JCQ and ofqual gcse grade warnings...

[nostress]

There was a news story a few weeks ago and again today (bbc eduation section and the times) warning about the results falling this year. Saying to governing bodies please dont sack heads! I'm very worried for my DS1! I'm just praying that he secured Cs and above.

In an ideal world Bonsoir yes.

But for the 2014 cohort, if they don't get the baseline GCSE grade, all the skills in the world aint gonna get them the place they want in college in September.

Or do you think the colleges will simply take an applican't word for it? Nice thought, though that is ..

People have got to stop stressing. Exam systems change - lots of people have been through the first year of this system or the last year of that. Much more difficult changes have taken place eg in Canada and Germany when the school leaving age was lowered from 19 to 18. People still got an education!

But as has been pointed out to you Bonsoir the 2014 cohort aren't at the vanguard of change.

They are the cohort who are stuck in the middle. And I suspect many of them will be affected.

I don't have any DC in this cohort, so I don't speak from personal concern. But I still feel for all those kids.

Bonsoir - when it is your child who has worked incredibly hard - and I saw mine do this - who's future is effectively a political football then I think you will be saying less about stressing.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who isn't buying Bonsoir's repositioning herself as Queen of Chill Out when it comes to education ...

She just doesn't give a shit because she hasn't got skin in the game. And can't summon enough empathy for kids she doesn't know...

This years exam takers include the kids whose English controlled assessments were torn up AFTER hours and hours of work was put into them.

They are the kids who picked their options in year 9 based on the courses being roughly modular, but then were told that the testing of all the modules would be at the end of the two years.

They are the kids who discovered that practical subjects like textiles and resistant materials were 30% exam based after they had picked their options.

They are the kids whose grades are going to be deflated to fit political whims so questions will be asked by employers why they are so much thicker than the cohort of 2011.

Gove is gone but the damage he wrought on the English system will persist for years.

Anybody who thinks that it will not affect their life chances REALLY needs to get out more.

DD's teachers have been gently warning the kids about this year being a bit of an unknown, transitional year, and the number of revision sessions put on by the school, even on weekends, in the build-up to the exams, were evidence of some concerns by the Headteachers. We cant help but worry for our own DC, as although in the greater scheme of things these results will matter less as they get older, it is their one and only shot at year 11. Yes they can resit Maths and English, but if that detracts from their next phase of study, then it will continue to affect them.

I just dont want my DD to feel like she could have done better, when I know how hard she worked for so long, and the more media coverage there is in the build-up to the 21st, the more our DC will feel that they cannot win and are just caught up in the politics of education.

This cohort also includes kids who would have been preparing to sit maths and English in November with a chance at another bite of the cherry in June, but had the rug pulled from under them a couple of weeks before their actual GCSE exam and suddenly been told they had to sit it in June for the first time instead. How unsettling.

No way would an individual employer know how each student has been affected by all the pissing around.

Bonsoir, sorry but think you may be a little out of touch with the UK system. Unis are using GCSE results as a benchmark for future success. College and uni offers are competitive with candidates pitted against each other regardless of which cohort they fall into. It may determine whether they even get an interview let alone a conditional place. The fact that this year's B may have been last year's A is irrelevant and not something taken into consideration, it is the grades themselves which determine qualification for courses. For those on the borderline it is the difference between a pass or fail.

I think the difficulty is that most employers, colleges, unis, know that changes are afoot for the cohort sitting in 2015. But most people believe that the 2014 cohort have sat modular exams, like the previous cohort, when in fact they've sat some horrible neither arthur nor martha hybrid!

If I can offer any comfort my Dd was in the first cohort to find themselves with inconsistently deflated GCSE results. It came as a surprise and many walked out of local schools in tears on results day, having not got the grades predicted / needed to get into sixth forms. A number of my DDs cohort at school predicted an A in English got a B (their English results were deflated by 40%). Most private sixth forms require an A to do the A level. Within 24 hours it had become clear what had happened and sixth forms were relaxing their requirements. It was also thought any hope of studying English at a good university was ended with less than A.

At AS level in spite of terrible panic attacks my DD cleared 4As with a very high mark in English, she applied to study English in combined honours for 5 universities, 4 in the top 10 in the league tables for English and got 5 offers, something that would not have happened without a string of A*s in previous years. The unis clearly knew exactly what had happened and disregarded that B, and the same was true of other pupils who had similarly had disappointing results.

I don't know how the unis are going to respond to not having the additional evidence from AS but what they want is the brightest applicants who will succeed on the courses and the credibility of GCSE results as a predictor of that has been undermined.

I really feel for any pupils who are a victim of all this meddling, but the unis do not live in a vacuum.

Bottlecap firstly, you maintained that it was untrue to say a bright pupil with average scores which would still represent a significant disability would not get extra time. It is true isn't it? And it translates into a lot of pupils who have lost their extra time or will not get it, who will as OFQUAL concedes have the playing fields tipped against them. And all I suspect because some policy bod thought it would sound bad to Daily Mail readers if those getting extra time had scores that could be termed "average", restricting it to "below average" is a nice simple message, no need to complicate it with the complexity of reality of how different pupils with different issues and levels of ability are affected

Secondly I can only pass on the advice of an Ed Psych, Dyslexia charity and school exam officer that without those below average working memory and processing scores extensive evidence has to be submitted for special consideration and they are finding the chances of success uncertain.

TalkinPeace
"They are the kids who discovered that practical subjects like textiles and resistant materials were 30% exam based after they had picked their options."

its 40% and has been for years.

LIZS - I can assure you that I am not remotely out of touch - I coach dozens of UCAS candidates every year and am in touch with university admissions people who are not as dim as people on this thread seem to think!

Shooting pigeons I really don't want to argue with you because I've already stated my understanding of the regulations.

But Bonsoir UCAS is two years away for this cohort.

Right now these kids have to secure places in sixth forms and colleges.

Seriously, I think because you help a handful of kids in Paris sort out their UCAS forms, really doesn't make you an expert here.

Boney
The course summary I have from when DD chose her subject stated that it was a chunk of marks on the made items, a chunk of marks on the portfolio and a written paper worth 20 marks about the background to the made items.

That turned out to be a 30 mark paper about world trade.

The options summary I had for DS showed that it was 30% for the item, 40% for writing about the item and 30% writing about world trade.
The whole point of DT subjects is that they should be practical, not moralising about palm oil.

bonsoir
am in touch with university admissions people who are not as dim as people on this thread seem to think
but are you in touch with employers and technical college and 2000 group universities and their requirements?
How many C and D grade students do you coach?
Sorry but I believe you are utterly out of touch with the C/D issue.

shooting that's a good positive story .

I'm not quite sure how things will pan out now, in the absence of AS levels. No doubt some schools will still get their students to sit them and then these will be forwarded with a university application, even though they won't count officially towards A2 (which presumably won't be called that any more).

Or, as I say, we will see an increase in the A* offer as insurance for the universities IYSWIM.

I posted on AIBU ' To think that in the last two years , some schools have increased entry requirements for sixth form entry'. One grammar school I was looking at for DD2 now requires five A grades at GCSE, which is significantly higher than two years ago. I am wondering with these 'warnings', whether some schools are going to have to rethink their admission criteria for sixth form.

Bonsoir , do you believe that o/s students often paying substantially larger fees are given parity in entry requirements with UK students.

isitmylibrarybook

Many of the less selective universities already pay relatively little heed to GCSEs. Providing an applicant has the requisite number of passes, they usually receive an offer which they either make or don't make.

The difficulty arises for applicants to the most selective universities, where there are always far more applicants than places. Where applicants have equally stellar AS results, admissions tutors sometimes fall back on GCSEs...and when they're not considered reliable...the henious A* offer!

LIZS - overseas students (not EU students, who are in the same competitive pool as EU students) are in a different "quota", if you like. They are not given priority over UK and EU students.

It is quite significantly harder for EU students to get places at top universities on certain sorts of courses than it is for British students.

They are not given priority over UK and EU students.
ROTFLPMPL
Thick but rich Chinese brings in £40k in fees versus middling UK brings in £5000