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.

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@aibuquestions good point !

I was feeling fine about results day until this last week with all the talk of exam board downgrading students and the shambles of the Scottish results. It looks like the 19th is going to be a long night.

@aibuquestions yes but it’s still 4 years away and that is a long time on the electoral campaign. If it was next year then yes definitely!

@Cherryonthetop2019 especially for the a level students, these results can dictate the rest of their lives - years out, resits and the like. I do not think this generation will forget and forgive IF it doesn't go the way they needed it to. I take your point though.

What we don’t know is whether the situation that happened in Scotland is going to happen here. It may be better than the Scottish situation.

My boy got 3 iGSCE results and two were fine, more or less in line with expectations. But one was absolute shocker. As it was for some of his friends. They'd had a really poor cohort last year and way more students then taking it (so this batch was smaller and stronger). Boys who had got 20% over the grade boundary for a 9 in a mock based on last year's paper getting 7s. Made worse by the fact that the other group in the year (taught by head of dpt) seem to have bagged all the better grades despite not having done as well in the mocks.

On a scale of things, not terrible and he'll get over wailing that it's ruined his life (wanted to do it for A level!). But it just feels so disconnected from his reality.

He says he'd get at least an 8 if he took it tomorrow. He could retake I suppose and I'm sure the school will put on a bootcamp to make up for it. Hey ho.

The National Union of Students has called on the government to follow Scotland’s lead.

@PatienceVirtue I am sorry to hear that. I have a feeling my DD will be in the same position on 20th. She's ready for some re-takes.

@PatienceVirtue That sounds so frustrating and unfair - good job he's got you to support him - I will need your fair and non dramatic approach next week - remind me !

Aw thanks so much, really appreciate it as I don't want to talk about IRL.

It's so important to stress to them beforehand that these are not their grades but actually a computer-says-so version of their school's 2019 grades. He absolutely knows that we share his frustration and love him to bits. And it's GSCEs - so irrelevant in comparison to A levels. He's already less downhearted because some of his friends have got even less deserved downgrades.

All that said, I'm not convinced by the Scottish model. I fear that would devalue an already devalued set of results. It would be so dependent on the approach the individual school took and doesn't seem fair.

I am also not convinced by the Scottish model and agree that it will devalue these results. Looking at the stats posted earlier, some of those grades were massively inflated from the year before and it becomes meaningless.

Or more meaningless than they already were.

Well done for being so pragmatic Patiencevirtue . That is exactly my concern with DS and will do him over as won’t meet his 6th for, offer which would impact his life massively but I am not mentally going there at the moment.

this tweet on whether Ofqual will follow stood out to me:

I don’t think they will until they feel the heat of 100,000’s of angry kids and parents and everyone else who is rightly angry.

Working class smart kids in tears on the telly, bombardment of angry articles ect. If they fold it will be just after GCSE Results Day.

I know it's not what everyone thinks, but I think it's good what has happened in Scotland. Initially, results were going to be based on teacher predictions. It was only when the reliability of these predictions was questioned that the mass downgrading was brought in. I think it is best in this awful situation for the pupils to get the results that their teacher gave them rather than someone who never met them or a computer. I accept that some pupils who were borderline will be given passes when they might have failed, but it does seem more humane to give the benefit of the doubt in a global health catastrophe than be mean and thrifty with the passes and assume some of those pupils would have failed, but not actually know which individual pupils they would be. The same can be applied at each grade boundary. The pupils have been really stuffed in terms of education since March and a generous attitude is better than a suspicious and cynical one. I don't think the grades will be worthless if the mass downward moderation was allowed to remain. It is better than hundreds of thousands of pupils having to explain their lower-than-expected marks for the next few years.

I think it's unlikely Ofqual will follow suit because 1) this government is not renowned for admitting mistakes or apologising and 2) the last thing the PM wants is to create the impression that he's in any way influenced or led by Nicola Sturgeon.

We're in Wales though... it's more likely that QW will follow Scotland and revert to CAGs than Ofqual I reckon 👀

(Which would be very unfair for English Y13s, because at least you can argue that for the most part, Scottish students are not really competing against English students for university places. Welsh students definitely are though.)

I missed out 'than' - I don't think the grades will be worth less than if the moderation was allowed to remain. I think the grades for 2020 would always be questioned - either too high, or too low. This way, it takes the burden off the pupils to have to fix the problem or live with the consequences of a problem that they did not cause. They would always be trying to explain low results with 'but it was 2020, covid-19'. This way, the onus is on someone to prove they didn't deserve the mark the teacher predicted for them - which is obviously daft.
I hope England follows suit.

With all the uproar with Scottish results I hope this does not impact GCSE results or devalue them in anyway because that won’t be fair on our kids who have worked so hard.

Also how unfair on a pupil to feel they have to resit an exam simply because it was lowered 1-2 grades by a system beyond their control after having had their lives upturned already. Who knows what the situation will be like in the autumn. Their area or school could be locked down. They could have key worker parents back on the front line staffing Nightingale hospitals. Who knows?

England should revert to teacher predicted grades as well.

I will stop now, but wholesale downgrading of marks given by qualified professional teachers is not right.

A high mark might feel devalued to some, but a lower mark is already devalued if the CAG was going to be higher.

I think this year’s GCSE results are devalued anyway personally whatever happens at this point and will be treated with scepticism. It’s the children who go into apprenticeships etc and are stuck with them for their main qualification that I feel really sorry for, along with those it may prevent going to new 6th form destinations.

Guess we will need to wait until they do release details of the model used but even so I think the damage is done now after what has happened in Scotland.

Just to let you all know starting a new thread v soon and will link. I may be premature but I always forget !

Carry on as you were though....

I agree with your points @neutralintelligence - 2020 results will always have questions surrounding them & I would prefer a teacher to make the decision rather than a ‘product’.

It will be very interesting to see what the next few days hold & I really feel for the DC & parents waiting for A-level results.

Thanks @OrangeCinnamon1

Thank you OrangeCinnamon 😊

Really feel for all you you who are awaiting A level results as well. Bad enough in normal years but this takes it to a whole new level 💐

@Shimy It would be rude not to
I’ll bag you a bar stool too but don’t be late as although I’ve put on weight during lockdown I dunno if I will be able to spread across too many seats- well I’m hoping not!
I’m trying to keep a lid on my concerns and angst and have decided it’s best to wait until the 19th to have a good wallow as I won’t sleep that night either!