Starting Year 11 GCSE 2021 Thread 2

[indy69]

Just continuing on from thread one. Let's support each other through these difficult times. Here is the earlier thread. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3653238-Starting-Year-11-GCSE2021-title-edited-by-MNHQ

@TinyDancer78

I don’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed that this isn’t just my DD school. It’s just overkill. They did mocks before Xmas then again just before Easter. Then returned from Easter to constant in class assessments. None of these are timetabled. They just get told the lesson before. My DDs mental health is at rock bottom as a result she isn’t taking note of when assessments are and then being taken by surprise. This is resulting in panic attacks during the assessment itself. I have had countless conversations with school and spoken to my DD about leaving now. She said that will stress her even more. I am counting down the days until this is over.

The mental health implications from all of this will be huge I think. My DD has always been anxious but the panic attacks are fairly new and she is having them regularly at the moment and then she struggles to revise as she can't focus so she worries even more.

It’s a vicious circle for them isn’t it? I’m so sorry your DD is suffering too. My DD had a panic attack during a maths assessment earlier this week which resulted in a very low mark (teachers are marking the assessments and telling kids the results) a day later she did another assessment that she was expecting so didn’t panic and only dropped a handful of marks. She has always been predicted an 8/9 in maths and wants to do it at A level and is now worrying she won’t be able to.
I honestly don’t care about what she gets in anything I just need to get her through it. The impact on children’s mental health is insurmountable and it really worries me.

I’m so sorry for your DDs. It’s been an incredibly stressful time for them. GCSEs are of course stressful so I’m not sure people understand how different this is. But it definitely is.

@TinyDancer78

It’s a vicious circle for them isn’t it? I’m so sorry your DD is suffering too. My DD had a panic attack during a maths assessment earlier this week which resulted in a very low mark (teachers are marking the assessments and telling kids the results) a day later she did another assessment that she was expecting so didn’t panic and only dropped a handful of marks. She has always been predicted an 8/9 in maths and wants to do it at A level and is now worrying she won’t be able to. I honestly don’t care about what she gets in anything I just need to get her through it. The impact on children’s mental health is insurmountable and it really worries me.

Poor love, TinyDancer78, it's been so hard for them on top of the year they've had. So glad for this group. DS is on the countdown now and can't wait to get it over with. He's really good at physics but today blanked out. He's ASD and such a perfectionist. I'm amazed how well he is coping, but we've had very late nights this week, lots of talking and calming, just making sure he's ok. We've looked at some online courses, just to give him some options and let him see that if the worst comes to the worst, it really doesn't matter. As you say, the impact on their mental health is the biggest worry. Take care everyone x

Thank you so much. Today has been easier, only 2 assessments and she was aware of both. We are counting down too and preparing for if she doesn’t get what she wants (and in fairness deserves). As parents there’s not much else we can do. Just try to keep them calm and explain there’s more to life.

Thinking logically, if one bad assessment can bring grades down, then surely schools would be doing fewer not more assessments?Otherwise every assessment they set would bring the chance that yet another student would panic, do less well, and bring their grades down.

Thus surely, the aim in doing more assessments (above a minimum needed) must be to give a chance to bring grades up?

I think they are doing more assessments to show achievement of all the specifications.

DS has Chemistry and Physics "assessments" today.
He's done so well in the last few weeks with revision, but telling them their scores has had a negative impact. He did really well on the last Physics mock, so he just stopped revising.
Not sure how he doesn't realise he did do well was because he bloody revised, so frustrating :(

DD was told they need four separate pieces of evidence minimum for each subject and work done at home won’t count, hence they will be using their November mocks, multiple assessments done in class and the latest set of exams. It has been worse than just doing the GCSEs for them and their teachers.

@PettsWoodParadise I totally agree!! It feels worse than GCSEs and last year!!!

This year is a nightmare...I am trying to maintain calm but inside I am thinking what the hell is going on!!!

Trying to motivate my ds for three weeks...one exam may go well and then he is on a downer...trying to be positive...

Thank god it is Friday!

I couldn’t agree more. I feel like GCSEs with timetabled exams would’ve been so much easier than constants “mocks” and “assessments” which is all my DD has done whilst actually in school this academic year and after the washout that was last year it just does not make sense.
What I also don’t understand is that mocks and assessments are being marked against old mark schemes in my DD school meaning they are being measured against “normal” years.

Agree that GSCEs this year are far worse from a mental health pov for my Y11 DD than they were for her sister two years ago. The prolonged uncertainty and shifting metrics of measurement are hugely destabilising. I see many previously high achieving, engaged kids switching off in exhaustion and exasperation.

In terms of comparisons between schools, weirdly I am not too concerned. However schools chose to conduct the assessments, they will be doing so for their own cohort, so they have an idea of approx ranking within their school. They will then do an approx allocation of grades so that results are on a par with those attained in 2017-2019. Within that, if the current cohort came up to school with higher achievement, they will be able to use that an explanation for why grades are higher this year. Schools have no reason to under-grade their pupils as a whole cohort. They should only be assessing them on what they have learned, and raw scores can't be compared to previous years if they get students to sit papers where they haven't covered all the material. Where students are borderline, I think they will err on the side of upgrading.

This is not to say that individual students won't lose out. There will be injustices as they has to be with anything on this scale. But the exam system delivers injustices every year too. I think English Lang and History grading in particular is not consistent across markers in normal GCSE/A levels.

Having said all that, my DDs school has just sent an email saying that if anyone misses an assessment, they risk getting zero marks in that paper. If papers have been missed, the regulations say that schools are able submit other evidence or calculate without if there is genuine reason to do so. The reason DDs school isn't saying this is because it likes neat boxes and is very data driven. Mental health in Y11 is as you can imagine, through the floor as a consequence.

I can't wait for this to be over for all our DC. There is a huge amount of picking up the pieces for us as parents, especially for those students whose schools do not have a sixth form, who will in effect be cast adrift with no support until college starts in Sept. Teachers too are suffering massively with workload and pressure. There may well be an exodus of burnt out teachers once this is done.

As for blame - Johnson's govt's handling on the pandemic, Williamson's ineptitude, Ofqual's cowardice and lack or preparation, and (some) schools' insecurity that has put fear of being being seen as having less than perfect data over student wellbeing.

Fin.

@TinyDancer78

I couldn’t agree more. I feel like GCSEs with timetabled exams would’ve been so much easier than constants “mocks” and “assessments” which is all my DD has done whilst actually in school this academic year and after the washout that was last year it just does not make sense. What I also don’t understand is that mocks and assessments are being marked against old mark schemes in my DD school meaning they are being measured against “normal” years.

I totally agree. These kids have missed the best part of a year of face to face teaching. They've missed the mocks and the revision catch up sessions that would push them up a grade or two. They've even missed teaching this term as the assessments were even earlier than usual.

How on earth can they be marked against "normal" standards?

@DarnSingQwean If papers have been missed, the regulations say that schools are able submit other evidence or calculate without if there is genuine reason to do so. where in the regulations does it say this please? I’ve read the JCQ thing and can’t find anything. My kid missed one exam - has doctors note & took other exams. school saying they may fail as not enough evidence. Thanks in advance.

Hi @ComplexNeeds
Hopefully this helps, esp section under Sources of Evidence (incl para 3). Schools can decide, and I would want to know in your case what else they could use instead of the missed exam: www.gov.uk/government/publications/submission-of-teacher-assessed-grades-summer-2021-info-for-teachers/information-for-heads-of-centre-heads-of-department-and-teachers-on-the-submission-of-teacher-assessed-grades-summer-2021-html

For balance ... my Yr11 DD(16) is tired, a bit stressed but that's to be expected during assessment time. However, she's not having panic attacks or breaking down in tears and as far as she is aware none of her cohort are.

Do your DC go to very competitive schools? DD is at the local comp and predicted a mixture of 6, 7, 8 and a couple of 9s. She'll be happy with what she gets because she's looking forward to prom, her summer job and starting Sixth Form.

Do some DC or their parents put too much emphasis on exams at this young age? Maybe explain they don't define young people or their futures and accept this is a weird year to be a teenager.

Thank you so much @DarnSingQwean I was hoping you’d found something that said the tags could be ‘calculated without’ all the evidence if an exam was missed. This seems to be about using alternative evidence in extreme circumstances.

Finding other evidence us the issue. It’s a lot of extra work for the teachers to find the evidence. They didn’t do mocks or end of years so there’s nothing instantly obvious. It means them looking at homework, and tests taken at home to meet the criteria - I think it’s quite a faff for them. The teachers are already snowed under. They’ve also said they need to be certain there was no help at home. There wasn’t but they can’t guarantee that to the boards. I understand their point of view but it’s incredibly harsh!

I was hoping you’d found a bit of info around ‘calculating without’ all the exams. All our school are using is the recent assessments as far as I know. If they could just use the ones already done that’d be great but apparently it’s not enough. I’m not entirely sure why. It’s all very vaguely as they can’t give results.

@The3rdMrsdeWinter It is good to hear your DD is doing ok at this time. Hopefully her school have got the balance right for her and her peers, and she looks on track for some very decent grades.

DD2 is looking at grades 5-7, I think, though some mocks were 4s (she was targeted 7s pre-pandemic, and could probably have achieved a lot of those if she'd had good quality f2f teaching and catch up lessons in the Spring term). She attends a comp and is middling ability there.

She's not looking forward to college really, because she's had to chose a college and subjects without having visited the place in person or done any taster lessons, so she feels really in the dark about what the next academic year might be like. She wants to take new subjects as school has not exactly inspired her, so it will be a leap into the unknown.

Prom was cancelled, and she is yet to find a summer job that will take her as an under 18. Luckily she has some good friends, but I can understand why a lot of kids are struggling with all this - there is a lot of crying going on in her peer group, and a lot of giving up . In contrast, DD1 found this time challenging, but there was a sense of fairness and normality about it all, rather than uncertainty after more than a year of their lives being on hold.

@ComplexNeeds I think schools are able to use alternative evidence - see the 'Types of Assessment' section. It will be their decision not to use previously completed work such as homework or assessments. I understand your point that it is more work for them, but hopefully not too many in any given subject.

It would seem against a student's best interests for completed work to be ignored and I would definitely challenge school if they said that they would submit a zero mark just because they were not prepared to do outside their plan given the regulations say that they can. It suggests to me that the school lack confidence in their professional judgement and are relying wholly on the limited data from assessments set now. They don't have to!

I will definitely push! Thank you x

@ComplexNeeds - good luck. Maybe have a google to see some of the Centre Policy docs that schools have produced which sets out what evidence they will use. An example here: www.chalfonts.org/academic/exams/summer-exams-2021

If your DC missed one assessment, but the rest of the basket of evidence shows consistency, then I would expect that school would either provide an opportunity to sit a further assessment, or use existing work. They would then need to explain why there wasn't consistency of evidence in this one case, but it sounds like you have given them documents for this. If they do otherwise, I would certainly be jumping up and down. They have till 18th June to work on cases like this. Good luck!

@The3rdMrsdeWinter

For balance ... my Yr11 DD(16) is tired, a bit stressed but that's to be expected during assessment time. However, she's not having panic attacks or breaking down in tears and as far as she is aware none of her cohort are.

Do your DC go to very competitive schools? DD is at the local comp and predicted a mixture of 6, 7, 8 and a couple of 9s. She'll be happy with what she gets because she's looking forward to prom, her summer job and starting Sixth Form.

Do some DC or their parents put too much emphasis on exams at this young age? Maybe explain they don't define young people or their futures and accept this is a weird year to be a teenager.

It is lovely to know there are lots of children that are coping well and schools which are obviously handling the situation much better. My DD does put a lot of pressure on herself, we explain on a daily basis that these exams don’t define her and that they don’t matter. Unfortunately, they matter a great deal to her and we are struggling to change her mindset. She has been through a lot in the last year and a half and I think this is the result. Prior to the last 18 months I am certain my DD would’ve been exactly like yours. Tired but essentially fine.

She is also at the local comp. The school didn’t provide anything during lockdown one and had very little engagement when they did. Personally I think they are panicking too and are passing that onto the pupils.

@DarnSingQwean - DD's comp were woeful during Lockdown 1 but seemed to get their act together by Sept although most Yr11s had at least two periods of isolation before Xmas.

It's a poor show that some schools aren't doing prom and some colleges aren't having Open Days. The Sixth Forms local to us are holding them late June.

It seems like some schools/colleges just can't be bothered to make the effort.

Your DD might have more luck job hunting once her exams are over and more places are open.

Best of luck to her.

@TinyDancer78

Unfortunately, they matter a great deal to her and we are struggling to change her mindset

It's drummed into them from Yr7, isn't it? And it's wrong because A levels are their passport, they just need the grades at GCSE to get onto them, not a string of 9s like some of my friends insist their DC must get (their DC go to the two single sex grammars nearby).

One of my soon to be ex friends keeps telling me my DD's grades won't be the same as her DD's grades because the grammar is doing "proper" exams as opposed to the in class assessments my DD's comp are doing.

I smile and tell her the only grades that count are the ones on the certificate. Said friend also glosses over the fact that my DD has worked hard consistently, whereas her's has cruised.

Roll on summer!