Surely using mocks for GCSE grades is hugely unfair.

[1nterstar]

Our school did them before Christmas before the whole course was completed, others were doing them this week.

Many kids don’t revise as much for mocks as the real thing( if at all).

The content and marking varies hugely.

Just how can they be used?

[prh47bridge]

My son’s English tutor told me the education secretary just said they will use mocks

He has said no such thing.

There are no easy answers. I suspect it will be based on teacher assessment with some kind of checks to ensure teachers aren't engaging in grade inflation but that is just a guess.

[1nterstar]

Also not getting how it’s ok infectionwise for 67 kids to carry on going to school but 2 year groups can’t turn up just to sit exams in separate rooms with healthy distances.

[TeenPlusTwenties]

'Using mocks' won't mean take the grade they got in mocks and give them that.

It will mean 'take how they did in mocks into account along with other information such as the school's usual results, KS2 info, teacher assessment and turn it into a reasonable grade, quite possibly erring on the slightly optimistic'.

[CheriLittlebottom]

Mocks results aren't held centrally by the exam boards or anything, they are just on file in school. The schools will be given guidance sy some point on how to come up with a grade, based on, as a guess, various factors, such as:

• The target grade as predicted by the year 6 SATs plus the appropriate level of progress
  
• The school's progress scores for the previous years
  
• The teacher assessment of their current working grade (which will be partly informed by mocks but also recent work in the classroom)
  
• Teachers' professional judgement to estimate the grade they were most likely to get in the summer
  
• Any coursework elements for practical subjects.
  
  Teachers have always had to fill in predicted grade sheets for all pupils to send to the exam boards on case of disaster (individual child who gets hit by a car on the way to their first exam and is on hospital for the rest of the exam season, van carrying exam papers crashes and papers all burned, courier company loses a stack of papers etc) it wont be a million miles from what was done then anyway. Which is basically the teacher going, "hmm, probably a b", "yep, put so-and-so down for an A, they could definitely get that". Etc.
  
  (Shock - teachers are usually pretty good at this.)

[prh47bridge]

Had nobody ever thought what might happen in event of a national disaster

You can't plan for every possible scenario. What businesses tend to do is brainstorm all the risks then rate them based on likelihood and impact. They then plan their reaction for the highest ranked risks. I suspect the civil service do something similar. Whilst a global pandemic requiring all exams to be cancelled is obviously high impact it would have been rated very low on likelihood, so I suspect wasn't one of the top risks for which they needed to plan.

You really don't know that they are going to screw things up for lots of children. You are assuming the worst. And, whatever they do, I expect there will be an appeal system for those who think they've been given the wrong grade.

[CheriLittlebottom]

No idea why my autocorrect turns every 'in' to 'on', sorry.

[TeenPlusTwenties]

The 67 kids don't have a choice as if they weren't their the NHS or food distribution would fall over.

That is different from 200-300 turning up needing invigilating in far more rooms than usual and all the setup etc and admin, half of them having been ill in the run up etc.

I too was surprised they have cancelled them but they won't have done it lightly I'm sure.

[prh47bridge]

And agree with CheriLittlebottom as to the likely approach. Take the existing disaster recovery plan, make sure it is fit for purpose in the current situation (which is what I expect they are doing right now), modify it as required and roll it out.

[DoubleAction]

Schools havent closed to prevent infection, they closed because there aren't enough staff.

The last effort at a contingency plan, made yesterday afternoon was to reduce the required distance between the desks so we could get more candidates in a room and use fewer invigulators! It's not like no one tried to come up with solutions.

At the moment the D of E is trying to work out how to:

keep key workers' children in school
protect the vulnerable
Feed the children in school
Feed the fsm kids
Get children to school
Get enough staff in the right schools
Etc
Etc
Exams

Obviously it's a horribly anxious time but solving exams today or next week won't actually make any difference. The others will cost lives. Melodramatic? I wish it were.

The DfE is people too, if you have a workable solution for any of these, that you think school and other leaders havent yet considered, really, please let us know.

[Mirada]

1nterstar Thu 19-Mar-20 19:34:11
But some teaches mark more leniently than others.
Er.......and so do examiners (I was one).

[1nterstar]

No they’re not heads are doing that.

[Comefromaway]

After getting the message from the tutor I have searched and searched and couldn't find anything so I wonder where she got that from. My two will be relieved as their teachers thought them capable of more and ds had just been congratulated for going from a 3 4 in English in his mocks to a 4 4borderline 5 in his latest assessments.

[DoubleAction]

Yes, everyone in education is working incredibly hard and everyone knows what we're doing wrong.

What would your solution be OP?

[Comefromaway]

THey had to be cancelled, it was just too much uncertainty and some schools/kids having more resources than others. Ds's school is small with only 1 teacher of some subjects, one of his teachers had to isolate due to severe medical issues, they would have had no further teaching.

[Bluntness100]

He’s said it’s a mixture of course work, assessments and prior exams, and if some kids feel they would have achieved more they can likely resit in the autumn,

[CuppaZa]

This whole sorry thing is just shit for them

[1nterstar]

You can’t resist in Autumn as you’d have to revise all summer all subjects with zero support just incase.

I’m not paid £££££ to come up with solutions for a department I don’t run. Can’t believe a solution had never been thought of or prepared for. Schools are expected to prepare for everything.

[1nterstar]

What I do know is you can’t use tests or material pupils didn’t know would go towards their GCSE result and which aren’t the same for every pupil.

Ludicrously unfair and pointless. Makes any GCSE worthless.

[prh47bridge]

Schools are expected to prepare for everything

No they aren't. That would be unreasonable. You may expect schools to prepare for everything but that is impossible. Schools, the DfE, Ofqual and the government are dealing with a rapidly changing situation.

No idea which comment you're "no they're not heads are doing that" was aimed at.

[CheriLittlebottom]

You aren't listening OP, go back and read my post and tell me what's wrong with the scenario I laid out.

[DoubleAction]

Yes, it's horrible for them but a solution will be found. Nothing is fair atm, you know, what with all the people dying.

You really think detailed plans should be produced for every eventuality resulting from the whole world shutting down for weeks on end? These are such momentous times that if we make it to the other side everyone will have done brilliantly.

[1nterstar]

Half of it isn’t an even playing field and on a mass scale that isn’t ok. Children also had no idea half of your list would go towards their GCSE.Not fair and thus not a good indicator of ability. It’s great for kids with proactive parents and zero dramas or shit life experiences during the previous two years but not so much for others.

[Bathroom12345]

It will be mocks, teacher assessements. It’s not ideal at all, but what else can we do. If they shift the exam dates it will completely screw up the next year who will be waiting in the wings.

So, when I worked with an airline what they would do when a particular flight was cancelled is NOT move them to the next flight unless there was space. The unfortunate people who had their flight would be effectively in a pen. They would be mightily annoyed but it would just be them. Moving them to the next flight and moving those people onto the next one results in a very large group of pissed off people.

The cancelled flight people would be given relevant compensation of course and actually it was their time to be messed around.

Unfortunately our kids are having to take the hit. It will be sorted and our kids will move on. I have a DS due to take A levels this year. His mocks were great and he has 5 offers so he is OK but I drilled into him the importance of mocks especially as they affected his university applications. Has it worked out for him? Yes, probably but he is very disappointed that he is not able prove that he can get those grades.

[Unescorted]

@CheriLittlebottom sounds like a reasonable approach.

No single way will be suitable for all students, but it could be argued that a final exam disadvantages some students too. Also resits or delay for a year will impact on the students in the year below who will be competing for a finite number of university places & jobs against students who have the advantage of an additional year.

[marcopront]

Surely some kind of thought should have been put into it before the gov pulled kids out of school and cancelled exams with zero notice.

How is telling you on Wednesday that schools will close on Friday zero notice?

I teach in a school in Tanzania.
Monday 3:00 pm the first case of Coronavirus here was announced.
Tuesday 5:00 pm the closure of schools was announced.
Wednesday 9:00 am we have a government inspector checking we we're closing. Getting over 100 boarders off campus wasn't easy.