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 .

Emailed HoY today. Apparently bridging packs are due out next Monday 4th May.

But we had had previous emails from headteacher saying just relax.

and then another email which I thought was really shitty from the same head of year saying: we will be monitoring who does the work online to show that they're committed etc?

WTF?

Ds1 doesn't want to do any studying for his old GCSE subjects, most of which he doesn't like! and quite frankly I agree.

and I don't expect scorn from head of year !

I'm more than happy for DS1 to do some work once he gets the bridging information for the 4 A-levels that he wants to do.

No Uni till Jan 21?
Am I naive to hope that schools will still go back in September then?

Ds1 has done nothing since easter holidays.

Apart from making the most exciting quiz for ds2's football team, that you've ever seen .

No gcse old work. No bridging A'level work available as yet.

Pissed offer that so many of you have had bridging work since pre easter.

@Oblomov20 dd has bridging work available to her, did a bit the first week and then decided it was a waste of time as it’s not actual A Level content!

Dd is very independent, has always been pretty motivated and I’ve never had to nag her. She’s told me to let her get on with organising her own life and daily plans so I am. I actually can’t see she’ll be disadvantaged by not doing the work so I’m not too worried.

I am still thoroughly thoroughly pissed off about the GCSE's.

My Ds1, barely any other posters understand my point of view.

I think I've seen one thread where a similar poster felt the same.

but the fact is my DS1 is slightly autistic, bright, but very lazy.

but would have crammed and would've absolutely flourished in the final exams.

Did reasonably in mocks. 4,5,6,7,8's. but I still reckon he would've absolutely banged it in the final exams.

he wont get that chance. I have told him off about it, said that is your own fault, and it's come back to bite you on your bum, your own laziness.

but the fact is a lot of exams these days do depend on how you perform on the day.

my son would've benefited and he is severely disadvantaged.
Fact.

now I'm sure that lots of you can't appreciate how I feel.

because your children, worked hard all year. Like they are supposed to!

but I still maintain my son, in the minority here, is severely disadvantaged.

Interesting crazy!
I wait to see how motivated Ds1 is when it actually arrives!

I haven't had bridging work oblomov and nor do I want it tbh!

We haven’t had any bridging work here.

Also, my DS didn’t work hard all year like he was “supposed” to. I have no idea whether he would have pulled it out the bag. He said he would have worked harder but who knows.

In Nov they took science mocks, the separate ones. But they only did one paper for each subject. He failed physics.
In March just before lockdown, they took the other paper for science mocks but he then did the dual award instead of the separate. He got a 5 in that physics paper.

I have no idea if this grade situation is better or worse than him taking exams

@Oblomov20 I feel the same tbh. DS didn’t revise for mocks, came out with pitiful results which served to be the rocket up his arse he needed. Worked really hard since November, was even looking forward to having his chance to prove the doubters wrong. I haven’t bollocked him or said it’s his fault, because frankly in my opinion it isn’t. Nobody could have foreseen this situation and certainly not the cancellation of exams and he’s upset enough without me adding to it. He’s learned a very valuable life lesson, but I’d reckon most kids save the hard work for the real thing, I know I did all those years ago. So I’ve gone the opposite way to chastising and bought him a big treat to cheer him up because the rug was seriously pulled from under him and I wanted to show recognition to the hard work he did put in over the last 5 years. My heart really goes out to them all.

We have had bridging work from the new sixth form yesterday and from the current school last week.

Oblomov my DS did work reasonable hard at school but did nothing outside. He achieved what would be considered decent grades in the latest mocks but he put very little effort into them as he didn’t think they counted for anything. He would have crammed and worked really hard for the actual exams and would without doubt achieved a higher level. Whether teachers realise that or not and take it into account at all is doubtful.

piggy my choir wants us to do zoom sessions too. I have avoided so far as I can’t see much point in singing in a room on my own while hoping the rest of the house doesn’t listen in .

@Oblomov20 Sorry about your predicament. It’s sucks doesn’t it? And now it seems even resits might not be certainty anymore. Try not to think too much about, we’ve got another 4months to go and it will just drive you mad.put it out of your mind, Depending on actual results you can convene here and you’ll be able to get more constructive advice, plus there might be new info from government re grades in general.

Thanks all.
Shimy, Realistically I'm not going to do anything!

I don't expect him to do resits in September, even if they do offer it, because he won't do as well in September as he would've done in the June exams and he hasn't studied for months now.

plus he'll be doing A-levels, and I want him to concentrate on that.

so whatever he gets for his maths, English, chemistry, biology, physics, etc we will just accept.

but that doesn't mean to say in the bottom of my heart I'm not severely pissed off.

Please don't think I am being snippy, lovely people, but why is there such a desire for bridging work? Is it just to keep your DCs ticking over with work (fair enough), to keep them occupied (also fair enough) or is it an anxiety that you think somehow they are missing out on what is normal? Because it really isn't. Many schools give a very small amount of bridging work in some, but not all subjects, after induction days in July. At the moment , my DH is worried (fee paying school) because he is having to deliver maths A Level ridging work to year 1s (fee justification I guess) and he thinks they are going to have to reconstruct the first four weeks of their A Level course as a result, and that will definitely a) be a pain and b) create a gulf between students who have enthusiastically attended and learn remotely and those who have not , or not been able to.

To be honest, I like my subject to remain a bit of a mirage in the distance : a promise of new learning and enlightenment come September and , therefore, have always resisted reams of (sometimes off putting !) work. In fact, I do know: shhh!, that some subjects set really hard work to try to put some students off!

I think reading, watching some documentaries (happy to recommend some that are better than Netflix fare), stepping away from the screen from time to time, listening to music, playing board games , learning to cook, or knit, playing music, zooming loved ones (should your family be less Luddite than mine!) are all character developing and DCs could learn great things.

My DS has watched a few suggested history documentaries but they are actually on GCSE topics so not really bridging work. I have watched two Spanish films with him. Otherwise , he is lolloping. He does have good boredom threshold, to be fair, but I am allowing him to lollop. Life is too stressful.

Please don't be pissed off with teachers oblomov if you are : you are raging against the wrong machine there. If you looked at a few staffroom posts you would see how much angst the grading is giving teachers but also how seriously they are taking the whole process. At my own school, I can see the grades and they are definitely erring on the generous side. Don't forget any downward shift may not be the teachers : it could be the exam boards.

Oblomov we are in a very similar situation to you but we are where we are. We are being set some bridging work and some sort of EQual thing. DS is doing a little bit of work and some dualingo off his own bat but mostly he is gaming.

I didn't include gaining in my list of wholesome things to do!

Disclaimer :attempt at light humour!

I tell you who is dong well.? Bloody sellers of computer and gaming kit. Tried to get DS an extra X Box controller with birthday money today £70!!!!

gaming !!

I also think my DS would have got really stressed in the build up to GCSE so feel blessed relief for him to be spared that anxiety and intensity of exam after exam after exam.

@Oblomov20 I think you’re taking a very realistic view about the whole thing and you’re not alone in feeling rightfully pissed off.

I don't want bridging work as such (as DS doesn't know what he wants to do next year, I'm not sure what he would bridge to anyway). I do want something for DS to do that keeps his brain ticking over or he would be spending 6 months from 20th March doing not much more than playing on the PS4. If he would do stuff I suggested or had any motivation to do things himself I wouldn't mind. I've suggested most of the things on Piggy's list

At the moment school is setting "stuff" and it's filling a block of time (maybe 2 or 3 hours) in the day. They are suggesting watching films, documentaries and taking OpenLearn courses amongst other things. DS will do it (sometimes) if a teacher suggests it - he won't if I do! If he was a different personality I would think differently. My Y9 DD has taken up a few new hobbies during lockdown, I'd be perfectly happy for her to just do her own thing if roles were reversed.

In terms of bridging work, I do sometimes wonder if the motivated able children are all going full speed ahead towards A Levels, so the ones that do nothing for the next few months are effectively going backwards?

Christopher Tracy, Ds1 is currently x box champion amongst his 15 mates.

Like I give a fried fart!

What a twat!

I think in reality most kids think they would have put in a last minute push/effort. But presumably so would those steady hard workers? My dd is somewhere in the middle, she’s pretty conscientious in that she does homework and I don’t need to nag her, but she definitely could and would have worked harder in April/May. I think teachers must be factoring that in a little bit?

But ultimately I don’t think it’s unfair that the steady hard workers get rewarded. Dd said she knows she could have got a 9 in Maths but she’d never really bothered to revise yet. She will probably get a 7 or maybe 8. I told her that seemed fair to me. The ones who have bothered to revise in the past will get the 9s.

As for bridging work - I’m not too fussed. I’m happy for her to have a nice break.

Another one here who had planned to start work over the Easter holidays. He has barely any work to do and I am worried that he is just going to complete fall out of the habit of work and find it really hard when school eventually starts.

His predictions are very good, so I expect his grades will be about what they would have been in a normal year, but he has missed out on a lot of consolidation of his GCSE knowledge which would have formed a strong foundation for A levels. I don't particularly want him to start A level content, but would like him to be doing a lot of past GCSE papers for Maths and Physics.

DD's school has organised bridging work. She's leaving to go elsewhere for 6th Form and will do IB but carrying on with some maths will keep her skills up and she's pleased to have the opportunity to do a bit of Economics before she commits to it as a subject choice.

It's fairly relaxed, mainly tutorial type sessions. DD has lots of free time and is reading various medical books as she's planning to apply for Medicine.

For her this whole situation is actually OK. She did very well in her mocks and would have worked like a Trojan in the run up to exams and got very stressed. She is the most relaxed I have seen her in a long time. I know others have different experiences but for her it's actually OK.

@Oblomov20 Your post of Wed 29-Apr-20 18:23:38 resonates with me. DS did 'OK' in mocks (didn't get anything below a 5) but did very little revision as he didn't think it mattered that much. He would absolutely cram and it has previously been extremely successful tactic for him. He now accepts that the grades will be what they will be and I'm slowly getting there.

We are at a point now where he doesn't get out of bed before lunch, comes down eats something, annoys his little brother, might go into his gym (the garage!) for half an hour or so and then X boxes til dinner. They are still being set GCSE stuff til tomorrow and hes just not even bothering now and I've lost the will to argue with him anymore.

Next week they are supposed to be doing a future skills course and then that's followed by the bridging work for A level. He has no motivation for anything and barely even showers. I think this huge period of nothingness is causing harm.

In the meantime I carry on trying to work and also ensure that DS2 carries on with the daily timetable which, actually, I can't fault the school for. It is a proper school day but it does mean hours of my time dedicated to helping him.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn I think you are describing a large proportion of boys at state schools around the country. "Nothingness" is just what it is.

@sandybayley in case your DD has not come across it, she might like to check out this BSMS "virtual work experience" for medics - bsmsoutreach.thinkific.com/courses/VWE?fbclid=IwAR0hJLHUHfglUZ_9ZzMKJNcMwwUsB51NtxOysCxIk0Awt5wLel8v0HQYC00