Yr 11 support thread - the scaffolding is holding up well

[pointythings]

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

Just in case anyone doesn't realize- teachers don't get any extra money or time off for all the extra sessions they do........

I was thinking of sending in some wine for the staff room.

No school exam revision in our patch. Slightly worried about it if other schools are doing it.

I'm hoping the poster who said they can't all do badly at Maths is correct and they will lower grade boundaries. This is what ds maths teacher thinks anyway and she is usually correct.

Bearing up ok thanks ready but missing my Mum loads at the moment as I always talked about all the exam angst with her. I'm just doing on here instead to distract myself. Also planning a holiday for after the exams so we all have something nice to look forward to.

Our school runs as many revision sessions as it can fit in because there is deep seated resistance to revision among very many of our parents. I honestly don't think it will make a huge amount of difference to most Mumsnet kids.

To be honest I get the impression that large numbers of students in our comprehensive don't really revise. They seem to live on X Box.

ds is pretty self motivated though.

they can't all do badly at Maths is correct and they will lower grade boundaries

They really can't all do badly. The proportion of 4s and above is set this year at about 70% and the proportion of 7s and above is set at about 20%, regardless of how low the grade boundaries have to go to achieve that.

I will be in 2 days this half term x 4hours for English Language, a subject pupils find difficult to revise for at home. I will also be in the Sunday before Paper2. But it is completely optional for me and I do it because the vast majority of the pupils I teach are lovely and the government changes have really disadvantaged them. To parents I would say please be nice to them, the strain is so clear and so much more than previous years.

Bertrand great idea, I was going to send a thank you letter addressed to the headteacher with regards to all the help the teachers have put on but I think I'll include some chocolates

My DS's school got landed with the OCR fake question on Romeo and Juliet. 25% of entire grade lost on a non question. No clear answer yet from OCR on what will happen as a result.

www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/pupils-ridicule-exam-board-over-shakespeare-error-gcse-paper

The school had to stop the exam while it was in process to tell them that the question was wrong, but to proceed anyway, an absolute nightmare for all kids involved.

gold out of interest did they tell the students to answer the question as written, or the correct version, or to avoid that question completely?

I think they were told that there was a mistake in the question, but to just press on. Very confusing and upsetting for the students, the head teacher was furious.

And this is how it is going to be impossible for OCR to assess the impact that the mistake had on the various students taking the exam, because they won't all have had the same experience.

I did see Becky Allen from Education Datalab saying that OCR should offer an alternative paper for students to sit in the coming weeks (exam board always have a back-up paper), but I suspect that this will be ignored as it's too expensive to organise.

Thanks for that info, noblegiraffe OCR tweeted and apology, but no statement on action to be taken, after the exam was over. Head teacher emailed that a decision will be made at examiners' meeting. It's really not good enough.

I was teaching when GCSEs were brought in .
There were years of planning, preparation and moderation before they were introduced.

I wish I'd stuck to plan B and registered to do iGCSEs independently as a back up.

The OCR issue will affect not only the students who attempted the R&J question, and may or may not have been given guidance by their school during the exam, but also depending on how OCR treat those papers, will potentially impact on the grades for other students who sat the paper.
A policy that results in over-generous marking, and students not answering that question will be penalised and could lose out on a high grade they deserve through answering the questions they were set correctly.
But a policy that's too strict and students who tried to answer the question will be denied the correct grade they deserve.
It would be an interesting intellectual debate, but not when actual students and grades will be affected.
Including my DD 😟

This sort of cock-up has happened before, but on papers where every student had to answer every question so they could all be treated equally and fairly.

And this is the first year for ages, when students are going in to an exam with no coursework grade. The erroneous question effectively accounts for 25% of the total GCSE grade.

And you're right error it will have a knock on effect for all the students who had studied different texts.

Yes to amazing teachers. I've already sent two bouquets of flowers to 2 that have really gone above & beyond, Ds has been so lucky to have their help. I'm planning on sending wine for the last day. also to any teachers here ❤️
Feeling enocouraged over the maths info^^ thanks.
I'm trying v hard to be nice & understanding with Ds but I'm a) concerned he still has do much to cover & b) trying to bite my tongue as he is lovely lots of the time but can be so utterly bloody entitled & rude. littleho have you lost your mum? I stupidly called mine this am as Ds made me cry yesterday & she really helpfully pointed out a long list of where I'd gone wrong she was trying to be helpful but it didn't help to be honest Not long to go!

Specific maths, English & science revision sessions here this week and next weekend. If not in one of those sessions, school is open for generic/ personal revision where teachers will be available for help & support. So grateful to all teachers

DD has not done any revision at all, we have had a relaxing weekend away - and very necessary too. DD1 felt Friday's exam went well, better than the first English lit.

We have a balance of revision and outings planned for the rest of the week.

DD has always said it's not the done thing to buy presents for secondary school teachers, but she's already said she wants to give one a bunch of flowers. I realise she's had a good number of hardworking teachers over her time there, but I'd say she has had five teachers who she's got on well with, and who've either been really good teachers for her or have been particularly supportive in her plans for the future (offering to give her extra help and support), so I've suggested we get them a little something.

I think they were all so tired towards the end of last week, they need a few days to switch off. Next week is important for DD, English, Maths and also the three subjects she'd like to do at A level, as well as her back up option subject. She feels she knows what she needs for English, will probably just brush up on one or two things for maths, but it's the other four that need work.

I regularly take cakes. Ds is mortified, but the teachers have a Pavlovian heads up hopefully response when they see me in the staff room corridor..............

On the R&J question, I'm reliably informed that a local school realised there was an error part-way through the exam, advised the DCs what the correct wording was supposed to be and gave the DCs an extra half an hour so they could re-write their essays.

Literally no idea how on earth OCR will sort out this mess unless all schools acted in the same way.

advised the DCs what the correct wording was supposed to be and gave the DCs an extra half an hour so they could re-write their essays.
That's really interesting AmITwirly

As marking is now completely norm referenced, I don't know how this can be worked out fairly. Our local school definitely didn't do this.

Is there a forum specifically dedicated to this issue, anywhere?

This is all the OCR have said on it so far:
OCR‏ @ocrexams May 26
We apologise and will put things right when today’s exam is marked and graded. No student need worry about being disadvantaged

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the_news/2939483-Error-on-English-literature-GCSE-paper

Not a forum, but this is another thread discussing the OCR error with comments from exam invigilstors.
From this, it sounds as though there is a system in place to report errors, and to pass on information to candidates even if the error is only discovered during the exam.

Thank you error

Amazed by how far some people are through the process - i don't know whether that is iGCSEs or just different subjects?

DS has only done 5 exams - other than orals, practicals etc - and has 13 papers in 2 weeks when he gets back, then a final outlier on June 21st,.

His school does double science, and they did core last year, so that probably cuts it down a little, but he's only finished 2 - French and English Lit - and has yet to start any exams at all in Science, History, Music, English language and his other MFL