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WJEC Ordered to Re-Grade GCSE English Language (But Only in Wales)

7 replies

hellsbells99 · 11/09/2012 13:38

There is a thread on the TES website regarding the GCSE English Language for the WJEC board
community.tes.co.uk/forums/t/602378.aspx
Looks like the Welsh Government are not in agreement with OFQUAL over the GCSE problems!
This affects my DD1 - and I have just sent off for a remark and her paper back at a cost of approx £45!!!

OP posts:
hellsbells99 · 11/09/2012 14:24

By the way I am in England!

OP posts:
Startailoforangeandgold · 11/09/2012 16:07

Doesn't surprise me.
Concerns were being raised about Welsh literacy levels all last year on the BBC education pages.
Lower GCSE marks are going to make them look worse still.

warwick1 · 11/09/2012 16:40

The whole issue appears to be getting rather political. I guess given the Labour party's position it is of no surprise that the Welsh Labour government would make the decision to inflate the June English results.

So much for advocating the elimination of unwarranted grade inflation, politics comes first as usual it appears.

lelly88 · 11/09/2012 20:29

Wooah a minute, back up, this is what all teachers in England and Wales are complaining about. It may just force the conservatives to do the right thing.

LittenTree · 11/09/2012 22:39

The Welsh assembly shouldn't be able to do this! This is the problem with 'partial' devolution.

The 'right' thing is to 'expect' FE colleges etc to accept the predicted grade, not the actual, then the DC goes to college as planned, moves on.

IF they regrade this exam, all they're doing is making it all but impossible for next year's cohort to get that C when they're borderline. There's no way the exam board(s) will be caught out again!

And another issue, what will happen when an academically identical Welsh DC and an English one goes for the same place in college, esp in England? The college will have no legal option other than to take the Welsh regraded DC over the English, will they? THAT might cause tensions, esp as places will have been awarded and courses begun by now!

Incidentally, I think we're all to blame for this, in a round-about way. I think that as modern parents, with the forensic obsession we have with every nuance of our DC's education, the scanning of League Tables, the dissection of OFSTEDS- the temptation to show year-on-year 'improvement in our DC's academic attainment must have been irresistible, but inevitably, that house of cards had to tumble somewhere, and this year's cohort were the apparent victims, but, in our classic 'as long as I'm alright, jack' way, all we're doing is pushing this 'problem' to next year, when our own DC will have cleared that hurdle. I do not blame any parent in that position, but again, we, via the schools, shouldn't actually be 'allowed' to do it!

warwick1 · 12/09/2012 09:58

LittenTree - I agree totally.

lelly88 - schools and teachers are not always right. The english course specification was changed in order to make the english qualification more relevant and to improve the standard of the qualification. The exam boards were expected to stop grade inflation, schools/academies were expected to improve actual performance and not rely on year on year grade inflation to climb the leagues tables, OfQUAL was expected to police the system on behalf of us all to make sure all the others did an honest job. When the banks weren't regulated properly who cried out the loudest, probably those that are baying for OfQual's blood now.

If the English June grades which are accepted as correct are re-graded upwards for the majority of children because of political pressure, what are we teaching our children, certainly not a lesson in fairness. Fairness would be to downgrade the January grades. That hasn't been advocated mainly because of the small numbers of students involved and the time period.

Political interference now would devalue our education system even further. My DC has been affected by this but I am more annoyed with the school that taught to the C/D borderline rather than push to full potential. They tried to be too clever by half and it is the students who have suffered.

Startailoforangeandgold · 12/09/2012 10:20

Littentree- has hit the nail on the head. We all know grade inflation has been going on, but no parent wants their DC in the cohort that doesn't get better grades than the one before.

This as ,Warwick1, says has been aided and abetted by some dreadful teaching to the test by the schools.

Yes, it's terribly tempting to teach less able DCs at a level they are comfortable with.
Its also very tempting for the DCs to study marked examples of work and think ok I can scrape my C. It's very risky.

That said moving the goal posts mid year, for political reasons, then adjusting them with further interference is totally wrong.

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