Did they really need to cancel GCSEs and A levels

[mummabear1967]

The more I think about it the more I wonder was it really necessary to cancel this years exams?

Yes, I 100% agree with the school closures but surely GCSEs and A levels could have took place this year? I’m sure they could have come up with plans to ensure that pupils could go to school to sit their papers in a socially distanced way and then go home again.

It would probably mean using multiple rooms in the school to facilitate the exams and potentially allowing the exams to be done on different days if there were a lot of people due to sit a given exam in one school.

It sounds like the government just couldn’t be bothered to be flexible. I know you can do an exam at anytime and Covid 19 was a big priority, but I’m sure most pupils would have finished the syllabus by March and if not they’d have had a huge chunk completed anyway, the rest could have been taught over zoom.

Anyone else agree?

[Aragog]

Reading comments on this thread just shows how little most people know about how schools and exams are run.

Exactly.

[Aragog]

Most YR 11 kids would have been on on study leave from beginning of April anyway- 1 week after closures.

Study leave for DD's school for gcse and a levels wasn't until May half term - AFTER the exams have started. This is the case for most of our local schools. Dd precious school started study leave earlier - even then though it wasn't until the Friday before the first exams started, so in May. That's a month of missed sessions, sometimes more.

Many courses hadn't been finished when we broke up. Dd was doing a level drama and computing. Neither of the nea was completed - not due until after Easter and one of the performances hadn't taken place - due the week after lockdown started.

Thanks the the governments last gcse and a level changes the content of many courses are so full that teachers teach right up until the exams. Lots of courses wouldn't have been finished.



Hindsight is also a very useful gift. If only we had it before things happened.

[catndogslife]

Most YR 11 kids would have been on on study leave from beginning of April anyway- 1 week after closures.
No they wouldn't. Most state school pupils aren't entitled to study leave until after the may half term.
I agree with @blueberrybiscuit that the logistics wouldn't have worked.
Most exam papers are sent from the schools to exam boards by courier - how would that have worked when most people were using couriers for on-line shopping. A backlog could have led to papers being lost in the post. This could have affected both papers actually done by the students or even papers arriving at the school in the first place.
Also most papers are scanned in and marked on-line these days. How would scanning in lots of exam papers in a warehouse have been done in a COVID secure way?
In many areas, wifi and broadband services were struggling to cope with more people working on-line from home. Would the demands of on-line marking have worked well in these circumstances or would it have made services really slow for all?

[BlueBerryBiscuit]

Overthehilltoday it's understandable that people don't see why exams had to be cancelled unless they know what goes into making GCSEs and A Levels happen. Most exams officers start the GCSE/A Level prep back in October/November and a massage be amount of work had been done (by exam boards too) with a fair amount still to do for most. It's a huge shame for students and teachers who had worked towards these exams for years but I can't see any way they could have run securely. The main concern is for students though and I have no idea how a fair system could have been found for those who couldn't sit exams through no fault of their own as well as for those who could sit them whilst taking into consideration the varying availablity of resources for students finishing the curriculum at home.

[Overthehilltoday]

@blueberrybiscuit that all makes sense - I guess ours is a knee jerk reaction without knowing the logistics. Thanks for the clarity

[BlueBerryBiscuit]

Reading comments on this thread just shows how little most people know about how schools and exams are run. Having students sit exams invigilated by untrained parents and teachers would have led to malpractice, cheating, rules being broken by staff and made a mockery of the whole system.
Again this ignores what would have happened for students who could not sit exams. In normal times you sit a minimum percentage or receive nothing. Students who are unwell or vulnerable MIGHT be able to have alternative arrangements but more often than not they drop out and sit their exams a year or so later. How would that have worked for shielding or self isolating students?
I am an exams officer. In March the list of 'what if' s was too long to guarantee students could sit all of their exams in secure exam conditions. I don't think the government has handled things well at all but they were right to cancel exams.

[Overthehilltoday]

The government's response of closing schools and announcing exams cancelled on the same day was ridiculous. Closing schools understandable, but no need at that point to mention what would happen with exams a real knee jerk reaction. Most YR 11 kids would have been on on study leave from beginning of April anyway- 1 week after closures. During that time normally all kids are working independently revising at home (so no change) in fact it would have kept them more focused not being able to go out! Then exams could have taken place in various rooms around the school being invigilated by exam officers or the teachers. Then we would have a fair ending to this rather than some kids getting amazing grades that don't really deserve them or weren't expecting them and some who deserve them feeling they can't really celebrate because they haven't actually achieved that grade properly. We're setting our kids of this year up to fail and it worries me that kids that have been given top grades that wouldn't have usually got them will think they are brighter than they really are and take on A levels that they won't be able to successfully complete - basically this way of scoring is setting kids up to fail when they sit A levels - as they will have never sat exams in proper conditions either (Mocks are different for stress levels etc).

[SnuggyBuggy]

It wouldn't have been perfect no but it would have been something.

[BlueBerryBiscuit]

With enhanced DBS? When would I have trained them? If I have none of my normal leaders who know the rules and the paperwork can I leave a bunch of parents in charge of 225 students and trust they will follow the rules? If an invigilator breaks the rules then the whole exam room could face losing their marks. It's not a case of sitting in a room; there are rules and regulations to follow. Plus there's still the issue of students who miss more than the usual allowed amount. Do they just get results for 3 or 4 subjects? If a student had to self isolate from May 11th for 2 weeks they would have missed half of their GCSEs and all of English lit or Lang. Is it just tough luck or does the government have to allow them to get something? But how? It's more complicated than people outside of exams realise and in March no one knew if it would have been possible to work around or not.

[SnuggyBuggy]

Surely there could have been an attempt to do training and DBS. It just seems we gave up too quickly.

[Piggywaspushed]

They need training and DBS checks.

[SnuggyBuggy]

Surely there would have been furloughed parents who would have been open to it?

[BlueBerryBiscuit]

SnuggyBuggy recruiting invigilators in normal times is hard. Most are retired (which means health conditions, caring for grandchildren part time, other volunteer positions to work around) and by March, 15 of my 27 had told me they would be unavailable for exams during the pandemic. They need properly training, you can't walk in off the street and invigilate.
If students had missed eg 2 out of 3 maths papers then in normal times they just fail. How would things like that have worked? What if on the day you couldn't have met the minimum ratio of invigilators or worse, readers and scribes? Who quarantines students so they can sit the exam in two sessions? What if it's English Lit (2hrs 15 mins for each group plus 25% extra time for some) followed by an afternoon exam which needs to start by 2.30pm? Would the postal service have coped? Would public transport have been reliable and numerous enough?
I think there were too many variables and too many what ifs to allow exams to run normally so they had to be cancelled.

[Piggywaspushed]

The Swedish model closed schools to over 15s!

[Piggywaspushed]

We don't predict grades any more . Haven't done for many years.

If students miss all exams in a subject, or a certain percentage, they get an X.

[SnuggyBuggy]

Would it have been that hard to find enough low risk adults to invigilate? Plenty were willing to volunteer to support the NHS.

[portico]

They did not need to cancel GCSEs and A Levels. I am pretty sure some students would have not done so well had they sat ounlix exams in May/June

[lifeafter50]

Schools should have remained open for Y11 and 13 as a minimum. I hope this will be heeded on the future a the Swedish model is followed rather the the panic shutdown of schools.

[Clonakilty]

We had students, staff and parents with Covid-19 over exam time.

[FalsePerceptions]

In the school I used to work in, a cohort of 150 needed 15 invigilators to staff the core subject exams, accommodating all the special arrangements, readers, scribes, etc. In order to guarantee this, the invigilator pool was up to twice that. This was to give sufficient back-up to cover invigilators' personal availability (they are mainly employed as casual staff and have other work and commitments) and possible illness (reasonably likely given that many were 60+) and also to have enough staff in reserve in case of student illness requiring exams to be sat at home (two invigilators required if that happened). Student anxiety about exams in a normal year can easily affect students, especially those with pre-existing conditions, such that they cannot go in. Imagine the huge increase in that situation this year in view of the level of fear about the pandemic, especially if exams had to be held in unfamiliar places, even just different rooms, with inexperienced staff (and JCQ rules demand that everybody has had full invigilator training in the academic year the exams are held - you cannot just go and grab the nearest teacher to fill the gap).

Several days before exams were cancelled, year groups at schools I know of were being sent home because self-isolation and shielding guidelines were coming into effect such that the school no longer had enough staff to teach/supervise them effectively.

And then there's the impact of students suddenly being locked down at home with their families for an indefinite period of time. Learning over Zoom, even if the school has been able to facilitate the teaching, just isn't that easy if you don't have adequate tech, for starters. And the kids with half a dozen siblings all crammed into a house, day after day, parents there too, with no tech of their own and no peace and quiet to work? Not so easy to carry on.

I have thought a lot about what would have happened to me if this situation had arisen when I was in Yr 11 or Yr 13. With an unemployed parent with complex mental health issues, we would definitely have been in the group of students who didn't have the tech. His behaviour would have meant that there would have been no peace and quiet to study, either day or night. The continued forced proximity, running into weeks and then months, while he repeatedly attacked my mother (and late teens was the age when he deemed me fair game for a bit of that as well) would have broken all of us and it is highly likely that during the lockdown period he would have killed either my mother or himself.

Nobody would have come to our rescue because outwardly we were articulate, "posh" and middle class. My parents put up a jolly good front outside the house.

My situation and variants of it goes on, and on, in other homes for other students - very very many of them, as I found out when I started working in schools. As a young person I always thought we were alone in our situation but we really weren't.

I do appreciate that school itself is a frightening and hostile place for many students. But I also know that for many others it's the only safe place they have, and once they couldn't go there any more, taking exams might frankly have taken second place to just surviving.

[Oblomov20]

I agree. Exams could have been sat. Easily. Total cop out.

[itsgettingweird]

I said the same.

There could have been a way. It would have required a lot of organisation, plenty of space etc. Then for those who couldn't take exams due to isolation could have been awarded a CAG.

It certainly would have been more accurate than the current system!

But on the flip side I know this is something we can say in hindisght because we were weeks last "the peak" when they happened.

We actually didn't know what the situation would be, we knew schools had to close and it was really a decision that was made on the estimates of pattern that they had at the time.

So I don't think it was the wrong decision. Just we could have found a way based on what we know now iyswim?

[CarrieBlue]

@surprisefrog it was the government that closed schools, not unions. You are deluded if you think teaching unions have the power to close the entire country’s schools. Stop telling lies.

[WeAllHaveWings]

Continuing exams wasn't as simple as pupils being distanced in an exam hall, that would have been the easy bit. The important thing is not what they did, it is how they now put it right.

My one question is, did education and/or exam boards have disaster continuity plans in place, as most businesses do, and this was it or was it all made up on the spot? If they did have disaster plans, surely one of the scenarios covered was exams not being able to go ahead for whatever reason (war/riots/terrorism, pandemic, natural disasters etc) and there was a well thought out plan for that, it wasn't decided to just wing it at the last moment?

[BwanaMakubwa]

What this demonstrates is that a Gove style "nothing counts except closed book exams" system is not only detrimental to those with learning needs or mental health difficulties, it's also inherently fragile in unexpected times.

If this pandemic had struck 5 years ago, the students would have done 95 percent of their coursework and there would have been excellent evidence for teacher gradings that could be subject to external scrutiny.

I suggest they seriously consider a rapid return to such a system to avoid this happening again if we get a second or third wave. And this years' students - who, for A level were also the first lit to have the new 9-1 grading and harder spec for gcses - should just be given a break and get CAG which they can appeal if they disagree, with options to repeat the year or retake exams at will.