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 .

The reality though is that music is one if such a high percentage of the gcses is NEA that the teacher would more likely calculate the correct centre assessed grade especially for high achievers so becomes one where there may be fewer taking in November.

But moderation is a real killer in music - lots of kids get full marks in the performance/composition, so the results get heavily moderated. I think DS said you need 28/30 for a 9 in each piece of coursework.

The fact that NEA work might not be factored into the resit/deferred A level/ GCSE exams is discriminatory for all those students who chose those subjects PRECISELY because of the coursework element - especially those with SpLD such as dyselxia/ ADHD etc who find the exam component very very hard due to their disabilities.

It seems totally wrong that a student can be awarded an A level in a subject such as Music/ Drama/ Design (where the practical component was 40-60% of the grade) to now only get a grade based on a theoretical exam.
In normal circumstances the NEA score from one year could be 'carried over' to the next year for a resist of the exam paper. The same should be done here.

If teachers can be trusted to give an indicative grade and ranking for a student then surely they can be trusted to give a projected NEA score, based on whatever coursework has already been completed.
Most schools will have completed at least 50% of the coursework element in subjects such as music/drama anyway - many do some of it at the end of Year 12!

If you are also concerned about the non-inclusion of NEA in autumn exams (for both A level and GCSEs) PLEASE make your feelings known via the consultation here before 8 June

www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-an-additional-gcse-as-and-a-level-exam-series-in-autumn-2020

And PLEASE share this with anyone else you know who may feel the same way.

Depending on what Dd ‘gets’ will depend how much she enlarges the font for 2020 on her CV!

My daughter is still poorly from an (unknown) viral brain infection in December. She expected 8s and 9s. At the moment she’s getting over 13 hours sleep a day which is great for her recovery. No idea how GCSEs would have fitted in!

DD still muttering that if she does get high marks people will say, 'Yeah, but those are only Covid 9s, not real ones...'

@ZandathePanda that must have been awful. It is nice to hear about the quarantine situation improving some people's lives.

My DD isn't too worried about balancing in October because she's still getting between 3 and 4 hours of work each day either for GCSE courses or A level preparations. She's also now not going away on her trip with friends, our family holiday, or her best friends' family holiday so that's three weeks of time she's got back. None of the planned dance summer schools is an extra three weeks. A busy summer with no time for work is now a little empty and she's bad at relaxing.

I have a lot more confidence in her keeping up work than I would in DD1, who's sitting A levels.

@ZandathePanda hope your DD is making a good recovery.

There are a few people for whom the GCSE situation has removed a stress in a very difficult situation. I have a friend with cancer whose Y11 daughter had a carcinogenic appendicitis so she was dealing with her mum's cancer and her own situation (now clear) for several months of Y11 and it has given them much needed breathing space. Added to that she is a single mum and a very difficult grandmother lives with them and had a hip replacement whilst the Y11 was having the operation to check whether the cancer had spread. Puts other things in perspective for us.

'DD still muttering that if she does get high marks people will say, 'Yeah, but those are only Covid 9s, not real ones...'

I can relate to this thinking Kingscote. The worrying thing is that most of it has come from the parents of Y11, oversharing their anxieties with their DC. Maybe not the case on this thread but for sure in RL in our experience. So long as the outcome does not hinder DC from moving onto their next stage in life, whether that's at the 4/5 (more critical to pass) or 8/9 levels - later in life future employers are not going to roll their eyes and dismiss the assessment grades as not real due to them being the corona year students. Disadvantages could also be argued about the Y10 and 12s and then further, as all year groups have been impacted to varying degrees. I do appreciate that for certain applications like medicine grades may be taken into account to form a wider picture at HE level, but the absence of sitting actual exams does not make them any lesser able than previous years to progress well onto A levels/other choices and beyond. I hope it's not just my naivety here.

Yes, the implementation of assessments vs exams has been crude, not thought through end to end and still has big gaps, but unless they really are at risk of missing 'the next rung' by the august grading, 8 months from Apr to Nov is a massive lapse of time to then regress back into GCSEs, especially alongside Y12 stuff? Even for the most motivated of students...

...I failed to add that most 6th form places locally, whether continuing on or offered place elsewhere have amended their offers to unconditional, even if they were previously conditional on x, y and z results. That helps DC to move on.

No sixth forms have amended offers here. All stand on the original requested grades.

Thankfully DS should be ok. I do worry about the potential impact as a potential oxbridge candidate but I guess we’ll find that out in a year or two.

Thank you to posters above. Still trying to sort out Dds meds and then appointments to specialists are on hold which is frustrating.
But yes there are some of us who are very grateful for no GCSEs. Monkey2001 that poor girl and her family - hope things improve all round for her.
What I have realised is how much the whole of secondary school seems to channel into GCSEs, from timetables affecting the whole school to social events. Also I realised I had already started cranking up my stress levels for another GCSE year. After all the health and personal stuff we’ve been through it is so weird to really not be bothered. Although I will probably be not so calm the night before results day in August.

It will be interesting if you can get your results by email/post. Normally the school are very strict about coming in - particularly because pupils may need to change subjects for A Level. There are always lots of teachers there. The last place I would want to be, as a teacher, is in school on results day this year! I think the atmosphere will be very different and, if possible, we will give it a miss.

I think teachers will be there on results day although there'll hopefully only be the smallest element of surprise in grades for them. I would understand if they weren't.

I think schools will e-mail results but be available to talk to people who did not get the results they needed for their planned progress. As Zanda said, there will be an odd atmosphere as the teachers will be blamed by students for disappointing results - normally they are on the same side and teachers can be supportive to the disappointed students.

@ZandathePanda I'm sorry to hear about your daughter's illness. I hope she is much better by September. Dd was saying last night that she feels this has been what her generation need - a chance to take time out from the pressure and have a proper rest. Maybe not true for all year 11s, but she has certainly benefited.

I do hope they can go and collect their 'results'. It will be the only 'landmark' thing left from this year and dd and I would appreciate the chance to say goodbye to some of her teachers. I won't be blaming the teachers if she doesn't get what she wants!

I hope they can go to school to collect. A tiny bit of normality.

I’m also hoping they can collect GCSE results from school socially distanced at staggered times etc. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. DDs school also has sixth form teachers available to discuss any changes in A levels choices etc.

Dd wasn't in school that last week before lockdown. As no sixth forms here really was the last time for her to say goodbye to some wonderful teachers...they really are at her school, she has been so lucky.

I think I have said before that the local college had reassured all from the outset that they had a place if they have been offered it. Pass marks at GCSE were only needed anyhow.

I really hope they do a results day ...the original plan was for her to meet me in Wetherspoons after collection...not sure that will happen now especially seeing as i've decided to boycott them.

How many until this post is full ? Is it 40 or 50 pages?

It's 1000 messages (will depend on your settings, how many pages that is!)

DS still has things in his locker at school. And if nothing else, school will want the keys back at some point!

DS is hoping Nandos will do the "free chicken" with a results slip thing that they did last year. And our Nandos is quite close to a park so they could manage socially distanced chicken eating ok!

Ooh, dd loves Nando’s, I hope that’s back by August!

Celebratory Nando’s in the park sounds perfect for them! I hope they can do that

Free Nandos with results slip???!!! How did DS1 miss that?

DC are missing junk food, not that they had it very often, perhaps once a month, but they are counting the days until we have access to McDonalds again.

McDonalds has opened all its restaurants for drive thru and delivery from today, I believe, and some Nandos are doing deliveries/collection.

DS2 will be pleased. He has a giftcard for Nando's which he thought might expire before he used it again.

Is it actually ‘free’ or subject to a minimum spend of £7?
DD had a cheeky Nando’s delivered to a designated spot last week but she and her friend found it difficult to find a spot to scoff said grub to comply with government advice.

Free Nando’s!!! DD will be over the moon. Fingers crossed.