GCSE mock results / unfair new grading for first cohort of students

[PinkSpottySocks]

DD has just go her GCSE mock results. She has got a mixed bunch of grades she got are 2,3,4,5,6,6,7,8 so a really mixed bag! The only real concern is that she would have failed science overall.

Now, dd is quite bright but has missed a lot of school due to illness. I am actually very proud of her but share her disappointment in the lowest grades. but thats beside the point.

My concern is this; I think it is really unfair that students who would've got a C in the past will likely now get a 4, which could really disadvantage them with college/ uni/ job applications. DD is in this category for maths and science and i am concerned that she will be disadvantaged if she doesn't get 5s, at least.

I understand the desire to toughen up grade boundaries, but the impact on borderline students is very unfair.

I also know that my dd is better off that many students in terms of her ability and how much support she has. So i also worry about the tens of thousands of students that will be written off in terms of academic achievement this year, as the new grades go through their teething problems.

i then predict that the government will be appalled at the low pass rate, find a way to boost grades thereafter and then this year's cohort will always look bad in comparison.

any thoughts?

I also think that they will see a 4 as a pass this year, but in future the expectation will become a 5=pass, but no-one will recognise that this cohort's grade 4 was actually better than it seems, if that makes sense. so you might see job adverts in future saying 'must have grade 5 in maths and english', for instance.

My son's in y11 and they've been told they need at least 6 level 5s to get into 6th form.

Also for academic subjects, they have to get at least a 7, and 8 to do maths.

Sour, I bet they're struggling! What i don't get is that by suddenly bringing out a new system like this, before teaching has really adapted to it, then they are not actually raising standards, they are just consigning a majority of students to failure and seeing them as collateral damage in terms of (maybe) raining standards loner term.

Buzz, that sounds quite high. Is it a very academic school? my dd may or may not get those grades, but I certainly think she could manage A level.

'longer' term

I'm not sure I agree with you OP.

1. Colleges and jobs that require Cs at the moment will I think continue to require 4s for Maths & English as that is the 'floor standard' so as to speak. For this year at least the proportion getting 4s or above is the same as Cs or above. Colleges aren't going to want to prevent a bunch of students from taking their courses (as students=money). Jobs are looking for people capable of doing the work, and again they wouldn't want to throw out people for no good reason. (I do accept I may be being idealistic about this though).

2. Universities will continue to look at GCSEs as part of the overall application. If they look at GCSEs then a 5 is better than a 4, you just can't get away from that. I don't think that means that the students with 4s are being unfairly disadvantaged, I think they would be being fairly disadvantaged.

3. re Grades needed to do A levels. Some colleges do students a disservice by accepting them to courses when academically they aren't suitable. I don't actually think 6 level 5s is a particularly high requirement, though I would hope they would be flexible if someone had a very skewed profile. After all 5s are only the old high C / low B. Certainly, to continue a subject to A level you would have wanted a solidish B in the old grades. After all, if you can only 'just' pass at GCSE, your chances of success at A level aren't that great. There are interesting tables on incoming GCSE grade -> A level grade per subject around somewhere on the internet.

Before you discount me as another parent of high achieving kids. My DD1 only just scraped her English Lang, and then went to do a BTEC. And my DD2 is only y8 but is also likely to be 3,4,5 grade than anything higher.

That said, I am relieved by DD2 is y8 and not y11. I think this year's cohort have it really tough.

Justine Greening wrote a letter to schools saying that where colleges, universities and employers had previously accepted a C, were now being told they should accept a 4.

Not much comfort, but if employers and colleges raise their requirements to a 5, they reduce their pool of applicants quite significantly for not much benefit, so they may be less likely to do so.

but no-one will recognise that this cohort's grade 4 was actually better than it seems

Why would that be?

My son took the new maths and English GCSEs last year. Judging by the standards of the students in Y10 now, I think you will need more marks to get the same grade next year compared to last year. So a 2017 student who got a 7 at maths may well know less than a 2020 student with a 7.

I'm not sure that worrying about whether the new 9-1 grades will disadvantage our children is helpful. I'm particularly worried that teachers are moaning about them in front of children, causing some children to give up hope or jump on a 'blame the government' bandwagon.

I was the first cohort to take GCSEs instead of O levels and there was a lot of angst about that too, but it worked out ok. There was a cohort who were the first to be able to get A*s in GCSEs (and A levels)- the year group before them must have felt their As were devalued. This is life.

Further/higher education admissions departments will make it their job to understand what these grades mean.

In what can be quite a stressful time (the teenage years) I think we shouldn't add to our children's stress by telling them that it's harder for them than it was for the year group before them. That's neither helpful nor true.

GCSEs were trialled for a decade before being rolled out nationally - a sensible timescale. These new GCSEs were rushed through to the timetable of a General Election and while they have been implemented as best we can, there have been a lot of ways in which the first cohort have been disadvantaged - teachers not being familiar with the material, lack of resources, no information about grade boundaries, to mention a few.
You can tell the kids it will all work out in the end (comparable outcomes should protect their grades) but it would be a lie to tell them that their situation is ideal.