of what was going on.

Thank you for all the support. It's meant a lot.

I can't believe that's been 7 months @Groovee !
How's he feeling about returning to work?

He's quite excited. He's getting out the house 😂. Feels a bit normal again.

Big day in the @Groovee household, I hope it goes well for all of you. I can't believe it's been 7 months either.

Good luck on your first day back too @Groovee

Goodness, that’s been a stressful 7 months for you @Groovee. So pleased to hear MrG getting back to work. Have a good day.

@Scottishskifun

😂 *@ResilienceWanker* I can tell you that other than Elizabeth the 1st, James and the Stuarts scottish history is not taught in England.

Very true. I am currently listening to podcasts called "not just the tudors" and "gone medieval" to fill in the woeful gaps in my knowledge.

On the continuous assessment thing - if it's done properly, then it's just as rigorous as exams. I'm currently doing a Masters and all assessment is through assignments. Last year we had 6 major pieces of work to hand in, this year we'll have 8, plus a final project. When assignments are released they come with a full marking scheme and when you get it returned, it's with full comments. The Masters has always been run on this basis so they haven't just designed the system for this last year.

The main difference is that as Masters students we're all paying the Uni to be there. We are the "customers" and if we're not getting what we paid for, we'd complain or withdraw. The SQA doesn't see schools or students as customers. Why should they try to improve? Schools don't have the option to go elsewhere. They just keep paying the fees to the SQA each year, the SQA keeps fucking it up, promises of change, nothing happens.

Ooooh, good luck to both of you today groovee! That's quite some milestone.

DS isn't back til Wednesday, but I realised yesterday that though I've got his main uniform sorted, I haven't thought about PE kit/ indoor shoes etc Last year he just wore joggers all the time, and they all wore trainers, so could use those for PE (and slippers for inside the classroom so they didn't trek mud in from the Somme-like playground ). But they're "back to normal" in uniform terms this year, allegedly - which is annoying (given I assume the same restrictions on being outside in all weathers/ opening windows and doors etc will apply). May need a quick trip to pick up what I've forgotten, assuming shorts etc from 2019 no longer fit...! Dammit.

@ResilienceWanker I had to do an emergency dash to Tesco for trousers for DS last night as he hadn’t bothered trying his on til then… 🙄

Schools don't have the option to go elsewhere. They just keep paying the fees to the SQA each year, the SQA keeps fucking it up, promises of change, nothing happens.

Yes, I think this is partly the issue. Although competition/ private franchises aren't necessarily the route to efficiency (yes trains, I am looking at you) a monopoly/ state control definitely isn't either! Someone mentioned earlier that the "customer base" in Scotland might not be big enough for more than one exam board, which may be true? But presumably the exam process isn't different enough that they couldn't be offered as an additional qualification by the "English" exam boards, which would at least give a bit of competition? Given they have the infrastructure and stuff in place to do the distribution/ marking (or army of teachers doing marking on the side) / liaison with schools and teachers etc. I assume there's just no push to open things up because it's just more normal in Scotland to have a single exam board setting the same exam across the country. Probably also confused by the difference between the NC and CFE, but ultimately, children doing an exam in eg maths at age 16 should be expected to know a certain amount of "stuff" / methods under whatever curriculum, so it can't be that different - even if the focus is different.