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

@crazycrofter they're supposed to receive the NI number in the three months before they turn 16 so your DD's may have gone astray as DS's did!

Thank you Singinstones. We got a letter direct about that. We did have to ring about his NI as there was a glitch where they got the letter saying one would be allocated but the number was never issued, it is an issue for a few I think.

Not long until driving lessons 😯😯😯 Provisional licence has arrived.

@BlueMarigold some schools seem to hide their results. It is worth looking at the prospectus for new Y7s which may have a statistical appendix as a separate document or in the main prospectus. You can also Google GCSE results in your area - local press tend to cover and may have got more details.

Our school has hidden the results. I had a look at last years press release recently and there was 1 person who got 9 x 9 last year, 2 who got 6 x9, 1 with 5x9 and 1 with 4x9 . I figure this means that there was at least one 9 in Maths, Eng Lang and Lit, Chem, Physics and Biology.

There are probably about 400 in each year so odds aren’t great for 9s, would need to rank 1 or 2. My hope is they won’t come out more than 1 grade lower than CAG so if DS’s CAG was submitted as 9 for the 2 subjects everything hinges to get into next place (needs 8 or 9) then hopefully he would get 8s. Not so worried about the 6 in English.

Am just trying not to go there as best I can for now. This theory falls down if people end up going down more than 1 grade from CAG but for I am clinging to it with a grip like super glue.

@FoolsAssassin there will be other people who got 2 or 3 grade 9s. Another source is the first newsletter of the academic year - if your school has a newsletter archive they might have a bit more info.

Your DS sounds like mine - hoping for 7 in english, but would not mind a 6 as long as he gets a 9 for maths. What is the other one he needs 8/9 for?

I’ve looked at DD’s school’s results for the past 3 years.
One issue is that all subjects are ranked by A*, A, B, C etc, which doesn’t neatly translate into 9,8,7.
Another issue is that the school uses a mixture of WJEC , Eduqas and AQA exams (WJEC still uses A,B,C grading).
Finally, the results the school puts out aren’t totally accurate from what I can tell. For eg DD took a GCSE in year 10; if the published results are to be believed, all pupils bar one got A*, but we know this isn’t true as DD and her friendship all got As. Likewise, some of the core subject results don’t add up to the cohort number, which suggests that there were a few unlisted fails.

@OrangeCinnamon1 Thanks so much!

Piccolo that’s really not good putting out false info.

Good point Monkey, Physics is the other. Those were 2018 have realise and 2019 were slightly better with one getting 10 x9 and 2 with 8x9 and some more with a few. So it is looking like there are usually a few given which makes me feel more hopeful he will get his 8s.

In Scotland 10 students in the whole country had their higher results adjusted downwards by 2, and 6 in the Nat 5s. When you see those figures, it doesn't seem quite so doomsday ish.

Oh good, thanks 😊

@Alsoplayspiccolo I think it is normal to publish Y11 results only, that is what happens at both our schools, but they added the Y10 for that cohort to their Y11 results - in DS's year the double science people did the lower paper in Y10 and the results were included the following year with the rest of their results.

Fools, I agree.
Monkey, it’s a subject that’s only sat in year 10, so the results they put out had to be incorrect.

We have a friend who is governor at the school and when she was boasting about the results last year, I did actually question her about the accuracy; she couldn’t explain it and tried to dismiss my concerns with a wave of her hand.

I later asked DD’s science teachers how combined science grades are calculated, but no one could say. I wonder how on Earth tank order works across 3 sciences combined??

@SeasonFinale Thanks for the info.
I am trying to remember how positive DS and I felt waiting for his mock results and hoping that all will turn out OK.
I hate the politics going on in the background. Since the pupils didn't actually sit the exams and, in some cases, didn't even have a chance to finish the course, exam boards and maybe Ofqual won't let this be a record-beating year out of fear of a backlash. But at my DS school, this current year 11 were known to be better than the current year 12 overall and the school were expecting very good results. So the pupils and school might have that taken away from them, which is sad all round. As I understand it, statistically, it will hard for this year 11 to beat last year's results because of the moderation will downgrade based on last year's results to some extent (even if y6 SATs are taken into account). I suspect that other schools also identified this current year 11 as a particularly good year.

If the subject is only sat in year 10 then the published results will normally be one year behind. So the results published for 2019 would actually have been sat in 2018 and the results from 2019 won’t show up in the stats until 2020. The published results for each year are for the year 11 cohort, whether they sat the exams in that year or earlier. It’s the same for year 12s. We count any home language A Levels or EPQ results in our stats in year 13, even if they sat them in year 12.

Off topic a bit but anyone got recommendations for a starter car? Not on finance Dh would dissaprove

Ah, ok, I understand now, thanks, MadameMinimes.
That explains why DD’s subject results didn’t appear correct - they weren’t actually for her cohort.

@Monkey2001 Thanks for the tips. I was looking with a friend whose DD goes to a different school to mine. We were trying to find info about her school’s previous grades but couldn’t find anything new. The letters to parents section had a letter about drugs and knife crime but nothing about results other than a sentence to say they were the best results ever. The local paper did print that some people got 9s last year but the school comparison site says only 20% people got 9-5 grades in Maths and English. My friends DD was hoping to get all 6-8 grades and a couple of 9s. She needs it to change to a better school.

Hello, I have been avidly reading this thread for months but have never been brave enough to comment. My dd is probably going to be fine in all subjects except maths! I know how knowledgable so many of you are and am wondering if you might be able to help, albeit without the aid of a crystal ball. She is in bottom set maths and last year the whole class (10) sat the foundation paper. Some of those who achieved a 5 dropped it, she got a 4 and was one mark off a 5 so has carried on in a class of 6 for year 11. Obviously she’ll rightly be one of the bottom in the ranking list but I was wondering if any account will have been taken of her last year’s mark? I have visions now of her getting a 3 as she’ll be so far down and historically there have been a few 3s each year. I’m so sorry for such a rambling and confusing message. Thanks if you’ve got this far!

My child is a 4/5/6 student due to SEN. They work very hard and have really pulled their grades up from the 2/3 grades that FFT predicts. I am worried but have spent hours looking at the school results and hope they will get sufficient to leave current school and start at the new school on their chosen courses. The schools progress 8 is 0.46 and have a history of 73% at 5 or above and 93% 4 and above in Maths and English. I am really hoping these results will benefit her as them as they have worked their arse off and predicted grades do not reflect performance throughout year 10 and in her mocks. They seem quite blase whilst I’m not sleeping since these stories have been published!

@cariadambyth This is my concern too with my DD in the same subject. She needs a 4 to get onto her college course but when we had a chat about the ranking system she seemed quite confident that although she’s in the bottom set she said she’s one of the middle achieving students ( if that makes sense!)
Roll on the 20th

Just checking in.
Will go back and read.

neutralintelligence nationally it is indeed a cleverer cohort which is precisely why prior cohort attainment is an added level to the standardisation to allow adjustment for this.

@cariadambyth - it is very strange if your DD's school entered Y10s for maths if they were marginal for passing the foundation paper, there are not many DC who benefit from doing maths a year early, and if you might not pass, it seems a strange thing to do.

As people were discussing above, do you know whether the grades of the Y10s are reported the following year, when the people getting those grades are Y11, or whether the Y10 results are included with the Y11 results? If she was only 1 mark off a 5, the teacher will have predicted at least a 5 after another year of study. If she was downgraded the school would have good evidence for an appeal as she has objective evidence of a past result.

Hello everyone!

I’ve been following this thread for a while but haven’t been brave enough to comment before! My DD is awaiting GCSE results too and like many of you we have been trying to work out likely rankings etc. She goes to a large state comprehensive with a Y11 cohort of ~350.

DD is in the top set for everything, so hopefully she will be ‘OK’ as regards getting passing grades - but has had her heart set on getting 9s in her three A-level subjects from the outset. She knows where she is likely to be within her own classes, but as it’s such a large cohort the other classes are a completely unknown quantity. I am trying to prepare her for the possibility of lower grades but I know she will be devastated if graded down after achieving 9s and almost full marks in her mocks in those three subjects. The school has slightly above average results but only one 9 in her three chosen subjects last year.

It’s all so frustrating and worrying - at least if they had sat exams we would have some sense of how things had gone. I am dreading the A-level results in case it is a rerun of the SQA and IB debacles.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on long enough - just wanted to say hello and thank you for your collective wisdom which has made me feel less alone with GCSE worries.

Like the sound of a Bakewell tart as a present!

Thanks for the reminder re provisional driving licence. And the NI re child benefit.

Starting to get a bit worried.
Ds1 is bright, but lazy, so probably didn't do that well in mocks, and would have done better in the real exams.

He is the child that comes off worst in all of this.