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 told DD that her grade would reflect two years hard work, not 2 hour.

Oh the irony....

@Wheresthebeach

Snap. I don’t know how we’re going to get through the coming days. DD has been sobbing her heart out today and I can’t find the words to comfort her. It’s all so wrong. I’ve never joined a protest in my life before but I feel like taking to the streets with a placard.

Sadly DS’s school does not publish detailed results so much as I would like to, I can’t do the comparison to prior years and try to get an idea.

The observer, the express and the mirror all have GCSE’s on their front pages tomorrow. I’m pleased it’s making the front pages and pressure is being applied.

I have tried to 'manage the expectations' of my DS as I was worried he would be expecting the marks he was achieving before lockdown, which he would have got in exams as he was already deep in full-on revision, many many hours every day.
But managing his expectations has triggered a kind of terror and fear in him. He is now terrified of getting lower marks than he deserved, and of the unequal way this shambles seems to be affecting individual pupils and that he might be one out of his friends and classmates who gets the terrible downgrades. Also don't know how to get through to Thursday. I woke up horribly early in the morning with a pounding heart that it was results day. My heart pounded so hard I thought I would have a coronary event. Dreading Thursday so much.
Sending best wishes and supportive thoughts to the rest of you and your DC struggling with this.

Oh jeepers. I'll be honest and say I've sort of been reading all this over the last few days and just spinning - can someone help me with a few questions: 2 practical, one emotional/how you are prepping your kids...:

1. DS had decent mocks - but most of his teachers expected him to go up a grade or two in the final exam and said this was 'standard for most kids': I genuinely can't get my head around how can anyone feel the mocks could possibly be a fairer assessment than teacher estimates. Am I missing something?!
2. DS has consistently out performed his 'predicted' grades, and these haven't been updated since Y7: I would say in most of his subjects he is 2-3 grades above, and has been for the whole of his GCSE courses: I have always assumed school are not keen to update as it makes their progress 8 better as is: I've asked a few times, and none have ever been changed: with CAG I wasn't worrying too much ... but should I be now?!
3. How are you all prepping your kids? DS is avoiding all GCSE news (sensible) but I'm making sure he's aware that everything I told him initially (that this was probably just as fair as exams; that his teachers, who know him well, would have the biggest voice in his results....) might be less true than we're hoped. I'm really struggling with the mix of being pragmatic 'as long as you get into A levels, it's fine' and being furious on his behalf if he doesn't get the grades he deserves and has worked for. How are you all handling that mix of pragmatism and fury?!

1. You're not missing anything. It was a bone thrown out to appear as if something was being done.

2.Predicted grades in year 7 were probably target grades from FFT or somewhere. In my school, we can't change those but we can change the ones we work with. They're based on prior assessment. I have a Y11 with an FFT target of 3 but who is consistently better than that. His CAG was based on what I know of him, not some random number generator.

1. It's not fair. We just have to wait and see what happens. We'll deal with it when it happens. They're grades, not results. And plotting the demise of anyone responsible for this shit show.

Thanks @MrsHamlet : good to know I'm not totally out of whack. I kept going 'but ... wait ... surely.. its obvious that ... eh??!' I'm in no way or shape a fan of the current government, but this all seems so outrageous I'm struggling to make it land in my head.
I think I am just really struggling with the fact that I sold this to ds as 'no system is totally fair: exams aren't fair on lots of people, even if they would have worked well for you' and now it feels like it's beyond unfair, and into unkind :-(

Thanks, @MrsHamlet - I don't think this CAG has been mentioned in dd's reports? It's all LAG...

A-level results: Ofqual 'reviewing' exam appeals guidance www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-53795831

I don’t think anyone knows what’s going on anymore

Ermmm so ofqual have taken down that appeals info 'for review' ...I was coming to.tell you that Wales have clarified some matters @singingstones so best go snd check
Bloody shambles alright

We all did. I did it to my year 13 classes, my year 11 class and my year 13 form. Even though I don't trust the government as far as I can throw them, I had faith that they wouldn't sell the kids down the river. I was made a liar.
They needed fo pick a system and stick with it, for better or worse. The algorithm is clearly hugely flawed, but it's more cruel to add layer upon layer of stuff to that, making the whole thing murky and dragging it out.

“Earlier today we published information about mock exam results in appeals.
This policy is being reviewed by the Ofqual Board and further information will be published in due course."

amp.theguardian.com/education/2020/aug/15/ofqual-suspends-a-level-appeal-criteria-hours-after-announcing-them

They’ve suspended the appeals criteria. This is chaos.

@tenlittlecygnets I don't know what a LAG is I'm afraid

Are they taking the piss now or what?!
Sorry for the language but how can you publish one thing then hours later take it back?
They are messing with our children’s heads!!

They are staggeringly inept. If you or I did our jobs with such incompetence we wouldn’t be employed for long. This is just farcical.

I feel the heavy hand of the DfE

@singingstones I mentioned upthread that the government has shown absolute contempt for all the work teachers have put in to predict students grades and this will further turn many young people away from joining the profession.

I do wonder about GW’s own academic record. It does seem very bizzare the mental logistics being applied here, every effort to pull academic achievement down not up.

@20Newnames Here is the link to find out your schools past GCSE results.

www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/download-data

Following these instructions and it should work - I'm not being patronising I've typed them clearly as I kept getting it wrong myself when other people said vaguely what to do :-)

Select academic year
Continue
All of England (MUST DO THIS FOR IT TO WORK, NOT LOCAL AUTHORITY)
Continue
click on Key Stage 4 qualification and subject data
Continue
Click on file - it's big
Open file
It's slow
Click on Institution Results TAB
Filter on School Name
All GCSE results are there - unless less than 5 then not shown..

Good luck

I’m a lurker, reading all the posts... need to rant!! Sorry.

My DD is grade 5 or 6 student, prior to lockdown at parents evening many of her teachers said with revision she could easily get 6’s and even aim for 7’s.

Right now I’m really concerned about what grades she maybe allocated. Trying to stay positive for her. Hubby and I had a brief chat with her the other night about her options, she’s really keen on going to 6th form. She looked deflated, worried, anxious and near to tears!!!

I’m absolutely fuming with the crap our govt are putting our children through!! Ofqual clearly have no idea on how to manage this situation... making announcement and changing them a few hours later.

I have no idea what to call the next thread ........

The algorithm / aka one almighty fuck up.

@Comefromaway

Someone over on the A-level thread is reporting Telegraph saying.CAGs accepted ill look into it

Mmm don't really wamt to get hopes up but i'll leave this gere then go to bed.