Assessment based GCSEs post Covid19

[salty78]

Am I alone in thinking that to be fair to Y10 students next year, a decent proportion of their grade should be based on teacher assessments?

They've missed a big chunk of school now, even those with good online support, and I can't see how a real test of ability and knowledge can now be on exam only. It's so unfair on those who have been unable to access learning or who need extra support.

I don't agree with 100% exam-based assessment anyway but I feel this current situation has made it even more important that the whole system has a rethink. Y11s will have grades based on 100% teacher assessment so that's considered good enough for them.

My DS is in Y9 and I'm really worried about his learning now too. If he had been at school he would have started his GCSE courses by now. Y9s are going to be disadvantaged as well if this isn't properly considered.

This is really bothering me and I don't know what to do about it. I've thought about writing to my MP but feel he will be a dead loss, he's more interested in business and immigration and he hasn't referred to education once since in his updates since he took up post last year.

Maybe give the students the choice. There's too much of a school of thought that says exams are bad and coursework is good. There are lots of people who are better at exams and can motivate themselves for exams.

I would suggest having a choice of 50% each or 25% of one and 75% of the other depending on whether you think you are better at exams than coursework.

I don't think Y9s are going to be that disadvantaged. DS' school started science in the summer term but that was all. And if they do three year courses they will have masses of time to catch up given most schools cover the content in 2 years. They could reduce the number of options perhaps - ds' school did 8 GCSEs unless you did triple science in which case you took 9, so if schools do 10 or 11 they could easily reduce to 9 or 10 and make more time on the timetable.

I can see the case for y10s. They’ve missed quite a chunk of teaching time and some accommodations should be made. No need for year 9 assuming schools return soonish in the new term. Plenty of schools still run two year GCSEs with excellent outcomes.

@cologne4711 I agree a proportion should still be exam-based but some flexibility for assessed coursework could really help level the playing field.

I really do hope the knock-on effects for Y9 will be minimal.

I have a y10.

I personally think it is more likely they will try for more flexibility/choice in the exams wherever possible. It won't work for maths or English Language but might work well for a number of other subjects.

But it might all depend on when schools get back to normal...

I think we need to wait and see how the system has worked for the current Y11s e.g. how many are satisfied with their results and how many are not and decide to do the Autumn exams.
However the system for 2020 Y11s isn't course-work, most of the material used to help teachers will have been done under examination conditions including mock exams, end of topic tests etc.
I suspect that for Science there will be more pupils being moved to the Combined Science equivalent to 2 GCSEs in 2021 than continuing with 3 separate Sciences.
For subjects such as History or Geography there is usually some choice of questions anyway, but pupils need to have studied enough topics so that they can still access A levels.

Currently teachers are assessing Y11 children on work they had done. Most of the pupils will have all but completed the curriculum, done most NEA and 1-2 mocks.

But if Y10s dont get the majority of their course completed can teacher assessment really work on subject knowledge that hasn't been done or studied.
And would it really be fair to award children grades for work they haven't done? Is it fair on children you have studied the whole course?

Get rid of NEA so they have more time to study. Push the exams back a few weeks, get rid of study leave. Cancel extra-curricular to run extra classes etc Maybe allow exams to have more choice of questions but if possible they need to get the whole curriculum done.