Exams cancelled

[noblegiraffe]

Alternative arrangements will be made.

How stressful to announce that with no details about what will happen.

1) did online learning/assessments etc count towards CAGs last time?
No. When the students were sent home, that was it. By that point though, the courses were largely complete.

2) is it likely to count this time? Someone said upthread that only work completed whilst physically at school can count
Who knows... we know no more than you. In my view, it should only be work that I can personally vouch for. If I didn't see it done, or know it was done on controlled conditions, and it's not in line with the normal standard, I would not be happy to sign off on it.

3) do you have enough information to give grades for GCSEs and A levels and enough data as evidence right now, today?
I do. But that's because of the way I work. I examine 2/4 papers my students will sit. I assess constantly in exam conditions. I can predict with a fair degree of accuracy, the trajectory students are on. I would prefer some form of mock exams to support that though.

Will teacher assessments be based on past paper qns, or qns issued by the boards, where schools choose qns based on content covered so far. Or can teachers write yo their own qns
You know what we know. Nothing.

Can I ask from teachers when CAGs had to be submitted last year and would it likely be earlier this year, to for better standardisation?

Standardisation of what? We don't yet know what we're going to be asked for, let alone how it might be standardised.

My preference for my subject would be to submit a portfolio of marked work to be be moderated by the board. That would be relatively straightforward. But it wouldn't be for some of my dept colleagues, or for other staff in other schools.

When did you need to submit the work? By standardisation, I mean the board looking through work from different schools.
Is it as late as when exams would normally be at the end of the summer term, or much earlier?

In the good old days of coursework, marks had to be with the boards in may and work with the moderator within 2 weeks.
Some of us could probably easily switch back to moderation from examining - but it's a different skill.

There was no standardisation of work last year. It was just numbers and rank orders.

On why CAGS aren’t the same as predicted grades, the UCU paper shows the surprisingly high degree of underperformance of a levels vs Ucas predictions ie on 25% of candidates meet or exceed them (one wouldn’t expect much exceeding given there isn’t much headroom for some). Tried to attach graphic. Quite variable by type of school and demographic etc.
But, as others have said, I really don’t envy teachers having to navigate this.

Thank you so much @MrsHamlet it’s good to understand a teachers POV.

revenge I’ve seen this 25% achieve/exceed Ucas predictions many times. These predictions are aspirational (sometimes beyond aspirational) as many universities set too high admission criteria as a marketing ploy. If the predictions were anywhere realistic the teens wouldn’t get any offers. They’re invariably lowered on results day. It’s a bit of an egg & chicken situation.
I think it’s very important that teens are given a realistic grade alongside these frequently inflated predictions. These expectations need to be managed as those predictions will not & should not form the basis of CAGs. For a few (25%) there’ll be the same but for most they’ll be quite different. When grades aren’t met on examination day or on CAG day teens won’t be so shocked. I think a lot of teens expect to achieve their predictions and thus are hugely disappointed when they don’t; either with CAGs or exams.

Indeed

Every year, students say to me "miss I need an A for uni but you've predicted a B, so can you move it up" and every year I say no.
Some teachers in some schools are not so circumspect which is why there is such disparity between ucas grades and awarded ones.

Can I ask - is there a group or organisation tasked with lobbying the government to push for things to happen? And can parents get behind that?

I have to wonder whether the government have any understanding of the shit show they have created. How could they ignore these two important exam year groups after last year's debacle? This year looks to be worse with no proper Year 12 mocks sat, no proper Y13 mocks sat in some schools - my daughter's college should have had some mocks this week.

The unions and the subject associations.

You're kidding yourself if you think the government actually care though. They don't.

Thank you @MrsHamlet that's great info. My point has always been that teachers on here are saying they don't have any data and I just cannot see how this can be the case. This thread has shown that they do, I think we all knew that many wouldn't have enough data due to the disruption.

Re the link to UCAS grades. I agree with other posters, all courses seem to need at least 'A' and if the school doesn't predict this then the students won't get any offers. I was interested and not surprised to note however that DDs school in their recent update meeting have distanced themselves from their UCAS predictions. I think most pupils at her school know these are aspirational however I would not expect her to be predicted an 'A' and be downgraded to a B (given what I currently know).

This is the most worrying thing now for us. We thought we had a handle on the grades she will probably be awarded given the work that she has submitted, the test results, the comments at parents evening etc however now I am nervous and until she get the results we won't be any the wiser and by then her preferred place could be lost. Not that I don't have confidence in her or her teachers but I fear that if they have to rank, like last year, this could mean some pupils have to be downgraded to fulfill this criteria. In many ways the exam would be preferable because then it's down to the student (but not fair on those who havent had a good educational experience/been ill etc).

I think we all have loads of data... this issue is what it is, how reliable it is, and how we can use it effectively.
I could tell you that you got 24/40 in an essay but that's meaningless data without context. That's the problem. The way my school collects data and the way I keep it are not the same.
Ranking was horrific.

I would welcome a teacher's perspective on this please.

I have a DC In year 11 who is doing well academically, their predicted grades are decent in most subjects but they were being assessed for extra time in English (or at least it was instigated by their English teacher) but this process was not completed before lockdown as far as I know. They are also on FSM and I know that last year there were issues with pupils on FSM not getting the grades that they were predicted, or maybe that was just a media thing?

It's made m a bit concerned that now the grades that will be awarded won't reflect what they could have achieved in the exams. Looking at their grades for the mocks in the autumn term we'd have been happy with them getting those at GCSE but will the fact that they were being assessed and are also a FSM pupil pull down the grades they are likely to get?

Agreed @Cathpot. My concern is that the children will be disadvantaged against those children that will take IGCSEs.

Feel free to tell me to dig the internet.

what are UCAS grades? I thought you do A-levels, get a grade, done

University and college admission service = ucas
Students apply through UCAS. Teachers make their predictions to UCAS.
They shouldn't be any different from any other predicted grade - but some teachers and schools predict higher grades than they really think students will get to UCAS to help students get offers.

@parkpoolplunge extra time would be in all subjects but English often spot the need first.
I would contact the senco and ask where you're up to with it.

[quote MrsHamlet]@parkpoolplunge extra time would be in all subjects but English often spot the need first.
I would contact the senco and ask where you're up to with it.[/quote]
@mrshamlet

Thank you. I hadn't contacted them to be honest because it was just something that the English teacher mentioned to DS, I've not heard formally from them and I wouldn't say that DS has SEN to be honest, more that he's a very slow reader/slow to process what he reads at times - in my experience when he's had to read things he's taken it in really quickly - as an example we went to a museum of his choice and he appeared not to read the information boards but then in the car on the way home told us everything about them in more detail than either of us had managed

It doesn't add up for me. My Dad was dyslexic but DS Is nothing like him, he's good at spelling and his reading is good but slow, he's never enjoyed reading despite me making a lot of effort with him. I didn't know my Dad was dyslexic until last year

Is there much point now that exams are cancelled? Sorry, so many questions!

There may still be a point park. Your DS might still have assessments later in the year if we are allowed back to school in person. Or teachers may be advised that he should have had extra time in the mocks and to take that into consideration when awarding CAGs. Slow reading/processing is an indicator that extra time is appropriate without any official diagnoses of dyslexia or similar, and it is very often picked up by English teachers first because they are the people watching how he copes with reading longer chunks of text. I rarely notice the slow reading because I teach maths and we don't have long texts to read and the speed of reading isn't often noticeable when reading a maths problem.

I agree with MrsH that it's worth getting in contact with the senco to see where they are in the process and how worthwhile it is pursuing the exam concessions at this stage.

@SnowballedMum

Agreed *@Cathpot*. My concern is that the children will be disadvantaged against those children that will take IGCSEs.

How so @SnowballedMum? on a form it just says asks for GCSE grades. No one will be able to determine if they were teacher assessed GCSEs or examined iGCSEs for example. So how will that disadvantage either group? I’m not being goady, I’m trying to understand. Maybe I’m missing something. If anything the teacher assessed grades could be fairer than the exams where content hasn’t been taught.

"Ofqual will launch a two-week consultation next week and hopes to reveal the final plan by the end of February if a consensus can be reached."

So we won't know what's going on till March. FFS.

schoolsweek.co.uk/union-anger-as-schools-face-long-wait-for-plan-b-after-exams-cancelled/

@noblegiraffe indeed FFS!!! You guys need to know! Parents and even kids maybe less so. But teachers???