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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Did they really need to cancel GCSEs and A levels

64 replies

mummabear1967 · 12/08/2020 10:33

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?

OP posts:

Piggywaspushed · 22/08/2020 14:09

The Swedish model closed schools to over 15s!

BlueBerryBiscuit · 23/08/2020 11:32

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.

SnuggyBuggy · 23/08/2020 11:35

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

Piggywaspushed · 23/08/2020 11:42

They need training and DBS checks.

SnuggyBuggy · 23/08/2020 11:43

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

BlueBerryBiscuit · 23/08/2020 11:43

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 · 23/08/2020 11:45

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

Overthehilltoday · 23/08/2020 11:53

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).

BlueBerryBiscuit · 23/08/2020 12:09

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 · 23/08/2020 13:01

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

BlueBerryBiscuit · 23/08/2020 13:44

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.

catndogslife · 23/08/2020 14:07

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?

Aragog · 23/08/2020 14:16

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.

Aragog · 23/08/2020 14:17

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

Exactly.

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