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

Been lurking about but felt it was time to join in...
DD received 3 of her IGCSEs last week. Was down graded on one which, as of last night, has now been reverted to the teachers predicted grade. Had a few days of an upset DD and a few frantic emails backwards and forwards to the school but thankfully all worked out fine now. It left her utterly uptight and freaked out a bit about this Thursday’s results so thank god for the u-turn as she has reverted to (almost) normal. We have decided to go out for lunch tomorrow to celebrate the hard work rather than Thursday and it being all about the results.

We are going to our local harbour /shopping outlet for Noodles on Fri the DH can come too. I've already given her one present as she was down the other day. She has some new leather folders that I posted about before , a nice 3d bear card holding a fluffy heart (we love you here is a hug in a card) must get her some white choc too...flowers could be nice !

It will just feel good to draw a line under it all really.

We are going to The Ivy for lunch. First time going into London since February! Hoping she lies her surprise!

Dominos and Ben & Jerry's on Thursday night here - it is what DSs always want to celebrate or commiserate!

I’ve already bought DD some lovely new stationery for sixth form as a reward for effort. I have a card and a fancy academic diary ready for her on Thursday. We’ll have a small celebration at home with bubbly and cake and I have promised to make lasagne for dinner. We’ll be trying to fend off the wider family until the weekend as DD doesn’t want a big fuss. Tbh only my DM is likely to remember it’s results day. MIL and FIL are oblivious.

My daughter was accepted on to her A level courses today, so we took her out after to celebrate. She's decided to celebrate with friends on Thursday. I don't think I'm wanted then. DH has Thursday off work, so we'll take her out to lunch - her choice!

Welcome Delurkers ! Don't worry thread doesn't usually move this fast !

I’ve bought a card for DD, have ordered afternoon tea to be delivered on Thursday, and were going out to dinner at one of her favourite restaurants - all a surprise.

We are planning a Rishi-subsidised meal tomorrow, some fizz on Thursday, and an online shopping splurge for 6th form outfits. And a theme park trip with friends next week, after hopefully most schools have gone back. It’s been a real roller coaster year

at unintended pun!

@ProggyMat

Fools This morning I asked DD how she and her friends were feeling about Thursday and she said ‘Mam, that ship sailed long ago’

😂😂

Anyone tell me if I've done the right thing?

Ds has paid some attention to this shit but he's just so passive and has no noticeable emotion it's hard to tell (he's autistic).

He does however live by data and logic (not much of that about lately!)

He seemed under the impression CAGs were mocks. I explained not really. Mocks have an idea of how you would perform in an exam. Teachers already had exam predictions (as well as EOU targets). They also have all the assessment data as you went along.

I asked him if he could remember what teachers predicted on his Jan report (after mocks) and also what they said he could get at parents eve (feb?)

He couldn't so I did a table on paper and for him to put what he felt he'd get if he did best he could on day and then a grade lower for if he did well and most consistent level. I then filled in mocks, predicted on report and where I can remember grades discussed at parents eve.

Basically where mocks were 6 grades across paper for that subject did vary 5-7.

Where mocks were higher 7-9 the grade also varied between 7-9.

I then explained that his teachers were talking to me and him solely about him.
That when that data is put across a year group and ranked it will change and can be both ways.

He seemed to get it. I wanted to make sure he wasn't disappointed in Thursday thinking his CAG should be higher based solely on one report he remembers and that realistically it's likely to be across 3 grades what he'll get and that is the most accurate his teacher could be.

I have got ds a card. No present but it's his birthday tomorrow and I've got him a few bits (smellies/steam voucher/socks) and he got a very expensive £190 computer monitor 🤯 at beginning on July for his birthday as our holiday was cancelled.
Thought he might as well it then rather than 2 weeks before college because of lockdown etc!

I will however offer him a take out or to go to eat somewhere if he wants. We should have been flying to Majorca that evening!

As we're on holiday this week DD is dictating what happens on Thursday. So far she has ordered pastries and coffee for breakfast to receive results (we're an hour ahead). Then a day at the beach and dinner at the nicest restaurant in town.

Poor DS2 (receiving a single French GCSE) hasn't had much say in arrangements but I've told him he can order whatever he wants for dinner. This will undoubtedly be the largest steak on the menu.

I'm hoping she's not expecting a Moonpig card. We made one together for DS1 last week but I didn't get round to it for her.

Goodness you lot type fast ;-) Just catching up on the news. We had a catch up email from school this morning which broke their usual formal, inpartial politeness to state "We remain disappointed with the government's handling of the exams system this year and sympathise with some of the worry it is has caused in those who have received results as well as those who are expecting results." which is as close to swearing in an email as we will ever get ;-) I had emailed the head to clarify a couple of things before yesterday's announcement, and also got a personal apology for the late reply, which suggested my questions were probably no longer relevant (all true!) DS has an outdoor cinema planned in a friends garden on Thurs night: it will be a bitter sweet eve as the gang will be splitting up to head to different A level institutions. They've been a super-supportive gang of geeks and misfits (their words) and I'm going to be gutted they won't be together next year: the parents are meeting up for fizz and tears too ;-)

@itsgettingweird - ds is autistic and data driven too, and that sounds like a great explanation to me. I've said to ds that his teachers will use a mix of all the data they have; and their experience of how pupils change over time to work it out. And that it won't be 100% fair, but that exams - where one child might have a cold, and another might have had a pet die the day before - aren't fair either, so no system is perfect. He seems to coping OK. As a comp sci/maths type student, he is very aware of the limits of algorithms and machine learning currently, so that route helped him feel more comfortable with CAG vs the algorithm: that might also be a useful route if our ds has that sort of brain?

Well mine is keeping herself really busy, new music arrived today, with the comment can you transfer the money, please £20 for a piece of music.
I told her to photocopy it for practice and in case a teacher scribbles all over it.
She's done 5 hours today and now doing on online quiz with her friends.
Counting the days now, it's 19.
We are coming out of lockdown at the weekend, just in time for a family party. Even better news though as who wants to be completely isolated at school.
What's everyone else doing to keep their minds occupied?

I’m making fudge. And then trying to not eat it all .

DS is considering what to wear on Thursday. Probably black jeans he says and an “edgy” top.

He currently has bright pink nail varnish on.

He also fits most of your DDs criteria @OrangeCinnamon1 although at about 5 foot 8 he isn’t tall. But plays guitar and piano pretty well and can be nice. Although not sure whether his close friend who is a girl is actually a girlfriend or not

DD has signed up to work at the stables all day tomorrow. I am going to IKEA (god help me) with DS to buy him a university duvet cover!

Oh ds gets mucking you exams.

He's so matter of fact telling us he missed a question in English because he didn't understand it. Then he realised he didn't have time to complete it even with extra time - so just finished his exam 🤦🏼‍♀️ he got a 2 in the mock. Working at 3 in class but prediction 4.

Ds is very chilled but the risk I felt was he'd be chilled whilst having very set ideas what would happen and then it'll be a week after this for the next 10 years the obsessing over it starts.

I did show him his yr 11 targets from start of year 8 (when he started this school) (4-6's) compared to January's predictions 4-9's to show him he should be proud of what he did to improve predictions.

Does anyone else think realistically based on what we know about students and they know about themselves they are still going to have a grade which could span across 3 levels based on the CAG system and the fact schools also had to rank and moderate before the algorithm did it again!

And yes ds brain is more like a computer. In fact when I was telling him about him being autistic he even said "so basically my brain has a different operating system"

@MirandaWest what is an edgy top ?
My son spends ages choosing his outfit. I’m going to ask him what he intends to wear now !!!! Maybe I will ask him if it’s edgy and see what he says. Teenagers you have to love them. Or cry

@sandybayley sounds great jealous of you in Italy ..
How are things there ?

@itsgettingweird sounds fair enough to me . A pragmatic conversation helps to ward off any poss dissapointment

My da will probably 'plan' Thursdays outfit at about 8am Thursday. We are leaving at 8.25!

The only time he ever worries about clothes is to make sure none of his T shirts reference America 🤣

I've bought DD a much wanted Apple Watch as a reward for all her hard work. She doesn't have a clue as she thinks she may get it for her birthday/Christmas.

She will be going over to her friends house with her whole group (10) for a get together, bday party then outdoor sleepover so we won't see much of her at all once she has her results, (shame but fully understand).
I've booked a table at Mowgli for the 3 of us on Monday - first time eating out for any of us, little nervous as really not been out much (DD has).
Got to say I'm feeling so much better about Thursday now. I really want it to be such a special day for DD as she and her friends deserve it to be - they have missed so much. 3 of them will be changing schools. DD decided to stay on after all.