Year 11 or Year 13. Is your dc's school doing additional lessons to catch up?

[ThatDirection]

Following the announcement yesterday that A levels and GCSEs will be delayed by 3 weeks, everyone is commenting that 3 weeks is not enough time to catch up from the lack of learning during lockdown.

Are your dc's schools doing anything extra now to help fill gaps? Dd was fortunate to go to a 6th form college which continued online teaching. She's having to catch up on some practicals. A friend is getting 50%extra teaching in one subject that was poor and lacking regular teacher during lockdown. I believe the college is also open during half term for some courses.

My younger Dd is Y10 so she's ok but in her school I've seen extra lunchtime clinics advertised - limited to Y11 pupils only, when normally they would be open to all. So, taking some measures (and probably others) to support this year's GCSE cohort.

I'm guessing different schools will be able to offer different things - and some will be able to take advantage of the catch up tutoring. But surely they won't be relying on just 3 weeks extra time in the summer to catch the students up.

my y11 has not been offered any extra, however she did work quite well during lockdown and is bright. she has just had exams which i suspect will guide the school to where they need to offer more.

Yes, I expect many schools are doing exams and then will see what they need to do after that.

@Chuffles thanks for the link, signed and I’ve asked 30 others to do the same

Can I ask why you are a fan of zero exams? Don't you think that causes more problems than a reduced content exam?

Thanks @TheFridayFeeling

I'm certainly not knocking teaching staff, who I know are doing their best in hugely challenging circumstances.

There's no set order or timetable for covering the syllabus for any given subject. This is left to individual teachers to decide. So any proposal to go ahead with exams but reduce teaching content / make sections of the exam optional would create all sorts of problems with marking and grade standardisation. For students sitting the exams, I can imagine it would be hugely stressful to be negotiating a paper where you have not been taught chunks of the content unless it clearly states 'skip this part if you go to X school and your teacher was Mr(s) Y'

I'm not a 'fan' of zero exams in normal circumstances. But given the huge variation in face-to-face contact time and support students have had (and in many areas is still continuing), this is not a level playing field and 3 weeks 'catch up' time will change nothing. My DC's college is smack in the middle of a university area where CV19 cases are rocketing. This is impacting on staffing levels in the college, further disrupting capacity for teaching, assessment and support. Students with IT difficulties at home (lack of access, poor internet, etc.) are really struggling to keep up during the enforced 'home learning' weeks.

So in these circumstances I do believe teachers are best placed to give a fairer assessment of how well their students have performed in each of their subjects.

@ThatDirection
I’m not in favour of zero exams, quite the contrary -I have a child who tends to do better in exams on the day and he will take them no problem, but 3 weeks ‘catch up’ is completely unfair and the teachers (purely the messengers) have this week made it crystal clear that no content is being reduced in any of his GCSEs
I am also under no illusions what this means for a lot of children and trust my family members with their years of experience in school, one of whom is teaching in a particularly deprived area whose kids (over 80%) had no way of online learning as they didn’t get the equipment promised
They are so upset that these kids won’t fulfill their potential. School is their only respite and the only form of learning - not every child has parents who are interested in supporting learning
I’ve spent over £300 over lockdown on textbooks, revision guides, cards and past papers but there’s way too much content to get through
I worked out yesterday we have now have about 23 weeks to cover c.42 weeks worth of learning and that doesn’t include the revision

@Chuffles I completely agree, these circumstances are not normal and teachers are best placed (with moderation) to assess them

Year 13 and no extra so far here. The teachers also have significantly larger Year 12 classes than usual to teach due to this year exam results and the fact that many could not visit other schools/colleges to gauge their provision adding to their stress. I don't envy them.

Important to point out that the syllabus has been reduced for many subjects, so less time needed to cover requirements.

My subject is running at 50% of normal coursework, giving us more time to complete exam work.

@Chuffles

Thanks *@TheFridayFeeling*

I'm certainly not knocking teaching staff, who I know are doing their best in hugely challenging circumstances.

There's no set order or timetable for covering the syllabus for any given subject. This is left to individual teachers to decide. So any proposal to go ahead with exams but reduce teaching content / make sections of the exam optional would create all sorts of problems with marking and grade standardisation. For students sitting the exams, I can imagine it would be hugely stressful to be negotiating a paper where you have not been taught chunks of the content unless it clearly states 'skip this part if you go to X school and your teacher was Mr(s) Y'

I disagree completely, it's very easy to put lots of questions on a paper and give students a free choice of what to answer. I've said this elsewhere, but if eg you normally have four essay questions to do in an exam, and a choice from 10 questions, all they have to do is make it 3, and give a choice of 20 questions. Cover all topics but allow more choice. Same level of study, same skills, just less content.

Another option might be to have open book exams especially for GCSE science and Eng lit so the kids don't have to learn quotes and formulae. I think speaking tests for MFL should be reduced weighting as nobody has been able to visit their countries to practice. So for example if it usually makes up 25% of the marks, make it 10% (I think for GCSE the plan was not to have speaking tests, so I am talking more about A level).

@MalorieSnooty

Important to point out that the syllabus has been reduced for many subjects, so less time needed to cover requirements.

My subject is running at 50% of normal coursework, giving us more time to complete exam work.

Really? I've not heard this. You're the first person to say this. Or is this for Y10 and 12?

The issues with catch up after school (especially in larger buildings) is that site staff need everyone out asap in order for deep cleaning to be done.

There is also the issue of teaching staff not just planning/assessing in person lessons but we are also setting work for students who are isolating as well as losing free periods having to cover for isolating staff. We can't do lunch time sessions as we are all on different lunch times depending on which year group you have at that time (for example if I have yr8 P3, then I'm teaching when yr11 are on lunch)

Staff really want to do the best for students but atm there are far too many obstacles

@MalorieSnooty

Important to point out that the syllabus has been reduced for many subjects, so less time needed to cover requirements.

My subject is running at 50% of normal coursework, giving us more time to complete exam work.

Lots of subjects have not been reduced in content though. There appears to be no consistency in how content has been reviewed.

@cologne4711

Year 11 Music. They only have to do one composition and one performance, instead of the usual two. It means we've got time to focus on the listening exam.

Lots of subjects have no real reduction at all.

Nothing. DS2 (year 11) has just gone back after self isolating.
DS1 (year 13) is only in two days a week and is on his second lot of two week isolation. So more time out than in so far.
Extremely worrying.

Never mind nothing extra - my DSS's Y13 have FEWER classes, one contact per subject per week, with the rest of the learning supposedly happening at home.

Me and DP told him to stay in college for his normal hours, as when he was at home he was just staying in bed or playing on the computer or watching tele, we can't supervise him 24/7 (nor should we have to at the age of 17) so we said he had to get up for the normal college bus at 8am and get the 4pm bus home.

The college don't allow them more than one hour in the library per day.

So he's being thrown out, he does sod all at home, did hardly anything over lockdown, and it seems likely he will fail and these two years will have been a complete waste of time.

They should all be in the same boat. Nothing offered in my school as we need pupils to leave at the end of the day, and not mix with anyone they don't already sit beside.
Work this year is harder than I've ever known and if I had to do an extra 90 mins of study sessions a week it would be the final straw.

DD2 is catching up with practicals so that's extra work, but lockdown provision was good and they aren't behind in anything but those - this is a state 6th form. We've been very lucky, no extra lessons needed.

Year 11 - lots extra, including in the half term.

Year 13 - whatever extra dc wants.

Y11 nothing extra but they are only doing their GCSE subject lessons no PE or no any other lessons in their usual timetables

DS Y11, revision lessons after school for an hour in core subjects. Other subjects online revision lessons.
They announced last week that mocks will take place after October half term this year, so just 3 weeks notice and revision time. They have confirmed that results will be used as predicted grades.

I think a lot of schools are just sorting out their extra provision so It may well be that in a couple of weeks your school starts offering more in terms of catch up sessions. That is certainly how it is going at our school, and many others in our MAT.