GCSEs 2018 (17) What will be in your coffee cup on Thursday?

[PeggySchuylar]

Thread 16 full to brim. Hope nobody minds me starting new one.

I read through yesterday's many posts and saw grade boundaries discussed.

It will be exceptionally tempting but its not a good idea to find out in advance, is it? You might think you want to know (i know I am v. v. curious) but I bet a second later all it will have done is increase your appetite to find out how you DC did. It is bad enough as it is!

Completely unrelated but I went into a bakery yesterday and asked for a Cornish pasty. The girl behind the counter told me that she didn't have any! I looked at her genuinely unsure what to say as there was an enormous pile of pasties of various sizes waiting to be sold between me and her. Then she said, ".. but we do have Devon pasties"! She wasn't even trying to be smart.

This Devon v. Cornwall thing isn't a tourist myth, is it?!

Kick I would be happy to look after your DD anytime

DS has his first day of work experience today which should act as a great distraction, I'm also hoping that they might suggest he comes in another day instead of Thursday!!!

I think grade boundaries are only of any use once you actually know your raw marks.

Mmmz - I wonder if a Cornish pasty can only be described as such if made in Cornwall? Like champagne has to be made in the Champagne region of France - trade descriptions act? If so maybe the salesperson was making sure they didn't breach any regulations??

I've just opened the Ofqual blog and thought... ooh, this looks like it could be interesting. I need help.

"My name is mmmz, and I am a GCSE 2018/20 addict".

In fact I have just googled and the title Cornish pasty is indeed a 'protected geographical indicator'. Has to be made in Cornwall!

Panda maybe, but she looked about the same age as our DC. I think she was just being earnest.

As we walked out DH was whispering to me "What's the difference?"
How should I know? I'm not even English. Maybe one puts the meat in first and the other puts the vegetables in first??

mmmz no offence but I think you've been at your MIL's too long

For the 1st time since end of exams in June, apart from days he’s working... DS is out of bed before 11am.

He was feeling sick at 5am got up and is on sofa watching a film. Poor boy is very anxious.

Bluebelle I'll send her over. Make sure you've got plenty of eggs! It's costing me a fortune

Be prepared to spend a lot of time cleaning the kitchen 'properly'

Stickerrocks I saw your post on the remarks thread. I agree it's weird to be planning them now. I think we'll only go down that route if she just misses a 5 in language.

Mind you I'd love to request some of the scripts just out of nosiness. Dd wants to get the maths one (edexcel) because it's free and she is a sad maths geek

I can make a Cornish pasty because I'm Cornish & use the proper recipe. Taught how to crimp from toddlerhood, none of this wavy edge malarkey.

mmmz I noticed pasties in Devon are Devon pasties but confusingly there was also a Cornish Pasty shop - presumably they had to import them from over the border!
I'm not looking at the grade boundaries at 6 am Thursday. However I did mention to DS that grade boundaries for science are likely to be low, to which he replied 'I'm counting on it!'

Bluebelle we can agree on that! YOu'll know I've gone Enid Blyton native when I update on the statuses (stati?) of the weather, the garden and the sea view every 20 minutes.

Is anyone else finding it strangely comforting that the ball hasn't started rolling yet? Our DC's results are still firmly under lock and key on the exam boards' servers. No one who knows our DC personally (ie teachers) has seen them yet. There's no frustration that a human being whose name you know could tell you your DC's results if they really wanted to.

From tomorrow late morning, I'll be asking myself have the results been emailed yet? And i'll be trawling twitter and student room looking for references to grade boundary leaks that I know I'll only make things worse by seeing.

The proper ones have to be made in Cornwall with beef, not mince, potato & what we would call turnip but the rest of the country calls swede. Never ever put carrot in a pasty. Side crimp obligatory. My nan used to do a double header with apple at the other end for my Grampy as a treat. He had one every day for his crib working at the clay mines. I used to take my mum's back on the train to uni, wrapped in tea towels to keep them warm. Nothing beats "pasty in a bag", slightly warm with my mum's flaky pastry.

Stickerrocks what's the difference between the devon and cornish ones? Is it only in the geographic location of the oven?

These cultural differences between devon and cornwall are real to the people here, aren't they?

cross post!

I was given flaky pastry yesterday (so devon is copying you there) but not sure of the filling as i gave it to ds2 to eat. I'm on a diet (or so I told myself at the time). However I also bought a huge jam and cream cake at the bakery yesterday and i gave into temptation and had a huge slice at 6am.

This lack of self-control will have me looking through my fingers are the leaked grade boundaries tomorrow and crying on Thursday. I know it but I can't help myself.

kick there does seem to be a certain sense of entitlement that some DC deserve a certain grade and should be awarded it regardless. It doesn't seem to occur to people that although their DC may be bright, a lot of other DC are likely to be even brighter. I don't think they really understand the guidance being given on 7-9 grades and how proportions of students are being rewarded and that their DC may not have answered the questions in the desired way so simply didn't get as many marks as others. Rant over.

Carrots & mince are the main culprits. However the Devon Cornwall thing is the equivalent of the Calcutta Cup or England Wales in the 6 nations. I describe myself as Cornish not English.

mmmz don't forget the differences in cream teas - cream or jam first on scone. It's important. (I'm not too keen on cream at all, though, so am in the wrong anyway!)
Stickerrocks just saw your very sane post on the remarks thread. I'm the same - would only query something that looks very wrong.
On the other hand, if the grade is important and you've just missed it, then I can understand asking for a review - or at least a check that everything was added up. That bit isn't done by the markers, by the way - any mistakes with adding are software errors!

Sourspout you'd only be able to make a quick decision on remarks if you knew the raw scores, and, as far as I know,most schools are not offering that level of detail on Thursday morning to every student.

Oneteen's DD's school will be, but that's a private school and I guess the parents can expect those sorts of things.

loose how does the marking get done in practice? Do the examiners mark with a pen on paper or onto a computer screen via a program that automatically adds the marks up? Is there a moment when a human being is required to do some adding up or copying over of marks?

Does one examiner mark whole paper for the same student or just question 1 for a huge number of students?

Yes.. cream teas. DH has told me the difference (even though i've never once asked!) roughly four times a year for 20 years. I may be underestimating that tbh. However, I have only the vaguest idea that devon is cream on top, but I could be wrong.
Can you adjudicate, Stickerrocks? It would be good to know for once and for all.

@BlueBelle123 - DS1 has his first day of work experience experience today as well. We've asked for Thursday off though. I'm back at work today after 2.5 weeks off so feeling a bit sad.

Interesting to hear about the Devon / Cornwall pasties. I seem to recall the 'protected' name thing is actually an EU regulation - I guess it's one of those we'll keep as it's quite sensible. Actually most of them are but maybe that's a subject for another thread

When is everyone back at school / college? DS1 and DS2 are back next Thursday (30th) but DD isn't back until 5 September. DD is starting year 10 and has been saying that she is going to make really good notes from the start after observing DS1's horrible mess!