GCSEs 2021 - what on earth will happen ?

[Emmie12345]

Will the current cohort even get to Jan mocks at school?

Ds was all set to start revision in earnest tomorrow but what I wonder will happen re exams ...

Not Yr11 but Yr13 - same situation, different exam... I think exams will be cancelled, I think it will be done too late to put anything decent in place and it will all be chaos again. Just because this government so loves to pretend it's got everything under control only to realise at the last minute that oops, no, they don't.

Schools seem to do their mocks between November and January around here. So surely the ones taking place in January would be at a slight advantage.
If its like it was last year at DS’s school where they took mocks in December the children received their mock grades as their GCSE/CAG grades in August. No allowances were made for any crazy revision or revision work or exam technique that could have been covered in classes that might have gone on between December and May/June time.
We have tried to explain this to DD but she is still reeling from lockdown 1 and seems disengaged with her schoolwork. Also she is dyslexic and probably won’t receive the 25% extra time she has been granted for her Mocks (even though we have flagged this with her school several times, sent copies of her EP report into school and this has been acknowledged) her individual teachers were still unaware of this at a parents evening just before half term.

Can anyone suggest a plan for year 12 amongst all this uncertainty? Are you advising your children to just pick their most popular subjects and hope for the best? I just don't know what to advise my DS at this point!

But we, as teachers, wouldn't have to submit the CAGs until May/June so they kids would have to keep working till then. I think it would be far fairer than making them sit GCSEs or just taking one grade from their mocks. Test them little and often (so if they have to miss a test because isolating it doesn't matter too much) and then give a CAG based on the overall picture.

@Biscuitsneeded thats all well and good but DD has dyslexia and is entitled to 25% extra time in any timed assessment which she isn’t receiving. School have acknowledged this and have a copy of her EP report and we’ve been told she will receive it in the real exams in the summer. But I am worried if they don’t happen as in every timed assessment/written test DD has not received any extra time so has been disadvantaged.

@Biscuitsneeded thats all well and good but DD has dyslexia and is entitled to 25% extra time in any timed assessment which she isn’t receiving. School have acknowledged this and have a copy of her EP report and we’ve been told she will receive it in the real exams in the summer. But I am worried if they don’t happen as in every timed assessment/written test DD has not received any extra time so has been disadvantaged.

@Sweetchillijam if you have a senco at school raise it with them. The extra time needs to be her regular way of working.
DDs GCSE mocks are half prior to Xmas & half post. They only have these and are very aware that these matter - more than usual perhaps.
@delightfuldaisy19 I hadn’t realised there was a cut off for assessment for CAGs - however wouldn't that have been up to March? So likely teachers had an ok amount of evidence - issue then was that no one knew it would be required & some (most?) kids work will have been less than 100% effort.

DD doesn’t receive any support for her dyslexia as she has developed coping strategies so secondary school never bothered putting anything in place for her support wise.

We have emailed the exams officer and reiterated it to all her teachers again at this year at parents evening. But they seem very lax saying if X (insert DD’s name just reminds me or mentions it when we are having a test if she wants extra time. DD is very quiet and would rather gouge her eyeballs out than draw attention to this in class which we have said.

Day 2 of mocks and HT introduced the requirement for masks to be worn in all classrooms, including exam hall. I get it, I really do on safety grounds but you might want to just prep your kids incase it comes your way too.

Our school emailed yesterday re this and said basically be prepared for the Jan mocks to be the GCSE assessment and to revise hard from now for them

Obv they dont know but they wanted to share their hunch ..

I think they should include aptitude tests (including problem solving and logic, preferably ones where there is a limited scope for prepartion and training) and also look at other indicators such as

• state school or primary
• school record for getting people into Oxbridge/ med school/ Russell Group etc.
• level of enforced absences, for example in schools in the North East where year groups or whole schools keep closing
• mitigating factors such as illness/ family illness / bereavement over this period

I think there would be an argument for some more positive focussing on clever kids from comps in this scenario and giving the sort of low offers we used to get for Oxbridge back in the day (I had to get 2 Es).

This is worrying. My DS also has the extra time in exams and since work when online during the lockdown grades have been slipping. Some assessment not on deadline due to extra time taken but seems to have been marked down. And now not sure if exams going ahead. I am hoping they will because if they use assessments based on lockdown work that is not very good. Guess will just need to wait and see

we have GCSE and A levels in this house.

Both have 2 sets of ,mocks this year. Nov and jan/Feb. They are being told to take them very seriously as if exams don't go ahead these will count.

The pp upthread who said their school was pushing mocks back instead of Feb.
Last year some schools didn't have mock results as they normally sit them in March and lockdown happened, so that coudl backfire.

I'm new to all this but surely if they take mocks early they won't have covered all the content? Seems a lot of pressure as well

@Orangeblossom7777 email the school ASAP as DS had CAG grades last year and they basically just used the Mock results for GCSE’s (nothing else no allowance for any extra revision between December and May/June time) with no right of appeal other than resitting the GCSE’s in November (which a dyslexic child doesn’t need the additional pressure of resitting GCSE’s whilst studying in the first year of A levels).

Ah thanks, we haven;t done the mocks yet and he will get extra time in those so think that will be different. But sorry you had problems Sweetchillijam

If you compare this to last year, the pupils had no disruption up to the Spring so therefore, yes maybe the mocks in Jan was a good plan to use

But that is quite different to this year where there has been disruption running up to the mocks

From the lockdown itself with varying amounts of online schooling provided to the continued disruption now...

Well we all know this but how will things pan out, and be fair?

Can anyone suggest a plan for year 12 amongst all this uncertainty? Are you advising your children to just pick their most popular subjects and hope for the best? I just don't know what to advise my DS at this point!

I'm not sure either; we have to apply for sixth form at the start of December

DS mocks are the first week in January, followed by Parent evening, then A level choices are to be firmed up.

I cannot get ANY info out of my Ds' (admittedly crap) Academy.
Year 10
He has Dyslexia, ASD and clinical Anxiety (signed off for the 1st 6 weeks of this term). Apparantly some in class assessment was done then (and no he 'can't catch up/ take part') and there will be no formal assessment until 'Feb at earliest'. They were last assessed Nov 21019 (though Ds says they were assessed Feb this year but he overheard the DHT telling staff 'not to hand out grades to parents')
Utterly ridiculous!

I think they will cancel the exams at the last minute.
It would be better to give all kids the equivalent of a pass grade now and use the rest of the year to actually teach them the content so those going onto A levels are prepared. But they won't.

Spoke to 6th form admissions, apply Dec, Jan mocks, interviews in March. that is the plan anyway

We're in Liverpool & DS school has just sent a letter home from LEA saying parents at all schools should expect "significant" disruption and the likelihood of rota based learning.

Another nail in the coffin of GCSEs here

It just gets worse poor kids. Another positive case in DD’s year 11 bubble today so a lot of kids have had to go home who’ve had contact with her, plus others decided to follow suit who hadn’t had contact with her as so sick of sitting in a cold classroom, lessons are very rushed with stressed out teachers trying to cram in too much content that was missed during lockdown, they are all so stressed.