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Secondary education

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Original poster

Here we go! It's GCSE results week!

399 replies

MaureenMLove · 20/08/2012 20:47

Are you ready? What's everyone got planned for Thursday? I'm going to my school to check on results, then wait for DD to call me from her school, with her news.

It's going to be an emotional day! Possibly not personally with DD, not expecting any top results, but she does already has Maths and English in the bag. She had what she needs to move forward and that's all that matters.

I have another 120 kids at my school and one or two who I care very much about. Can't wait to be there for them.

OP posts:
Olympicnmix · 23/08/2012 13:32

There's certainly a 'realignment' with the results this year which was heralded after the exam board debacle and scrambling to be the govt's exam board of choice.

We have a very steady cohort intake, teachers the same. Whilst our A for my subject has increased a bit, the number of As is significantly down, far more many Bs than we normally get. It's about what we expected, as to drop them any lower would lead to mass protest and remarking en masse from schools. And call me cynical, but not one of the B or A grades is near the cusp of an A or A where you might contemplate a remark.

We're skipping off to iGCSEs though.

allthegoodnamesweretaken · 23/08/2012 14:00

My DD is far too young for exams etc, but my younger sister got 2 As and 7 A*s. I've been sobbing with pride :)

BoffinMum · 23/08/2012 14:11

DS1 has got GCSE German two years early with a B, which is not half bad considering a) he has a statement of SEN, and b) he is pretty idle. I am still in shock. Shock Grin

almapudden · 23/08/2012 14:15

Well done your sister, allthegoodnames, that's brilliant!

singingsoprano · 23/08/2012 14:32

Well done to all dc Smile
Dd did amazingly well after having awful Year 9 & 10 at a very academic girl's school and being assessed as dyslexic. 1 A*, 2 As (including Eng Lit), 3 Bs and 4 Cs including Maths, which she really struggled with, and was 2 marks off a B!Smile!!! So proud!!
Well done to all our teenagers.

Landofsoapandglory · 23/08/2012 14:36

Well, it would seem that I have bred 2 Historians. DS2 got an A* in it and only dropped 2 marks, after DS1 got 100% lat year. He got an A in RE and in English Language, so we are very pleased to have them out of the way!

He got an A in his Maths, Physics and Chemistry modules and 2 marks off an A in his Biology, and a B in Buisness module.

I know have my happy, smiling boy back, especially as I bought him a MaccyDs on the way home!

I don't know about everyone else, but I shall sleep bloody well tonight!

VoldemortsNipple · 23/08/2012 14:44

We've had a mixed bag of results here, but not too many surprises.

On the good hand DD actually better than expected in English. She got an A in music dispite all the complaints of not pulling her weight by her teachers and them losing ten hours of work on her, giving her only two hours to do it again.

She has been marked really harshly in her drama exam. She had two As for the first two modules and then an E for the exam. Well I know I'm not an examiner, but she certainly did not deserve an E. Her overall mark is a C and she will be able to do it at A level but its really disheartening.

Maths is a little confusing. She did edexcell modular and was boarderline C/D. The teachers put her in for linier to make sure she got a C. They told DD that they would take the best mark but she got B in linier and C in modular with an overall C.

We are just hoping the school allow her to do science A level as those results are a bit shaky.

Well done to everybody else.

GetDownNesbitt · 23/08/2012 14:47

Well, we survived. Some happy children. Y10 less so, but we have time...

Just a note for those people mentioning that teachers have fucked up in CAs - bear in mind that there were no grade boundaries before the CAs were sent off: I had to give a mark out of 24, for example, without knowing whether 20/24 was an A, an A or a B. so, in one case, a very nice lad has missed his A because his CAs came out as a B where we had expected them to be an A.

I have been a teacher for a lot of years, a marker for ten years and am now a moderator, and I still felt that I was in the dark. The exam board wanted to help, but had Gove and Ofqual on their backs - Ofqual were at every single marking and standardising meeting I have attended this year checking that nothing was given away.

LineRunner · 23/08/2012 14:48

I feel like going to bed now. Smile I had about two hours sleep last night.

I know that all sounds a bit wanky - but I have really worried about my DD and her maths and science. For her to get Cs and above is excellent. And she did so well in English, bless her - got an A.

MordionAgenos · 23/08/2012 14:51

@getdwn surely though you give the CA the mark you think it deserves, not the mark that will get the pupil the grade you want him to get, nice boy or not?

LineRunner · 23/08/2012 14:52

Voldermort - similar thing is Drama for us, too. Was the crappy mark in the 5DR02? DD got A, A and then a D - so down to a B overall. She's very sad about that, tbh, as Drama is the love of her life.

Original poster
MaureenMLove · 23/08/2012 14:55

Well done everyone. No news from Champneys yet. Hope she's OK.

Well DD did OK. Disappointed that she got a D in French, but the rest were C's and her prized and very much wanted for A* in Art. She's happy, so I'm happy.

Same time next year for ASs? Ha ha! Grin

OP posts:
cardibach · 23/08/2012 14:57

Mordion, you give it the mark you think will get it the grade it deserves (yes, nice boy or not, but I think GetDown only ment she felt sorry for him). WJEC have continually said that what was e.g. an A on the old syllabus would still be an A despite different marks, but when they won;t tell you what an A is it gets tricky. The grade descriptors were very vague indeed.
We found our Y10 results surprisingly low, too. Coincidnece? Hmm

GetDownNesbitt · 23/08/2012 15:02

Sorry Mordion - I wasn't very clear. Yes, it got the mark it deserved - but the kids always try to equate it to grades, so we used exam board info for a rough idea. The boy thought he had an A. So did I. He didn't. If we had known it might bring his mark down, he might have resat the CA - not an easy option, another bloody four hours of writing, not to mention prep and marking, but hey ho.

MordionAgenos · 23/08/2012 15:12

@getdown OK, that makes sense, thanks. I thought it couldn't be the other way as that would just be completely open to manipulation. So, presumably this means that although DD1 thinks she has A on an English CA already it might actually not equate to an A when the time comes because she will have been awarded a mark and the mark may or may not equate to an A* next summer. To be honest, I really think terminal exams are a lot better than this system - so much up in the air, so much conflicting information, so much scope for disappointment.

BringBack1996 · 23/08/2012 15:13

Well done to everyone's DC - seems all of the hard work and stress has really payed off!

DS has massively exceeded his expectations with 5As, 4As and 2Bs. He was predicted an A for English Lang but only just scraped an A, with a C in his coursework. His is absolutely over the moon with it though! I think we're going down the remark route with his maths paper though as he was one mark off an A* which he would absolutely love.

I think the biggest miracle of the day though was that he got his B in Latin! In two of his modules he got Cs and Ds but still managed to pull through with his other two.

I swear this exam process has aged me about 20 years!

CakeistheAnswer · 23/08/2012 15:20

Dumbledoresgirl - DS took add maths this year and got an A. I think his friends did too.
As far as I'm aware there is no A* for this.

GetDownNesbitt · 23/08/2012 15:26

just been looking - in January, a CA mark of, say, 55/96 would have got you a C. This summer, it needed to be more like 65/96.

But, before now, there have been relatively small cohorts going through each unit. This means that the full range of grades isn't always represented. This summer was always going to be the point where things were 'evened out'.

I don't think that exams are necessarily the right answer though - certainly not for subjects like English, where it's all about analysis and consideration.

Mordion if the CA has been entered and banked, then that A* is safe. If it has been marked in school but not submitted to the board for entry yet then yes, it may change.

gettingeasier · 23/08/2012 15:36

dumbledore my DS is doing additional maths and got 2 B's but was convinced beforehand he would get As and is disappointed as he had self marked as an A

What I dont get is what use is additional maths being harder , isnt it better to do normal maths and get an A* ?

VoldemortsNipple · 23/08/2012 15:37

linerunner DDs bad mark was 5DR03. Her teacher said it was the exam. Well I sat in on that exam, they performed infront of an audience. I'm not saying she on her way to Broadway. But she gave a good performance. She delivered her lines clearly and with good timing. She is one of the more capable girls in her class so I feel sorry for the girls whose nerves got the better of them.

clam · 23/08/2012 15:45

dumbledore: My ds did Add Maths and got a B. He was really pleased with it as he said it's very hard. Again, for context, he did the "normal" GCSE a year early and got an A, the whole set did statistics in a term and he got a B and he's also just done the iGCSE and got an A.
He's planning on doing maths and further maths at A level, although he may drop the latter if it turns out to be as hard as everyone says.

In general terms, ds has reported that (on FB Angry ) the only question they're all firing at each other is "how many A*?" This is hacking him off as he "only" got 2, but 8 As (and a few Bs), so hardly bad.

Is this like the Olympic medal tables, where only the golds count? Smile

LineRunner · 23/08/2012 15:49

Voldermort I guess my DD didn't too so well on something else then - was 02 the theatre review? Who knows - I'm having another Buck's Fizz. At least they passed, bless 'em. Smile

I am so old, we didn't have A stars.

clam · 23/08/2012 15:50

Am also interested in the possibility of re-marking for ds's English Lit. He was one mark off an A. Whose decision is it?

GetDownNesbitt · 23/08/2012 15:57

clam - the school can do it but it costs. If you are successful you get the money back. If you really want it doing I would offer to pay.

cardibach · 23/08/2012 15:57

You can request the school get it remarked, clam. If they don;t agree, you might have to pay, but you should be able to get it done. THat's how it would work at my school, anyway.