Exams cancelled

[noblegiraffe]

Alternative arrangements will be made.

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

I think sadly we’re in the middle of an unholy mess here where there is no fair resolution.

The main thing is that the decision needs to centre the needs of the young people who have been massively let down in all of this - they’re definitely taking exams / exams cancelled / actually maybe there’ll be some exams / who knows!!!

Like many I have children in years 11 and 13 and what they need most is for a decision to be made. They need certainty (even if that certainty is rubbish). At the moment all they know is that they need to work hard for something unknown at some point in the future which may or may not cover some of the things they are working on and will be assessed under an unknown framework.

I know I’ve banged on about this but my eldest is taking A level Geography which has an NEA accounting for 20% of the final A level grade. This required 5 days compulsory fieldwork to gain the data with which to write the NEA. Some schools completed this in year 12 prior to lockdown. Some (including my dc’s school) didn’t as lockdown happened. It was rearranged for year 13 then cancelled. They were told to use Google maps instead by the government (cos yeah that’s the same). So now they’re mid way through writing an NEA with no idea if it’ll be marked or contribute to his grade. It’s madness. It’s cruel to make students spend hours and hours (an NEA is a huge undertaking similar to an EPQ) without knowing what the situation is.

I agree the kids need certainty. It’s unforgivable that Johnson announced exams cancelled unexpectedly with no back up plan again.

The government and the DfE in particular are terrible at considering the implications for individuals - like the NEA example, above, and what on earth are they going to do for private candidates who already missed out last year?

The more individuals that reply to the consultation giving their individual issues for consideration the better. Please fill it out! It’s how the Y10s sitting GCSEs issue got flagged and sorted last year.

nobel I’ve filled it out twice (once for each child) as have my children.

That is how special consideration is generally awarded. The school makes the application based on their viewing of a doctor’s note or whatever.

But that is my point- as schools didn’t ask to see isolation tests (and indeed were not allowed to request that they see them), they won’t have the proof that they would under normal circumstances. So either they make the application only for those students they have offices proof for, or they do things differently this year and go on word alone. Neither situation is ideal.

*texts, not tests

My Y13 has had very similar issues to Kitty's with the geography NEA. rearranged twice but then cancelled due to the lockdowns. They haven't even started it yet and don't seem to know whether or not they will still be expected to complete it at all.

Stormer If a kid is marked at home isolating and not in school then tbh that is enough. They wouldn’t have known in advance that they’d be getting an advantage and in fact the opposite. That’s a minor issue.

And like I said, special consideration is a pittance. Compare it to the kids who were lucky enough to have 100% attendance when you’re looking at fairness.

@noblegiraffe

We’ve gone from ‘exams need to be cancelled as they can’t possibly assess kids fairly due to some kids having had a massively disrupted education’ to ‘exams should go ahead as planned and stuff the kids who had to isolate 6 times’?

In one scenario you might benefit some kid who isolated at home when not strictly necessary but who was definitely not in school, and in the other you definitely benefit the kids down south who are more likely to already be advantaged and more likely to have had an uninterrupted education.

Exactly noble, I am pulling my hair out for all the stress and upset the mishandling this government has caused. Why the fuck was there no back up plan in place after last summer's fiasco??

We have 2 yr13s "sitting" their a levels this year, both with SEN. Lockdown has caused tremendous stress and anxiety (for many people, not just us of course) so no exams sound like a better, stress-free idea.

But without exams even my incredibly self- motivated kids lose motivation and without exams to cram for, they feel disadvantaged because they perform well in exams.

It's a lose/lose situation for us, for everyone .

We're all filling in the consultation here.

@noblegiraffe

Stormer If a kid is marked at home isolating and not in school then tbh that is enough. They wouldn’t have known in advance that they’d be getting an advantage and in fact the opposite. That’s a minor issue.

And like I said, special consideration is a pittance. Compare it to the kids who were lucky enough to have 100% attendance when you’re looking at fairness.

They wouldn’t have known in advance that they’d be getting an advantage and in fact the opposite

@Fortyfifty gave an example where the student did know they'd be getting an advantage...

Compare it to the kids who were lucky enough to have 100% attendance when you’re looking at fairness.

There's no need for that tone. I absolutely agree that kids with 100% attendance - which does not include my own DC by the way - have an advantage. I am musing through the pros and cons of all of this logically and not emotively. It's an approach I suggest you try

@nancypineapple

How would this all tie into university applications though? They are already offering fewer places than past years Several (LSE , Durham and a few others with hugely oversubscribed courses ) haven't sent offers out yet despite normally sending from Dec onwards . It seems that yr 13's will be scrabbling around for fewer places with courses demanding ever higher grades. ( Birmingham have surprisingly lowered theirs but they are alone in this) There are no reductions for lack of face to face teaching, isolating etc. The pressure on teachers to award A and A*'s will be immense otherwise lots of students will be rejected from further learning. At least exams make this seem fairer , although once again it will be state pupils losing out due to lack of proper online teaching during the first lockdown.

Offers do seem to have gone down since Christmas. DD applied early and sits on offers including her 1st choice. Her 1st choice haven't given out many offers towards the end of last term or after Christmas. They sent a not very warm email out this week saying they would not be lowering grades on offers made. I expect they have filled 20-30% of their places already y from deferrals last year. I'm more concerned now than I was 2 weeks ago and had a conversation, as breezy as I could, to make sure she picks her insurance carefully. For those not yet with offers, this must be even more concerning, although I saw something in the news about RG universities expanding places again.

where the student did know they'd be getting an advantage...

Well no. They had more time to revise for mocks but at that time exams were going ahead and mocks were irrelevant and indeed may still be irrelevant, who knows?

I am musing through the pros and cons of all of this logically and not emotively. It's an approach I suggest you try

I don’t think you need to tell a maths teacher to think through something logically!

Offers are partly late though because the submission deadline was extended.

For me, I have Y11 and Y13 sons this year. My concern is impact of resits on university applications for Y11 son, if the CAGs are not sufficiently high enough. If he resits in Nov and gets higher grades, it will prejudiced by those universities that will not accept refit grades

@noblegiraffe

where the student did know they'd be getting an advantage...

Well no. They had more time to revise for mocks but at that time exams were going ahead and mocks were irrelevant and indeed may still be irrelevant, who knows?

I am musing through the pros and cons of all of this logically and not emotively. It's an approach I suggest you try

I don’t think you need to tell a maths teacher to think through something logically!

Well no. They had more time to revise for mocks but at that time exams were going ahead and mocks were irrelevant and indeed may still be irrelevant, who knows?

Completely disagree that mocks were ‘irrelevant’ at the time. It was always a real fear that exams may be cancelled due to Covid and so the prevailing advice was to study hard for mocks as they may need to be used for teacher assessment. The overwhelming message was that mocks were extremely relevant. I saw that on here time and time again as well as from my DC’s teachers. If that wasn’t your message to your students then I suspect you may have been in the minority.

I don’t think you need to tell a maths teacher to think through something logically!

But that’s where the fun is

@TeenPlusTwenties

Why not

• exams in Maths & English Lang
• leavers certificate saying studied X, Y and Z.
• schools recommendation as to suitability for next course of study

Fine for GCSEs but what about A levels?

@portico I’m hoping that universities will be putting less weight on the current year 11’s GCSE results. Other than ensuring students have the requisite grade 5+ in Maths and English Lang (which is why a PP’s suggestion to re-instate exams in those subjects is an excellent one).

Has anyone actually thought to ask the children what they would prefer as it is their future that it will impact?

Children are normally very keen on justice and fairness as well. I can’t imagine many being very impressed with the latest suggestions as they don’t seem particularly fair on anyone!

But that’s where the fun is

Don’t bring a spoon to a knife fight, love

so the prevailing advice was to study hard for mocks as they may need to be used for teacher assessment

The Ofqual guidance says that teachers should assess where students are working at now. While mocks might be used to inform grades, they’re not going to be the only source of info and will probably be less important than later assessments. In the grand scheme of things I’m not especially worried about a kid who spent two weeks off school revising for mocks. In my imagined plan for world domination fixing this mess, one period of isolation wouldn’t get special consideration anyway. It’s repeated isolations I think are the real concern.

But we have to understand why people wanted them cancelled and given that they are cancelled if we want them back, then some acknowledgement needs to be made for those entirely valid concerns.

I would have thought that's pretty evident. My DS's school do mainly iGCSEs and so they are still having most of their exams, but the parents are up in arms because they'd far rather their children get grades based on what the teachers think their children are capable of than run the risk that their child (who has always for example been an A grade student and so would get an a grade from the teacher through the CAG process) has a nightmare on the day in the exam and comes out with a B/C. The children with CAGs have all the risk removed.

Nothing about this is fair though.

@portico

For me, I have Y11 and Y13 sons this year. My concern is impact of resits on university applications for Y11 son, if the CAGs are not sufficiently high enough. If he resits in Nov and gets higher grades, it will prejudiced by those universities that will not accept refit grades

Do you think it will be hard work resitting GCSEs at the same time as studying for a levels?

A few year 12s I know are really struggling with the transition to a levels at the moment , especially the workload expected of them. We’ve no recent experience of this (mine were nearly 30 years ago) so would welcome advice.

Do you think it will be hard work resitting GCSEs at the same time as studying for a levels?

Will it even be necessary. Surely with everything going on the universities will take GCSE grades with a pinch of salt and the only issue is really whether they can go on to their required A level or other FE course.

There are always Y12s who struggle with the transition to A-level and the work required, we used to have January module exams that would give them a kick up the arse.

They need to get their head round the fact that when they don’t have a lesson it’s not a ‘free period’ and they need to do work in it. They also need to at a minimum expect to to one hour independent work for every one hour lesson and that’s not just doing homework, but extra self-study on top.

They probably need someone to sit with them and their timetable and plan in when they are going to do it all.

*Has anyone actually thought to ask the children what they would prefer as it is their future that it will impact?

Children are normally very keen on justice and fairness as well. I can’t imagine many being very impressed with the latest suggestions as they don’t seem particularly fair on anyone!*

Well, apparently pupils were asked about changes to exams and they wanted e.g. topics given, to take in materials etc, but then those changes seem to have been dropped.

Before Christmas, we were given some topics to revise for in some subjects for mocks, but then this has now changed again

Kids can reply to the consultation!

I actually think the option twenties suggests is fine for GCSEs - DD2 would disagree, she wants them all graded. But given the circumstance...
I noted on the consultation that they didn’t want this years grades to be distinguishable from other years. Did I get that right? I disagree and think we can absolutely do something different this year and allow that to be very obvious. I said as much in the consultation.
I also suggested in the consultation (an idea which I copied from here) to grade A*/A, A/B, B/C & equivalent for GCSEs. Thus not inflating or downgrading those students who are on the cusp of grades. I don’t think teachers will want the responsibility of grading. It’s a very very different responsibility to ‘teaching & assessing’. I’m not convinced the DoE or ofqual get this.