Year 9 and Year 10 GCSE students - unfairly treated by Ofqual?

[barbosska]

Students in our school sit GCSE exams in Years 9,10,11. Each of these year groups has lessons in Math, English, Science plus 2-3 GCSE courses of their choice. Each GCSE course runs for a year instead of two, and students from Year 9,10 and 11 all sit together in the same lessons and then sit GCSEs together. They do not study any other subjects except for the above.

Yesterday's Ofqual indicated that Year 9 and 10 students will not be awarded the GCSE grades because they can do these exams in Year 11. This would however put them in a highly disadvantageous position next Year, as not only they would need to do remaining GCSEs in one year instead of two, but also to keep on top of the subjects they have learnt this year and for which they were ready to sit exams.

There are not many schools in the country who organise GCSEs this way and I would very much appreciate to hear from people in the same situation as us: what are you and your schools planning to do?

All these children have sat in one class listening to the same teacher, did the same job, had the same teacher and now Year 11 will get the grades and the rest of students will not - how is that fair? Ofqual should have at least left to the discretion of the schools whether to , but not just pull them all out from the exam registers. Ofqual said they will run a consultation soon, but who are they going to consult - just their internal departments? The fact they they have come up with the proposition already indicates that they have no idea how some schools structure their courses.

My dd is in year 10 doing 11 subjects. Three are languages. She was due to sit one language GCSE this summer and carry on with the remaining 10 subjects next year. If she doesn’t get a grade for the language this year she will not have a qualification in it as she will not manage 11GCSEs Including three languages in year 11. My ds took 10 Gcses and had about 25 exams which was more than enough.

Look, no matter what you think your school is cheating. The new Ofsted framework came into force in September. They cannot have been visited since then because they would have been downgraded to Requires Improvement straight away.

You school may believe they have been cunning in setting things up this way but it is the students who will pay. This is no longer common practise. Our sixth form would be looking warily at any student who’s exams occur over multiple years. They wouldn’t be the first choice of candidate because their knowledge would be old in some subjects.

The school are also robbing the students of broader curriculum experiences. I actually completely agree with Ofsted on that.

You are deluding yourself and remaining disingenuous-your child doesn’t only have only a year to study because you have said yourself that they have always been having lessons in English, maths and the three sciences; so that is equivalent to three years study eventually. And an extra year for the subjects they were going to take this year —to play the system—. but unfortunately, they are now in a similar boat to everyone else taking multiple exams (albeit they have already taken three last year, so still have it a bit easier).

Wow, I think people are being unnecessarily harsh here. There are several state schools near me that do this, and while this may be the ‘schools fault’ the children did not have any say in this matter! They are going to be disadvantaged in this arrangement through no fault of their own, a little empathy wouldn’t go amiss!

And no, my DCs school isn’t one of them.

If the school is outstanding then those standard intervals are not very regular. Has it been inspected in the last couple of years?

Our school does the RE/Ethics GCSE in Year 10, and the rest in Year 11 to give them all an idea of what they'll have to do ... reality check as you say. And it's an Excellent school acc to OFSTED. Has been for the past countless years, and were fully OFSTED-ed again a couple of months ago. Still Outstanding.

The OP thinks that it is unfair that her Y10 kid isn’t being given a teacher assessed grade like Y11 and the opportunity to resit as soon as schools go back.

Meanwhile there are Y11 kids who are incredibly worried about the teacher assessment process, are thinking they’ll have to resit exams in September and are wishing they had the opportunity to sit exams as normal.

Someone in Y10 who is thinking it is unfair that they are not in the position of a Y11 currently should be careful what they wish for. The option to postpone the exam and sit next year and knowing now that this is what will happen so plenty of preparation time is actually a gift.

Our school makes all children sit 0.5 RE in year 10 if not taking full course and English Language GCSE in year 10, it's something I don't like and must be quite a few children fail English Language in year 10 who would have passed in year 11. The 0.5 RE I don't see point in.

I think it's fair enough to make younger children sit it later, it's not essential they sit it now and get estimates rather than what they would have got. For year 11s it is essential. I'm hoping it means our school will shift to year 11 in all.

Doing short course RE in year 10 and everything else in year 11 isn’t the same as what the OP’s school are doing though. I suspect lots of schools do that with RE. It doesn’t really affect the curriculum offer, isn’t done for the purpose of gaming the league tables and probably still leaves pupils sitting 8 GCSEs in one sitting.

The OP’s school has done something completely different.

It's GCSE English Language and 0.5 RE in year 10 plus DD has been told she can do French in year 10 - not as much as OP's school but our school does do this. I'm not keen unless a child is a clear 9 taking it early but vast majority aren't.

Ours do 8 plus GCSEs in year 11 as well, just do, they are trying to persuade DD to take 12 subjects in all and I suspect it is about getting as many passes in their results as possible. I've told them its too many and all they reply is she will pass them all and they seem to want quantity of passes whereas the child is better off with higher grades in 9 or 10 subjects.

chocolatviennois

yes, this is exactly a problem. What do you or your school plan to do about it? Ofqual said they will do a consultation, but I doubt they will ask the parents or students. They will probably only listen to schools, if at all

TeenPlusTwenties

Thank you for your comment, sounds the right thing to do, although as you say the scheduling will be a problem.

By the way, Y11 will not study at all from now on, right? Our school said they will do additional activities. So I suspect their teachers can teach Y10 now

BelleSausage

You would be surprised, but the most recent Ofsted inspection in October 2019 and itrated the school outstanding. The school has been running this model for the last 20 years at least and Ofsted has inspected them multiple times during this time

MrsElijahMikaelson1

I never said they did not study Math English and Sceince. I've said that instead of having two subjects for two years they learn one in a year and move to another one next year. So in Y 11 there will be 2 new subjects from scratch to be done in a Year.

And by the way, my original post asked for a feedback of people in the same situation, what they are planning to do.

Only two respondents are in the same situation, yet many others jumped on the thread to blame the school. Maybe the school is to blame, but this does not change the fact that all three Year groups 9,10,11 spent the whole year in the same classroom with the same teacher doing the same job preparing for the same exam and now Y 11 if graded and the rest is not.

My son was due to do English lit a year early and I thought was a great idea one less paper next year and they have worked just as hard as year 11 to prepare for the exam . Why is it cheating doing an exam early , our school also did options year 8 started studying from year 9 , year earlier than lots , I also like this idea as my kids don't need to keep learning say art , music and drama if which they had no interest in , where as other kids would rather spend more time on those subjects as opposed to say history etc . But they recently had ofsted inspection and have gone back to options year 9 no consulting parents or kids from ofsted just what they think is right . Ofsted in my opinion aren't always right either

Only two respondents are in the same situation, yet many others jumped on the thread to blame the school.

That’s because you were blaming Ofqual for being unfair.

JustHereWithMyPopcorn

Thank you very much for your comment. I was also surprised that people have jumped on the thread to blame the school, to make the accusation of cheating and all the rest of it whilst neither students nor the parents have any say on how the school is run. The school has the board of governors who decide on this issues and statutory bodies to control what they do.

It is not only our school which is affected. 10% of school children are affected, fifty thousand children. I hardly believe that Ofsted would have allowed early GCSEs to happen if they were strongly against it.

I have specifically asked what people in the same boat are planning to do and got 5 pages of blame and negativity from peole who are not in the same boat at all.

Thank you for your human response, I really appreciate it.

Op I'm hoping they may allow them to sit early still but probably can't confirm as they can't say for sure when schools will be back or if these exams can take place . I very much doubt they will do teacher assessments but then as they allow the schools to enter the children probably should be the same principle as if it is against the rules as some are saying then surely you could not enter them anyway . Maybe different ways of doing suit different kids .

AprilFloundering

Same with our school - it was last inspected last October and rated outstanding. It ran early GCSEs for the last 20 ears and was inspected by Ofsted multiple times in those 20 years

Easilyanxious

Do you know if your school is going to consult the Ofqual to ensure the grades are awarded for Y10?

You are exactly right- Y10 students worked as hard as Y11. The school's actions are not in their control and for me it is a clearly an unfair treatment when grades are issued based on the age.

Why is it cheating doing an exam early

But the OP is not just talking about ‘an’ exam early. The OP is talking about a school that is gaming the system with many exams taken in a staggered approach that has long since been frowned upon in order to maintain their ‘outstanding’ results, rather than following rules/guidance. This does not put schools/students at a level playing field. In addition, it is also a dangerous strategy and was deliberately changed after the English exam debacle a few years ago so as to ensure all schools follow fair procedures. The OP’s school are doing this purely for results and not what will be best for the students in the long term, leaving many underprepared for the next stage in their education. It is also why, finally, ‘outstanding’ schools have been out back in to the Ofsted visit ‘cycle’ again
(I would hazard a guess that the OP’s school does not have a Sixth Form attached that the pupils move on to either, but happy to be corrected)

Easilyanxious

My understanding is that those students who get the grades and are not happy can sit exams in Autumn or next year. Those who do not get the grades have to do exams next year.

Cross post. You were inspected last October and rated outstanding? Was it a Deep Dive?

Also I will add my other son sat 11 gcse and had so many papers so doing one or two early I can see benefits . He would of actually benefited from teacher assessments as he worked consistently at a higher level than he managed to pass at in the exams as so many papers etc in short amount of time , maybe the schools that do it early is a benefit for some children I know for my oldest it would of been as he is more capable than his grades actually show , a few less papers could if helped , which is why I was glad when my youngest was getting one out of the way a well as the school dropped a gcse so felt he was standing a better chance of showing his potential

Also I will add my other son sat 11 gcse and had so many papers so doing one or two early I can see benefits

Of course it is easier. Doesn’t mean it is better though.