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?

[Badbadbunny]

@blissful201

No point arguing about the past. Cancelling was never ideal but no one had any visibility of how the virus was going to spread so let's take it as a done thing.

If all students are awarded predicted grades, and the overall grades are massively inflated this year, would it be an issue? Universities will adjust their entry points, employers will be aware that these are predicted grades, the whole world moves on...

I'm not arguing that exams are not necessary and grades are arbitrary but one in a lifetime exception is no big deal in my opinion...

Yes, it's an issue for Unis as they've a limited number of places on courses and offers are made on the assumption of a certain percentage of applicants not getting the grades forecast. There is a very real possibility of Unis having to withdraw offers if too many offer holders get the grades required. That will be the same with FE colleges, employers etc.

If grades are over-inflated, then further education/employers etc may also have to increase their requirements, firstly so they're not swamped, and secondly to try to keep the standards high enough. Employers aren't going to be happy thinking that their new recruit is good enough because he's got high GCSE/A level grades, only to find in reality, he's not up to that standard at all.

[blissful201]

this is what would happen if we cancel exams every year..

I'm talking about a one off cancellation so yes university cohorts will be bumped up (bulge class!) and employers will see grade inflation in employee's certificates for one year. So what??

I imagine their grades can be denoted with a little P (for predicted). It's up to employers to decide between candidates with A (P) and A.

[HipTightOnions]

If all students are awarded predicted grades, and the overall grades are massively inflated this year, would it be an issue?

Also, the grades weren’t inflated consistently across all schools. Schools which kept their predictions in line with previous years’ results (because we knew that’s how the moderation was going to work) would be disadvantaged if other schools’ inflated grades were allowed to stand.

[clary]

Good points about age of invigilators - yes, so often retired people, and of course more would have been needed than normal - and school buses, not thought about that.

[ineedaholidaynow]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

A third of the pupils were off a week before the schools officially ‘closed’ in one of my local schools. A similar proportion of teachers were also not in. How were people going to know how it would impact students in 2 months time?

[BlusteryShowers]

@FlyingPandas makes excellent points about the logistics of what goes into running an official exam. Where I work we have a 210 cohort size and employ around 8-10 invigilators. Generally we'd have a large main exam venue, a second smaller room for students having extra time and/or using word processors plus a varied number of 1:1 rooms for children using scribes. Maybe the academy admin staff, kitchen staff etc who don't necessarily know the children academically could have been trained up but I'm not sure. I'm no expert.

Other things to consider would be transport to and from school. We're a rural academy and children travel miles to come to us. A significant number do not have access to their own transport so would have needed that provided.

On balance, I think it would have been possible, and I would have liked them to go ahead; they were working so hard for them. But I don't think it would have been as simple as just using multiple rooms.

[HPFA]

There was far too much uncertainty not to cancel them. What if no invigilators had been available? And the massive unfairness that some kids would have all the technology available at home, parents qualified to assist them, able to pay for online tutors etc. Children are already privileged by having these things now, with no school available to balance these things a little the gap would have been massive.

[therhubarbbrothers]

@Alsoplayspiccolo

They should never have been cancelled before a proper grade award strategy had been decided.

Personally, my DD was absolutely gutted not to be given the chance to sit exams. At the time, we were reassured by the government that it would all be ok, but it’s become very clear that the whole situation is a farce and the integrity of the grades awarded this year has been severely compromised.

Universities have managed to carry out final year exams, taking into account COVID, and since GCSEs and A levels are purely stepping stones, I can’t see why exams couldn’t have been carried out as normal, with suitable arrangements made.

My daughters university had open book exams done at homework not really real exams, more essays really.

[neutralintelligence]

To those above citing the interests of higher education and employers in ensuring there is no grade inflation this year, do you release that these people only have secondary indirect interests?
Those with a primary and direct interest are the pupils.
The mass moderation has decreased individual pupils' results from their predicted grade without any proof or evidence that the individual pupil affect would not have got their predicted grade. There is no exam paper to mark or to demonstrate that they underperformed in the exam. it is at best guesswork about a school as a whole and should never have been applied to an individual pupil's grades - wholly unethical and unfair, plus inaccurate.

[neutralintelligence]

There has been lots of strange and unprecedented situations since March that the country seems to have endured or accepted: paid furlough still on-going after many many months, subsidised meals out, nearly 50,00 extra dead, quarantines at home. A year group of 16 and 18 year old being given the results that their own qualified and professional teachers predicted for them is the very least of an anomaly in 2020 and would have been seen as perfectly acceptable in March. It is only because results have been left until August when we are all being encouraged to get back to normal that the anomalous results are seen as unacceptable. The government needs to take responsibility for the decision it took in March and protect the interests of these GCSE and A'level pupils.

[PaquitaVariation]

We live 180 miles away from my dc’s school; others in their class live much further and some overseas. Not sure we could have managed all that travelling...

[surprisefrog]

With hindsight they could have kept the exam cohorts in school until they'd done their exams, but back then everyone was panicking and the loudest voices (the teaching unions) got what they wanted.

Having sent kids home, the Government had to cancel the exams - many students hadn't finished the syllabus in some subjects and didn't have the tech or support at home to carry on learning, so if they had carried on with just the exams there would have been just as much controversy, if not more so, than we have now.

[christinarossetti19]

surprisefrog I'm surprised that you think the teaching unions have 'loud voices' or any influence at all over government or PHE strategy and decisions.

Schools closed across the world, most much earlier in the rise of cases. Irish, French, Italian etc etc schools closed a week before English/Welsh/Scottish ones.

Do you think the UK - with the highest death rate CV19 even with lock down - should have just kept their schools open?

[areyoubeingserviced]

I said from day one that exams should have been taken in September/ October and that the university term should start in January. Student would have continued to study during the lockdown period. Most of the syllabus had been completed by this time and I would expect A level students to be able to work independently.
Some posters said that my suggestion would be unworkable. However, it’s definitely preferable to what’s going on now
Nicola Sturgeon was criticised for apologising and making a U turn, but it seems that she made the correct decision.

[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.

[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?

[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.

[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?

[Oblomov20]

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

[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.

[Clonakilty]

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

[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.

[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

[SnuggyBuggy]

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

[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.