I'm just getting my head round Gove's changes to the exam system- and I am even mor horrified than I thought I would be!

[curlew]

The three things that leap out at me are 1)all year 11s have to do 8 GCSEs of which 5 have to be EBacc subjects, which will be a real struggle for many, 2) no more tiered papers, so one exam for all, so kids for whom a C is a real achievement have to sit a paper which has also to cater for the effortless A*, and 3)only the first attempt at an exam counts for the league tables. This means for a school like ours, where the vast majority of students are middle/low ability, and where we have always let many have a "practice go" early, won't be able to- because the risk to the school is too great.

Given the opportunity to sit the same paper and achieve the same grade

The difference from the O level will be the proportion of children who are expected to take it.

That would appear to be Gove's plan, merrymouse.

Not all of the proposals are necessarily disastrous in & of themselves - although untiered English is ridiculous & I don't believe for a moment it'll actually happen - but the whole picture has all the hallmarks of Gove needing to get his mug into the papers/a distraction from the investigations into the academy irregularities this week.

Again.

I don't know why I even bother to get pissed off about it anymore, tbh.

The CA in my subject is most certainly not as mist posters have described. My students have 6 hours to research and gather evidence the 3 hours in exam conditions to write up their report. At no point can they take a plan in, can I help them plan their write up or regurgitate their answer. As a marker for an exam board I have only ever seen a handful of CA tasks with full marks out of thousands

The difference in practice between different schools, and between different departments in the same school, is why CAs need to go.

AQA guidance as to notes permitted for GCSE English.

It's hardly a draft essay - just an aide memoire. & the notes are sent off to the moderator alongside the essay.

Obviously, some unscrupulous schools allow students to re-do their 'official' notes page after completing the task. Dodgy.

It's a bit like Dallas when Pam woke up and realised that Bobby was alive and that whole last season had been a dream. That was mid to late 80's too I think. Co-incidence or inspiration for educational policy?

Inclined to agree with you, TFM. Also, I have 60 of the buggers to mark this weekend! I wouldn't miss them if they went! .

raven me too - 33 top set, four hour Shakespeare and poetry exams to mark!

Sadly though the outline curriculum is so prescriptive I think it will be a nightmare to,teach. Sure my lovely bottom set, mostly boys will love a bit of. Romantic poetry!

Around 85% of the kids in our school are low or middle ability. What possible benefit could it be to them to sit an exam that goes to A+?

I don't recognise the received Mumsnet description of a controlled assessment either.

I'd be very happy to see the back of CAs, despite the fact that DD has done so well...

They're just not fair. If you're in a small school where the teacher can give you one-to-one, if you're parents will help, you're at an advantage.

Also they really stop the flow of the term. Everything stops and focusses on them. Grrrr...

The parents can't help word - they are done in class.

purple of course parents can help.

They can discuss the texts, they can help with ideas for the essay, they can check it, hell they can write it!

Where does help end and cheating begin?

Dd was not ever allowed to bring her work home. We could talk about it, obviously, but the actual writing had to be done under the eye of the teacher.

No word, they can't. The CAs MUST be done at school ... Maybe your DCs school is not playing by the rules. Parents can neither check nor write the essay. Yes they can discuss it and help with background but they can't do any more than that, unless the school is cheating the system - hence the return to 100% exams

Yes, but it seems that wordfactory's dd's school allows drafting of an essay based on the CA task, which is then taken home, tweaked, feedback given, & then memorised!

Shockingly dishonest & completely against the rules, but hardly unique, to be fair. & unlikely ever to be detected, except by the discrepancy between CA & exam performance...

Makes me cross raven as much as I hate the CAs I hate the thought of cheating

But it's inevitable isn't it purplegirly?

Nowhere near that blatant here, but I'm already re-doing CAs with my lower ability y11 group (previously taught by an inexperienced colleague, now moved on, who fucked it up with them in y10).

& we're running extra sessions over half term for anyone with below target CAs - each of us is taking one task, one day, & spending the morning teaching then the afternoon writing it up.

Gah. Totally not how they were intended!

Same here, but that's more like an interpretation of a rule rather than a blatant braking of it! They can resit but a different title, not take it home and get parents to do it!

Curlew, why can't the middle ability kids be entered for it? Don't you think they'll benefit from the higher level teaching?

leftover children of different levels respond to different levels of teaching - would you lower the level for the middle band and not stretch the higher band? Pupils are taught to the grade they are predicted but moved if they are overachieving - in English at the moment the Controlled Assessments allow for this, the 109% exam introduced by Mr Gove will not allow for tins, as different level texts will be studied.

100% exam! Good job I don't teach maths!

20 years ago, before the pressure on targets and before parents started to do it for them, coursework worked as it should and was a pleasure to teach . i no longer work but can see that CA is a depressing, time wasting activity. My dc's school chose a different IGCSE English syllabus expressly to avoid it.

It is a school which would make the press if found to be disobeying rules and guidelines are rigorously followed but I know from friends that rules are as often as not, not followed and parents generally aren't especially aware they are not as they often chat happily about the support they have given. It makes a joke out of the process.

Friends at other schools, I should have said.