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.

Children tend to take fewer GCSEs now the content and level of these exams has increased. Think they are more in line with the old style O-levels which I took many years ago. Then it was very rare for children to take more than 10 in one sitting. Although I do remember taking RE a year early. But everyone did in the school, and I assumed that was because it was a convent.

DD1 is in Y10 and was due to take a GCSE this session - her entire year group have studied the subject for two years and it was the first time the school had made it compulsory at GCSE. She's sat the same mock exams as Y11, been to the same after school drop-in sessions etc. but won't now get a grade. It's not a statutory subject, nor one that she would have chosen given the option so if Y10 aren't given grades, we'll request that she's not entered for the exam whenever it happens.

Everything is so up in the air for the Y10s that for DD1, having the possibility of an extra exam hanging over her at the same time she's potentially trying to get through course content for ten other GCSE subjects independently, doesn't work. She's had music exams (not GCSE) postponed too as well as performance assessments so it's better for her to just write off the unexamined subject and move on.

I feel differently about schools that cram two year courses into one year though - this was a full GCSE done over two years, as the course is designed to be done.

For those commenting on the various ons and outs of taking some GCSEs early: does it make your child a better rounded learner to be narrowing their curriculum early?

The whole point of banning early entry and endless re-sits is to reverse the trans where schools have become exam factories.

Everything Ofsted has been talking about recently makes a lot of sense- more sense than they have ever made. Students should enjoy a broad curriculum that is challenging and well planned and has joined up thinking that allows them to become confident in their topics.

Limiting a child to the GCSE specs in Yr 9 is the total antithesis of this new approach. Yr9 should be about exploring skills and interesting content- not just what the exam board deems worthy.

Is this an independent school? City perhaps?

ChloeDecker

The inspectors certainly was at school, both of my DC saw them.
It was not a desktop review

VivaLeBeaver

totally agree with you. My DD is in Year 12 and their mocks were due after Easter. So on what we are going to base her uni application is unclear and there was no guidance.

SE13Mummy

thank you for your response. It is not good your DD was forced to do the subject she did not choose. In our case students choose their optional subjects.

Do you know what your school and Year 10 parent are going to do - to recommend to Ofqual to award the grades or to leave it to Ofqual to decide?

A number of Headteachers have already raised this issue.

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/apr/03/gcse-a-level-grades-coronavirus-crisis-teacher-assessment-ofqual

thank you

Yes, totally blame your school. These practices are outdated, unfair on the kids ( fancy studying at A level a subject you haven’t done for 2 years) and only done to game the system, as evidenced by the fact you claim to be in top 5%. Poor kids, shit slt.

Lightsabre

No it is not City, I have a friend at City, will check with her what they do

It's one of the carpet ones isn't it?

BelleSausage

I do not think the re-sits are allowed these days. So this is not a story of having several attempts at the same exam

what do you mean by carpet ones?

Our school do similar to the OPs. DS is in Y10, due to sit three GCSEs this summer and eight next summer. Two of the eight next year are meant to be started in June and completed in a year.

If this goes ahead as suggested, he will be at a disadvantage for next year. He will have to continue his current three (one of which is Art so he’ll need to redo at least the exam prep art boards) as well as picking up two new subjects to complete in a year, all when he is unlikely to get back into a formal school environment before September. There won’t be enough hours in the school day to make sure he covers the curriculum of the new subjects and maintain levels of the three current subjects. Something will have to give - either his predicted grades will go down, or he will be forced to drop GCSEs or he will be put under a huge amount of stress trying to squeeze in the two new subjects while keeping everything else going.

Whether you agree with the system or not is irrelevant. My son didn’t ask for this and had no say in how the school chose to run exams. He has worked hard to prepare for the exams, just like Y11s and should be given the same option to either accept the allocated grade or resit.

If the decision is made that he can’t do this, I know he will be devastated. I am very concerned about how this will affect him and his levels of motivation for the coming year.

I would guess one of the London grammars from curriculum and results focus plus outstanding Ofsteds.

Also the fact that only a quarter of existing students proceed to sixth form would be a very worry for me, you would expect most students to remain in their school sixth form, so either your school games the system again by only retaining the very highest achieving students, or the kids hate the GCSE system at your school so much they choose to leave.

It’s not a London school at all, unless this thread is total bullshit. A very quick scamper on the gov website reveals only 2 schools judged outstanding in 2014 and neither have a sixth form.

Harris academies. It's the sort of stunt they have a reputation for.

SpringUnsprung

Thank you so much for responding to my message,. There are four of us now on this thread with early GCSEs problem and about 20 who are not in our shoes who are happy that our kids will have suffer because our schools are "playing the system", like if we had a choice.

Anyway, what are you and your school are planning to do ? I have written to our school today and will write to Ofqual too, as they embark on the consultation programme. If schools are playing the game and education authorities did not stop it, this is not our game and our children worked as hard as any Y 11 student and should be treated equally.

KoalasandRabbit
It's a comprehensive school

FFS the fact that year 11 and 13 are being dealt with as priority by Ofqual is seen as "unfair" on other years is beyond me. Get your priorities straight IMO. Year 9s and 10s have time, boo hoo they may have to do what a majority have to do and have exams at the end of year 11!

But barbosska, your kids can just sit the exam at the correct time, may/june of their year 11. They won’t have lost out at all, and can view the revision they have done now as an extra bonus to making their learning really secure. I would focus your efforts on making sure the school delivers this for them.

Rosieposy4

or the third option that they get the funding from the state for this number of 6th form students

OP- you have spectacularly missed my point. The scraping of endless tears-sits goes hand in hand with discouraging early entry. Schools were just getting students to endlessly take the exams from the middle of Yr10 onward.

All this teaches students is how to take exams. It totally narrows their skills set. It is the exam sausage factory.

The only way a student can get the best out of the current exam set up is if they study broadly and in depth at the same time with a curriculum that is given the right level of challenge. The English exams require the kind of understanding of context you can only gain through wider reading and broad study- genre, audience, writer’s craft etc.

Gaming the system by taking subjects separately over three years is actually robbing those Yr9 students of getting to do something not on the exam spec that can help enrich their subject knowledge.

titchy

it is not Harris, but Harris may do the same, will need to check

Bloody hell! re-sits. Stupid autocorrect.