Is the current Year 7 doomed?

[Cloudminnow]

I've just read on the Guardian website an article saying that the current Year 7 is doomed, and risk become the forgotten Year Group due to the exam changes. If you are a secondary teacher would you agree with this? My DS has just started Year 7.

It's not that many years ago at all that modular GCSEs were introduced. Most teachers have long enough memories to be unfazed and newer teachers will have others on the staff to ask.
Of course yr7aren't doomed. I would say that if the school they are at is disorganised, doesn't plan etc some children might suffer in the first cohort but schools these days tend to be used to adjusting to new exams. They will just get on with it.

Doomed, maybe not, however they're not in a great position it must be said. No one has a clue what these exams will actually look like or what they'll contain (least of all Gove who simply wants them to be harder). Tiers? No tiers? (there had better be tiers in maths, or everyone is doomed). From what I've read there'll be two qualifications in maths, maths and applied maths. What the bloody hell does that actually mean? Does that mean functional maths or are we supposed to start teaching mechanics? Either way, we need to know ASAP. Y7 are currently going through our KS3 curriculum which has been planned to lead to GCSEs. But they won't be sitting GCSEs. Later year groups will have the advantage of sitting a secondary curriculum which feeds into the new examinations from the start.
Not all new exams start off well, curriculum 2000 at A-level was an absolute disaster for maths. I don't trust the people involved with this to get it right, or to disseminate information in a timely fashion.

The current problems with maths are much more specific than with other subjects though. Somebody somewhere needs to find an acceptable answer to the question of what we actually want to achieve through the maths syllabus and the maths exams. But I suspect that isn't high on Gove's agenda.

I agree maths needs to be sorted somehow anyway, but I'm worried that the genuine concerns about the current GCSE are going to get muddled with Gove's agenda and not enough time will be spent thinking it through carefully. Then a bodge job will be done to make it fit with the other new qualifications and a lot of kids will be left with no maths qualification at all.

PS Mordion, I love Hexwood :)

@noble Me too

DD is in Y9. Can anyone tell me the likely impact on her? At the moment, the school are talking about her taking 3 science exams at the end of this year, and I don't understand how that can work now.

I have absolutely no idea who is doomed - As Mr Gove currently appears to let teachers know about educational reform through the papers, frankly your guess is as good as mine.

I only know it does my head in even trying to understand what the proposed changes will mean (sigh).

Us parents will be the last to know