GCSE Summer 2020 Thread 10: Carry on Corona Cohort ‘The Next Step''

[OrangeCinnamon1]

Welcome all to the 10th Thread for this year's GCSE cohort - the Corona Cohort!

This is a thread for supporting all young people ( and their parents) who were examined for GCSEs 2020 regardless of the institute they attended or the grades they needed. 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 needed/deserved/wanted 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 grin ) 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 it us 'results day ' most have GCSE results and some awaiting BTEC results .

We are all ALWAYS 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 popping this here.

previous thread

I have received a very detailed email response from HoY which I appreciate.

Seeing all the furore over clothing choices makes me glad that DD1’s sixth form has a uniform, although kitting her out was an expensive shopping trip. I still need to sort her out a laptop too.

Luckily DD2’s uniform from last year still fits her so I’ve only had to buy shoes for her. I am sending them both in with masks and hand sanitiser as well as I know from looking at my own classroom how impossible difficult it will be for them to keep socially distant in school.

Trying to get my own head back into work mode today as well - it’s a struggle!

I hope those of you who are appealing/trying to sort out places in sixth form are making positive progress today.

Advise please:

However I've then had another email, re a particular subject and the GCSE grade given. that I just don't understand.

"Centre Assessed Grades were awarded using mock score ranking. Students were ranked in the year group by their mock result and the number of grades we were able to issue at each level were then awarded using this list.

so results reflect student performance in the mock exam. This was checked by class teachers and by Leadership Team for anomalies and errors before Centre Assessed Grades were awarded. "

But CAG isn't supposed to be ONLY the last mock is it?

I thought the whole point of our threads was that days before the result, we were all worried they were going to give results based on mocks.

Then two days before the final result they suddenly announced know they were going to go with : revert to CAG's.

Many of us in here were relieved.

To ME, CAG's meant :
Each individual teacher reviewing their class and ranking their students against the number of 9's, 8's, 7's etc that the teacher knew they were allowed to give.

The teacher would base their decision on : each child, their predicted grades, their mocks throughout the whole two years, their coursework, their work in class, how the teacher predicted the child would do if they had actually sat the actual exam, the last mock, everything.

This was my understanding.

Did I misunderstand?

So why are my school focusing on the last mock? And only the mock?

What about the whole review? The Mock before? The anticipation of his this kid 'would' do if they'd sat the exam?

Hope it is ok to gatecrash this thread but I wondered if anyone else has a DC doing IB as opposed to A levels in two years?

My DS is starting sixth form and has chosen to do IB (his school offers a choice of A levels or IB). My understanding is that the IB students this year got a grade which has not subsequently been adjusted in line with teacher assessments (so are possibly at a disadvantage) - although things moved so quickly and I was so worried about GCSE results I might not be fully up to date on how this all worked out. I wondered if anyone had any thoughts about how this will play out in future? The thing I've always liked about the IB is that it is independent of any politician / government involvement and has maintained it's integrity over the years (eg no grade inflation, independently set syllabus). Do you think universities will take this into account in future when making offers (ie it is a well respected qualification so doesn't matter is students with A levels have higher marks)? Or do you think it is better to be doing a qualification that the majority are doing in case there is disruption in the next year or so?

Hope that makes sense.

Is that for all subjects or one oblomov?

I know our data man wanted to rank them by mock and then was persuaded not to. He then ranked them by an average of a few things. But I only found out later down the line that he had not included year 10 at all.

In larger schools, a lot of control was wrested away from teachers.

Some one in charge of data (and it seems the DfE when they made their 'valid mock' announcement, and many people on an SLT) always seem to assume all progress is linear.

Reality of going back next week’s just kicking in with DD here, mixed feelings of looking forward to it, but not the rules like face coverings for all lessons as well as indoors; corridors etc. The policy was in place before BJ’s U turn (seem to write that phrase a lot these days). Has realised she’s left some work/reading a little too late, possibly a little too much park life. Her realisation though... I am keeping low key resisting told you so. This time at least.

I do feel for her, a couple of days she’ll have a face covering from 05.30 to 21.00 minus in-pool time. Makes you realise how hard it’s been for those who work in PPE all day/night as part of their work throughout these last 8 months...

Just one subject Piggy. I mean I asked about 2 different subjects. And this is the response re 2 of them.

Ob: Your understanding is exactly how mine and school applied, which was following Ofqual’s guidance set out early April?

The anecdotal feedback on our gcse thread alone shows how differently this has been interpreted, which in itself is a worry if assessment type grading used is being considered again for 2021 without robust standardisation of process.

Schools Still Used the Abandoned Algorithm.

Up to 1,900 schools still used a similar algorithm to the one the government abandoned due to "too many significant inconsistent and unfair outcomes". 1,900 schools sent their CAGs to FFT Datalab who sent back to them, information about how many grades to change to fit their school's 2019 data. 1,000 schools sent them to FFT again to further check their CAGs.

I'm writing to FFT, my MP, Ofqual, my school, exam boards, any journalist whose written about the algorithm. I suggest you share this information and do the same. My child's grades were at or lower than his most recent sustained, attainment grades.

Grades should have been, per Ofqual, "[a CAG] which represented the grade that student would have been most likely to achieve if teaching and learning had continued and student had taken their exams as planned."
AND
"Working At Grades" as well as "Target Grades" (FFT Target Data) were not to be used as per Ofqual, "note that these centre assessment grades [CAGs] are not the same as - working at grades (the grade a student is currently working at) [and] - target grades". Rather, the DfE and Ofqual stated when determining CAGs to use "student's knowledge, skills and abilities in relation to the subject. This evidence should inform teachers' professional judgements about each student's likely performance at the time of the exam."; "those judgements should be holistic, based on the range of evidence that schools and colleges have. So students shouldn't worry about one disappointing mock exam result"; "performance over the course of study"; "review data, classwork, bookwork"; "performance on any class or homework assessments"; "signed off by at least 2 teachers [or an equal] in that subject .... [stating] fairly represent the grades".

Please see the following: ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2020/06/gcse-results-2020-a-look-at-the-grades-proposed-by-schools/?fbclid=IwAR1i6OB4gEvjEcBa4yCWW9xYW83S5EM1K2WiWanh-BKoqTpo1Q0V2Z9-V1g

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/909035/6656-2_-_Executive_summary.pdf

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/887018/Summer_2020_Awarding_GCSEs_A_levels_-_Info_for_Heads_of_Centre_22MAY2020.pdf

Thank you Ealing.
And for those links Dilworth.

I have skimmed those links. I will read them more thoroughly tomorrow.
I find them bamboozling in their complexity.

The whole thing is so complicated, one minute is algorithm, then mocks, then CAG, which is not the same as 'working at grades' - yes, I get that.

It's all too much for me.

I want to email back a sophisticated response, but if I'm not careful I'm just appear as a blithering numpty.

@Dilworth1234 Is it possible to find out which schools farmed out their results to Datalab?

My school said they did in their cover letter with the results. You could ask your school but I'll be honest, a few schools are covering themselves and not doing the right thing for the students. Spread the word, if enough of us start talking more about, hopefully change will come.

@Oblomov20 I wonder where they got the information about how many of each grade they were allowed to award? Sounds like they applied a version of the algorithm internally?

The mock score ranking is a weird way of doing it too.. they were supposed to be coming up with a grade that they thought each student would achieve and then send those off with a ranking of those who had the same grade, so that if some needed moderating down, it would happen to the "right" people. They seem to have ranked everyone and then applied a set number of each grade to that ranking - very odd.. and as you say if they were going to rank the whole year, why just use mocks and no other information? So much data about each child has been ignored by the sounds of it.

@Oblomov20 our school sent out a summary of how the CAGS were calculated and they were very definitely as per your understanding - looking at school work. homework, other exam and classroom assessments etc as well as the official mocks. I definitely felt reassured that in our case the CAGS had been worked out very thoroughly and fairly. Obviously not the case in all schools though from what I’m reading.

DS's school have definitely done some sort of internal moderation as a few of DS's grades are down on regular work (not sure whether via DataLab or not). One of DS's best friends has got a 3 for English; DS reckons he was consistently getting 4s in his work so this was a surprise, so I wonder if there was an element of the school feeling they could only give so many 4s. DS himself got a 4 in English (we expected a 5) and needed a 5 for his A Level choices but it wasn't even mentioned when he went to enrol, so seems like the school were implicitly saying that his English might be better than they'd graded.

I took the afternoon off work today and dragged DS into town to buy sixth form clothes (smart/casual dress code). He selected some shirts in a variety of grey and blue shades, and trousers in a variety of blue and grey shades, and, in a unexpected daring moment , also bought some brown trousers. He hasn't tried any of it on yet, and he's fussy about clothes, but hopefully at least some of it is ok!!

I've asked HoY for a breakdown of all his CAG's.

Well, try telling that to my DS who still hadn't had his BTEC results

Sorry, lost a page there. That was with reference to Boris it has all been sorted out statement

@Oblomov20
You can see the instructions for schools working out CAGs at the link below. It definitely doesn't say rank all your students and hand out a certain number of grades according to the ranking. Neither does it say only use one set of mocks. The grades were supposed to be what the school thought he would get in an exam. I would definitely challenge the ones where teachers have previously said he's on for an 8 and then given him a 5 or whatever. Ask them why they are now following the guidelines from Ofqual.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachmentdata/file/887018/Summerr2020AwardinggGCSEsAAlevels--InfoforrHeadsoffCentre_22MAY2020.pdf

*not, not now
(if that makes sense)

Very annoyed on your behalf about this - they were supposed to use all sorts of information when coming up with CAGs, not just mocks.

Wow.
I'm in ping pong email argument.

To add some further detail, marks and class work across Y 10 & 11, considered by teachers with the most weighting placed on mock results.

Once a ranking had been generated based on mock grades, each teacher was given a list of their students and asked to consider if the ranking reflected overall performance throughout GCSE. Teachers were asked to make the case for any changes based on other data such as predictions and end of unit tests. Any changes were then applied to generate a list for the whole cohort.

The number of grades that could be awarded at each grade was given to heads of Dept, by leadership based on a range of factors

mock data used as our main data for ranking students because:

• It covered a larger percentage of the course than individual end of unit tests.
• It was seven times longer than end of unit tests.
• The conditions it was undertaken in and how it was moderated were the most like the summer exam.
• Some end of topic tests had ‘seen’ elements where students were aware of questions that would be asked, or where classes sat these at different points in a week, students could in theory ask to know the questions from peers in another group who had already sat the test.

As with all subjects, the process for awarding results, and the results that were submitted to the exam board, were checked and approved by senior leadership.

None of that makes me feel better. Worse actually.

The school made a conscious decision to go with the last mock as the most heavily weighted?

Doesn't that go against all the recommendations?

But that's their interpretation of the guidelines? And similarly many other schools have made their own interpretation?

because the Ofqual guidelines weren't specific enough?

Is that how they get off the hook?

Per Guidelines :
(Thanks for links pp's)

"We want heads of department/subject leads and teachers to consider each student’s performance over the course of study and make a realistic judgement of the grade each student would have been most likely to get if they had taken their exam(s) in a subject and completed any non-exam assessment this summer. "

I have quoted this to School.

My school admitted that in fact what they had done was give ds grades that he would have got in an exam on his worst day i.e. his working grade with no bump for months of revision etc.

Whereas other schools believed in their kids and gave them the benefit of the doubt. Galling.