GCSE summer 2020 thread 6 - Carry on Corona Cohort, Further adventures aboard the Corona Charabanc.

[FoolsAssassin]

The summer of discovidtent for the Corona Cohort trudging on towards results day.
Ofqual have done them a little video to explain their results:

Please feel free to join us to see what twists the next bit has in store for us all.

Thread 5
Thread 4
Thread 3
Thread 1 year 10

@ProggyMat - that's interesting. Wonder if the school would be under an obligation to share, or if optional. I thought all the previous guidance was that kids wouldn't be told? I'm not sure if its a good thing or not? Results day could be awful if downgraded.

@wheresthebeach the request for the information could/would be made after the official grade from the exam board
If someone was expecting a 7 given previous performance but received a 6 the info requested from the school could show that their assessment was indeed a 7 but then it had been pulled down by exam board
@Monkey2001 the poster on the A level thread seemed to think the rank could be disclosed too.
Hopefully, none of us will have the need to request the information.

Dd's school said this week that senior management, as well as scrutinising the grades per department, have also looked at each girl's spread of grades to make sure they look right for her. I'm not sure whether this would change much, but I guess it's possible that one girl could end up top of the 7 rankings in a number of subjects and another girl could be bottom of the 8 rankings in a few subjects and it might be better to switch a few round if overall they are of equal ability and work ethic?

I've tried to prepare dd for a few 7s where she would have wanted 8s. We know the proportion of the year who got 8/9s last year in each subject and she's not convinced she would fall into that top % on historic work for her 'worst' subjects. At the end of the day, she probably would have pulled the stops out and worked harder towards the exams, but if she gets 7s in those subjects that does reflect her aptitude and effort up to March!

@ProggyMat from www.naht.org.uk/news-and-opinion/news/leadership-news/awarding-grades-for-gcse-as-and-a-levels-summer-2020-what-do-schools-and-colleges-need-to-do/#an-results

Can students request this data under GDPR?

Ofqual guidance explains that in respect of personal data, such as marks or other information processed by a data controller for the purposes of determining results, an exemption from disclosure exists under paragraph 25(2) of the Data Protection Act. This allows data controllers (in this case centres) to delay disclosure of such information until after results have been issued.

which is not very clear, although under GDPR they are not supposed to disclose data which is identifying for a third party, so maybe it depends on whether disclosing a position in the rankings would mean that you could tell how others had been ranked. They certainly would not disclose the full ranked list.

@Monkey2001 I don’t think anyone would expect to see the full ranked list
I would imagine it would be something like grade 7 ranked 7/18
It would be very difficult with a subject which attracts only a few entries. That said, the schools results history would show the typical spread of grades for that subject for the past 3 years.
The poster that mentioned grades and ranking could be requested after the results had been informed by their DCs school that this would be the case.

Having been through all this 3 years ago, it may be helpful to remind you that most students get some surprises on results day even in a normal year.

DS1 was confident of A* in Music, Geography and Biology but was:

• 0.25% short in music after a moderation of performances in which the moderator did not actually listen to his performance;
• 1% short in Biology because the teacher who had predicted him A* throughout gave him a B for coursework so his almost 100% UMS in exams could not make up for it;
• missed an A* in Geography because they had never done a case study before the exam and so he did not know how they were supposed to use data and got a B for that paper after 99% for coursework and 100% UMS for one of the papers

On the other hand, he was expecting a 7 for Eng Lit, got a 6, got it re-marked and got a 9. Expected a A/B for RE and got an A* with almost 100% UMS.

So on balance his grades were about right, but not in the right subjects because of randomness of the exam process.

This year it seems unlikely that any grades will be more than 1 grade from where they should be and the video I linked said that they would allow 2% extra 7-9 and 1% extra 4+ and the randomness of exams has been taken out of the equation so there is good cause for optimism.

On the day it feels so important, but in reality, particularly for this cohort, they will not feel so important within a couple of years.

@ProggyMat according to Mr Salles () schools are advised not to share rankings, even after results day.

Who knows......

@Monkey2001 It’s more a question if requested by an individual student should they share that individuals data.
Of course there are surprises on results day but that’s after students have had a chance to prove themselves in an exam
Also, as you’ve highlighted with your DSs results re-marks happen every year which can dramatically alter the grade awarded.
The point in trying to put across is there may be some students whom have consistently attained a g

Oops!
Consistently attained a grade over 2 years and at Yr11 mocks yet may be awarded a lower grade- as in Heifers example
Also, we have not as yet been given a detailed indication on resists
As for the extra 2% at 7 and above and 1% at 4 is that for all GCSE subjects.
That was agreed for French but I haven’t seen an update to see it’s across all subjects.

I think it's hard to say students have consistently attained a particular grade for two years though, as teachers never know for sure what mark equates to grade 7/8/9 etc. As that earlier video explained, the actual exams are graded on a standard deviation curve, so that results don't go up too much, so a mark that gets a 9 one year may only be awarded an 8 the following year.

My dd's mock mark in Biology would have been awarded a 9 in last year's GCSE, but her teacher gave her a 7 because she thought boundaries would change. Other than mocks though, she's not been given grades on a 1-9 scale much, if at all through years 10 and 11 for the reason that no one knows what mark will attain a 9 in any particular year.

Obviously if a child is in a school where typically there are lots of 9s and they always come top in every test/exam etc, you might say with confidence that they've always achieved 9s.

My dd honestly doesn't know for sure what grades she's been attaining the last two years! She does know raw scores though.

One school round here has done Leavers' Hoodies with 'Plague Year' on the back and a big red cross

Brilliant.

Just be careful about the Plague stuff. Not to be a killjoy but this would not go down well at our school - we had a child whose mum died in hospital and they couldn’t say goodbye to her properly. If it’s a big year group it’s difficult to know who has been affected.

On a lighter note, humanities results in particular have always been suspect at GCSE and A Level. Our local school is very set up for remarks - with a ‘remark station’ in place with the forms etc on results day. Many go up which is good for this years cohort but unfair for other schools who have fewer parents who pay for this ‘service’.

@crazycrofter Surely though, if it’s hard to grade work and mock exams over Yr10 and Yr11 how certain can we be that the assessed grades given to the Corona Cohort are what they would have achieved had they’d sat the exams this year?
DDs school applied 5% to last years Biology papers when grading January mocks (they used 2019 papers)
If I remember correctly and please correct me if I’m wrong, your DD attends a school that gets 90% plus results at grades at 7-9
I would think it would be harder to finely differentiate that cohort into grades 7,8 and 9.

Was it last year that there were many surprised at their GCSE English lit mark? I seem to remember something but can't trawl through the thread. I already had it in my head that there will be some unexpected results...was it always like that or the last three years?

I get so annoyed when they blether on in the press about exams not being as hard 'these days' if there us that kind of analysis this year I shall be so annoyed.

@OrangeCinanon I think it was the English Language grades?

English Language is notorious!

Ah yes so it was. Perhaps in some ways I have more faith in this system. Not sure we are in the 7/8/9 categories across the board .

College have written today to let us know they will be scheduling enrolment interviews via letter at the beginning of August. Not sure when these will start presume after results day...when we know when that is.

To second what Monkey2001 says - DD1's GCSE results were a flip of what she expected. She was the first year of the full 9-1 system and had no idea what to expect, but even what she got was unexpected! 9s in geography and biology (her two most hated subjects, and got a 6 in her geography mock!) and a 7 in English language (after consistent 8s/9s throughout year 10 and 11) were the big shockers. I think if she'd been doing this year's system she'd have got the English Language 8/9 and 7/8 in geography and biology so it would balance out. She's A levels now but I've not really peaked at the A level thread.

@ProggyMat isn’t that the point of the rankings though? Because it’s hard for teachers to predict where the boundaries will be but if they rank accurately the exam boards can then make sure the ‘right’ % gets a 9/8/7 etc, they might just have to move some students down a grade.

Yes, my DD’s school usually gets majority 7 plus grades (well remembered!) but I’m not sure that makes much difference. Like others have said, there are often big surprises with exams - at least this year, we roughly know what to expect.

Will this be the catalyst for undoing what Gove did and reinstating coursework and controlled assesses?
The

Thank you OP for new thread.

Ds is going minimal work, but at least some of his bridging work for the 4 A'levels they ask (they drop 1 pre Xmas).

He's playing x box for an amount of hours that is seriously unhealthy.

He's been meeting mates, which I'm pleased about.

I'm on another thread trying to sort out car insurance, or get an idea at least, in preparation for his birthday.

@ProggyMat I definitely won't be cool about it on the inside if DD gets a grade lower than what she deserves, but I'm trying not to show DD as she will just get annoyed and worried about it all now when in reality all may be well come results day. But at the same time I need her to be aware of the situation so she isn't totally blindsided.

On results day, I will TRY to agree it's not fair and that she does deserve a certain grade, BUT this is the system and it's the same for everyone etc. What would have been a 8 last year is now a 7, kind of thing.

I am more worried about her reaction to Maths and Chemistry grades to be honest. Bottom line is that she didn't revise enough for certain subjects (started too late) so her Mock results were lower than expected, whilst subjects she started first or the exams were later (she had 2.5 weeks all subjects 2 past paper mocks) she did really well with. Unfortunately a case of lesson learnt that Mocks are more important than she realised.

@KingscoteStaff - DD loves her massive whiteboard. It has worked really well for her and I hope she carries on using it as gives her more structure during lockdown - although most things seem to get done from 11.00pm - 2.00am!

@FoolsAssassin - fingers crossed! a mixture of the 2 would be great. (speaking as a Mum with no knowledge of the practicalities of the education system etc)..

No mention of Hoodies, but we are having Lockdown Rainbow badges across the school. A Mum has organised this, and there has been a massive take up (school is nursery to Y13). DD scoffed at the idea but I ordered 10 anyway (for all her friendship group) and apparently they all want one so am sure DD will too. They are allowed to put them on their uniform next year but I am pretty sure DD won't be doing that..

I hope so @FoolsAssassin.

A few weeks ago, DD asked me to buy her the textbooks for the three subjects she had applied for, and has been reading through them.

Having read a fair amount of the first year content, she has discovered that she really dislikes one of the subjects. I suppose it's better to find out now, rather than in September. We've emailed the head of sixth form to ask which other subjects are in that timetable slot and might have space.