GCSE Summer 2020 Thread 7 : Carry on Corona Cohort, Cruising or Crawling to The Final Countdown

[OrangeCinnamon1]

Welcome all to the 7th Thread for this year's GCSE cohort ...or the Corona Cohort as has been termed by @FoolsAssassin.

Some of us have been here since I started first thread back in 2010, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. It is hoped this will continue. Going forward we intend to stay in secondary so any new threads should have 'GCSE Summer 2020 Thread # : Carry on Corona Cohort' in title just to make it easier to find.

From now on our DS/DD may go down various paths so we decided not to be exclusionary and stay right here in Secondary

Thread 1 The first GCSE yr 10

Thread 6 last thread

I am very worried for next week. I'm hoping that if ds misses the entry requirements in each subject by 1 grade that they will still allow him to study those subjects. Is that feasible do you think?

Worried for next week too. DS should still be able to get into his college to do what he wants even if he gets lower than hoped for, but the more I think about it the more I worry that he is exactly the kind of student to get bumped down a grade in ranking in a bright cohort. Achieved a 7 in maths for example and told could get an 8 but he’s top of set 2 so there will be a raft of student above him getting those 7s and 8s, so he’ll probably end up with a 6 or even a 5. Can completely see that on that basis many grade 5/6 students will potentially end up failing.

@Piggywaspushed that must be hard, sending and to you and to all the teachers who’ve worked so hard to try to ensure that DC get the grades they deserve. You must feel utterly let down by this bloody algorithm system too.

My dd does very average. Ruined her mocks. She's predicted a grade 6, likely pass on last report of a 4 and so I would expect most teachers to put in 4 or 5s so she is really borderline on getting 5 4s to get her chosen 6th form. I literally feel sick. If they down grade her maths for example she'll have to resit. She'll likely pass English. I've enrolled on a college afternoon for a really low results course tour next Friday as back up but her journey will be horrible and it's not good

Flyingpandas that's the exactly the situation we are in with ds and maths. Achieved 7 in mocks told he could get an 8 but he is in set 2 so like your son there will be lots ranked above him.

Sending to all the teachers on here - we know you all did your best for your students.

chenin My DS is in a similar position. Also predicted 6s, but likely to get 4s/5s on teacher assessment. If they go down he'll end up with fewer than the 8 passes he needs for A Level and failing English (opposite to you; he should be ok with maths - hope so as he's planning to take it for A Level!). He doesn't even really have a back up plan as his teachers have confidently told him that what he wants to do is perfectly fine and he should have no problems.

He's been pragmatic that teacher assessments will likely not be as good as exams would have been, but if they are further moved down his choices for next year entirely change.

I actually think the fact that CAGs aren't great for lots of DC to start with has been slightly forgotten in furore over the standardisation. For those DC the standardisation working against them is a double blow.

I’ve just seen someone suggest on another thread that school giving mock results not enough and they will need sight of the actual scripts. Horrible feeling that DS’s ended up in cycling bin after we had first major clear up for 3 years.

Just wondering out loud - is there any way of finding out whether particular exam boards were harsher than others in their approach? Or is that not likely to be a thing?

Earlier some posters were asking if they'd had any correspondence from school.

Ds1 has just had a HUGE very reassuring email from school.

DD is on the 5/6 border for some and the 4/5 border for the rest. She got one 7, 2 x 5, 4 x 5 and 2 x 4 inc maths for her mocks. She is SpLD and has worked her arse off to achieve FFT 2/3 predictions. She isn’t likely to be high up grade rankings so she could very well fail loads of them! It’s just not fair! How the hell is she going to understand this??

Nothing from sixth form about any need not to worry about offers. I would email but I imagine they are focussing on the A level crisis right now.
Nevertheless, the school my child has been at since 11 and wants to stay at might like to offer some reassurance to existing pupils that they will still be welcome if their predicted marks are lowered by moderation below the minimum entry requirements. I hope they don't fill up spaces with top-achieving pupils from other schools.

That’s good news @Oblomov20 - we’ve had nothing from school but I guess they are focusing on A-level students today. Quite hard to read between the lines of the headteacher’s blurb on the website as to whether they are pleased with the sixth form outcome or not. It does say they are sending out CAGs alongside the official results though.

Deathly silence from DS's school as well. Though I hope they are focusing on A Level students. Are there rules around what schools can say about results this year? There is absolutely nothing being published on the internet by any local schools (which is unusual).

@FoolsAssassin yes dd was given her mock scripts back - at the time it seemed helpful.

Her school has said some months back that they are confident that they know the students’ ability and a bad grade at gcse will not stop them getting on a course if the school predicted higher.

Some pretty horrific results coming through on the A level thread

Up to now I have been very reassuring to DS when he's wobbled, don't worry you're going to do fine etc. Next week I think I'm going to have to warn him that it might go badly, but that it will all be ok in the end. His sixth form place is probably ok as it's at the same school and they haven't raised any issues before, but GCSEs do matter in certain circumstances, like for an oxbridge application, medicine, some post grad places etc. I don't want him later in life to want to do something and be prevented by this stupid algorithm. If we need to appeal to try to get his grades close to his predictions, we will.

The head teachers, teachers and pupils on the radio are not reflecting a fair and accurate system.
The appeal system had better be quick and simple.

for an Oxbridge Law applicant- what kind of GCSES do we need to be looking at? Trying to manage expectations...

It is heart-breaking to hear these teachers and pupils.
CAG or mock needs to be taken without question in an appeal. Prolonging this crisis for individuals is not fair or acceptable.

Exactly, these GCSEs are in fact highly relevant for Oxbridge, medicine, veterinary science, dentistry, top courses in architecture, engineering, economics etc. So our pupils' aspirations in 2 years time might be cut off now age 16 by this moderation.

The Uniguide has a guesstimate that the average successful applicant has 8 A* / 8-9 at gcse. That's across all subjects though. I imagine law would be one of the more competitive ones.
But no doubt it's possible to get in with worse results than that..

Sorry I'm on about oxbridge for @seashellssand

@singingstones thanks so much.

Absolutely heartbreaking and terrifying stuff on the A level thread:

My daughter was predicted AAA, had a place at medical school. She attends a top performing grammar school. She got...CBB. The c grade was in her best subject.

@singingstones This breaks my heart !

Just read this:

From a teacher: “you think this is bad, wait for GCSEs.”

Widespread assumption is that grade volatility will be greater because GCSEs are taken by everyone, including more disadvantaged students, A-level students already represent a more socio-economically advantaged pool.