Headteacher: Exams should be postponed till next year.

[HPFA]

This in the Guardian:

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/15/cancel-this-years-gsce-and-a-levels

Not sure how this would be workable - would the pupils spend next year rehashing the syllabus and doing constant practice papers? Seems to be an awful lot of practical problems.

A-Levels I think is tricky but surely for GCSEs the simplest solution if exams can't be sat as normal is to use predicted grades. Schools have reams of data - 99% of parents know what their child's grade "ought" to be. The school's submissions would be checked against their normal results - it would be easy to spot any schools trying to cheat. The exams could also be offered in November so that anyone who thought they would have done much better in a "real" exam can sit them then - the numbers should be relatively small and manageable.

Anyone got any other ideas on how the situation could be managed?

I don't know what the solution is, but repeating a year just can't be it.

GSCEs are distinct from A levels in that there's an argument we should have them at all. However, I think there are two possible options. Firstly to go on predicted grades - which works well for my son as the school have said mocks +1 and he got loads of 8s (not all of which he'd have converted presumably).

Or close schools for all but y11s and 13s taking exams. They can't sit near each other anyway and they'd have plenty of space if the rest of the school were off. Invigilators would have to come from low-risk groups and avoid any close contact.

I can only think that the author of the article was making such an outlandish proposal to force the government into making firm contingency plans.

And what happens for the year below. If this year’s Y13 stay another year at school and then go to university, what do the year below do? There won’t be any university places for them. And so on and so on. Or do universities run two 1st years then and have a year sitting empty next year ?

Dont think the head teacher has thought that one through fully!

A levels - they have already submitted projected grades to their unis. They will just have to use those grades and if uni's have offered to too many people they will have to select on a lottery type basis. It isn't perfect, but it is better than them having to repeat a year and having an empty year at uni.

GCSEs - I would think about putting an early exam season in, starting about 3months after this all dies down. All children stay down a year for that period. As soon as exams are over they move on to college - and college will have to run through the summer holiday next year to make up the missed time. With suitable recompense for teachers - and with extra funding so colleges can employ extra teachers for that period, so teachers do get some sort of break.

Not stay down a year- - but stay in their current year group until year 11 have taken their exams.

Using predicted/mock grades massively massively massively disadvantages those from disadvantaged backgrounds. I cannot emphasise enough what an appalling idea this is.

Alternatively - the data found in studies like this www.ucas.com/file/71796/download?token=D4uuSzur could be used to adjust predicted grades to "most likely" outcomes.

Yes, it will disadvantage those children who didn't do well all through the course and might have made a huge push to up things for their exams - but I guess they could be offered the choice of retaking the year.

This is a nightmare for us. My yr11 dd has ASD and is counting down the days until school is finished with, she's desperate to leave it all behind and mentally I don't think she would cope with suddenly having to spend longer at school. She's got all 7 and 8s in her mocks. I really hope they go ahead on time.

Cant believe the Guardian gave this twaddle any airtime, tbh.

oakmaiden - factors like that are great (and very useful) when applied to an entire cohort. They must NEVER be applied at individual level.

Oakmaiden If you tell a Year 11 child that the work they've done over the last few months to bring up their grades is immaterial, and the teacher's (much lower) predicted grades will be used instead, do you really think any of them are going to say ("oh well, I'll just have to spend another year working on those subjects and resit?")

The answer is "no" - it will just entirely put a whole set of 16 year olds off bothering with future study.

I'd be in favour of sitting exams later and adjusting Post 16/university courses accordingly to allow for the shorter teaching time.

Ridiculous idea. Where is the average secondary school going to put 500 pissed off and disengaged 17 and 19 year olds for a whole year? Who will teach them? What will the teach? The syllabi are either finished or only have a couple of weeks to go.

The vast majority of dcs will be well enough to sit some or all exams during the 6 week exam period. Maybe the focus should be on training up new invigilators and requisitioning other buildings such as leisure centres and conference centres to spread candidates about and reduce infection risk in the exam hall. Universities may be able to help if they are emptying out and have a vested interest in filling their sept 2020 courses with candidates who meet the entry requirements

Utterly bonkers. Knock on impacts for their entire working lives when there aren't degree spaces because of 2 year's worth of students and 1 year of spaces, starting paying into pensions etc a year later, competing for jobs with the year behind etc. Plus no school leavers in the current year, an entire uni year with no intake etc. It's insane. Let alone logistically impossible.

Ridiculously stupid to resit year 11 and year 13 - can you image the problems this would incur. How would university's be able to run courses without student fees? Would parents be entitled to an extra year of child benefit for year 13s? The best option is to give all year 11s and year 13s their predicted grades as their final grades. University's would be able to admit students and FE colleges/six form colleges can admit students starting in September. The pressure would be removed from the education system which if schools are shut would be untenable as 70% of teachers are also parents. This whole situation is unprecedented and we should be focusing on the nations health. A few months lost education is not a life breaker in the grand scheme of things. Education comes a distant second here.

This follows the current zeitgeist at The Guardian ATM. I've read several articles following a similar vein recently.

Wheel out one 'expert' in their field who has a half baked, ill-thought-out idea contrary to all common sense.

The whole system is not going to grind to a halt. There may be a short period of disruption but it will be managed.

My year 11 autistic son would not cope well with another year at school. He's counting down the time until he can go to college to do a vocational btec. Another year of GCSE's and he will just be totally disengaged.

Also dd is on a 3 year vocational course but sits 2 A levels at the end of the second year. Her college is not geared up and does not have the timetable time for 3rd years to continue A levels.

Given that young people are generally not affected the only reasonable solution is to let them take their exams at the normal time. Other year groups can be closed so that teachers and invigilators can put students into multiple classrooms rather than cramming everyone into the sport hall.

For most kids a few months lost education won't matter. For those taking exams it matter hugely and for the rest of their life. The cost of enabling this doesn't (yet) outweigh the benefit. If it does then alternatives such as online open book exams taken at home, with provision elsewhere for those unable to access online would be infinitely better than using predicted grades.

There is still GCSE music coursework and performances to complete as well which needs to be recorded in school. But the last person who needs to be put at risk is ds's music teacher as he is an older cancer survivor.

Titchy the plan is for teachers and invigilators to all have coronvirus by then.

Schools are struggling for staff already, so who is going to monitor the exams in a month?

Obviously repeating a year is a stupid idea, but something needs to happen if we want exams to go ahead.

Since the virus is likely to dip over the summer months, before returning at the end of the year, why not close schools for longer after Easter and then stay open for longer over the summer with exams taking place then.

They're talking about exams being sat in September instead. Hopefully when things have died down a bit.

Schools are struggling for staff already, so who is going to monitor the exams in a month?

I work at a University - we ask for invigilators from the community and pay them an hourly rate. Invigilators certainly don't have to be school staff.

the plan is for teachers and invigilators to all have coronavirus by then

What all of them? And all the out of work chefs, students, bar staff, taxi drivers who'd probably be glad of a few hours work? At the same time? Lasting for the whole 8 weeks that exams last for? Even DC couldn't plan that...

Another mum to an autistic year 11. This academic year has been difficult enough without the thought of extending it even longer.

Ds is struggling so selfishly it would not worry our him or our family too much if they used predicted grades for results. Understandably many would not be happy with that. I hope they might be able to give us some ideas of contingency plans soon.

I think exams should go ahead. They say teenagers aren't going to be affected & there should be enough invigilators & teachers if relax rule about not invigilating in own school though not in similar subjects (exam boards could look for atypical results at a school level).

That article is not deeply thought through.