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 .

My DD has rediscovered a love for art. She has started oil painting and today tie dyed a teeshirt. It's costing me a fortune! I think she is finding anything to do other school work tbh.
Her routine is something like this:

11.30/12.00pm. wake up and look at phone
1.00 have brunch and watch tele
2.00 do a project or some sort
4.00 play tennis with me against the wall
6.00 play hockey with DJH (or run/bike ride a few times a week)
7.00 dinner
7.30 go up to bedroom
9.00 may come back down to watch tele, but often starts oil painting,. 11.30pm starts her fitness session...
12.00/12.30pm has a shower..
She has always been a late to bed person, but now is definitely wide awake when I'm off to bed.
I'm letting her go with the flow (which at first I found very hard to do, but I've decided she is old enough to know what feels right at what time) - for now ;-)

DS's school has sent out a letter saying there will be no more online work after tomorrow. Children continuing onto the sixth form will be contacted in due course.

So that's it. The last contact (barring any future potential reunion) that many of the year group (who are leaving the school) will have.

I'd half expected this, but it still feels very final.

School will now finish off GCSE this week, and start A level work next week. Thank goodness for that.

Some of the teachers were getting emotional saying goodbye today, this is so hard for everyone.

Silly the things you think of, I guess the driving schools will be really busy when they go back as a backlog of those who have turned 17 during lockdown?

Fools - theory tests have opened up for booking again. DS1 has one next week. People who had their tests cancelled are already being given new dates.

That’s encouraging Sandy I want DS driving as soon as he can once 17.

One question for Piggy I guess. If work from lockdown shouldn't really be used, why were schools given so long to give in the marks? It's something like end of May isn't it? You'd think they'd want the marks in as quickly as possible and to avoid confusion over what work counts, and what doesn't.

One of the local boys schools here is doing a full set of online GCSE exams and has told the boys they count towards their marks.

I don't really know wheres. I assume to give schools time to gather data, rather than create some new stuff. There was the Easter holidays , don't forget. I think they also probably planned in the need to discuss with exam boards their role, and also they ran that consultation document.

They have now said that all the grades need to be with them by early June iirc.

Conversely, senior leadership in my school have given all depts. exactly the same amount of time to QA data (gathered form subject teachers) and submit it to them - less than a week, which is just not possible in my mammoth department. hey ho!

The most recent newsletter has not got the ‘Yr11 parents - please don’t contact the teachers about grades’ plea. It does say that they are working out how to open the school but it won’t be fully open until September. Priority will be given to Years 10 and 12. They will be expecting pupils to adhere to strict social distancing (!)

fair point about consultation Piggy that must have been a massive job.

Strange how it seems so drawn out...Monday DD would be doing RE exam...so strange to think of that.

Anyone else expecting grade sheets at end of term? School didn’t do reports at the end of last term, but said they’d send them out this term. Bit tricky I’d think...be interesting to see if they remove the target grade and just report working at grade.

We didn't have a report at the end of last term for Year 11 DS (but did for Year 9 DD) so I was assuming not. It would be pretty hard for a school to write up a list of grades without laying themselves open to comeback later, and I'm not sure how they would evaluate the effort/behaviour grades either (which are the other things that are normally recorded).

Ds1 got his bridging packs on Monday. He's worked solidly on business and handed it in to his teacher.

He will now tackle his 3 other subjects.

Apparently bridging stuff gets released each Monday.

Thanks for the heads up on driving theory planning. I'll mention to him. If he takes a look now, it'll be less pressure later.

I'm still hoping they'll start some sort of school learning, be it not the same as it used to be, but more 'normal' in September.

@Wheresthebeach I’d have been more surprised if they had to be honest. Hard to see how they would draw up a grade sheet whilst keeping mum about predicted GCSE grades, surely there would be a strong correlation? Unless perhaps they based it on performance since lockdown. Frankly, I’ve lost interest in grade sheets and think it more prudent to just wait for results to come out.

DDs school report attainment grades and effort grades every half term.
We’ve never had a ‘target or predicted grade’
Last grade sheet we received was in March.

Any suggestions on driving?

Which book are you going to buy?
Which app and online stuff is best these days?

Is it best to get a old fashioned Highway Code? A book to work through chapter by chapter?

Before you even get to the app? And the trial tests?

I don't know what the current kids do these days?

We have had a ‘Don’t forget to think about what to do it you don’t get the grades for 6th form’ email . Then realised it was sent to all of Year 11 .

If not it

DS2 had a report in March but the grade columns were blank

Driving - the best apps are the official DVSA ones. The questions in the real thing look like they come from the same bank. Try to encourage your DC to be strategic about the hazard perception test. It is a stupid test, if you see the hazard too early you get no points. When DS1 did his theory he got almost full marks for the main part but failed hazard perception by 2 marks because he got 0 marks for seeing it too early or full marks if he was a bit slower! The advice is to click when you see it, then click again shortly after in case you were too early. You can click more than once but can't continuously click (obviously).

DD got her year 11 summative report on Friday.
No grades, unsurprisingly, but it is a really fantastic report, talking about her determination and work ethic, the progress she's made in year 11 and what a pleasure she is to teach. 😍

Her first exam.should have been tomorrow; I finally feel like I can relax over the whole situation.

S he started bridging work with her current school a couple of weeks ago, and starts work with her new school today.

Well done her ! @alsoplayspiccolo - hope you are doing ok ?

DD was up bright and early, ready to start her English A level course! She spent yesterday rationalising her shelves and storing all her non-A level books and notes in boxes.

She has finally come to terms with the fact that she will get no school sport this summer -I think the hope had still been there until yesterday’s announcement...

Kingscote is your DD doing English lit or Lang? If Lit what books is she studying?

Tomorrow DD would have had 2 French and a Biology exam so this last weekend would have been so stressful instead we made scones for VE Day and had a lovely weekend as a family - I introduced her to Pride and Prejudice (Colin Firth version natch).

I believe if she logs on to her school's 6th form page she can download her courses of choice and make a start today but she still has to do maths and Eng Lang stuff plus Kip tests weekly all the way through to end of summer in case she wants to resit. She's not happy as is confident she would not need to resit as she should pass everything (maybe not as high as real thing but a pass in a subject not taken as an A Level is fine).

Her hayfever seems to be under control so she would have been fine if exams had gone ahead this week.

Thanks, @OrangeCinnamon.

We 're doing pretty well, all things considered. I've moved all my instrumental teaching over to Zoom lessons, which my pupils and their parents have been really supportive of. It means I can keep my teaching practice going so that I have work to go back to after lockdown AND can earn in the meantime.
DH qualifies for the self employed support grant, so we'll scrape by in the next few months. DS's school has been incredibly supportive, regarding payment of fees, and we're in the process of applying for an emergency bursary for DD's.

DS is having all his instrumental lessons via Zoom/Skype and is also taking part in various online music education projects, such as the Benedetti Foundation sessions, so he's happy. He has a very manageable online learning timetable from school, with tutor group video chat sessions twice a week to keep his peers connected.

DH and I have managed to do a million jobs around the house and garden that we never normally have time for, including redecorating the music room (hard to do when you teach from home!) And creating a vegetable bed and cutting garden.

Of course, DH is still concerned that he won't be able to work possibly until next year, given that theatres will be some of the last places to reopen, but we've both come round to an attitude of acceptance, and gratitude that we have this time as a family.

How are you doing, @Orange?

DS should have been sitting Computer Science and Religious Studies today.

Instead, he is currently explaining all the exam rules and regulations to DD (Year 9). I guess he is missing sitting his exams :)