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 think they get CAG on Thursday and the week after they get another set of results with any GAVs that were higher than GAVs chucked in- is that right? And if school ranked the CAG too low- then what?

@blobbyface

"rank all students and give equivalent grades according to previous years. They were forced to rank students who were equal and some may have different grades, but should really have the same grades.
Head now says it's clear some schools have put in could get on a good day grades and he doesn't think that's fair.
Basically he says it's a shit show."

Totally agree. My school did the same. So the results I predicted went through some kind of school moderation to keep them in line. So the CAG is not what I gave my students.

After looking at the A level grades it's clear that some schools blatantly put their grades up. One school near me went from 0% A+ to over 24% A+ and A-C grades from 16% to over 70%. This in the same year that the school was rated inadequate (4) and the SLT was sacked at Christmas. Even being generous, that's a mighty turn around in 3 months!

I thought the grades we gave would be moderated as some teachers / schools were far more generous than others... now this isn't happening, some kids will still miss out and statistically speaking, it's the Lowe socioeconomic students who always miss out.

Hello new thread

This reminds me a bit of nearly 15 years ago when I was in a MN antenatal thread for DD and those threads got very busy indeed towards the end. That’s about the only similarity though...

@blobbyface yes I think that’s the concern now, the schools who fell into line and tried to work to last years results and rank order, well that hasn’t done them any favours now. It is all a mess, but there is no solution for all, especially with 6th forms opening in a week or so. The results will be all over the place whether they use cag, gav or lottery at this point.

@blobbyface I don't think the schools will be able to change their CAGs at this point will they? That would be too open to abuse I would think.

I hadn’t thought of schools changing CAGs - I presume they have been submitted somewhere already so they can’t

New thread yay.

Radio silence from DDs school too. Last email from them was at the end of term.

Every time a clarification communication is made by the government it asks more questions that it answers.

Still not entirely sure what will be in the envelope on Thursday and what these ‘certificates’ are next week and how they will get them.

@cariadambyth

Thank you for such an inclusive, lovely opening post.

I put Institute! I know why - mixing up with work !

FFS this is a total shit show. To GAV or not to GAV decide yourself and type up results slip for DC on Thursday this will be more accurate than what we are going to get. A complete shambles I think all of us putting our heads together on MN would’ve done a better job.

I was incredibly stressed that I hadn’t heard from dd’s school. However on Monday we received an email from the head stating that our dd will be given an email on Thursday morning at 8am with her results.
DD’s results will have the CAG results and the teachers predictions in order for full transparency

Absolutely nothing from DDs school. Nothing in the website either. Communication has always been poor. Somewhat in contrast to the school she is moving to as we are getting almost daily updates from them!

JustHereWithMyPopcorn - no, Head doesn't think he can change them, but he's kicking up a fuss!

Dd has to go into school between 10 and 11 to collect her results. They are hoping to do the whole year group of 120 in an hour .

Just had this email from the head - he's most definitely not a fan of the current government

By now you will be very familiar with the utter confusion around the awarding of A Level and GCSE grades and the eventual u-turn from the Secretary of State - I am sure you will have guessed that I have many opinions on this, but these are not for now! I write simply to confirm some details.

As per yesterday's announcement your GCSE grade for each subject will now be your Centre Assessed Grade, or the standardised grade awarded by the exam board if this grade is higher. We hope that we can give you this information in full on Thursday, as well as information as to next steps for you if you are unhappy or need further support - of course we are now waiting for revised guidance on this from Ofqual.

@Cherryonthetop2019 DD’s school are normally excellent communicators, which makes the radio silence all the more strange and unsettling.

When the Covid crisis first hit, the head was incredibly clear about what the arrangements would be and updated regularly every time there was a new Government diktat - I was very impressed. This current silence is really out of character!

I felt sorry for the students and teachers before this latest development
If I were a teacher I'd seriously consider jacking it all in and living in an island all by myself.

I've had emailed comma from DC school, but as PP wrote, there are so many questions that I'd Like answers for but few like the school have enough to deal with without me piping up

DC is expecting an email at 8 on Thursday. I'm expecting it to be CAG- or whatever we are calling them

Am I right in thinking that schools ARE informed at least a week in advance of the grades?

I think heads and teachers are at a loss and are scrambling to keep up. They don’t want to mess the kids around anymore than they have been. It is an awful situation for any head of teacher to be in.

Under normal circumstances schools get results the day before. This is limited to very few staff members.

No one has any idea when schools will get the GAVs.

Schools literally know as much as we on this thread know! It's bonkers but nothing new, sadly.

I have heard nothing from DS's normally communicative school, and nothing from my (uncommunicative) own!

The island looks tempting!

[quote Sarahbeans]@blobbyface

"rank all students and give equivalent grades according to previous years. They were forced to rank students who were equal and some may have different grades, but should really have the same grades.
Head now says it's clear some schools have put in could get on a good day grades and he doesn't think that's fair.
Basically he says it's a shit show."

Totally agree. My school did the same. So the results I predicted went through some kind of school moderation to keep them in line. So the CAG is not what I gave my students.

After looking at the A level grades it's clear that some schools blatantly put their grades up. One school near me went from 0% A+ to over 24% A+ and A-C grades from 16% to over 70%. This in the same year that the school was rated inadequate (4) and the SLT was sacked at Christmas. Even being generous, that's a mighty turn around in 3 months!

I thought the grades we gave would be moderated as some teachers / schools were far more generous than others... now this isn't happening, some kids will still miss out and statistically speaking, it's the Lowe socioeconomic students who always miss out. [/quote]
Do you live in a place beginning with O?

I think the head who mentioned we weren't allowed equal rank makes a very good point! He should go to the press with that!

Ok just sent another email of complaint to my Tory mp re the waiting for algorithm results next week.

Don’t hold out much hope that he will respond, he did respond finally yesterday to my emails sent over the weekend, but only after the 4pm announcement!

I emailed my local (Tory) MP and Gav over the weekend. Still not heard anything from either of them...

In a normal year, schools get the results as a download on the Wednesday. We still don’t know what’ll happen tomorrow: whether we just print out the CAGs and they’ll get the standardised ones next week (the DFE website says this), whether they’ll just email us the standardised ones and expect us to print out the CAGs, whether they’ll send us both to print out or whether they’ll go through them all and just send us the higher of the two to print out. Schools aren’t telling parents because they don’t know themselves yet!

I sent three emails to my (useless) MP over the exams situation, but have heard nothing, not even a ‘holding’ email to acknowledge my existence. I’m drafting a fourth to ask about the IB and (if still needed) the BTEC results as well as telling him what I think about the potential extra follow-up results day next week. It’s an absolute mess.

Thank you for the new thread @OrangeCinnamon1 and a fab opening post too

Email from school here giving an overview of the update, that students now get CAG or GAV (not that school actually said GAV ). Didn't communicate what actually lands in the student inbox on Thursday morning but says staff will still be available to speak to unhappy students (obviously there will be many who are unhappy with their CAG even if higher than the GAV).

General tone of email is very definitely "completely hacked off with entire situation" and frankly I can't say I blame them.

Email from HT of ds school says they will get Cags Thursday, as submitted by teachers - which he describes as the grade students would most likely have got had they sat the exam.

He then goes on to the say the adjustments made (which would most likely have been down) will now not be applied.

Therefore grade students receive Thursday should most likely be their final grade.

Then says in rare instances it would have gone up that will be the result the student receives and it's his understanding they'll be released next week and they will inform of any changes. Reassures any changes from Thursday results can only be upwards.

Said waiting official guidance. Apologises for the troubles.

Tone of email is brilliant - professional but very obviously an undertone of his annoyance. But his HT is brilliant!

So I've told ds the results he'll get Thursday are his results.

Then if by any miracle any get put up I'll surprise him the following week