GCSEs 2018 (2)

[Stickerrocks]

Pre-empting our 1000th post.

@Nettleskeins she'll be fine, with a small improvement in Geography, they are all respectable grades that your DD can be proud of. We get a bit caught up in the GCSE grades, but they just need to be good enough to get the students onto the next stage. It is where they end up that matters - no one ever cares what you got at GCSE once you've moved on and done something more...

Thanks for your reassuring words about DS1's shyness. I've been fretting about him forever (DS2 is just left to get on with it - and gets there so much more easily as a result!)

Mmzz my dgd also very shy and quiet, assertive at home but not anywhere else. But I'm sure as they grow up their confidence will improve! She's not quiet with friends, just not very willing to mix with others.

My DD should have had a computer science mock assessment all day yesterday but, with the national decision to exclude the coursework they’ve been doing since November following reports of ‘cheating’, she ended up doing a day of revision and photography work instead.

There’s been no communication about this from the school (which is currently busy tweeting how it’s one of the top 20 listed in Tatler recently )

So I’m left to read up online about the whole sorry situation and what the implications are. They’ve also sent out a letter this week announcing a financial budget management mock exam next week that they’ve decided to run, which consists of e-learning, resulting in a formal GCSE.

Formal mocks commence next week and, with the fact that they’re still being taught curriculum content in most subjects until Easter, I’m not entirely sure how reliable the results will be!

I’m more stressed than my poor DD who is trying to self teach the poetry aspect of her English mock over the weekend!

No study leave for mocks or exams proper as it was stopped last year, with no communication regarding the matter sent to parents.

Hiding DS is also caught up in the computer science fiasco, at his school they are continuing with the scrapped project, I think its about another 4 hours, I would of thought it would of been more wisely spent doing the theory on which they will be tested!

@HidingFromTheWorld I can't recommend the Mr Bruff youtube videos highly enough for the poetry. Get your DD to take notes as she watches.

They are 30 mins per poem and on top of that your DD will need to have memorised key lines for Monday (it is a bit late to start trying to memorise 7 or 8 whole poems but she should do this before June).

Cracking results there Sost & Nettle. We get so hung up on the 8s and 9s that we forget that most people are going to get a perfectly respectable set of 4s and 5s and go onto college absolutely delighted with those results. You only have to watch any of the Educating Cardiff, Manchester etc series to appreciate those middle grades. Part of the problem is that a 4 seems to be a very long way away from a 9 now, whereas in O level days that range would only cover grades A to C.

Hiding I'm fascinated with the idea of a financial budget management GCSE. Tell me more to satisfy this geeky accountant.

Thanks stickerocks

DD is also a big fan of Mr Bruff. I think it's the only way she'll get through English Lit. Apparently half her mock this morning was taken up bullshitting waffling!

nettle wise words there about the shy students.
And congrats on mock results and also sostenuto!

Part of the problem is that a 4 seems to be a very long way away from a 9 now, whereas in O level days that range would only cover grades A to C. Exactly. well said.

Stickerocks so agree on the grades!

Personally I think for GCSE's they should scrap grades altogether and just give a percentage for each exam.

Agree on the grades and yes the new grading system has distorted perceptions of 'good'. I work in FE and although I have at least one student who should get a 6 in English lang. I will be pleased with 4s and 5s, because that's what my current group of students need to continue with their studies (a lot of digital media stuff that I don't understand!).
Sostenuto it's just perseverence with the English - keep practising and revising and it'll be 6s for sure in June.
DS1 had his audition and interview yesterday, which went very well and were over very quickly! He thinks he did well in the GCSE music mock but doesn't know what the level is!
Mmzz A friend's son was very quiet, almost never said anything, and she worried a bit when he went for sixth form interviews, but they went absolutely fine and he got into a very competitive sixth form, where he blossomed despite still being very shy!

DD's trip to Stratford to see Christopher Eccleston in Macbeth has been cancelled due to lack of interest. I need all of you to enrol your DCs into our school and sign them up for the trip NOW! I'm so annoyed for the teachers who were willing to give up their time too.

It's so frustrating, because they just don't appreciate what a great opportunity they've thrown away. Apparently they didn't want to go because it was on a Saturday. Don't they realise that 2 weeks before the exams they should be revising anyway & they could combine that with a good day out with their friends! Still, we've still got our tickets for the cinema screening, so that's better than nothing.

Bluebelle - I agree that it would have made sense to focus in the theory during this downtime yesterday. The teacher wasnt overly helpful or directive apparently. She’s got the theory mocks in two weeks. Hope your DS gets on ok.

mmzz - Teacher still hasn’t covered the poetry side of things, so I’ll refer her to those resources ASAP - thank you!

sticker - all I know is that they’re delivering an additional GCSE equivalent in Personal Financial Management combining topics covered in mathematics, IT and PSHE.

It’s based around supporting students to understand their own financial management providing them with skills for budgeting and looking after own finances such as income, tax, planning, foreign exchange rates and trade, personal budgets and spending choices. 3 exams with grades A*-C required to pass.

While I agree with it in principle, they were only told this week with exams scheduled for two weeks’ time!

Oh sticker, that’s really disappointing. My DD missed out on a trip to the Globe Theatre due to a lack of interest two years ago. She’d been looking forward to it immensely and the teachers had gone to great lengths to organise it and price it fairly.

We saw it at the Globe as well. Tara Fitzgerald was brilliantly bonkers in scarlet silk frocks. I've booked tickets now for the NT cinema screening as well as the RSC version. I managed to find 2 tickets at the NY on 12 May, but decided that was cutting it a bit too close for an entire day out.

Hiding essential life skills, but I'm not sure that it's worthy of a GCSE!

If any of you have DC atudying Jekyll & Hyde, see if the Blackeyed Theatre Company are staging their version near you. They have added a key female character, but DD said she picked up a lot of themes which she hadn't grasped from simply running through the book in class.

Stickerrocks DS is doing Jekyll & Hyde, but there are no showings near us - I think he would of actually gone as well!

Still the school are going to be running some revision sessions and he has agreed to go to the English ones, which I'm pleased about as he never revises English (lang) on the basis you can't revise English!!!!!

uktvplay.uktv.co.uk/shows/scotlands-murder-mysteries/watch-online/?video=4706450771001

I don't know if you can see this but finding out about Deacon Brodie would help a lot with understanding what RLS was trying to make sense of in J&H.
From my understanding, when he was unmasked the Edinburgh people were mesmerised with how he'd been hiding in plain sight, and how some of them had actually known what he was up to but had preferred to stay quiet rather than face the embarrassment of being the one who damaged his reputation.

From memory (of when i lived in edinburgh and heard the story for the first time) that included one householder who woke in the middle of the night and saw Deacon Brodie burglarising his flat, but then crept back to bed to save himself the embarrassment of calling DB out on what he was doing in the flat.

The rest of the story is a bit of Burke and Hare and a bit of heroin addiction.

(Or maybe I am trivialising it and there's a whole lot more that I can't see since I'm not literary at all).

Does someone know where the grade boundaries come from for mocks? The ones for the past paper they use or new ones set by school?

DS's school makes them. So each subject has a different idea of what they are with the result that two of his subjects are 2 grades apart despite him getting almost the same % in both.

However, if your DC sat last year's maths and english exam papers for the mocks (DS's school did not), then it would make a lot of sense to use those grade boundaries.

2017 Maths and english grade boundaries:
AQA filestore.aqa.org.uk/over/stat_pdf/AQA-GCSE-RF-GDE-BDY-JUN-2017.PDF
Edexcel qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/Support/Grade-boundaries/GCSE/1706-gcse-9-1-grade-boundaries-v1.pdf

I'm guessing the Maths & English grade boundaries will be based on the information from the candidates who sat similar papers last summer.

Did a sample group of candidates recently take a science mock that was coordinated nationally? If so that could be used to calculate grade boundaries.

The ones for the other subjects will be estimates.

DS came home a bit .
Turns out that because of timetabling some of his year sat the Physics mock this morning, and some this afternoon. Apparently the ones who sat it this morning told the others what was in it and they were all googling answers and revising the relevant answers over lunchtime. DS had his this afternoon and only found out when he came out with others who were laughing about how 'easy' it was when they knew the questions .

I don't know whether I should say something to the school? Obviously DS doesn't want me to, in case it gets back that he told me.

Presumably this can't happen in the real GCSEs?

Pebbles574 no, it can't happen in the real exams. If some students have to sit the paper late (due to a clash) they are kept separate from the regular candidates and supervised.

Those students who cheat in mocks are only disadvantaging themselves, as it means they won't be able to use the mock as a tool to find out how they can improve.

Pebbles I wouldn't say anything the DC concerned are only fooling themselves. Plus similar happened at DS's school except, they were told that in one subject the majority of the paper would be the same as last years mock and still a load of pupils still got the answers wrong