Starting Year 11-GCSE2021 (title edited by MNHQ)

[indy69]

Good morning Mums,

My DD will start her GCSE journey this September. MN always has such good advice that I thought we could have a new thread to support each other. My DD has 4 options apart from English, Science AQA and Maths Edexcel. She has Art and History - Edexcel, and Psychology and Economics - AQA. It wpuld be lovely to know what your DC are doing and we could share resources here. I look forward to meeting you all on this thread. We have 4 weeks to go to start of term and a ton of homework to finish. My DD is feeling too lazy to do anything at the moment, but I guess they have earned the break. I will start reminding her next week about the work. Thanks

Only 10 days to go for school to begin. We now know we are back 100 percent for years 11,12,13. Face to face for core and on-site but remote for options for a while. They will gradually increase the face to face for options in the next weeks. My DD is quite excited to go to school. Although they will have bubbles she will at least get to see some friends every day. Fingers crossed all will be well.

Also what do you think will happen with our cohort. I have been hearing that they will have the worst of it as the grades were generous this year. To be honest they have had no teaching for 2 terms and god knows what will happen in the days to come. The concessions are not much.

I am just really worried that our child's year group will be forgotten about.

Opqual have completed the consultation...so they probably feel they have made the adjustments. No mention as to when the exams will be yet!

I have heard the government will be giving extra money to schools so they can catch up but the likely hood that our children will actually see a direct link will be surprising.

I am very worried about our year since I think they will be expected ti get on with it.

This is what I think will happen:

If exams go ahead, then they will peg grade boundaries to get similar results to the 2019 cohort - the 2020 cohort will just be an anomaly.
This means that boundaries/standards may well be lower than usual. Though actually I think the 8/9 might well still be about the same there will just be more spread to the 3/4.
I think more pupils will be entered for foundation maths/science than usual because of schools playing safe.
If some schools have had multiple closures due to CV19 then they might want special consideration - but if you start down that route where does it end.

If exams don't go ahead it will be a disaster as there won't have been enough time in school for teachers to get a good understanding of where they are at anyway. Additionally should the teachers grade on where they are at, or where they would have been at without all the disruption (eg on the first 2 terms of y10)?

We still haven't had the plans from DDs school apart from she goes back 7/9.

I am very worried for them, I've just got back from school and I just feel ill, everyone is so stressed, the phones are ringing off the hook all our staff are exhausted it's just been the most monumental fuck up for these kids and ours will suffer too I fear.

I have no faith that plans will be put in place that things will be well thought through, they just need some certainty, as much as is possible with COVID, and some assurance.

We’ve had a back to school plan. It’s a huge undertaking and seems incredibly well thought out. They’ve zoned each year group into areas, created extra entrances, exits, limiting moving around. Staggered lunches, no serve but grab & go, using main hall as well as dining room. Staggered home time. Outdoor washbasins. They are getting each year group in separately to introduce new rules etc. It’s very complicated but I’m very impressed with their efforts!

Oh and regarding exams I’m sure someone posted on here the Ofqual document saying that timing still undecided but English Lit will be reduced from 4 books to 3 and same for History. Removed field trip and related questions fir Geography. There wasn’t much else. But I agree teenplusTwenties in what’s likely to happen. I think they’ll really push for exams given the mess of this year.

Hello
We too have received plans for the start of term on 10/9. Change of school times and staggered lunches. This is to help transport arrangements as a city centre school. They are also using a nearby theatre for extra space and SD. School have been really great during lockdown. DD given a schedule every Monday, work to be handed in at end of week and feedback given the following Monday. Some lessons/discussions via zoom. DD has coped really well with very little input from us. In fact I think she has handled this situation a lot better than me and I am just trying to not show my worries. Last week spent a lot on stationary and files and she has organised her subjects accordingly. School have said that they will be having assessments on their return so she wants to spend some time revising.
I worry about DD returning but I think they may be more resilient than we thought.
All the best for our DC this year.
I'm so glad we have this thread going for advice and support

How are your DCs feeling about going back ? Mine aren't keen, they don't feel like they have been kept informed enough about what year 11 and exam prep will be like thanks to the government fannying around.

All mine are very keen to get back. But they’ve got induction days for each year group before starting properly so they will know what’s happening and be able to have queries answered. It seems a really good set up and I’m not sure what else they could do.

Mine are both really looking forward to going back, DD knows this year she's going to have to work extra hard, she's incredibly social and loves going out so I've warned her she's going to have to get a good balance. It's still radio silence from her school though.

My school is also doing a year group a day to introduce them to all the new measure and set expectations, I think it's a good plan.

Came across this on another thread...
actionnetwork.org/petitions/fairness-for-students-taking-a-levels-and-gcses-in-2021/thankyou?#=

@indy69 I realise I’m late to the party but I keep losing this thread so is there any way we can change it to ‘Year 11 - GCSEs 2021’ or something please?

@NotDonna I have requested MNHQ to change the name as only they can. Thanks for pointing it out.

And they have, thank you!

Are you on the app NotDonna?

You can swipe across and watch the thread so you don't lose it.

Thanks but quite often threads on my ‘watched’ or even ‘I’m on’ disappear- very annoying!!

We've just had a several page letter detailing the return to school, they seem to have done a good job on working out what has to happen.

Waves - hello! Joining in as I have a soon-to-be-year-11.

I'm worried about the fairness of GCSEs next year. The schools that hve done a lot of teaching during lockdown (esp private) will inevitably do better than those that haven't. Also, there may be further lockdowns in some areas but not others this academic year.

I'd suggest they level the playing field by using some sort of algorithm (one that works this time). As with this year, students are ranked in order.

If a school's results are down in any subject on 2019 (or maybe on the average over a 3 year period), then the algorithm is applied and students get either their exam result or the algorithm result - whichever is the higher.

So we finally got our schedule. DD is back on September 1sr with 100% face to face for years 11,12,13. 50% for the lower years. I am glad but also slightly worried as numbers are not quite great yet. But if GCSEs are going on as scheduled the students need proper teaching and exam practice. This year’s cohort actually will bear the brunt of this.

Catching up this morning now I’ve got my school head back on. DS back a week today. The school has sectioned off areas, indoor and outdoor, for year groups. My DS gets the science block which he’s quite happy about. School have been quite good at updating us over the last couple of months about how they’re dealing with the change. Have heard rumours of teachers being assigned to year groups to try at least maintain some form of a bubble, but whether or not that is true I don’t know. DS can’t wait to return full time, he’s started these last couple of weeks getting himself organised for studying and preparing for tests, mocks, homework etc
I’m just feeling that their year group and those going into year 13 are going to have a far worse experience of gcse/A level than those that have just had their results. At least they had the chance to complete the curriculum.

DD is back full time. The school are apparently putting distancing procedures in place but haven’t said what they are yet.

I’m also really worried that our Year 11s (along with the Year 13) are getting shafted.

Can I ask, honestly, how much work your going-into-Y11s have done over the summer? We tried to encourage DS to make good use of this time (he's at an independent school so will have had 10 weeks off...) and he has done some, but it's been a bit of a struggle. He maintains that 'no-one else will be doing any/much...' and school only set bits of work in 2 or 3 subjects, but we've encouraged him to do a bit more than this - probably 25 or so hours in total. He should be aiming for all 8s and 9s, if that makes any difference.

@usedtobeboss3... DS has done about an hour of Maths a week in total over the summer. They had no other work set apart from this.
We have also had one conversation about Macbeth.