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

No idea Northumberlandlass, so many questions about it all. Feel incredibly sorry for those waiting for A levels, to have this suddenly the day before.

It has been a mess, bad enough they have had to go through this in the first place, there were months to sort it out but now new jerk reaction the day before results.

And I now feel quite negative about the return to school in September. Can see them back for a few weeks then all going wrong. If they planned sensibly for issues that can be easily foreseen then much better chance of getting through the next year in the least disruptive way possible (which inevitably be disruptive). It’s just a series of disasters, everything is reactive, nothing is proactive. They have lost the confidence of huge chunks of the country in so many different issues. I really feel for our children, what a way to launch into adulthood.

Caffeine needed here.

Do you think schools will release the recommended grades they submitted and the mock results for each student so we can compare to the awarded grade ?

As my DS took his second set of mocks during the week before lockdown the school never released these results as they said they would use them to help with their recommended grades so I'm not sure how I will know if the mock grades were higher ?

Also, assuming this will be on an individual subject basis.. so we can accept a mixture of awarded grades for some subjects and mock results for those subjects which are lower than mocks ?

Morning all, as an occasional contributor to these threads it's nice to come back and hear you planning for consideration to all
posters for outcomes next week. DS has SENs and I remember having to hide the entire primary education board around y6 SATS time as I was finding some of the posting really hurtful.

As for the mocks, if that does turn out to be true it will benefit DS as he is a borderline 4 in English by teacher assessment (we had predictions every half term till Feb) but managed an unexpected 5 in mocks. He doesn't want to take English further so it's just a case of wanting to avoid resits. However as a whole it's unfair. His school with a 2 year GCSE course did one set of mocks in early Dec which were disrupted by a huge amount of sickness amongst staff and students plus a water main burst. The other local school did a 3 year GCSE and had just finished their 3rd set of mocks before lockdown.

I can't access his results as it's on his pupil
profile and I don't have the password. I wouldn't anyway. We have agreed he can log in from his bedroom and tell us when he's ready, he's an early riser but I'm wfh so will be there all day. I wouldn't film him. Can't imagine either of us will get much sleep the night before.

Wish DS could log in. They are emailing but not until later so it will be off to designated car park and pick up area at 9am as College want to know by 12.

I’ve tweeted BBC Breakfast as they are discussing it.

@Northumberlandlass

I’ve just woken up & trying to absorb what this change means. DS has sat 2 lots of mocks, one set in November when they hadn’t completed full syllabus & one set in Feb. In Feb, he focused on a particular subject (an A-level choice) & got a 7 but it meant that he let another slide (he’d achieved a good result in Nov mocks so felt confident) and it dropped to a 5 ... Which mocks do they use, or is it combined?

😫😫
I’d rather they just went from CAG’s!
If the same teachers marked the mocks - and some have said they mark mocks harshly, however some may not why WHY don’t they just trust the same teachers assessed grade?

It feels like the government just don’t want to copy Scotland.

Apologies if this is rambling. Still haven’t finished my first cuppa!

Exactly @Northumberlandlass that is what all this is about I suspect. Since there is no statutory guidance on mocks it makes no sense to allow use of them.

BBC breakfast are speaking to Government minister at 7.30am

@FoolsAssassin @OrangeCinnamon1
These results would always have had questions around them, regardless of what system they used. I understand the impact of inflating grades - but surely they UK should take a consistent approach.

Like you say, reactive not proactive!

Hello all - joining after a very sticky and uncomfortable night!
Echo Northumberlandlass sentiments.
I had really just accepted the whole situation after the grading procedure announcements so was pretty Zen about it. Waking up to this news about mocks and appeal possibilities has just restarted the stress . Can't believe changes are being rushed at the last minute like this just as a knee-jerk reaction to Scotland and to ward off criticism.

Let’s see what the poor sod who drew the short straw has to say about it at 7.30. This has descended into farce at this point.

Yeah where's Gavin then? Having a lie in cause it was too hot last night?

imagine he is doing a Boris and hiding in a fridge...

I don’t know what the right answer is here, there were always going to be disappointed kids in any scenario the government had dreamed up regarding awarding grades but mock grades is not the answer at all!

My DS did mocks in November and in early March but for some subjects they did one paper in Nov and then the other in March or they didn’t do all the papers as I think I mentioned before that even in March they hadn’t finished the syllabus in a few subjects. We didn’t get all the results back from the March ones either.
He failed his chemistry mock in Nov so was then put down a set and took the combined science mock in March but only one paper for each science so he couldn’t use either of those grades.

I feel sorry for the teachers who worked so hard to submit these results

Someone summing up all the issues here

twitter.com/Yorkshire_Steve/status/1293421245183262720

My tweet to bbc breakfas

“ @BBCBreakfast Would it not be better to use CAG’s for students where teachers were given clear guidance on assessment than mocks where there is inconsistency in when they take mocks & the SAME teachers have marked them without moderation?”

On Sky News this morning they were saying however that they still believe that the vast majority will be pleased with moderated cag results

Wow @HPFA that’s a great and frankly terrifying summary.

My dd’s maths class all found the test they were to sit beforehand... I told my Dd not to cheat, most of the class did - some extraordinary marks after those mocks! So they now they can stand!!

Same with physics test at another school, friends Dd went from U to 9....

Blimey was not expecting that news overnight.

DDs mocks were a bit of a mixed bag. For combined science mock she did the higher paper and missed a 44 so ended up with UU. So for the actual GCSE was entered for the foundation papers.
For other subjects where there was NEAs they didn’t include these in the mock results just the exam paper part. As others have said her school didn’t do all the papers eg 2 for maths not 3 etc.

Hello!

We might already want to rethink the title after last night's news!....

I agree. What a mess.
One minute they are ignoring all the teacher recommendations, which the teachers took ages to prepare. How insulting to teachers.

next sturgeon is doing a u turn. Now this? Mocks that teachers set differently, completed by students in November or February, or March, or both? Christ. What a pickle.

Btw I hope, as Easily Delighted said, we will ALL feel comfortable to post as much as we want, or as little as we want, next Thursday.

We are here to support.

We are a nice group. With a wide spectrum of children capabilities. Some children may get all 9's, others not pass, with a 3 etc.

We are here to support all.

My Ds1 is bright, but lazy and entitled. He would have crammed and done better in the final exams I suspect.

I'm quietly confident he'll pass English and maths. But he did triple science and was failing, and they suggested putting him down to combined, but that was never actioned. I'm just praying that he gets a pass? A 4 ? A 5?

Of course, as usual Paddington whatever 'system' they come up with fails to acknowledge that coursework exists...

Several of my class did , relatively, poorly in the mocks but had grade 9 coursework. This was reflected in their CAG, so hopefully, those have been allowed to stand because resitting will also miss the coursework contribution out.

@FoolsAssassin

imagine he is doing a Boris and hiding in a fridge...

Got to laugh or might cry ...absolute shambles.

Crikey.
I’m almost speechless.

So, basically, grades are a free-for-all?

Secondary teacher here. I just wanted to offer my sincere good luck for all of your kids next week and hope that this unsettling, so last minute change doesn’t make life hard for them over the next week - my colleagues have been talking through the night about this as it’s so unsettling.