What is known about this 'gaining evidence' for GCSEs and A level grades?

[Pebbles574]

Had a very vague letter from the school about how the Year 13s should keep making notes and doing past papers as this will be 'valuable evidence' to support their proposed grades from teachers.

I haven't been able to find answers to a number of specific questions about all of this:

• if a student has ACTUALLY completed coursework already (e.g. Design/ Drama etc) will this be externally marked and the mark used or will the teacher now just look at it/ assess it?
• Are schools meant to me keeping them doing revision-style activities all the way until when they were meant to go on study leave?
• what is the schools' cut-off point for these grade recommendations?

Any teachers with inside knowledge?

[LoveFameTragedy]

My Y11 and Y13 are both being set work daily. The Y13 particularly in one subject where they had not completed all the topics. We got a comprehensive letter from school yesterday addressed to both year groups explaining that it would/could be used as evidence of progress when it comes to grades and/or moderation.

[LoveFameTragedy]

DD has a friend at a fairly new private school. He has been getting set masses of work, because the school started off when it opened, with fairly low achieving early cohorts (due mainly I think to the super high achieving existing private schools in the area). Over the years their results are on a great upward curve, and the school is now the first choice of a significant number of high achieving families. I am sure they will be doing everything they can to ensure their curve remains on the up, and is not simply a mirror of previous years (with an eye firmly on their balance sheet!).

[Pebbles574]

Our (independent) school normally finishes all NEAs and formal teaching by end of spring term, so has only closed about 1.5 weeks early.
First half of Summer Term is then usually revision then Study Leave, so I don't know what they would 'teach' unless it's revision for those who want to take exams later in the year. But who would commit to that until they know their proposed grades?

One of DS's subjects is Photography and his teacher is telling him to still 'get out and take photographs for his project' on his daily walk!

[Piggywaspushed]

It's not just finishing the NEAs (which I would have done had there not been a pesky and ill fated school trip to Italy...), it's also moderating, marking, and submission. They might just have to wave through marks on NEAs.

[Piggywaspushed]

Students understandably want reassurance, and teachers urgently need to know what to do, and when. We expect to publish detailed information about the process and timetable which will apply this summer next week. This will include the steps we would like teachers to follow and more detailed guidance on how to consider the full range of evidence they will have available when submitting their assessment grades. We are talking to teaching representatives to make sure that what we are planning is manageable and appropriate, so that students, parents, carers and teachers can have confidence in the approach
Ofqual press release today

[titchy]

I think OFQUAL will do spot checks on a set of students data for each school - much like moderated coursework.

Wouldn't that need them to physically visit? Which won't happen.

Why the fear that grades would be statistically adjusted? They need to be!

I suspect coursework and other evidence would be more likely to be used for appeals.

Although no one knows anything yet!

[Piggywaspushed]

It's a fear that certain students who are outliers based on prior data will be adjusted downwards. I will admit this includes my DS!

[titchy]

Statistical adjustments would be made at school cohort level (I'd hope using KS2 attainment data as well) not individual level. Teacher assessments should be based on student ability, not their target.

I can't see any other way of doing it.

[Piggywaspushed]

I tend to agree titchy but that would affect individuals.

That's; what I mean, though ... DS's KS2 was a bit mediocre , so his targets are 6s. He was consistently predicted 9s in tow subjects and I'll be so proud of him if he gets them.

Not a huge issue if he doesn't in the grand scheme of things.

[snowegg]

Our school has said categorically that work submitted after they closed will be inadmissible because it will disadvantage children who can't work at home. I actually agree with that. You can already se from some of the comments above that independent schools are looking to use the time to give their kids a leg up.

[mumsneedwine]

UCAS have told Unis not to change offers to unconditional and anyone doing it will be in trouble. They've pushed the acceptance date back again.
I don't think OFQUAL would need to come in. We have locked our data so can see it hasn't been changed since day of announcement. I hope they can rely on that. But we will know more next week. And I agree home learning won't count as it disadvantages kids without easy access and gives a massive boost to those with parents who can 'help'.

[Piggywaspushed]

But we should be able to change our data? What is the point of locking it? Last time we entered data we didn't know that would be the final grade. The PGs should reflect the progress students might have made by May?

[mumsneedwine]

@Piggywaspushed it means schools can't change previous test results. So those year 12 test results are set in stone and no one is allowed to go bump them up ! We think this means we can use these to predict the final grades. If not been locked schools could have changed them and I expect OFQUAL will then need other evidence. The stuff they are doing now cannot count - some don't have access to laptops. Made me laugh when people said exams should be on line. People have no idea the conditions some kids have to work in. Some of mine live in v small flats sharing a room with siblings. No space to have quiet to work.

[Piggywaspushed]

Oh yes, they absolutely can't submit work done after school closure. Silly idea!

Still not sure what will be done re NEAs though, the marks of which are not recorded yet...

[mumsneedwine]

I know. It's all a bit of an unknown at the moment. We have an just got everything we can in place and can prove when we locked it. Kids all have their papers so we need those spreadsheets !! Be good when we have full guidance.
My own year 13 is still working away. Keeping her routine. She's just finishing her shift at Waitrose and I am proud and terrified in equal measure.

[BackforGood]

Their students are continuing to be assessed so they can show progression which can be used as evidence. They are allowed to improve their grade performance in this period.

There would be uproar if this happens, with the completely inequitable situation of today.
Schools will have to go on the experience of teachers, using their judgement - with evidence to back that up coming from mocks, more recently done assessments and work in class, and any 'out of the ordinary circumstances' schools can flag up - be that in an upward or downward projectory not that I can see schools awarding a lower than predicted grade .
To include work done by parents at home, or work continuing after other schools have stopped would be grossly unfair.

I say that as someone whose dd didn't do as well as hoped in her mocks and has been working like billyo to make those grades up to her first choice offer.

[echobench]

It’s all faintly terrifying. If they go with predicted, my DS is fine. If they go with mocks, not so much. If by some magic formula they come up with “in between predicted and mocks” which coincides with his offer — bingo.

[Pebbles574]

I hope they use NEA as examples of real grades and assume that performance in final papers would go up at least one grade over mocks.
We’re worried because DS’s mock results were average because he had a NEA deadline the week before and he naturally prioritised that and had very little time left for revision - he left chunks of his mock paper blank! Had summer exams gone ahead he would have had two months to revise.
How will the schools take this sort of thing into account - is it worth DS having a conversation with his tutor?

[Piggywaspushed]

I would suggest not. This is very stressful for teachers : it is a huge responsibility. They will just reply that they have no information anyway plus you wouldn't want him to appear to be canvassing?

[Pebbles574]

I don’t think it’s canvassing though. His tutor has emailed them all asking them how they are, and to let him know if they have any questions or concerns in the current situation. Surely this is exactly what it is - a genuine concern.

[Piggywaspushed]

Oh well, if his tutor has emailed him, that's fine.

I have had emails lately from kids ; some genuinely concerned (unnecessarily in their cases!), and some more obviously being a bit sycophantic!

It won't affect my decision one bit but it adds to the pressure!

[ClassicallyConditioned]

@BackForGood I've predicted plenty of students grades that are lower than their predicted grades. The reality is that many students don't achieve them and if we inflated them all it would be spotted and changed anyway!

[StampMc]

Y11 Ds hasn’t heard a word from school. I’ll be very pissed off if they could have set him work now that could boost his grade but haven’t. His mocks were just after Christmas and some were great and some poor, which was proportionate to the amount of work he did for them. He really worked hard on his weaker subjects since then and I don’t know if there is any evidence for this.

[noblegiraffe]

They won’t accept any ‘grade boosting’ work because that would be totally unfair, especially on disadvantaged pupils, and they have said that they would be fair.

I saw a suggestion on twitter that they could use data from the National reference tests that were sat a few weeks ago by a random sample of schools to compare to predicted grades and prior attainment to try to establish if teachers are under predicting disadvantaged kids and ethnic minorities compared to similar kids with similar attainment on the NRT.

[Piggywaspushed]

Ooh, our school did those!