GCSE’s summer 2020 thread 5 - And then there were none..

[FoolsAssassin]

Once upon a time there was a group of year 11 students who had spent the last few years preparing to sit their GCSE exams in the summer of 2020. Then one day they woke up and found themselves as characters in a real life disaster movie and as if by magic the exams disappeared.

What lies next for the Corona Cohort?!

Thread 4
Thread 3
Thread 2
Thread 1 (Year 10)

Anyone lurking please feel free to jump on in .

Kings better than a Corona8! Actually it made me laugh that Corona x6 was the only brand of beer left in the local supermarket yesterday!

We still have no real idea how grades will be awarded. So far only CIE (IGCSE and Pre U) has offered guidance and that’s pretty vague. We’ve been asked to start thinking what evidence we may have available at this stage but also told not to set students new work for assessment. The big exam boards will be bringing out guidance soon but it’s bound to be complex.

I’m an English teacher and have been providing lots of revision materials for my class but not been setting essays unless they choose to do them.

Thanks Flyingpanda.

@KingscoteStaff I get what your DD is saying. It does rankle with me slightly that having personally gone through the “oh, you lot were the first to do GCSEs so they made it really easy for your year group to make sure you got good results” prejudice as a teen, my own teen will now have the “oh you just got given Corona grades because you didn’t have to do exams so what an easy life you had” prejudice! (We all know it isn’t and won’t have been easy but you can just imagine the comments). Oh well. Not a lot we can do about it now I suppose!

DD’s school sent a link for 2pm today for an “update” not sure what it is but all Year 11 parents as well as students must join. Can’t wait to see what it’s about and whether we’ll be enlightened.

Not that I know of!!

We’ve just received this from our school. Not sure what it means practically though.

@wrongdissection

Presumably our update will be similar to yours then.

A lot of factors will come into play but they’re still not being clear about exactly what! Does this mean that if the school does well in past years it can boost this years grade?

Is that any clearer than previous advice? I’m not sure it is. When do teachers need to submit their predictions by I wonder?

This might be useful for anyone with children who were due to take Cambridge iGCSE exams.

www.cambridgeinternational.org/news/news-details/view/update-for-cambridge-schools-on-may-june-2020-exams-20200401/

My daughter will be held back from her enrolment in sixth form if she doesn’t get the minimum grades in certain subjects and was planning to use easter onwards to improve

My DS was planning to do the same. His teacher assessed results are likely to be lower than ones he would have achieved had he been able to sit an exam in the normal way, but I'm really not sure how he will fare in an exam at an unspecified time after no school or specific support for months. I think to keep working for that will require more will power and effort than a lot of Year 11s will want to put in (not casting aspersions on Year 11s, I wouldn't do it myself). I am thinking that sixth forms have to drop minimum requirements this year.

I can't work out what will happen in a scenario such as:

1. Student gets a 5, but needed a 6 for sixth form entry in a particular subject
2. Student chooses to sit exam, but this won't be until after sixth form starts.

So do sixth forms take in these students on the basis they will get the grades in the exam (and what happens if they then don't?). Or do they insist they defer to the following year after getting results (and then what does the student do for the year, as they still have to be in education or training?).

or do sixth forms accept lower grades and review at Christmas as to whether the student is a good fit?

Just read the Cambridge FAQs and it seems to me like home educated candidates who’ve not had formal tutoring are screwed! They will accept evidence from tutors but not from the candidate or their parents! I guess they will all just have to take the exams in Sept or whenever the resits are - but what about starting their A Ievel courses??

This from AQA today:
www.aqa.org.uk/coronavirus/how-grades-will-be-awarded-without-exams

Wow... interesting this is in public domain before schools informed.

Although it says nothing new!

That’s the same as what was said before isn’t it?

The Cambridge info, have to say, is about as clear as mud!

@RedskyAtnight

Those are exactly my questions and concerns.

It seems unfair to not let students know what will happen, whether they should start to prepare for a level or whether they won’t get in and have to retake, then what happens if they re-take.

Honestly so much confusion I think it’s disgusting to put year 11s in this quandary and not tell us what they’re planning.

Hopefully sixth forms will just be lenient and those who have an offer can be awarded them regardless but I have a feeling it won’t be straightforward.

We’re just being kept in the dark.

Our 6th form has also said that entry requirements will remain the same as previously advertised before coronageddon.

@wrongdissection

So some are saying they’re places are secure regardless and some are saying you still need minimum grades.

This is why we need clarity!

Thank you all for your recommendations. We’ll stay away from dystopian themes .

Thanks for the links.

Interesting that the Cambridge link suggests that work completed at home can be included as part of a centre’s evidence - as long as centres can “authenticate“ that it is a student’s own work.

Thing is how would that work in practice? Very obvious additional help/input (ie a student submitting work way above the quality they typically produce) might be easy enough for teachers to identify but I can think of so many little loopholes where students could ‘cheat’ in some small way to try to increase marks ie a bit of help from parents or older siblings.

‘Tis a minefield.

Noble the page You ‘click’ before it says this was updated 2nd April so not sure.

I’m baffled at all this talk about students having help with work at home. Realistically how much help can parents help a yr11 dc with their work? Unless they’ve gone through the syllabus with them, is that really possible? Do people really do this? I do remember all the parents that used to help their sprogs with work in reception, the AMAZING garden that Luca made , the AWESOME solar system design in yr6 with careful lighting that twinkles in the dark (Stephen Hawkins would be proud). But GCSE work?