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 worried about next week but think it is much much worse for those doing A levels. It is horrendous to miss out on Uni places, absolutely awful for them. My only hope is that DS school is a very high achieving school and will keep his result high-even if he buggered up his mocks.....

I am not convinced that is true for GCSEs. I waded through today's Ofqual release. It looks like there might be a high level of trust in 'accuracy' of the big subjects. For those of you with DCs without KS2 it does mention this but I didn't really follow.

I was questioning the algorithm earlier interested to read this on another thread:

‘I've just had a very interesting conversation with son's headmaster (Top 10 public school). The algorithm is seriously flawed, they have it now and the head of maths is pulling it to pieces. He has spoken to the schools minister. Public school heads are FUMING. This is not going to go away.
Would be interested to hear if anyone else has spoken to headmaster and what is being done?
He also urged us to write to MPs which we've already done - please do think about this.’

Delurking to say I'm panicking now.
DD had an awful experience at school, mental health issues and disruptive behaviour on the back of it.
Decided to not even bother with science (is dyslexic and couldn't even read some of the scientific words ). Decided she couldn't do geography by March too.
So that leaves 6 potential GCSE's.
She's never got above a 3 in maths, despite tutors, small classes, extra help and trying her best. So that leaves 5. English lit is really debatable too. So that leaves 4. Art, performing arts, business and English Lang. None of which are safe.
She needs 6 grade 4 and above to do A levels which she really wants to do. Mainly because all the btec courses are vocational, none of which she wants to do.
I doubt she is clever enough but her self esteem is shit (you should see her self harm scars) and do not have the heart to say that to her.
I am totally dreading next Thursday

I think we are all pretty rattled at the moment. Probably time if we can to take a collective deep breath for now. As we have seen with Scotland a week is a long time and a lot can happen in it.

People looking at the algorithm is a good start. Ofqual have yet to clarify the appeals process (not liking suggestion of educational hunger games with the rankings. ). I have no doubt a lot will be going on behind scenes. I feel quite panic but am trying to put lid on it as want to be as ready as possible for potential problems next Thursday and don’t want to expend too much emotional energy on it now,

It’s 2020, this was never going to be straightforward was it !

Just been linked something saying legal action is being looked at .

I have been googling education lawyers......I think there is scope to challenge the system. There is also scope for that to cost a lot of money!!

Ok have this is what waa sent. Could only see the headline to start with but have now quickly read it:

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/education/2020/aug/13/downgraded-a-level-students-urged-to-join-possible-legal-action

That's the first rumbling, suspect there will be others .

So looking at this, what happens if your child gets a grade and someone else is then successful at appeal, does that mean then that days later your child’s grade can suddenly go down? WTF!! No school is going to risk this surely!?!? Appeals are going to be meaningless!

I've just seen my dd schools A level results, and I'm hopeful GCSE's will be as good. 73. 4% A* - B.

An appeals process that can change the result of someone who has not appealed is unacceptable. No appeals processes work that way.
That is obstructive behaviour and will thwart a fair appeals process.
I think the government should be held to account and made to deliver on their promise early yesterday morning (since fudged) that a child can simply replace a lower-than-expected mark with a mock mark. That would be a start at least. It could be as quick and simple as necessary.
The direction the appeals process is currently headed in needs to be stopped asap and a straightforward solution like Scotland's needs to be implemented.

Let’s hope that won’t be the case Cherry, this has been worrying me.

Absence of headline data in the press releases locally, though some have, one big name notably absent currently and DS’s school is too.

An also how on earth does the current proposal allow for disputed grades to be sorted out by the start of the school term 2 weeks after results day?
Do Ofqual realise that sixth form places are not automatic but often conditional?
Can I accept all my valid DS sixth form offers, even make some more last minute ones, and then see how his appeals process resolves things? If it takes weeks to get a final result, how on earth will many pupils know where they are going to sixth form?

The kind of uncertainty had affects university places is going to be placed upon 16 year olds too, which is ironic that post-16 education is now mandatory.
16-year-olds who should be in full-time education should not be worrying about how to get the compulsory education they are supposed to be in. It is not like year 7 where the council has an obligation to find you a school.
The appeals process needs to be like Scotland, virtually instantaneous, or else a lot of schools and pupils are going to be messed around right up to the last minute.

They are so determined not to follow the lead if Scotland that a whole generation of children will be screwed to save face. I’m not usually one for street protests but I’m beginning to think that we need a huge demonstration on mass to gain some traction. I see that there are a number of headlines now being pushed in the news that is obviously an attempt to divert attention. It will be like fucking Dominic Cummings all over again if were aren’t careful and it will get brushed aside until it’s dropped.

Cherry; the Ofqual para you have posted is possibly the one element of all of this that has annoyed me the most. I absolutely understand grade inflation needed addressing, but if this is exercised in A levels, then those receiving offers from Unis today are going to then what, reneg/withdraw it if a student’s grade is downgraded as a result of School/college appealing on behalf of another student and is successful?

I can’t see that going through without legal contention. The problem with this process is that it’s taught this generation the low value of a Govt’s planning process, crisis or not. Lots of consultation from 23 March lip service, but failure to test its methodology and proof of concept before going live. It had loads of time ffs, or to be given benefit of leeway, from when the CAGs were all in. If private corporations behaved the same way, this would not be tolerated but we keep having numbskulls like GW and PP heading up key depts with total incompetence.

X post, slow phone

I’m keeping ‘switched off’ as nowt we can do until 20th when we see what is ‘spat out’
I’m allowing myself one night to wallow in angst and that’s the 19th as I probably won’t sleep anyway.

My guess (based on what i have seen/gleaned) is that the algorithm does not take sufficient account of value added. Large sixth forms with high value added affected. Elite private schools with high value added affected. Mid range private schools/comprehensives with minimal value added, less affected.

Oh dear, my DS school has one of the highest progress 8 scores in the country. I guess that is the same as value added?

Popping on to the thread to update on DS1 who got his A Level results today. He made his Oxford offer and the results for his school were very similar for previous years. There look like there might be issues with a couple of subjects but from what I can make out the school is broadly content.

I know this isn't the situation for everyone and I'm really sorry to hear of the anxiety this is causing but I didn't want you all to read all the bad news and assume that was everyone's experience.

The A Level results for DD's school have also held up.

@pasanda, I was very sorry to read how hard your DD has been finding things and I really hope that she gets the grades she needs in her results or that the school advisors can find a course that interests her to join in September.

The threat about an appeal potentially affecting other pupils is ridiculous. Every year pupils appeal, get their paper reviewed or remarked. If they get their mark increased, the person at the bottom of that ground boundary does not get their mark decreased. There are simply more people with that mark.
That is the equivalent of what they are threatening here.
Maybe the drastic lowering of many marks is the academic equivalent of a low bargaining position - start low so that when you have to increase, you might still be below or not much more than what you would have offered.

'grade boundary' typo obvs

neutral, I just said exactly that to DH! It’s lunacy to think that grades can be rescinded after they’ve been given!