Y11 PARENTS: GCSE pass grade lowered to a 4

[noblegiraffe]

In a last minute government u-turn, the government has announced that instead of a 4 being required to not resit maths and English for the first 2 years of the new GCSEs, it will be the requirement for the future too, it will never be raised to a 5.

They have also declared that the grade 4 will be called a 'standard pass' and the 5 a 'strong pass'.

This has huge implications for sixth form entry requirements and resits as some had already raised the bar to a 5 in anticipation. It also means that there will be less confusion in the future as DC compare for jobs against future cohorts as the resit requirements will remain the same.

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/603594/ESC_letter.pdf

Just to prove how good they are at messing up at both primary and secondary.

They've known that the results for this year will be dire since Jan 2016
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/2550593-GCSE-pass-rate-to-drop-by-23-in-2017

They've known they'll be dire, teachers have known that they'll be dire, the DfE have just bottled it at the last minute. I think they have realised that they don't have the sixth form capacity or teaching staff to cope with the increased resit requirements in 2 years, and that the resit policy is a failure anyway so they've just binned the GCSE resit requirement and scrapped the '5' as a good pass for resits thing to get around it.
I think it's all slowly falling apart. Teacher recruitment is really starting to affect policy, and the public are slowly becoming more aware of the funding crisis. On top of that they're going to have to release consultation responses showing that among the education community, grammar schools are as popular as Michael Gove. Crap results would finish the DfE off.

God it feels like I've been talking about what an ongoing balls-up these new GCSEs have been for years. And from looking at my old threads, I realise I have!

Thanks very mean ch for highlighting this nobelgiraffe. I'm knackered so just bookmarking to read tomorrow.

Ffs. I did say I was knackered!

Interesting article here:

teacherhead.com/2017/03/28/gcse-grading-goes-ga-ga/

Is there any reason why the grades should not be banded and each school report what percentage were in each band? Also, why can't colleges just decide what grades a student needs to be able to cope with the demands of the course?

the public are slowly becoming more aware of the funding crisis.

Yes, and some of the local fair funding groups will probably morph into opposition groups to any actual new grammar proposals. Whilst the national fair funding organisation are trying to keep the campaigns separate many local groups (East Cheshire probably being the most active - they of course could be under threat from "annexes" from Trafford grammars) are clearly seeing the two issues as linked.

Why even have grades? Why not just publish the % of marks gained? We all know that 80% shows a good knowledge of the subject (or syllabus and exam technique!) and 40% shows that you know something, but can't really pretend to any great mastery of the subject and 10% - well, you turned up for the exam, but not much else.

Because the percentage of marks achieved changes depending on the difficulty of the paper. Grades and grade boundaries are supposed to standardise this. I suppose UMS would be better, but still grades are easier to remember when e.g. Writing a CV.

Why even have grades? Why not just publish the % of marks gained? We all know that 80% shows a good knowledge of the subject (or syllabus and exam technique!) and 40% shows that you know something, but can't really pretend to any great mastery of the subject and 10% - well, you turned up for the exam, but not much else.

Because the truth is unpalatable. In some years, a percentage of 35% has been enough to secure a C (good pass!) grade in higher level Maths GCSE. A "C" sounds so much better than 35%!!

But a C is also 75% on Foundation which sounds much better but means they know pretty much the same level of maths.

On La Repubblica MGazine , today,OCSE say: Italian school is the best in Europe because it hasn t any gap from rich( that pay x your GCSE) and poor.
Democratic Italian school forever

es, and some of the local fair funding groups will probably morph into opposition groups to any actual new grammar proposals. Whilst the national fair funding organisation are trying to keep the campaigns separate many local groups (East Cheshire probably being the most active - they of course could be under threat from "annexes" from Trafford grammars) are clearly seeing the two issues as linked.

An area not very well served by the Government and M.P.s who must take Chehire East for granted..

Knutsford i know about as DH is from there (and have ambitions both previously and in the future to relocate there , Brother lives in Altrincham).

Knutsford has a lot of cross border traffic between Trafford and even 'Manchester' with some children bused in from Wythenshawe et.al. The local high school or Academy/Studio School does not cater for largely middle and wealthy towns demographic ! Large no of pupils private and a significant numbers at Trafford Grammars !

I cant see the grammar school idea getting much traction in Cheshire East due to the fact that many of the would be grammar kids 'private' . Most go private there for the 'ego' so grammar expansion has no where to go.

Even assuming there was grammar expansion there , little affect to Cheshire East' s school that anyway are out performed by Traffords Moderns.

Talk about burying news , eh? I cannot find this anywhere on the BBC's news page.

Clever clever timing : let's make sure no one notices!

We just had a staff meeting at school and hardly any of the teachers present knew about this!

It may be good news for some students but it will cause carnage and chaos with sixth form applications...and serves to prove further to students and their parents that teachers are underinformed and 'don't know what they are talking about' They'd be right, sadly.

Wow, you're right, I can't find it on the BBC Education pages either. This is a big deal for current Y11 but I think that people who aren't totally invested in the detail won't understand why.

My Y11s (borderline 4/5 group, so the ones that this affects the most) were bloody delighted.

My year 9 bottom set bizarrely asked today about resitting GCSEs. At that point I didn't know about the announcement , so told them they'd need 5s (bless em : not going to happen.)

I too have a year 11 at 4/5 boundary. Think their parents may well now demand entry to A levels they have been told they don't qualify for!

Well I think there is one thing we can be certain of: The DfE have not thought the potential implications through at all and the true implications will only come out in time

I think I called this half-think on a thread a few years ago. It's happened a lot. There's the beginning of something that might be a good idea but then they fail to think through all the implications and rush it through. And then there's the 'oh shit' moment, followed by the U-turn.

noblegiraffe Tue 28-Mar-17 18:18:52
With all this being announced the day before Brexit, I'm thinking that we will see the grammar school consultation responses published tomorrow.
Hi everyone. Just repeating noblegiraffe's post to bring the thread higher up today's list as I'm hoping more people will see it. Thanks for the info noblegiraffe and yes, I expect the government will be slipping out education news quietly whilst the press is busy on Brexit.

The whole thing is bizarre. At the other end of the grading conundrum, my DS1's school has just updated their 6 As requirement to enter sixth form to six grade 8s, which feels rather like a shift upwards to me.

That's a massive shift upwards ! Ad is plainly ridiculous. Assuming that's a private or grammar ?

And not ad! Sorry!

Michaelahpurple, that's insane!

Another gem that has leaked out this week is this:

www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/exclusive-only-two-pupils-will-get-straight-top-grades-new-gcses-dfe

This has just appeared on my FB page as a 'suggested post'. A tad out of date....
www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofqual

Our school now requires grades 7, 8 or 9 to go into its 6th form.
To be fair they had always required b's anyway but it looks like the school is expecting harder A levels so needing higher grades to enter.

But Odin, they should already know if the A levels are harder. they've all been approved now and many have already been through a cycle of results... and that will be with those B grade students!

Surely those school should wait to see what the GCSE result outcomes are for a couple of years before settling, otherwise they may shoot themselves in the foot with declining roles...

Bizarre.