GCSEs Summer 2020 (thread 4) -the final countdown

[PostNotInHaste]

Thread 3
Thread 2
Thread 1(year 10)

Hope OrangeCinnamon doesn’t mind me starting another in her absence , feel twitchy without ! Apologies in advance if I have messed the links up.

The last thread ended with discussion of possible school closures, not really what we want to hear at this point - let’s hope things sound more positive as thread progresses.

At the moment I don’t think anyone can think through the long term implications. The uncertainty is horrible but no one knows what to do

The repeat a year option sounds like a pretty unrealistic one to me - the infrastructure changes of an extra year group in all schools would be pretty unmanageable. I think finding a patch (remote examination + teacher guidance + fewer, more spaced out exams etc) is more likely. But I also think at the moment, we aren't really in a place to judge where we'll be in a month. Working on the 'keep on keeping on' policy for new in the Foff household ;-)

Yes, I keep telling DD that we need to keep going and carry on business as normal, until we are told differently.

I can't actually believe this is happening. It's beyond my comprehension.

Headteacher at DS school last week said he thought would be one of three outcomes. September exams. Schools close and just have GCSE and A levels pupils sittings them widely spread out at original dates and times. Predicted grades.

Am hoping not just delayed until end June as we were off on holiday then! Realistically obviously we won’t be...

GCSEs should go off teacher's grades. The results submitted can be cross checked against the school's normal results so if a school's suddenly acquired a 100% pass rate out of nowhere or an unlikely row of 8s and 9s deeper investigations can be carried out. The schools have data on pupils from years back so it shouldn't be too hard to spot blatant cheating.

Those who want to can "resit" the exams next year without the normal penalties of having a "resit" grade.

The process won't be any more unfair than the normal exam process - in fact for most pupils it would probably give a more accurate picture. And if it benefits the "steady hard worker" over the "brilliant but lazy last minute crammer" then that isn't such a bad thing.

HPFA my DS was sick when they did their mocks, the grades he is getting now are significantly higher (he was getting 6/7 now 8/9). I hope they are sensible and get to sit their exams as otherwise they roll into A levels having never sat an exam. Interestingly I know someone in the exam system and they were saying the biggest difficulty is the summer marking-that is why they are struggling to say there could be a delay. I thought the exams were going to be my biggest fear, now not having them is!

The Guardian article is by the head of an Academy group - I think he’s saying that if all children miss 16 weeks of teaching, then they all need to repeat a year

But there aren’t anywhere near 16 weeks left to miss. Ds has 5 weeks in school plus 1 week study leave. Schools with longer Easter break or longer study leave have even fewer teaching weeks. It’s max 6 weeks for a 2 week Easter and no study leave. Not ideal but preferable to repeating the year.

There is definitely an argument that steady progress if preferable to cramming but unfair to shift the goalposts at this stage. The children would have behaved differently and been taught differently if we knew the mocks etc would count. And it’s desperately unfair on the students and teachers who will be deciding between 3/4 and 4/5 in maths and English.

And what about the " steady hard worker with SEN", who is improving every single day in the run up to exams? i e my DD who has gone up 2 grades in some subjects this year, because her SEN means things take longer to click?

Are "last minute crammers" penalised any other year??

Mock results would be unfair for lots of reasons - there are far too many children who don't treat them as seriously as the real things, plus there was loads of illness around in November/Dec/Jan. Obviously illness may also impact the real things now...

I can see the logic of the schools making new predictions based on their usual spread of results - this could be checked back against actual data. So how many get 8s on average in English in that school based on the last 3 years data. But it's such a lot of work for the teachers.

Repeating the year would be disastrous. I can't face another year 11, this one has been awful enough! Dd is desperate to leave her school now, it's a struggle going in each day. And she's so bored of exam focused lessons. What a nightmare!

Moving the goalposts would be very unfair. Mocks aren't consistent. It is also true that many DC don't study as hard for the mocks, that is the point of them-to give them the kick in the areas that need work. I know our school deliberately gives hard papers and marks the students down. It is a top performing school as well, so they wouldn't want the mock results they dished out. I would laugh but of all the things I worried about in this process it wasn't this scenario!

They can't repeat the year, that's the dumbest idea ever.

Mocks are tricky as some schools write their own papers. I think options are:

Close schools - run exams with those that are fit with distancing of seating and if that means a longer exam period then so be it.

Those who are sick grades to be awarded in the normal way for sick kids (I think that's predicted backed up with examples of work). This is likely to be a big % but it will need to be managed.

Sept is awful - three months until the grades come out, what happens in between? Do they start their A level courses hoping to get the grades? How far behind would they be in the A level course if they do this, how much pressure would these kids have been under - no summer to relax, then doing 2 years' work in a year and half? God.

If it's really so bad that they can't do exams in the Spring, then using predicted grades would at least let the next years courses start on time. That's gotta be a consideration.

For me, the disruption to GCSE's pale in significance for what we're all facing. I'd rather save lives and I want our schools to close NOW.

For the last fortnight, I've hardly nagged DS to revise at all and have left him mostly to it.

I'm having a much harder time trying to dissuade DH from work travel as an asthmatic albeit mild. Thank god, he doesn't have the choice anymore with flights stopping - he made it home just as Trump was making the announcement regarding US/UK flights.

The whole school system will have to repeat the year (absolutely awful) or just use predicted grades (more likely imo). If we're in a lockdown scenario soon, I can't see how Y11/Y13 pupils sitting national exams will even be a priority during the CV peak.

Btw, I understand the logic of herd immunity - I just don't want us all to be guinea pigs thanks!

I want my daughter doing science experiments, not being one.

HPFA if they use teacher predicted grades, that's basically the same as telling my DC that all the work he's put in over the last few months to improve his grades was a complete waste of time.
And realistically he is not going to want to resit everything again next year.

If exams can't happen as planned (with considerations made for those who are sick), then September looks the "best" solution with a view to starting courses in January OR just letting students start the courses they want to, without waiting for exam results. Schools/sixth forms would have to guarantee to keep the students regardless of results, so this is not ideal for them, but realistically loads of students will under-perform anyway! Post 16 courses would also have to be tweaked to fit in the reduced time frame.

There are predicted grades at DDs school which seem to be based on SATs in year 6 and have not been adjusted no matter whether she was meeting or bettering them. Next there are mock results which were based sometimes on one paper instead of 3 eg maths. Additionally DD has done controlled assessments for 3 subjects some of which have been completed. How all this can be ignored and predicted grades used I can’t understand and would not be useful for my DD. Equally exams in September impacts on everything further down the line. Just makes me sad for DD who is revising so hard.

Have to admit I have times of not giving a shit about GCSES at the moment. I resat year 12 as was ill and it was awful, I ended up dropping out.

I am incredibly glad I am not decision making. I do think however that anything other than sitting them all that CV should be used as a preface to the grades and always used to indicate they are this cohort.

DS's approach to the mocks was 'they are to show me what I don't know' so he barely opened a book. Now he is doing more vocab at least and attending revision sessions in a couple of subjects.

I really think exams should go ahead if possible. I hadn't read about the postpone a year but that is bonkers. Need more nurses etc but we'll have a whole year intake missed?

Good points on using predicted grades @PaddingtonPaddington - ours are all based on Y6 Sats (at which point ds wasn't allowed to use a word processor for dyslexia, and hadn't had an ASC diagnosis) and ds's have hardly been updated. He's expected to smash them all, and I suspect from school's perspective it's sensible not to update them as it makes them look good ... but if he gets a 6 for comp sci, where his teacher has suggested his goal should not just be a 9, but to get 100%, I'll be slightly annoyed ;-)

Hopefully it won't be based on year 6 SAT grades as that would advantage kids in 11+ areas who had tons of tutoring and it would advantage kids who did well in Sats but haven't worked since. Plus private schools don't usually do SATs

This is making me feel so anxious. I think if I could make the decision I'd have yr 11's start study leave now - however DS's school have completed all syllabus so that is possible- then plan to do the exams as soon as possible.

I just hate the uncertainty

DS came out of school all happy with his English mock mark of a 7 and was thinking about how he might be able to get an 8 in the actual exams. Really don't see how they can happen.

School has emailed saying that they are still being told exams will go ahead as planned. That all decisions will be at a National level and they will keep us informed.

Nought else they can say really.

I’m trying to keep a ‘middle of the road’ attitude on the current situation for myself and DD.
By this I mean I’m not an ‘ostrich with my head in the sand’ nor am I am I a member of the ‘four horseman brigade’ given the current climate
DD and I are adopting a one week at a time mentality and are sticking with Yr11 and Yr13 may well be able to sit examinations, so business as usual,
Those that are not well enough to sit some or indeed all then an alternative will be put in place.
That’s the mantra in our gaff, rightly or wrongly...

A close friend who is an MFL GCSE/A Level examiner isn't prepared to go round the country as usual in a month's time (for him) to conduct all these face to face oral exams and he tells me that he isn't the only one. I don't actually think they will have the examiners to conduct all the MFL orals - there will definitely be disruption.