Yr 11 support thread - the scaffolding is holding up well

[pointythings]

Because we need a new thread now that things are really hotting up!

Yes, they all need a break, it has been a hard week. I think for most the AIC confusion was simply down to tiredness. I must admit I looked at our Y11 lining up this morning and they looked so weary. Last weekend it was Maths revision in school Saturday and English Lit on Sunday so most have been in school for 12 consecutive days. I hope they all have some downtime but come Tuesday school will be open again for revision!

My ds is still worried about whether his friends will lose all of their marks for AIC for writing about Mr rather than Mrs Birling. Any teachers here know?

Not a teacher, but I think they will, I'm afraid. They didn't answer the question.

@simbobs If they answered about Mr B instead of Mrs B then they won't get the marks. The answers would be very different.

Just wondering how so many wrote about Mr B? Was it the wording of the question? Dd said she didn't understand how anyone would have read it as Mr B. I feel really sad for those dc who did and think it's likely they won't be awarded marks for that question

Just not reading the question. Or reading what they expected to see. Ds said some in his class did that too.

I feel for those who read it as Mr B. Such an easy mistake.

Had me a bit worried when I found out ds had written about Mr B until I realised he was with the Wjec exam board and the question really was about Mr B.

Dd is taking a mix of gcse and igcse. I think many independents didn't want to be part of the guinea pig transition year so opted for status quo.

Thanks for the responses. My ds did the other question. I'm glad it wasn't just his friends who made the mistake, though.

Just asked ds about the Mrs/Mr Birling question. He said his teacher thought that they might get marks for talking about context and other elements of the play because the examiners will be "looking for marks to give rather than looking for marks to knock off". She thought they would only lose marks for the points that were specific to the particular character. But she wasn't sure, of course.

Many private schools opted for IGCSEs several years ago when GCSEs had a large coursework component and were modular; selective schools in particular tended to favour final exam schemes and less coursework, particularly in the sciences and maths.

Now that the GCSEs have been reformed that need has changed and the new GCSEs may turn out to be more 'fit for purpose'. My son's school do a mixture of GCSEs and IGCSEs depending on which they feel best prepares the students for A-level.

They've said they are looking closely at the new 1-9 GCSEs and may well adopt them in the next couple of years once grade boundaries etc have settled down. So many teachers and parents on here have been complaining about the lack of preparation, the changing boundaries, the uncertainty for the children this year, in Maths and English. If a private school doesn't have to subject its students to that, why would they? I don't think any students should have had to be subjected to it, of course; it sounds as if there's been loads of uncertainty and in Maths in particular as if the new framework has been very demoralising for many children.

LIZS has said what I said much more succinctly!

Have been talking to dd about the OCR cock-up. I was thinking originally that dd had a lucky escape not doing R+J. But it seems now that it could well affect EVERYONE who sat that paper as the grade boundaries will be affected.

Dd's friend's brother did the R+J question, he answered it as it should have been written which is probably the most sensible thing to do. I don't know how OCR are going to handle the marking. They could just discount that question and mark the rest. But dd has heard that there is a possibility that those affected will be awarded extra marks which will affect grade boundaries. She's also worried that OCR might decide not to mark ANY of the Shakespeare questions and she was very happy with her Macbeth answer.

It's not the first time OCR have ballsed up an exam question (tbf other exam boards have too). They set an impossible A-level question a few years back - here's the article about it: www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13627415

This is what was said about that error:
"Because we have been alerted to this so early, we are able to take this error into account when marking the paper. We will also take it into account when setting the grade boundaries. We have sent a letter to all schools and colleges explaining in more detail what we shall do.
"We do apologise again that this has happened."
The exam body says it is not going to discount the question from the marking, because that might disadvantage candidates who spent a lot of time trying to answer it.
Students will be awarded points for their attempts to work out the question and measures are also in place which are designed to recognise that other candidates may have discovered the error quickly, OCR says.

They won't go discounting other students' work, that would be hideously unfair! They'll have to subset out the students who did do Romeo and Juliet and treat them differently to the others.

I don't suppose OCR have decided yet how they're going to handle it, so I wouldn't pay any attention to rumours or supposition.

It's going to be ridiculously difficult for them to ensure that "no student is disadvantaged" as they've asserted on Twitter, and I imagine they're going to have to work through all the different options for dealing with it.

As well as try to track down how the buggering fuck it happened!

They'll have to subset out the students who did do Romeo and Juliet and treat them differently to the others

Yes I suppose so. I'm still worried though it will affect grade boundaries of the entire cohort if the R+J candidates are more then generously compensated.

I'm bloody glad I don't work for OCR right now!

DD did the OCR and answered the other R&J question. She was really happy with her answer but now worried about the implications of the mistake.

I wonder if any kids put their hands up in the OCR cock up exam and asked the invigilator? What would have happened if they did?

DS (who doesn't do this board) and I were discussing it this morning and he said that he'd have asked the invigilator, but wasn't sure what they could do - whether they would check with a teacher and give advice the pupils. I wonder whether anyone did it anywhere and what happened.

My DD is one of those who made the mistake of writing about Mr B instead of Mrs B. She is incredibly upset. Only found out when talking to someone from her school yesterday evening - she had been saying how pleased she was with her essay on Mr B. I have since heard that one of the boys in her year also made this mistake.

My main concern is how to get her to remotivate herself for the next lot of exams - she is just so downhearted at the moment.

Iron was she always planning on answering the whole text question? There are so many variations on what might have happened or how students might have handled it, that it seems very difficult to compensate fairly. I can't believe though that those who have answered well will be downgraded in any way - and I can imagine there'll be a lot of re-mark requests in August!

Oh God, I do feel sorry for all the DCs who wrote about the wrong person or who had the confusion over Capulets and Montagues. Poor things! Just as well there's a week's holiday now for everyone to de-stress...

DS had his birthday during the week (bad timing, hey?) so we had a theatre trip last night which was very jolly and he has another birthday treat scheduled for Monday. I'm not going to mention revision until Tuesday.

bertrand I asked dd about this. She said the invigilators are all external and there is absolutely nothing they can do about a mistake on the paper. They are there to supervise the exam and ensure no-one is cheating and that is all.

onesimple your poor dd Is she doing A Level English? I guess nothing you can do no except lots of hugs and remind her it is ONE question out of ONE paper for ONE subject. Hope she feels better soon.