Thread 8 Carry on Corona Cohort: GAV give us the CAG?

[OrangeCinnamon1]

Welcome all to the 8th Thread for this year's GCSE cohort the Corona Cohort!

Some of us have been here since I started first thread back in yr10, 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 until HQ chuck us
At this precise moment in time we are awaiting GCSE results that seem to have been produced by an algorithm that also takes very little account of Teacher Centre Assessed Grades. There is an appeal process but it was changed yesterday to include mock results and coursework, then taken down again for review.
Trying to protect our young people's mental health.during this shit show , which the government claims is their priority...when they talk about wanting students back in schools/college in September...

first ever thread

previous thread

I have DC in Y13, Y12 and Y11, and DN is in Y10, so I am acutely aware of the negative impact of CV-19 on all four year groups. I wish for a fair outcome for all of them. Time will tell.

Oh Shauna that’s heavy going

Very interesting looking at a breakdown of the figures. Credit to New Head, she has made some sensible decisions with staffing based on them.

Does anyone know if we will get the CAGs on Thursday alongside the awarded grades as the A levels have?

Blimey Shauna, that's a lot to deal with on any year let alone this one. Good luck to them all.

Piccolo I understand your frustration. Would think though a few people would have looked at all her data so may be a chance it was different.

As it stands Popcorn it is down to individual school. Whether that will change by Thursday who knows..

Gav shouldn’t be judged on his own performance, but on an average of Gove, Morgan, Greening and Hinds’s achievement

 @KingscoteStaff

Not to go on, but it isn't just year 10 and 12 parents worrying about grade 'inflation' for year 11s and 13. Last year's year 13 also seem to be worried (and maybe even the year before that!).

Thanks for the , guess it’s 5 o’clock somewhere Fortunately the Y13 got his uni place, so just need to get him off there next month. Y12 has a lot on his plate with EPQ, UCAS and exams in Sept, so he will be my focus once Y11 DD is sorted on Thursday. Her school had already announced that they will take CAGs for 6th form entry, so not too concerned on an individual level, but obviously fuming along with the rest of you about the entire shitshow.

I can understand why current year 12 parents would be concerned re grade inflation, competing for uni places, but why the other year groups?

I have dds in year 11 and 12, think we may be in same position again next year with cag and eldest...

My year 13 wasn’t given her CAGs but I have filled in an online form to request them - don’t know how long it will take though. Luckily DD1 has an unconditional offer which we weren’t happy with originally but are pleased with now. DD2 getting GCSE results on Thursday...

I saw someone suggest on another thread (or it might have been this one) that for this year the grades could have been changed to Pass Merit and Distinction. The more I think about It, the more I like it. They can't be compared to any other year then and much easier to distribute grades fairly when there are fewer of them. Don't suppose it would have been popular but there is absolutely no way to do the current process fairly so maybe they should have created a slightly different one.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn my sons school have said we will get them along side the other results. But I’m not sure if that is going to be for every school.

I didn't realise it was down to individual schools, I'd definitely like to know. I think our school did them for the A level students so hopefully will do the same for Yr 11. I'm also hoping that they will accept CAGs for 6th form entrance in case of disasters.

While discussing this further with parents (I literally do nothing else!) while DS was rowing.

We realised only 14 took Latin - does that mean they will use his CAG or will it still be algorithm’d?!

I would really like to think that where students want to go to their own school’s 6th form, where teachers already know them and their abilities, the school will accept a CAG grade rather than the moderated one? So if you want to do English lit and need a 6 to do it, you got a 6 in the mock and the teacher allocates you a 6 in the CAG but the algorithm knocks you down to a 4 or 5, surely, surely the school would recognise this and just let the student into 6th form...??

That's what I'm hoping for Pandas. It would seem mad not too if they have faith in their own marking skills.

@Northumberlandlass I think it was under 15 students and they went by CAGs for a level.

Interesting suggestion from Lord Baker (in TES article here: www.tes.com/news/delay-gcses-because-flawed-algorithm-says-lord-baker )

"The GCSE results should be postponed for two weeks. The government can then decide either to accept the predicted grades or invite heads to resubmit new predictions which should not exceed 3 per cent of their performance in 2019."

Aside from the fact that that screws up sixth form entry (but delaying a couple of weeks is presumably not the end of the world after 6 months off!!), I don't personally think that's a bad idea.

[I guess it might be tweaked to say that you could be different by more than 3% if you could justify it]

Thanks @JustHereWithMyPopcorn

@FlyingPandas DS school have already confirmed, based on in school evidence that he can do his A-levels. My outrage is for those less fortunate & the fact that his grades may not reflect his work. This HAS to be a level playing field, at the moment it is far from that. There is also the worry of English & Maths - if they do not get a 4 they obliged to resit.....

3% wouldn’t necessarily be appropriate as it should relate to the performance of the current cohort compared to previous years - although i appreciate that finding that data is in itself is a challenge. Y6 SATS would be the only source I guess?

@RedskyAtnight other than another two week wait, I'd be happy to do that option I think.

Are 5-15 cohorts a combination of algorithm and CAG?
I will explode if we have to wait longer, though possibly can see some sense in it. Would mean delay to start of term.

Yes I think 5 and under = no algorithm, over 15 = no CAG and a sliding scale in between.

Another two weeks of this would finish me off, let alone DD. Plus - purely selfishly - in two weeks I’ll be back in the classroom myself so wouldn’t be at home to support DD with whatever horrors the envelope contains

Just go with the CAGs already!