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 .

Oh my God oh my God!

noblegiraffe Fri 03-Apr-20 11:28:46
If you sit the exam, then both grades will stand (I.e. if you do worse in the exam you can use the calculated result on CVs).

Thanks for that, as I had originally read it to mean that you would have to declare both grades. I much prefer (and trust) your understanding :-)

thanks for the link LittleLebowski.

does anyone have a clue what it may mean for art ?

do you think the schools will request the year 11 portfolios to use as part of the teacher assessment ?

Thanks piggy! So I guess post easter work may potentially count then? If so, some schools need to communicate that asap to those students who have been told to stop revising.

Says they have 2 weeks to submit the grades from 29th May.

My school has asked for the Yr 11&13 art and photography kids to give in their sketchbooks to school reception between 6th and 17th April (standing 2 metres apart etc) - but the guidance does say no coursework or evidence needs to be submitted from my reading of it.

Yes, which is good. Public health means there can't be lots of pawed and handled stuff flying about everywhere. But the school wil want to glance it over for their rank ordering. What % is coursework in those subjects little?

mrs, only if it's reinforcing impressions, I'd say.

So I guess post easter work may potentially count then

Schools will be idiots to count it. They would be visibly (to the teachers) giving advantage to those that completed it and disadvantaging those that didn’t within the ranking system while not improving the school’s potential overall outcome.

And then they’d potentially have to justify themselves if the evidence is ever requested.

Calmed down now and read through the link. Thanks to the poster who supplied it.
So, a lot of waffle
Basically and of significance -

1. all assessments wether before 20/3 or after will count but they pay attention to any assessment grades that seem out of sync with previous work.
2. Schools will be asked to submit grades for students at the between the 29/5 and whenever results are finally released.
3. Something about ‘Centre ranking v individual student ranking for particular subjects, which I don’t understand.

Conclusively, schools will continue to send out reams of assessment work and essays to students to submit as evidence

Not sure about photography, Piggy - my daughter is doing AQA art - so 60% coursework. I think other schools may have kept the kids' books on March 20th. She took hers home and has been emailed loads of work. So I guess her teacher will just have to 'exercise caution' in assessing the work produced since then.
In some subjects, surely work produced at home in non exam conditions is pretty pointless as answers can be looked up but for English, history etc less so maybe? One letter from our school even suggested they might be asked to do an MFL oral via Skype (absolutely thrilled my daughter that one!)

So it's pretty much exactly what we thought it was going to be! It will work really well for the steady workers who've put in lots of effort all through the last year or 2.

Last year's cohort at dd's school achieved well - but I'm not sure how easy they will find it to rank order 85 very high ability girls who would all be expected to get 7/8/9s. I've asked dd in the past where she sits in her class in particular subjects and she usually says 'we're all equal really'. I guess they'll do it based on average marks in mocks and homework though. And of course, it doesn't really matter if someone gets an 8 instead of a 9, it's really neither here nor there.

I hope all our children end up reasonably happy with what they're awarded.

Do I need to complete any new work for my school/college to submit a grade?
Your school or college is not required to set additional mock exams or homework for your centre assessment grade, and you won’t be disadvantaged if you were not set, or were unable to complete, any work given out after schools were closed.

Have taken that from the “letter to students” on the Gov website.
My DS has taken that to meant any work done now is pointless as he can’t be disadvantaged if he doesn’t do the work?

I really don't think they will shimy : they honestly should already have the evidence base. If they don't then I would have to question why.

@FiddlersGreen that’s how we’ve read it here, too.

But I guess some schools will still continue to set work (to try to keep students focused) and then frighten them into completing it by saying that they may include it in their grade recommendations - because the schools guidance doesn’t seem explicitly to prevent them from setting more work and assessments now.

So I’m not sure how it will work in practice. But as someone else said upthread, the quality of many students’ work will potentially have dipped (with the best will in the world, due to students being stressed, demotivated, demoralised etc) so it may not be in the schools’ interest to use that work anyway.

I can foresee various situations arising from these guidelines, with regards to DD.
For eg she is, she says, bottom of her Latin class. It’s a tiny class (maybe 8, total) and she’s bottom because the people less able than her have dropped it to concentrate on core subjects. That said, last year’s cohort did really well (as did previous years’), so DD could come out as anomalous, accidentally.
I actually trust her teacher to be realistic, but it would be quite easy to stick DD in the higher grades and or her to fall under the radar.

DD concerned that school will go ahead with the threatened online exams now. Really hope they don't.

Do you think subject teachers will have their grades looked at/moderated by HoDs before they’re submitted?

Yes, Also. Plus by the school’s data manager.

The schools who had stopped all work since the 20/3, with the new guidelines, will now want to take advantage of this and start sending out work to maximise the chances of their students and schools like ds’s who’ve been sending out work daily already will continue to do so. So it will just drag on until they are asked to submit their student grades. Anything less will be unfair🤷🏾‍♀️.

No they won’t.

The guidelines specifically state that no student should be disadvantaged by having not completed work since the school closed.

Therefore there is no point in taking into account work set since school closed. Schools should already have enough evidence to form their judgements and setting new work would just be a waste of everyone’s time.

But @Shimy - haven’t Ofqual also specifically said that students will not be disadvantaged if they cannot complete any work set after the schools closure date?

So in theory a teacher could set an assessment and a student could just send a message to them, along the lines of ‘I’m really sorry, I can’t complete that online assessment because I feel really ill. I have a high temperature and am currently self isolating in case it is COVID19” and bingo. Get out clause for the student and the teacher would have no option but to accept it.

There are a raft of reasons for children not being able to complete work / assessments after schools have closed, including socio-economic ones & some kids just not having access to online learning. It would disadvantage too many.

I know DS school (State high school) have tested / assessed them continually for months - i am very confident they have all the info they will need.

But they can ask for work up till May 29th minimum? That's a long time! I really hope there is no point submitting work, but as with some of your schools posters here have said, ours have not diverted from the work is expected, will count, tasks could be set line.
I expect an email reiterating that regardless of the guidance. It's how they roll.