Year 13/11 how do you feel about the 3 extra weeks...

[MrsAvocet]

...to "catch up"?
Seriously? After all that has happened and is still to come, does anybody seriously think that delaying exams by three whole weeks is actually going to make a blind bit of difference?

It's madness. 3 weeks to catch up and cram months of lost teaching and work. I could cry thinking of the exam schedule. Those poor poor kids. What a pile of shit they're having heaped on them.

20% shorter. I can do maths, honest.

I don't think this will happen. I think they had to put something out there, they can't say they are cancelling the exams as some students will sit back.

I just can't see how these exams can go ahead tbh, I think it will need to be on CAGs again. I don't see how reduced content will work, my understanding is that schools teach the curriculum in different orders and often there are different topic choices by different schools for the GCSEs.

I can only hope that they are putting a more robust system in place if it is CAGs again

I don't think this will happen. I think they had to put something out there
I maybe agree with your first statement, but not the second. I think it is far too early to be announcing any decisions. Yes, something other than the last minute debacle of this Summer would be good, but it is too soon and all that is likely to happen now is that the goal posts will move repeatedly adding yet more pressure onto these young people.

Dd (y13) reckons it's pointless

I have a DD who has just had A Level results from predicted grades and after a horrible period of uncertainty has done rather well from the predictions. I have another DD in Y13 and a DS in Y11. They are the two years who have had the most disruption to their education In terms of future defining exam preparation yet are the ones expected to correct that with three weeks extra learning. They are already worried and in my Dd’s case very stressed because they’ve been driving themselves hard in case mocks are going to be their final grades. Alongside this is the realisation that her cohort nationally is (I understand) a high birth rate so it is a competitive year, plus masses of University deferrals by last year’s cohort (understandably). How will they assess the children who may have had in the end slightly generous Predicted grades at the end of last academic year With this year’s Y13 who are highly likely to under perform? Knowing that this decision will probably change a number of times is too much and I fear that she just may give up.

Our Y11s all face a short delay and then a compacted exam period I think. As someone else said GCSEs are very stressful because of the number of different subjects. To then compact the exam period and to expect recovery of all the lost time by delaying three weeks is frankly cruel.

I could cry.

Ridiculous, pointless and unfair.
DS has been working nonstop by himself since March including through the holidays, now juggling learning, revision, UCAS and EPQ. He is fed up and exhausted. And now looking at extending the time until exams, reducing the well-deserved long holiday and potentially screwing up the uni admissions timetable.

Give these kids a break Gavin.

My yr11 will be ok as she’ll stay on a school 6th form. So, I’d hope even she seriously fucks up they’d do right by her and let her continue to A levels given they know her etc.
My yr13 does not have that luxury with university.
No year 13 kid will and plenty of yr11’s won’t either.
Thing is, I’m struggling to see a good viable fair and robust option. They can’t really do teacher assessments as what are the teachers meant assess if both they and kids are isolating every two minutes?
I also seriously worry about these kids’ stress, anxiety, mental health etc. And the teachers trying to get them through this! Oh and us parents!

This is all really quite ridiculous, isn’t it. There are so many schools that didn’t continue with the curriculum during lockdown, while others did, to varying degrees. How is that going to be fair?

My year 11s ( really lovely group) were so upset by this when I told them this afternoon I had to remind them not to shoot the messenger. 3 weeks delay is pointless, and as others have pointed, removes the half way break of half term.

so it is a competitive year, plus masses of University deferrals by last year’s cohort (understandably)

Universities have increased the grades on popular degrees. This will reduce the number of students able to take a place. It’s happening already.

DDs ‘coarse’ has gone from ABB to AAB for September coming.

DD2 is pleased because she thinks she'll do better in exams than teachers assessment but I feel very concerned about the pressure on her to sit c.25 exams in 4 weeks with no half term breather / revision catch-up.

For information where we live the half term is different, the students effectively take exams during their half term break, and they’ve never had one. They work 10 weeks straight.

I’m livid and could cry for my DS
Like a pp although he did 4/5 hrs a day in lockdown, most of it was recapping rather than new topics and towards the end he was struggling to motivate himself as he’s an only child and very sociable
I now feel awful about pushing him into all GCSEs that are 100% exam (school pushed also for the EBACC) most of his friends seem to be doing GCSEs that involve coursework or a BTEC so they’ve got that done already in Yr10
He’s worked hard but I fear he’ll not get anywhere near the grade he is capable of and all those kids that were likely to get high passes may potentially scrape it or fail
The school aren’t totally blameless either as when he went back, over a third had done little or no work in lockdown (by choice, not because kids didn’t have the equipment) and yet the teachers have repeated most of it instead of moving on a little (he didn’t have to do the homework part) but it makes me so so angry
I can see the worry in him already
After losing nearly six months of GCSE schooling and THEN another 2 weeks at home due to 3 positives in Yr, I’m so angry at how they will have been failed

@TheFridayFeeling DD yr 11 set off with good intentions during lockdown with her school work but then one of her grandparents died of covid during lockdown. So in the end understandably her mental health and her schoolwork suffered. Our relationship also broke down and is still extremely strained as we still tried to motivate her with her school work. School seem to be trying to make up for their lockdown holiday (her schools efforts were appalling) but now the pressure on the kids is immense with many subjects running revision sessions most nights after school yet their are only 5 nights in the week and maths and english are both running twice a week so work that out!! DD isn’t eating properly and is coming home from school absolutely freezing as she is extremely quiet she is sat next to a wide open window in most of her lessons too. She is dyslexic and her school decided to run mock exams two weeks into the term. They set a 1 hr 45 paper in 1 hour and DD is dyslexic so she should have received 25% extra time. They were given certificates with these meaningless grades on and needless to say most most kids grades were appalling and DD came out with a 4 in maths and a 3 in English. It just gets worse for this year group.

@Sweetchillijam I totally understand where you are coming from, especially losing GP to Covid and falling out trying to get them to complete work towards the end like they did at the start. My own profession is as far from ‘teacher’ as it could be
I really hope your DD is ok, her mental health has to come first no matter what
I’m normally a ‘there is a solution for everything’ person but in this instance there isn’t and I feel strongly they’re not going to be given a fair chance! I have family members who are SLT of 15/20yrs and they say the same for their Yr11s
I feel it has affected this yr11 more than any other year. I am praying for fairer assessment nearer the time of their actual capability or just a better solution as 3 weeks extra is a joke, let alone the pressure of no respite in between
I’m not giving up but I am resigned that it just has to be nothing but support and help with revision
I chose DS school because of its sixth form which has always been oversubscribed and lots of the Yr11 kids who are very capable of staying on, they may now not be able to

Its just awful I have a DS in yr12 yes they missed the opportunity to sit their GCSE’s, school prom, leavers assembly etc but at least they got to chill out at home March to September knowing their was absolutely nothing they could do regarding their GCSE results. He has gone back to school rested.

Whereas DD current year 11 had a dreadful time during lockdown no let up with schoolwork but it was all consolidation work, dished out messily, erratically and in a time consuming way for the kids to find the work on a range of different platforms including email, teams, class charts and subject specific platforms and at DD’s school in many cases it wasn’t issued by the class teacher but their class teachers were still emailing them so they were bombarded.

Whereas DD current year 11 had a dreadful time during lockdown no let up with schoolwork but it was all consolidation work, dished out messily, erratically and in a time consuming way for the kids to find the work on a range of different platforms including email, teams, class charts and subject specific platforms and at DD’s school in many cases it wasn’t issued by the class teacher but their class teachers were still emailing them so they were bombarded.

This was exactly the experience we had. It took around an hour each day to work out exactly what had been set. Plus 100s of pages had to be printed, completed, scanned and emailed back. I'm lucky I have a work printer/scanner at home but that was impossible for so many. A lot of kids were having to copy out all the sheets to complete, take a photo of them and send them back, even more time consuming.
They did nothing new and are now rushing through what they missed before they sit mocks next week. My usually chilled out son isn't eating, sleeping or doing his usual activities.

The whole thing is a complete mess and the toll on their mental health will affect many of them for years.

@DonLewis

How do you sit your exams if you're self isolating? That's what I want to know.

They have purposefully split the Maths and English exams with a three or four weeks break in between the papers, so that a student will be able to sit at least one of them for each subject.

It is in most ways a gimmick. 3 weeks will make no difference to the learning, but remember that all children have been in similar positions and all children have lost some time and grades will reflect that-it's done by percentages not comparing with other years.

My suspicion is that the 3 weeks are to move it more into summer to give us more time to get covid-19 under control. In that 3 weeks may make a difference if cases are dropping in the summer.

Pathetic. It also puts results day too close to the start of the autumn term, where's the time to think through a level choices if results are not as expected.

@DrMadelineMaxwell

They suspended the curriculum in lockdown, so our secondary sent out plenty of work, but all consolidation tasks not new work. So the additional three weeks needs to address a while missed term of work. It doesn't add up.

that was their (poor) choice though.

Other schools continued to teach content all through.

I have one in year 11 and one in year 13. Overall, I don't think they are particularly behind. They have done assessments this term and are happy with where kids are and with the predicted grades.

As well as 3 weeks there is some content being removed.
Don't forget that if the whole cohort does slightly worse, then the grade boundaries will be lower.

I think there are 2 things that we really need to remember.

1. That there are no easy solutions and nothing that is going to please everyone, or that will work for. The normal exam schedule doesn't work for everyone either, so there is always a group who will benefit and a group who won't. It is easy to complain, but what alternatives are there? And no, I don't think teacher assessment is a viable alternative.
2. We need to change the message to our yong people. I was horrified last year at the amount of "My life is ruined" comments on the news. Life is not over if you don't do as well on your GCSE as you thought. Life continues, you have different choices, maybe not the same as before but there are still choices. And if that means resitting, well for most kids, that is also not the end of the world. teach our kids ot be flexible and adaptable and resilient.

Sorry, I know that doesn't fit with the hate the government and my kid's lives are ending mantra of mn, but really. Imagine what is was like for kids during the war, or the 1930s depression, or 1980s England where there were zero jobs. Not only did we survive, but we made a good life.

I don't understand how kids will all do badly though? Surely the exams are marked on a curve so roughly the same proportion get As, Bs, etc every year? It'll just mean that if they all do badly you'll only need 60% (or whatever) for an A rather than 70%. You won't end up with a whole year group where no one gets an A that year, will you?

@justchecking1 some schools provided work in the summer term, some didn’t. Even where schools provided work not all students were able to access it, for a variety of reasons. Depending where you are in the country your child may have had at least one round of 2 week of self isolation, some more. Other areas where the rate is low are being able to carry on as normal. There is never a completely level playing field but this year it is even worse.

@Todaythiscouldbe I think our two maybe attend the same school. We have printers and scanners and offered to help DD take photos or scan the work she had completed. But she is proud and wouldn’t entertain the idea of any help or interference from ourselves. She refused to talk school work at all and we had shouting and arguments from her anytime we mentioned anything about school work. It took ages for her to photograph and upload each page of each piece of work on the school system and it wasn’t clear whether to send it back to her usual teacher, the teacher who had set the work or a different teacher. So after having to repeat this exercise with the same piece of work several times she stopped bothering to do this.

@steppemum so why should the poor kids suffer any more because of covid, bad decisions taken by their schools which neither they the poor scared kids or we as parents have had any control over?