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

@KingscoteStaff- that makes complete sense

A couple of days ago I posted a question about double and triple science as DD's school only offered triple science from last year's cohort. I expect the school will have had a big drop in their double science top grades in 2019.
DD was offered triple but chose double, she will be near the top of the rankings. She got 9 8 in her November mocks and 8 7 in March.

Due to everyone taking double science in 2018 it is possible for her to get grades of 9 9 but if all the high achievers for science took triple in 2019 she may end up with 7 6.

Apart from the 9 in core none of the results would be hers.

I'm very much a lurker, but while I'm logged in I might as well get everything off my chest.
The 'just take the exam in August' brigade anger me (I wont swear as I'm new here.) DD's school were really good and had normal timetable zoom lessons until exams were due to start but they didn't do any exam preparation and DD hasn't done any work since.
Boris said at the beginning everyone would get the results they deserve, it's only since the debacle in Scotland that we realise it's just more lies.

DD's school does not have a sixth form and she is going to a vocational college that does not offer A levels so she would not get any help from there.
It's just not practical for many/most kids to take the exam in the Autumn.
I have some friends with DC in year 10, I agreed with them that their kids were actually worse off but apparently not.

I'm so mad, I met autumn not August obviously.

www.facebook.com/284203263/posts/10101054855465833/

Good letter from a teacher to Gavin W.

Poppy That is awful about the hack and results and agree about appealing

Laffie I see exactly what you mean about the double and triple. Wish I had wise words for you but I am currently feeling like we’re in some kind of weird virtual reality show. I am the twat who said on the day the exams being scrapped was announced that it would all be fine, not to worry as I naively thought there would be some kind of relatively fair in the circumstances system worked out.

It started off sounding kind of ok, not without issues but that was always going to the case but we’ve descended into utter farce and been confronted with utter incompetence from a man who had previously been sacked as Downing Street had lost confidence in his ability to serve but here we are with him in charge and a clearly flawed system that is deeply damaging at in individual level.

Absolutely agree about autumn exams.

@IHeartHarryStyles it’s a fantastic letter!

I’ve just been thinking & looking at DS school past results. The first year of new GCSE’s are awful, there was a huge dip in grades especially for English. What impact will that have?

@poppy1973 that is awful, really feel for you and your DC!

@FoolsAssassin yep, me too with the naive assumption that moderation would be sensible and fair. Realised that rank order would be critical but thought that CAGS would be seen as critical too, and that schools would simply be asked for evidence if their proposals appeared wildly out of kilter...yeah, right.

The more stories I read the more angry I get.

IHeartHarryStyles that is indeed an excellent letter, thanks for sharing,

Northumberlandlass, I wouldn’t go there at the moment, a long way until Thursday still.

FoolsAssassin, I was the same, I cried so much when school's closed, there was so many things to look forward to that were cancelled, but I never cried about GCSEs as I was confident that DD had worked hard and she'd get the grades she deserves, now it seems she'll get the grades that someone else got up to two years ago.

Many kids will be battling mental health problems from a pandemic, not being able to sit exams and being let down over grading alongside being out of school 9 months.

Autumn mocks are a ludicrous idea.

Resits not mocks

I also thought it would all be fine and might even work out fairer than exams! I’ve definitely changed my mind now. Stories of the algorithm forcing a school to have a U grade even though they’ve never had a U in that subject before are crazy!

These next few days are going to be difficult. I stupidly said to dd that if her results were below what we know she’s capable of, we’ll just ignore them as they’re not real results. Of course she then pointed out that if she does get good results they’ll be devalued too and it’s all a waste of time. To be honest though, I think that’s the case. Good results won’t be taken seriously.

I’ve already had people suggest that DD’s results will be fine because she’s been at a private school. I’m not sure that’s the case but it also feels like further devaluing. I just think these poor kids can’t win, whatever the outcome.

I’m so sorry for those who are really worried about their children not being able to progress. Dd isn’t in that position (although I’m a little bit worried that she’ll lose her grammar place - but she has a backup).

Fingers crossed they do something in the next few days to improve the situation.

Yes sadly CrazyCrofter I think your DD is right, they don’t really have any credibility either way. Thanks to the way it has been handled a narrative has been created now and hard to alter it. That’s why I think it has to be CAGs and GW’s immediate resignation as it absolutely didn’t have to be like this, i know it wasn’t easy but this is sheer incompetence.

Johnson needs to apologise too.

Laffie feel free to post whatever you want. I thought you post was very tame and restrained. Is that you at your worst?

I've been on MN donkeys years, and believe you me, I post the harsh truth about how I feel!!

We're gonna need a new thread in a minute!

Just had a chat with DS about it as up to now I have been very optimistic and breezy with him when he's been nervous, but now feel like I should prepare him for the unexpected. If things are bad I just don't want it to be a huge shock and for him to take it personally. So I told him we know what he can do and so do his teachers so he shouldn't worry, and that if we need to appeal we will. He said "I'll be all right mum cos you'll be there when I get my results and I know you've got my back" 😭😭
Shame he can't say the same for the bloody government really.

www.gov.uk/government/news/appeals-based-on-mock-exams?utm_source=646a0823-04e2-4636-8b71-327748790b6c

@Oblomov20 that's the most restrained I've ever been

I think this whole results debacle has affected me more than anything else since schools closed because it's just so so unfair on our children. I've always taught - secondary now primary. I had real faith that dd's school would be fair and right on the mark with exams - she's my 3rd daughter to go there. Teaching is excellent and results are consistently good but I hear there were some really odd results for A level. Not looking forward to GCSE results day. Other 2 daughters are law/politics graduates so you can imagine their take on the whole mess too! May have to call them into action...

Dd has no back up and plans to stay on at her grammar school. I believe they will honour places for those they know to be deserving of their CAGs and hard working. My biggest concern is for all of those who may miss out on 4s/5s and will wonder what the point of education ever was.

Thanks @FoolsAssassin that’s a relief.

I'm sure Piggy will be pleased to see NEAs finally make an appearance! Hope that will help some of her students at least.

When I signed go.mumsnet.com/?xs=1&id=470X1554755&url=petition.parliament.uk/petitions/306773 it was on 73,000 but now 86,000 which is good - feel that I've done something productive other than shout expletives at sky news and lurk around DD - had the " prepare for the worst hope for the best " chat too ..

The valid mocks seems to be quite comprehensive at a glance.
Presukanly, s books that marked harshly will now have to go back and adjust their results, to be online with the grade boundaries the exam board issued? If so, DD's history teacher will be eating a large amount of humble pie - you may remember he told her one of her papers wasn't good enough, when it was an 8 by last year's boundaries (not far off a 9), and said that it was no use looking at grade boundaries because each cohort was different

I agree @wasgoingmadinthecountry, our family friend is also in year 11, an end of August born baby who’s always struggled as he has the killer combo of adhd and autism (high functioning) that makes education a real challenge. He failed his mocks in December but in January he started working - not loads, but more than ever before and enough to give him a good shot at 4s and 5s. My DD1 was tutoring him twice a week, and he stayed after school in the library for an hour almost every day to try and get some work done because he knows distractions are his main foil. By March DD1 said he’d already come on a lot - and he’d come round to do some homework/revision with DD2 a few times and I noticed a difference in confidence. Now he’s saying “I’ve already failed my exams because I don’t have a chance to prove myself”. Really broke my heart because he’s right - I couldn’t even reassure him.