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

@singingstones I would say the internal assessment was mocks and NEAs, so the same as being offered by OFQUAL in England.

@Monkey2001

It is also a big deal that they had no idea that they might be so important. DS1 had a main part in the school production in March of Y13 so his mock results were 2 grades below what he actually got, but CAGs would have been more accurate as they could draw on more evidence. DS2 missed one of the maths mocks because there was somebody coming in to school to talk about economics and he was encouraged to go as they were not worried about whether he did that mock.

I think DS2 might benefit from being able to use his mocks and the NEA for music was great, but it is still not fair.

The closest thing to a fair solution is to hold out for CAGs to be confirmed as grades.

Agree completely with this. So many kids will have mock grades that are not reflective of their ability - illness, not taking it as seriously as the real thing (because they're not), tough papers designed to scare etc etc. I would hope that the CAG would reflect all of these things so I am with you in that we need to push for CAGs just like Scotland. Anyone got clever wording for a letter to your MP?

Appeals are always refunded if the grade changes. It's disingenuous of the government to pretend they're doing parents a favour by paying.

If I hear the word ‘robust’ one more time today I will not be responsible for my actions.

So let’s get this straight: the Computer grade is ‘fairer’ than the CAG. But the Mock grade can be ‘fairer’ than the Computer grade on appeal. But the CAG (if lower) is ‘fairer’ than the Mock. But the Computer grade is ‘fairer’ than the CAG...

Is it me??

@RedskyAtnight it looks that way, but he can't appeal. The school has to.

I am wondering whether DS's German listening assessment can somehow count, his German is so bad he was moved to the foundation paper for all of it apart from listening, because in his last assessment he was apparently possessed by the spirit of Angela Merkel or whoever and got an A*.
Ridiculous if that counts though. He thought it might be possible to scrape a B on a very very good day and was hoping to get a safe C. It's all just a stupid lottery at this point, isn't it?

Actually my DS has most of his subjects higher in valid mocks than his CAG - his school just sadly didn't believe in him since he was average in year 7 - a normal daft summer-born boy, who got more and more serious as he got older. The school is very heavily reliant on y6 SATs and socioeconomic factors. To avoid people being hassling with the teachers, they don't look at individual factors in predicted grades. DS was top of all his sets, but these were all sets 2 and 3, even though he was always better than many in the set above.

So if a mock can't be used if the CAG is lower - basically a mock can't be used. Which is the opposite of what the government promised last year.

@Janie74 welcome to the wonderful world of education!

Last week obviously, although it does feel like a year sometimes....

@Monkey2001
Oh yes you're probably right 😔

DS’s new college will not commit to using mocks that would be submitted for an appeal . They have entrance exams and interviews and will review on a case by case basis .

So if you can only use a mock if it's lower than the CAG, I suppose it's there as a sort of backstop for grades that have been moderated down significantly. If a grade has only gone down by 1, a mock wouldn't be any good? Because you can only use it if it's lower. Unless I suppose the mock was the same as the CAG, in which case you could have that grade?

It's so complicated, surely this is going to take months to administrate? Where do people go to start their next term while they're waiting for an appeal decision?

This is ridiculous. Give them the god damn CAG!
Although so many students have missed their offers & places have been allocated to others.

Potentially 250,000 students can appeal from a-levels alone 😳

Thanks MrsHamlet I realise the school will have to appeal. Hoping it doesn't come to that. Physics is his best subject and the one he will be most upset about (he won't mind so much if he fails half his GCSEs which might also happen) if he doesn't get the 7 he is expecting.

His mocks were sat 3 a day over 7 days, with 30 minute breaks between them. In November, and including content they hadn't yet studied. So most of his mock results are particularly representative. There's a couple where he frankly admitted he was too exhausted to work properly. The school clearly do it that way so they don't tie up the school hall or have to pay invigilators for any longer, but it's not conducive to students getting good results. But of course, no one expected that they particularly needed to.

... NOT particularly representative ... (should proof read)

Crikey with that number by the time they get all the appeals back decisions will have been made and sixth form places possibly still not available. They don't strike me as the fastest workers on a good day ..

Update on criteria for appeals:
Appeals.

@MrsHamlet - I’m already there! I’m a primary teacher - but the world of secondary school and exams is very new to me with DD being my eldest.

Thanks shimy. Thankfully that looks okay for dd school.

I’ve told DD that we will appeal anything below mocks. Seems only fair to fight for her to get marks at least close to what she could have.

DD school hasn’t put anything up about A levels so am a bit concerned about amount of downgrading

I still don't understand why they are saying you can use the mock only if it's lower than the CAG - surely you are always going to use the CAG. It just seems a way to make sure a student only gets the lowest possible grade on appeal.
Also a Task Force being set up to administer the appeals - so it's going to take weeks and months. That is ludicrous.
GCSE students need to know by 1 September so they can study the correct subjects at the correct place.
A'level students need to know within weeks, not months.
I think they are definitely going to need to find a very quick to resolve the GCSE crisis coming next week - 2 million downgraded GCSEs is not going to sound good to the population at large (apart from those with a large dose of schadenfreude, which apparently encompasses many in the media).
Seriously a downgraded grade 6 maths or english is going to stop pupils taking most subjects at A level. If the pupil's CAG was 6, they were perfectly capable, but will have zero options if it downgraded by one mark (at my son's school) or 2 marks (at a nearby school).
And of course the individual A'level subjects need to be grade 6 - a downgraded 6 or even 7 by one or two marks is going to rule out a student studying an A'level that they are very competent in.
Needs to be remedied by 1 September.

By the way, in case the government think they can put people off appealing, I am going to appeal every single grade I can. I will appeal against the school too if their CAGs are lower than DS mocks and homeworks etc, simply because his SATs were average and we live in a comparatively cheap part of town. That is their basis for CAGs and ranking and it's is not fair.
Now my appeals are free, I am going to fill up their stupid Task Force with as much documentation as I can.

@Janie74 then you're well used to the nonsense!!

I think the emotional process has gone past anger now - they are not listening. No-one wants a flipping task force that will give our DC the lowest possible grade in many months time.