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 .

Dds school took borderline existing pupils (who they thought messed up the exam) in past years if they redid the GCSE exam in November.
That maybe at option schools go with though obviously only works if they know your child well enough.

I think they are leaving themselves open to accusations that they marked boys down that they wanted to remove from the school. It is quite fraught really.

I could see that there is the opportunity for "self selection of the children they want via slight manipulation of results" for very selective schools. Though presumably they can only do this with borderline children (if your child has got 7 in the mocks and tests during term time and is then assessed as a 6 that's pretty hard for the school to justify).

It's a perspective I'd not thought of before, mainly because DS's school (in common I imagine with most non-selective state schools) is desperate for sixth form numbers and, I think, will most probably nod some of their existing students through based on teacher knowledge, even if they don't get the officially stated grades.

It is another dimension of worry, Christopher but as I’ve said earlier you must have evidence of where his current school think he’s ‘paddling’.
If, when the grades are given in August , you feel they are seriously out of kilter with how the school have assess him to date there is always the appeal process.

The head of centre has to sign all these results off : s/he would not want to open the school up to allegations of malpractice so the results will definitely be based on the accumulated evidence thus far.

The DfE don't seem (yet) to have given much thought to onward progression and how it fits into these Autumn exams.

In applying for a sixth form (internal or external) the school will have offered based on predicted grades. I assume what your DS is awarded by the school will pretty closely match their most recent Predicted Grades. They aren't going to stray much from those and certainly unlikely to be downwards (for example, the only two students I would put down a grade from predicted had very particular circumstances in between last prediction and now).

But maybe if you think your DS is unfairly treated at his current place he is better off with afresh start somewhere else regardless?

Along a similar theme mentioned below. What is a Head wanted grades to be lower to stop some students leaving and going off to Grammar Schools …. plus wouldn't it be "easier" for the school if grade predictions were lower so the children had more added value when taking A levels? sorry I'm not sure of the correct terminology. Especially as schools won't be judged on this years predictive grades. Could a Head insist teacher lower the grades in some cases?

If they artificially lower the grades surely the progress 8 measure doesn’t look that good.

There won’t be any progress 8 this year. But the results are going through an external moderation process. If they look lower than they should be, they will be bumped up in a process the school has no control over.

The bumph they provide as literature says grammar and selective schools are generally more 'accurate' in predictions. This is based on data from 1997 , so not exactly credible but it's what they are going on!

Teen

You would think so wouldn't you
I have to have the exception to the rule, as usual.
She's not stopped working since she came home a week before shut down, and says if she isn't satisfied with any result she'll be taking the exam.
I'm not sure if in dd case it would be wise. They didn't do mocks properly, and predictions are quite low.
What do you think? If she thinks the exam results would be better would you advise taking them?

It's Maths, Eng, Comb Science taking 5 of her 7 GCSE's all predicted 3/4.
Art 7/8, Music 8/9 depending on the written piece.

Ha Ha, sorry, forgot you might not remember me, but you thought my dd may surprise us in the end, it all seems to have gelled and the work she is currently submitting is greatly improved, I would imagine 4/5 now.

Dev I think if she thinks she'll be given 3s but could achieve better then she is being sensible keeping going as passes for Maths/English/Science could be very valuable for later life. Hopefully she'll pass some of them and then can focus on the ones she needs to 'retake'.

I think the waiting for marks is going to be more difficult this year. teachers know your submitted mark but can’t tell you.

I have just completed the survey. On the whole I think they have done a good job given where we are. The only 2 points I made were about confidentiality of grades and using trajectories.

I think teachers should be able to give a "heads up" to students who many not get the grades they need for their planned progression and should therefore be using this time to prepare for autumn exams. This is particularly tough on Y13s.

I also think that schools will be allowed to explain changes in trajectories when there are objective reasons - for example comp sci as DS2's school used to be taught by the music tech teacher, but they appointed a specialist 2 years ago and the improved teaching is coming through clearly in the marks (2018 - 3/21 got 7/8, no 9s, 2019 - 6/27 got 7/8/9 including 2 9s and that improvement was set to continue).

I meant to say schools should be allowed to explain, looks like it is purely statistical at the moment once it hits the boards.

Yes, I worry about change of teacher for my DS's music, too. Last year's results were dreadful for music and that teacher was 'sacked.

Feeling philosophical there - anything between a 4 and a 7 is possible!

Feeling philosophical too - as soon as 2020 is seen next to the GCSE results on the future CV, I think employers are going to raise their eyebrows a bit anyway. I don’t think anyone will ever forget this year.

@Piggywaspushed did you get the impression that there was any opportunity for schools to explain to the Board why a statistical approach to standardisation would not work for any particular subject whilst accepting it as a valid approach at a global level?

For music your DS's school would have objective data as a lot of the coursework will be complete - although the Boards are not going to be looking at coursework this year. If the "process" does not allow a genuine trajectory to be explained that is a weakness. My DS2 will do the music exam if he does not get what he wants - he has done 60% of it already (the coursework) so doing the exam paper would not be a big deal if he got a lower grade than he wants. We are fortunate in that we trust all his teachers and apart from computer science in which they may not acknowledge the change in trajectory, he thinks he will be happy with his grades.

Although universities are supposed to treat them as equivalent to "normal" grades. I am sure they will actually treat them with caution.

I honestly have no idea monkey....

I honestly have no idea monkey....

Twice!

Did anyone see the Guardian article about how teachers/schools have been swamped with emails from parents about their child’s grades?

JustHere, I've just read that article.

We did send an email on the day before school closed to DD's head of year, who also happens to be her Latin teacher, thanking her for everything she'd done for DD. It was from genuine gratitude; she has taught DD since DD joined the school in year 8 and has always championed her and made her believe in herself, when she was struggling with her SEN.

I'd hate to think the email came across as a simmering ploy for a decent grade. 😩 DD doesn't need even a pass in Latin and she was on target for a strong 5 or a 6 after mocks, which would be great; definitely.not expecting anything higher.

I'd hate to think the email came across as a simmering ploy for a decent grade.

Trust me, the emails begging for decent grades actually mentioned grades!

That's good to know noble. I also send in emails (on the basis that DS has finished Year 11 to all intents and purposes) thanking teachers for what they'd done and saying I appreciate that they are continuing to support the students during this awkward period. Now wondering if they were considered to be shameless fawning. (I would have sent similar emails in June, under normal times).

Any thank you emails would have been gratefully received and possibly made us a bit teary (the week of the unexpected school closure was a real emotional rollercoaster).

That's a relief to know, Noble. Such strange times, it's hard to know what the right thing to do/not do is!