GCSEs Summer 2017 - what are the changes?

[GeneralIssues]

Bit confused regarding the GCSEs being sat this summer.
Can anyone confirm my following summary understanding:

*English and Maths - both now graded 9-1. New curriculum. Harder than previous years. No controlled assessment. (English - more marks for spag, so children with dyslexia at immediate disadvantage?)
Sciences - Graded A to G. Lower proportion of marks from controlled assessment. New curriculum. Harder than previous years.
Humanities - Graded A to G. Lower proportion of marks from controlled assessment than previous years but not thought to be much harder.
*Languages - no changes?

And then it changes again for many GCSEs in 2018??

No idea what the state of play is for A levels in 2019...

It all feels a right mess tbh!

Basically only english & math have switched to numbers.
G.... H... what's the difference? Both a poor result. Not sure about the non-English-Math being harder than previous yrs... yet. I think that's saved for 2018.

Igcses haven't changed.

All exams in English are now closed book too.

I know a few young people in Y11.
They are doing new courses in Maths and English (graded 9-1).
In every other subject they're doing exactly the same courses that DS1 did last year (graded A* to G). Same curriculum, same level of difficulty, same proportion of marks from controlled assessment.

DS2 (currently Y10) will be taking his GCSEs in 2018. They will all be graded 9-1. In some subjects, the course and structure of assessment seems quite different from what DS1 did. In other subjects, there are fewer changes than I was expecting.

A major change is 20% of marks in English Language are for spelling, punctuation and grammar.

are the iGCSEs with number grades now, or still letters? And they still follow the old (easier?) curriculum? I'm surprised more schools aren't using them if so (I know of some private schools who are).

(It's maths that the private schools I know are doing iGCSEs for, presumably because it seems easier. They also do them for science I think, as they seem to be able to offer single, separate sciences to pupils who only want to do one science).

Afaik it is still letter grades for igcse. Ime it is unusual to opt out of any of the sciences, double science is still papers in all 3 subjects. One English lit paper is open book, other closed - Think it is igcse but need to check.

Ds is in y11 and is doing exactly the same science curriculum that dd2 did three years ago. His languages and history have exactly the same proportions of controlled assessment as hers did. I assume from this that nothing apart from Maths and English have changed for this summer's exams

The school I'm thinking of is a very small private school, only recently expanded to offering KS4, and I do rather get the feeling that they are trying to find the easiest route possible. So they, unusually, do allow pupils to to do single science biology only, and seem to be choosing iGCSEs for maths (and probably English) as it perhaps seems easier. I'm not really sure - this is just what I've seen from a couple of pupils I know there. They also started the GCSE curriculum/choices in Year 9, so that they have three years to work on those subjects.

We're not sure whether English is harder yet. We'll know in the summer! I prefer closed book, because learning quotes provides a tangible framework for structuring students' revision. The intention was that it should be harder, but actually the focus on terminology and grammar in Language, whilst boring to teach, is quite formulaic. That's easier to teach than 'style' in writing.

Science is 1-9 as well. No controlled assessment, but required practicals over the course that will be assessed as part of the main terminal exams.

Sorry! Just noticed you asked about 2017 - Science is exactly the same as before - our changes hit for 2018.

DS2 takes his GCSEs this summer so will be part of the first year to take the new style maths and English exams. From what I understand, it's going to be it harder to achieve a level 4/5, which is the equivalent to a C.

The maths teacher gave me an example - in previous years maths questions would say something like 'solve this simultaneous equation' so the student would know straight away what they were being asked to do. In the new exams, the equation will be in the problem, so the student will have to first work out what they're being asked to solve.

With English there are no controlled assessments. In the past you could retake these multiple times until you achieved your target grade, this is no longer the case.

The only subjects that are 9-1 this year 2017 are Maths and English. For English there are changes in both Language and Literature.
Science is still the same as last year.
The trouble is that the 9-1 changes aren't the only ones that have happened over the past few years.
Several subjects - including Maths and Sciences were converted from modular courses to linear from 2012. This has meant that all exams have to be taken in the same sitting. So these qualifications are already harder than some past years.
I think the Geography syllabus also changed in approx 2014 and will be changing yet again for the new 9-1 specification.
iGCSEs haven't changed this year but it is expected that there will be changes to bring them into line with GCSEs. State schools have discouraged from doing iGCSEs as these results are no longer acceptable for League Tables.

MFLs will be changing from 2018 exams onwards.
All A levels will be the linear, new specifications from September 2017, but some subjects aren't being reformed so will no longer be available.

There are 3 tiers of spec changes so maths and English this year, another group of subjects for 2018 and final group for 2019 so for 2 years groups (current yr11 & 10) they will have a mix of 9-1 and A*-Fox

Lljkk- for some students F grade is a major achievement not a poor result