GCSE Summer 2020 Thread 9 : Carry on Corona Cohort ‘Let’s Ofqual the whole thing off'

[OrangeCinnamon1]

Welcome all to the 9th Thread for this year's GCSE cohort - the Corona Cohort!

This is a thread for supporting all young people ( and their parents) taking GCSEs regardless of the institute they attend or the grades they need. It is respectfully requested that we are all supportive and helpful to each other.

If you want to start a debate e.g state vs private - please do not within this thread.

Similarly it should be recognised that the grades our children need/deserve/want will vary across the board- we wish to celebrate and comiserate with all. One same grade outcome can simultaneously cause joy and despair for different posters and their families. Please be sensitive when responding to threads about grade outcomes.

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 on the Secondary Education Board (at least until Mumsnet HQ chuck us out ) as from now on our DS/DD may go down various paths such employment, apprenticeships, higher ed etc so we decided not to be exclusionary.

Any new threads should have 'GCSE Summer 2020 Thread # : Carry on Corona Cohort' in title just to make it easier to find. There is no preciousness about who starts new threads!

At this precise moment in time we are still awaiting GCSE results . At first these were to be 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 to include mock results and coursework, then taken down again for review. Now it has been decided that the higher of Centre Assessed Grades and Calculated Grades will be awarded in two parts??!?!

We are all STILL trying to protect our young people's mental health, which the government claims is their priority...when they talk about wanting students back in schools/college in September...

First Thread

Previous thread

I get that there might be inflation over the boundaries of 5/6 (or 3/4 or 4/5 etc etc) - that’s plausible and understandable - but 1/8 is bonkers. And I say that as someone with a DD who probably sits on that 5/6 boundary for maths!

at putting the bins put early, must be a subconscious wish for the waiting to be over.

Some nerves happening tonight, and I can hear constant notification beeps from DDs phone so they must all be chatting away. Hopefully supporting each other rather than feeding off each others nerves. Usually they are pretty good bunch in that regard though.

I think someone at school thought it would be a good idea to plan ahead and get all the social media posts scheduled in, we've had a couple come through to "explain this years grades" which all link back to a web page dated early July. Who'd have thought things would have changed so much.

It's OK. I won't be at my school anyway!

Imagine a Foundation student being bumped up to 6 and a higher paper student downgraded to a 5. That would be interesting but a very likely scenario.

It's crazy about the Triple Science though. DD is in the first year of most of them doing Triple so it might benefit her - her school gets very good results so it could work out. But really - what satisfaction would it be - she got a 7 in one paper in a chemistry mock once - really if she gets above 6s in the sciences she'll know she hasn't really earned them. And it's a shame for those who have those grades genuinely if this becomes known as a "thing"

Don't think so because that would change rank order. I can't get my head round the 1 to 8 story, therefore.

One good thing about all this is I am convinced DS's music grade would have been hammered by the algorithm (we may never know!) and that his newer music teacher's grade might be (fingers crossed) a bit higher than any grade his ex disgraced teacher gave him. However if some over excited Deputy head intervened and asked for 'evidence' then he is in trouble and back to about grade 2... anything over a 4 is a sigh of relief.

Brave move from school. Parents now allowed in playground tomorrow & leadership team will be out there too.

I hope everyone is respectful to the teachers. I suspect school was one of those who played it fair and safe, they've said a couple of times historic data only, no 'might have improved in run up to exams'.

MrsHamlet, I’ve been out and bought DS (14)’s dorm tutor a bottle of gin this afternoon, as he has a new form tutor for year 10 and frankly, she has had the patience of a Saint with DS, in both tutor time and Spanish lessons!
She lives around the corner from us, so we’ve seen a lot of her on our daily walks during lockdown.
DS is bright and actually mostly lovely, but had a couple of “incidents” in years 7 and 8, which she dealt with brilliantly, so more than deserves a thank you

form tutor

Are we all posting results on this thread in the morning? is that the done thing?

My lovely lovely form were year 13 and I had two year 13 and a year 11 class, plus 6 trainees. I got an embarrassment of gin when school was closed!
There may or may not have been a lot of tears. I genuinely care about all of my students, even the "lively" ones.

I've thoroughly enjoyed lurking here this last week, thank you all. I'm off now to make DD a cake. Good luck to all your DCs, may they get the results they need and may all the parents have calm and uneventful mornings.
See you on the other side.

Hi @Heifer - I’m happy to post if others do (although if DS refuses to open his email, it’ll be midday by the time I post his!)

DD has just remembered she will see her favourite teacher as she is also a form tutor for their time slot and is very happy !

Looking back at the GCSE 2019 thread, posters were quite happy to detail all their grades, so I expect it to happen this year too.

I can imagine the posters with loads of 9s and 8s might be offputting to some of those with less stellar results. But I sense that people are supportive here, ready to congratulate the hard-won 6 that means you can proceed to the next stage, or commiserate with a 7 that's less than hoped-for.

Hopefully, with CAGs in play there will be more pleasant than unpleasant surprises! Even before results, I'm proud of the work effort my DS has made and for keeping positive through a difficult five months.

Nice to see @DadDadDad on here as well after our A Level adventures last week.

We've had a lovely meal out tonight - pizza by the river - and are exhausted after climbing a mountain. I think both DD and DS2 will sleep well tonight.

About to head off early to bed, since I'm bound to wake up at stupid o clock as usual. Thanks to everyone for the flow of information and sharing making me feel less like I'm losing it! Good luck to everyone's kids, looking forward to the relief and celebrations!

Hello, @sandybayley, yes these last ten days or so have been quite the rollercoaster! I'm hoping that the GCSE results will be the relatively calm part...

I’m definitely more nervous about GCSE “results” than DD. I had a nightmare last night about her getting a 1 in PE

I'm out the country and filled out the forms for email notification of results. Will they be sent out at 9am does anyone know. It's 11pm here and there is no way I'm going to sleep!

Just want to cry!

DS is downstairs with a squad of youngsters watching Netflix's. Think I'm more worried than him! If he gets 5x4s I'll be ecstatic!!!

Good luck to all of your children tomorrow

Good luck to all 😀

Dd has been pacing

She has just announced that she's going to dye her hair - right now!

I sense a long night ahead

Just checking in after a long journey back from the West Country: good luck everyone for tomorrow (& your kids, natch ;-) It suddenly hit ds at suppertime this eve and he kept coming over for hugs: we had a useful chat about how we should behave if he doesn't quite get what he'd like. I think he's relatively calm about them - busy shouting at his mates via discord at the mo!
@Piggywaspushed and other teachers: hope things aren't too tough for you - it's such a tricky situation for teachers who had to make impossible decisions which weren't expected to be so visible: dh and I had to stop ourselves discussing which teachers might be gentle vs not so gentle on him (not holding out much hope for Spanish, let's put it that way ;-) @RedskyAtnight: so sad for your ds and his friend: thinking of you both.

Yes, good luck to everyone's children getting their results tomorrow. Hope they all get good grades and can move on to the next stage of their education.