Exams cancelled

[noblegiraffe]

Alternative arrangements will be made.

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

Surely they'd struggle to start cutting topics from the exam though?

That's my point for maths, there is nothing we can reasonably cut. There is no way to fairly assess with coursework (in maths). Therefore a terminal controlled exam would be the best way.

I completely understand other subjects have different ways to accurately assess which should be used.

Large dataset, Herc! No one will mourn its passing!

Large data set gets one collapsed day at our place noble....I'd almost forgot it existed!

Indeed piggy different strategies for different subjects. As well as different strategies fir A levels and GCSEs. The consultation is too tick box agree/disagree. I’m frustrated by it, so heaven knows how teachers feel.
My yr11 has done it with ease but heaven knows what she’s put.

Off to google ‘large data set’
DD1 grumpy so I’ll not ask her.

I know, Herc, we do a couple of after school sessions on it near the exam and don’t spend any lesson time on it. It’s such a completely useless addition to the syllabus that if there’s a chance to point that out and have it binned I am grasping it with both hands.

The problem is if they are going to cut more content surely they need to do it now so that the teachers and kids can focus on what is going to be in these papers. By the time the consultation has finished and they have made the decision we'll be at the end of February.

To be honest I'm assuming it's unlikely the kids will be back in school until after Easter which looks to me like the 12th April I'm assuming any assessments would have to be made by June latest due to different term endings. However one of the options in that survey was May they may have barely been back in school by then.

I absolutely do not want them as late as possible. I've finished teaching. Dragging them through to July would be hell on wheels for everyone. Marking takes time. Getting marks externally verified takes time.

@noblegiraffe are you able to tell us a rough breakdown of the maths papers? I believe algebra is a large percentage? Is it worth just concentrating on a few topic areas? She really struggles with Indices however I have no idea how important this is in the overall scheme of things.

My dd is going onto a vocational pathway so don't be redeeming herself at a level if it all goes wrong so we need to make sure she at passes all of these exams.

She is dyslexic so it doesn't come easy.

Here's the breakdown at Foundation and Higher, tree. Not sure which paper she is taking. Whichever she's taking, it's pretty much guaranteed that indices will appear in some form. They generally tend to be quite similar questions though, so working through a booklet like this might help:

www.mathsgenie.co.uk/resources/4-indices.pdf
www.mathsgenie.co.uk/resources/4-indicesans.pdf (answers)

Video support:
corbettmaths.com/2012/08/20/powers-indices/
corbettmaths.com/2013/03/13/laws-of-indices-algebra/

@NotDonna

My DD is doing A level economics phineyj she’s doing tons independently and worked through the summer hols. They’ve not been told when they’re due to finish. She knows it’s May for Chemistry & maths. When she did her GCSEs a lot of the content for all subjects was being taught right up until Easter - iirc history gcse went up until a couple of weeks prior to exams. It was seriously rushed.

The kids who took gcse in 2019 were being taught right up to the wire. In many subjects, they were still being taught the course right up to study leave and they had no face to face revision classes. Weren't they the first year group to do the full spread of new GCSEs. Dd2, is Year 10, and teaching of GCSE content started in Year 9. That's why I am less stressed about these lockdowns for her. There's leaway.

Yes I think you’re right fortyfifty
they do 2 year courses starting yr10.
DD2 yr11 has just said they’re nowhere near finished either English Lit or Lang despite removal of one of the books. They’re about halfway through their 3rd book, despite being giving it as summer reading homework. How could that be MrsHamlet when you’ve already finished. They’ve not had many isolations and aren’t a low set or anything.

In part it could depend on the texts they've chosen. How many lessons a week they have. Whether they were taught through the first lockdown. Approach to teaching texts. I tend to blast through the texts, doing essays as we go - but I don't spend lots of class time in y10 writing essays, because a 45 minute task + extra time into 50 minutes does not go. So they do those at home.
We do the modern prose, then poetry then Shakespeare than 1 Lang in year 10, followed by prose 2 and 2 Lang in 11 - were always finished about now.

@noblegiraffe

That’s incredibly useful thank you. DS is doing the higher paper but really struggles with algebra so that gives him something to work on. He is predicted an 8 at the moment but would like to get a 7. He had worked out how many marks off each paper (in the normal exams) to make this possible and was doing lots of past papers and mathsgenie already so it’s good to know he is doing the right thing.

Thanks mrs hamlet they’ve done Blood Brothers, MacBeth and now halfway through Pride & Prejudice. DD says there’s absolutely loads of discussion, which was great in the classroom but isn’t working well online. She also says they go into a lot of depth, at least she seems to think so. Not finishing content in these times is just the way it is I guess.

P&P is huge!!!!

Is he definitely decided against A-level maths, Ihearttc? If he struggles with algebra in particular then I would advise against it.

@noblegiraffe
He wants to do Media Studies, PE and Physics A levels but school are saying no physics without Maths which I completely understand. I think what he’d actually like to do is those 3 plus a AS maths or Core Maths but school don’t offer it. His school have 2 top set maths groups(running parallel to each other) but he was moved from 1 to the other at the start of Y10 and they taught things in a different order so he missed things. Then lockdown teaching hasn’t been great so he has been doing a lot on his own. I think in a normal year he would be fine but I’m not so sure now.

I appreciate that is a very odd combination of A levels btw, but they are his best subjects and what he enjoys the most! Figured the last 2 years have been bad enough so he might as well do the subjects he enjoys and is likely to do well at!

This might seem a basic question, but as far as I know our year 11’s aren’t behind at all. Would this not be the case for all schools? Our school is mixed ability state high school.

From the start of the first lockdown the teachers put work for each lesson on google classroom and students were asked to submit it as normal and email teachers if stuck. School contacted parents if work was not completed. Eventually they had some live lessons too.

We had a few disruptions in sept/Oct but students who had to isolate were sent work or recorded lessons, or live streamed into lessons from home. School have kept them calm and focussed and we have been careful to do the same so not to cause panic.

I completely understand how those with poor technology, or multiple isolations will bein a disadvantaged position, But I don’t understand how schools can be so far behind? Unless significant numbers of teaching staff were unavailable?

Ihearttc that's a shame if he can't do physics without maths. At my school they'd allow it with Core maths, but I can understand why they'd be reluctant to allow it without any maths support.

If he's struggling with maths revision, there's a channel of top grade maths revision videos here www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhfTFUpngHaXhpAuqCFkHgmqVf7l4zc1a which might help.

@noblegiraffe

Thank you so much, I shall get him to have a look. The maths genie stuff is really helpful too. He’d happily do Core Maths or even AS maths but they don’t offer it as a stand alone course. They suggested starting 4 a levels including maths and dropping it after the first year to AS level? They said he’d be fine with physics in Y12 but would struggle without some additional maths in Y13. Another option is to do physics and then get a Maths tutor? He wants to do Physics the most out of all the A levels but I think he’d struggle with the jump to A level maths if I’m honest. He’s good at maths but isn’t a natural mathematician if that makes sense!

Herc use the data the schools and colleges already have.
Lack of face to face teaching time is the biggest factor, so an extra O.5% added across all papers for each episode of a student's 10-14 day self isolation period.
Extra % added too to compensate those students for loss of face to face teaching days, usually due to the size of the institution, i.e. DS2 in a large college has been in two days a week, , the college across the road have been in full time.
How are mitigating circumstances usually compensated in 'normal' years, i.e., bereavement, illness etc? Some effort has to be made.

water DS1 is behind in many subjects because at his outstanding secondary only two of nine teachers did any online teaching March-September. The rest was revision sheets and 'tidy your file'. A few teachers even admitted they were too busy at home with their own DC!!

In normal years mitigation can lead to small percentage adjustments and rarely sees a grade change more than one above or below.

Using the data we have now would massively disadvantage students. They were last assessed in December. I would not want that data used if I was a student. There is huge potential to improve in the next 4 months.