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.

*talking of resitting

@Flyingpandas thank you so much to all of you who are supporting @Dimsummum0 and others like us. It is a very stressful time for all of us in the world and have your words of support will mean a lot to us with British children abroad, across the world, who are as bewildered and confused but who are expected in all this chaos to continue revising for exams and sit their GCSEs even though the schools are closed. Whilst our children may seem to have been forgotten you have made it clear with your kindness and support that they, and we, are not and that we still have a voice and dialogue with those back home. Thank you .

I think let her run with that Proggy as it allows her control over the situation and as you say she may well change her mind if that occurs when the time comes. I have a feeling by then a lot of them will want to just move on. Early days yet for everyone.

Yes, Post, it is allowing her to feel like she is in control to a certain extent, thanks,

I think they have been wise to say they have the choice to resist, feelings of control in stressful situation is quite a powerful tool psychology and that goes for is too.

Can I ask the helpful teachers a question?

I can see how annoying parents hassling about predictions is, but ds very belatedly post mocks got adjustments on account of his severe hyper mobility. For the GSCEs he was to have had rest breaks (not extra time). These would have helped him as what he writes is good but he doesn't write enough. Only relevant for history, geography and English. Possibly biology.

Would it be annoying to write to his teacher to remind her of this adjustment? It had been all sorted. His mocks were generally fine but the teachers for these three subjects all said it didn't match his other work.

When would it be appropriate/least annoying to bring it up (if at all)?

Thank you all and everyone on this thread. People are lovely.

DS is pragmatic about it now. His work has been inconsistent and he's had particular challenges to overcome. So in lots of subjects we genuinely have no idea what grade he might get. He' s said as long as he gets 8 or more at grade 4 including English and maths and good enough grades to carry on studying what he wants next year, he'll accept whatever he's given and draw a line under them. I think he's right to use the exam option on a "need" not a want basis only. Realistically the earliest these exams will happen will be September and they will all be rusty, regardless of how well they can work at home.

A few questions about teachers assessments and SEN children -

DD qualifies for 25% extra time, separate invigilation, prompts, rest breaks etc. In all in-school subject assessments (eg end of topic tests), she obviously wasn’t able to be given these access arrangements. In actual fact, we took this up with her history teacher at the last parents meeting, because he’d marked her “currently working at” grade as a 5, and said that was because she hadn’t finished work done in class.
Additionally, those teachers that don’t understand ADHD in girls have historically given DD less favourable effort grades, because they either equate effort with attainment or they simply don’t recognise that kids with ADHD have to put in huge amounts of effort just to stay sitting still and focused.
Also, DD’s cognitive profile is spiky (quote from her consultant and evident in the results of assessments). Her progress has been far from linear and, in fact, has been exponential since year 10. If her key stage 2 results are used to predict her trajectory, her final grades really won’t accurately reflect this.

Do you think SEN will be taken into account in any way? Will it be left to individual teachers to consider?
Obviously, in the real exams, an examiner would simply mark the papers they were presented with, for better or worse, but now teachers are being asked to assess using variable criteria, and how do they do that if they’re not comprehensively versed in all the nuances of various SEN issues?

Perhaps this is a good lesson to them all (and us) about the relative importance of GCSEs - or any exams for that matter. I hope this isn't the case, but we may all find ourselves with much worse things to worry about in six months time. In reality, GCSEs have never mattered that much - although they feel like they do at the time. There is very little correlation between career success or happiness in life and GCSE results. I've tried to impress this on dd over the last couple of years, because she goes to a school where getting 9s is the be all and end all.

That's not to say this isn't a big worry and/or disappointment to lots of kids and their parents. I'm just starting to wonder when/if things will ever be 'back to normal'. Will they get to start sixth form in September? Will the next couple of years worth of exams be disrupted by all this? They really need to reintroduce coursework in anticipation of this happening again. I've already told ds that when (if?) he goes back in year 10 he'd better up his game considerably in case this happens to him and they base his grades on work to date!

DD is fairly happy with the way forward, but is gutted not to have been able to keep up with the improvements she had been making. She had an operation at the beginning of year 10 and had to have several weeks off school so had fallen behind on some subjects but had worked flat out to try to pull back up.

On Thursday her school told them that everyone who applied was guaranteed an unconditional place in their sixth form. I think they might end up with a bumper cohort next year (they usually only have around 70 per year in the sixth form) as the ones who were still waiting on applications to other schools were able to put in late applications.

patience I do have those concerns too as a teacher and I am sure those are issues Ofqual will clarify.

Please don't contact teachers yet. We learn things at the same time as the general public. So 3.35 on a Friday...

@Alsoplayspiccolo I'm sure her teachers should take all that into account... They will be aware of the huge progress she's made in the last couple of years. I assume they will be thinking best case scenario for all pupils, ie what's the best they're capable of - so if she's produced work that is 7/8 level on occasions for example, even if not in every piece of work, they would want to predict as high as possible?

Ultimately, though, I think the moderation will come in if a particular school has too many at the higher grades. But this just reflects the way they mark the exams themselves anyway - there has to be a certain distribution.

I do think that a long-lasting lesson to all secondary students from the class of 2020 will be : work hard all the way through and revise for your mocks as if they are the real thing. Maybe they will reintroduce a coursework element but as we’ve said before, that will benefit some and not others..

I can envisage two quite distinct groups of students who might want to do the autumn resits:

1. the ones who genuinely cannot move on to their planned next step unless they improve by a grade or several grades
2. the ones whose grades are perfectly fine but who want to try and achieve higher simply as a point of personal pride.

I suspect that by July the vast majority, unless they fall into one of those two categories, will have moved on and will be happy to get what they’re given.

And yes, in these uncertain times who knows where we will even be in July. It feels like we are living in an apocalyptic film at the moment and we will feel the after effects for years, not months.

@Alsoplayspiccolo I’m not sure what will happen with SEN students. I’m guessing it will be at teacher discretion, with the option for students to resit exams with all allocated adjustments if they choose. But I guess we just have to wait and see.

@Piggywaspushed Another thanks from me. I'm sure ( or maybe I just hope) that the majority of parents are realistic about what their child can achieve.

I am quite confident that you and any other teacher can distinguish between "my child might have done better in the real exams - marks last year were affected by his mum's serious illness" and "I know my kid's been a lazy arse but they would have revised hard the night before and got an 8 instead of a 4 honestly." I suggest the latter group is told that there will be the chance to sit the exam in the autumn where they will be able to prove that.

DD has signed up for a MOOC, a yoga app and a Pilates app and has headed off to help exercise at the riding school. No riding lessons - frisky horses!

I do think that a long-lasting lesson to all secondary students from the class of 2020 will be : work hard all the way through and revise for your mocks as if they are the real thing.

That's a great point. And we should remember that in normal circumstances there would be kids who worked like mad and then had a disaster through nerves or stress or bad luck.

It is entirely possible that these year's results will end up being just as fair overall. The hardworking and steady will get their rewards, the "work hard at the last minute" kids will get their chance in the Autumn at some point.

I posted this article earlier but will repeat for anyone who missed it because I think it's very thought provoking and sets out the issues well.

disidealist.wordpress.com/2020/03/18/schools-out-i-predict-a-predicted-grade/

Agree with Pandas and will be encouraging DD Yr9 to work harder for her mocks than DS Yr11 did!

I think the kindest thing we can do for our DC is to reassure them that as long as they get what they need to move to the next step then there is really nothing to worry about. Stressing over whether they will get an 8 or a 9 or a 6 or a 7 is not going to help them through the next few months. Talk them (and yourself) down. For the most part, their teachers know them well and will do this work properly and professionally and with the DC in mind (when they know what they're supposed to be doing ). Let them get on with it.

And we can reassure our DC that if they don't get what they need, for whatever reason, they can appeal and they can retake. There is no rush for this. My DS is very last minute and was in the "they're only mocks" mindset. He was revising hard for the real thing and is probably not going to do as well as he would have if he had taken the exams. It's a shame but I am telling him that it doesn't matter. He wasn't to know. He will probably do well enough to do the A levels he wants to do. If not, he can appeal and resit. In the context of what the country and many families are about to go through, these are small worries. Everyone is in the same boat. This need not define them.

Agree.
I fear this could go on for a lot longer than we expect!

Piccolo been a bit of a week and I may be remember incorrectly and my apologies if I am but I think things might be difficult with work for you and DH. If that is the case I very much hope that something announced on Friday has helped.

DD more upbeat today. She actually had a good last day at school yesterday despite many of her friends in tears and said that they had fun signing shirts etc. We had a chat this morning and despite the fact that she’ll never get the chance of taking the exams as planned she actually feels relieved that it’s over. She had been working hard most of the year so doesn’t want to carry on revising and wants to move on as she sees this as a steppingstone to A levels and based on previous work it fingers crossed will be fine for her chosen subjects. We’re going to put the books in the loft (just in case) and after a good break will focus on doing a bit of work for a level choices.

Had a sensible chat today with DD. She said she actually feels more motivated to work because she's now doing only the subjects she's chosen rather than a load of ones she was forced to do. Is a bit worried about English Language as the school wants a 6 in that to do History A-Level and she thinks she might only be assigned a 5. But is hopeful of getting a 6 in English Lit as her mock was a 6 and her assignments have been 6. So I'm reasonably hopeful that the school will accept that in the circumstances and at the very worst I'm sure they'd let her start the course and go for the Autumn exam.

So just for the record this is what I think we're looking at:

History - 7
RS - 7
Chemistry -6
English Lit - 6
Maths - 6
English Lang - 5
Biology - 5
Physics -5
German - 5
Dance - 5

A solid set and pretty much what we were expecting anyway. But so frustrating - never been the hardest worker but Year 10 exams were a bit of a shock so started to put a bit more effort in. Actually got a 7 in Chemistry mock but suspect that was an outlier and 6 is a fairer mark (here's hoping though!!) If only she had put the effort in earlier...… almost all those subjects that are 5s could easily have been 6s and probably could have got an 8 in history.

@HPFA a good set of results if that’s what she ends up with! And I suspect you’re being cautious so she may get higher.

It’s very hard to call isn’t it. Dd has worked pretty hard over years 10 and 11, but mainly because she’s at the sort of school where you pretty much have to! But she’s still definitely not put in 100% effort. She was working up to that! So her teachers probably won’t quite give her the grades she could potentially have got. She will be disappointed if she doesn’t get 9s for RS and History at least. In reality she could have got several 9s but really, it doesn’t matter at all in the scheme of things.

I hope teachers are optimistic with the kids on the 3/4 boundary. And maybe those on the 5/6 or 6/7 boundary if it’s an A Level subject and they need the higher grade.

HFPA, good idea to put up our own realistic predictions (rather than "would love to get"s).

DD's would be:

Combined sciences: 8/7 (mocks were 9/9, but only one paper in each and she beat all previous results in them, so...?)
Geography: 7 (could well be an 8, as high 7 overall in mocks, and 8 in most recent test)
History : 7 (but I suspect this could end up a grade out either way, in all honesty)
Drama: 7 (again, could be an 8, because her NEA s are 8/9, handwritten mock didn't go as well as usual)
English lit: 7
English language: 7 (possibly )
Maths: 6
Latin: 6

She already has an A in ICT from last summer's GCSEs, so if she does get the above grades, we'd be thrilled.

The subjects I can see drifting down slightly are Latin and history; Latin because she's great at the lit papers but only just started to improve in the language paper, and history because her teacher's grades bear no resemblance to published grade boundaries.

English language 7 (possibly 8, because she's better at lang than lit.)

@HPFA
How have you arrived at the grades that you think your DD will be given?
I’ve found the links you’ve posted reassuring and helpful in order for me to get my ‘head around’ how the grades may or may not pan out.
Reassuring my DD, of course is an entirely different matter...