Exams cancelled

[noblegiraffe]

Alternative arrangements will be made.

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

cobble something together is slightly concerning

That’s basically what the Ofqual proposals are asking schools to do.

Y11 mostly never finish the syllabus. Y13 were due to sit a mock based on what they’d been taught but obviously haven’t yet. By June they could have covered the course but we’re supposed to have sorted their grades by then.

@noblegiraffe

Well that’s the consultation period over. What are they going to do? Heads have said it’s unworkable. I know maths submissions have been that it’s unworkable.

I don’t actually know what they’re going to do. Plough ahead?

I suppose they won’t reinstate the exams now as it would be unfair?

I wish they would though (with modifications), especially for certain subjects like maths.

I’m additionally concerned that although we are due a parents evening next week, we’ve been told that grades won’t be discussed. Usually, they’d have done mocks, would be sharing those results, predicted grades and what they need to improve. Without any of that, what’s there to discuss?

I am so pleased for DD that she had GCSE mocks before Christmas. Not only were the grades mostly a boost for her confidence, it gave a much needed baseline. Such a shame for the students who didn’t have them in the first term. I know A level mocks are usually always in Jan, so they are all more likely to be in a similar terrible position.

The ‘new’ (last few years since change) maths syllabus for GCSE is huge. Arguably too big.

Stormer
I am so pleased for DD that she had GCSE mocks before Christmas. Not only were the grades mostly a boost for her confidence, it gave a much needed baseline.

My DS2 did very well in a few of his mocks, a few he did well but fucked up his gcse mocks for his desired A Level subjects. Therefore, any assessment which focus on any sort assessment solely based on the next few months works for me.

DS1 did get to do his mocks this month; thankfully, spared poor mock results in his CAGs.

Selfishly, I prefer EOY exams or external (modified) exams - as that’s when they rise to the occasion. Sadly, they are not consistently high performers.

Unfortunately, I think Geoff Barton and his unions will get the outcome they desire.

My only worry is for teachers; they have been set up to be scapegoats in this.

Typo meant to say not

DS1 did NOT get to do his mocks this month; thankfully, spared poor mock results in his CAGs.

The worry I have with the mini exams is when will the kids be told what is happening and how long will they have to revise. DS has not sat mocks and although his school are saying they will set some sort of assessment, they are carrying on with a full school timetable and homework - there is very little extra time for anything else.

It's a shame the new GCSEs and A levels are so new, there's no data to show how the grades at GCSE might map to A level grades. Are we going to see loads of kids walk away with an A at A level where they only achieved a 6 at the GCSE?

Those who achieve A/A* at A level usually have to be clever at that subject AND work consistently hard throughout the course. If schools don't consider work produced during Year 12, the clever but lazier students are likely to end up with top grades alongside those who have kept up all the work and have a deeper understanding of the whole course - which is especially important for sciences.

Everyone seems to be worried and talking about grade inflation, so much so that the converse could happen.

fortyfifty is that your concern? Inflated grades? Or clever but lazy kids getting good grades? I hear constantly on MN, usually from posters with sons saying how their kids have done very little work all year, put zero effort into mocks but will (and have done previously) ‘pull it out of the bag’ for the real thing. Annoys the hell out me (my problem I know) but I do know kids like this. They may indeed not do so brilliantly this year. I don’t have a huge amount of sympathy if they’ve simply been lazy and had opportunities. Posters saying their kids didn’t revise for mocks is unbelievable as there’s always been the risk that these could be used.
In fairness to your point I doubt those lazy but bright kids got 6’s at GCSEs. If they are the type to ‘pull it out of the bag’ to get As at A-level then they’re likely to have ‘pulled it out of the bag’ for the GCSEs. So the correlations would still fit.

NotDonna
fortyfifty is that your concern? Inflated grades? Or clever but lazy kids getting good grades? I hear constantly on MN, usually from posters with sons saying how their kids have done very little work all year, put zero effort into mocks but will (and have done previously) ‘pull it out of the bag’ for the real thing. Annoys the hell out me (my problem I know) but I do know kids like this. They may indeed not do so brilliantly this year. I don’t have a huge amount of sympathy if they’ve simply been lazy and had opportunities. Posters saying their kids didn’t revise for mocks is unbelievable as there’s always been the risk that these could be used.

DS1 and DS2 in Y13 and Y11 respectively. It’s DS2 who played and pretended he was studying and prepping for his mocks last autumn. Mine are the type who pull it out the bad in the EOY or terminal exams. I doubt DS2 will pull it the bag though, as Mocks have been scanned by school at great effort. Dep Head made a point of stating to students to revise throughly for the mocks as the score may constitute CAGs if terminal exams are cancelled. That will now come to pass.

DS2 has been an idiot and knows it, and has since revising/doing topical exam qns since 1 Dec, I know he would now nail any modified exams or external mini exams, if they were to be sat as of anytime after 1 April. So, NotDonna, the smart arse, lazy kids won’t pull it the bag this time 😩

Apologies for the typos, now you know why my kids mess up, apple doesn’t fall far from the 🍎 🌳

@NotDonna

fortyfifty is that your concern? Inflated grades? Or clever but lazy kids getting good grades? I hear constantly on MN, usually from posters with sons saying how their kids have done very little work all year, put zero effort into mocks but will (and have done previously) ‘pull it out of the bag’ for the real thing. Annoys the hell out me (my problem I know) but I do know kids like this. They may indeed not do so brilliantly this year. I don’t have a huge amount of sympathy if they’ve simply been lazy and had opportunities. Posters saying their kids didn’t revise for mocks is unbelievable as there’s always been the risk that these could be used. In fairness to your point I doubt those lazy but bright kids got 6’s at GCSEs. If they are the type to ‘pull it out of the bag’ to get As at A-level then they’re likely to have ‘pulled it out of the bag’ for the GCSEs. So the correlations would still fit.

It's hard to tell what will happen. This year, I don't see how teachers could prove which students have completed less work during the past year due to laziness and which ones have completed less due to crappy circumstances caused by Covid lockdowns and isolations. So, if proof of ability is taken during a short intensive period yet to come, of known content, it is inevitable those who are clever but lazy will do well out of such a situation.

Not that I agree with our usual way of measuring and examining kids anyway, so I ought not to care. But as a parent who is often in awe of DD1s approach to her studies, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't bothered that her efforts might be diluted if too many high grades are easily gained, and the results lose all credibility.

I know there is no good answer to the grading fiasco that works for everyone, so I am trying to make peace with that fact, and focus on being happy if DD gets to go where she wants to go.

My DD is studious but then she’s also had full access to the necessary electronics and support from us. Her school has said there will be a second set of mocks in March or April to allow fairness to those who were prevented from engaging due to covid or SI of them or their teachers or just struggling with access to a device. It seems inevitable that this will also scoop up those bright but lazy students.
However, many of those bright but lazy kids, usually boys, will now have a chance to move on, mature hugely and prove themselves capable with A’levels in 2023. I wonder, in any standard year, how many bright but lazy 16yr olds get very mediocre gcse results and then leave education off the back of these whereas had their grades reflected their natural ability they’d have carried on to A’levels then on to university and a more fulfilling career. There’s a huge leap in maturity between 16 and 18, especially in boys.

There was a longitudinal study once which tracked underachieving boys across about 15 years iirc. It took the KS2 results (a slightly dodgy premise , but hey...) of a range of students and identified some who had, according to that data, underperformed at GCSE. It then tracked them through post 16 choices and onwards.

The students who were underachieving in the early teenage years were still low performers at aged 25... when compared to others with similar KS2 score who had achieved as predicted.

That wasn't a study about laziness but it did draw some conclusions about exams, about poverty and about gender but did also incidentally find that low motivation and poor work ethic did not suddenly change. Anecdotally, this is sadly true of my DS1.

It’s a bit like trying to unpick the exclusions and prisons data. Is an exclusion setting a pupil on the pathway to prison or is the same character traits/behaviour/background issues that caused the exclusion that leads to prison.

Some people are clearly not held back by low grades or are rehabilitated after exclusions and it would be interesting to see what they have in common.

@noblegiraffe, I think an interesting, albeit impossible/unworkable, experiment would be if a subset of borderline but bright, failing kids from shitty home lives could have this year’s situation turned to their advantage by allowing them to receive inflated grades in line with what their teachers believed they would get if they didn’t have all the other shit going on. Just to see where they’d be at 25 and compare it to where they were expected to be.

@GinaJaffacake

My DD is studious but then she’s also had full access to the necessary electronics and support from us. Her school has said there will be a second set of mocks in March or April to allow fairness to those who were prevented from engaging due to covid or SI of them or their teachers or just struggling with access to a device. It seems inevitable that this will also scoop up those bright but lazy students. However, many of those bright but lazy kids, usually boys, will now have a chance to move on, mature hugely and prove themselves capable with A’levels in 2023. I wonder, in any standard year, how many bright but lazy 16yr olds get very mediocre gcse results and then leave education off the back of these whereas had their grades reflected their natural ability they’d have carried on to A’levels then on to university and a more fulfilling career. There’s a huge leap in maturity between 16 and 18, especially in boys.

My impression is that at GCSE level, bright but lazy kids can manage to get some good enough gears to allow them to move in to A levels but if their work ethic doesn't pick up early enough into A level studies, it is more difficult to progress through the course and cram revision at the end.

I was a prime example of that myself! Although never had the level of parental or school support many have now.

@Fortyfifty, I was also lazy and that coupled with my parents’ disinterest in education led me to mediocre gcse results. However, getting those mediocre results was a massive jolt to me. I wanted better. Therefore I pulled my socks up and worked hard for my Alevels. My Alevel results are far better than my gcse results. So much so that I’ve often been asked during an interview what happened that led to my GCSEs being so poor. I just explain that nothing happened but that doing badly made me wake up and smell the coffee and I’ve worked hard since then. I think this works in my favour but it’s interesting that they always assume the good Alevel grades and good degree is my natural state and that something must have interrupted that trajectory in at 16yrs. Whereas the truth is that those poor grades were themselves the interruption.

I’m additionally concerned that although we are due a parents evening next week, we’ve been told that grades won’t be discussed. Usually, they’d have done mocks, would be sharing those results, predicted grades and what they need to improve. Without any of that, what’s there to discuss?

Yes. Ours have Sixth form interviews coming up (online) to discuss such grades, which sadly have not taken place. Makes that difficult as well

I did really well at GCSE’s (in 1993!) with all A’s (before A*) except for maths where I sat the lower paper to ensure I got a C! Then completely fell apart at A levels due to a combination of appalling teaching, a 6th form situated literally next to a University Bar and the fact that I discovered boys. In fact my English teacher wrote on my Y12 report that I would do much better in English if I concentrated more on Macbeth and less on the boys in the class!!
My DS hasn’t done his mocks yet so I’m concerned there isn’t much to work with. He has been working and revising hard but I’m not sure how much of it is productive. Had a long chat with his Maths teacher today(he was having a huge wobble and emailed him so he called me) and he seemed to suggest at the moment they will be basing the grades on a culmination of everything and not just whatever exam they do which seemed fair to me. Not sure how accurate that is though.

We've just been told the school will be running the assessment (mocks) weeks missed in Jan on return after half term...still awaiting consultation from government etc so this is happening in the meantime

This was published by the OCT Policy Team, and is their responses to the Ofqual survey. Many interesting points on setting papers, by providing banks past topical qns to schools, external assurance of marking, and their views on the appeals process

bit.ly/2YPHvTI

My only concern, if schools use 2020 papers - as it sounds plausible and convenient. No doubt these will have been leaked and some pupils will have an unfair advantage over others.

The last paragraph of the summary says they believe that time spent in school in Spring/Summer 2021 should be spent preparing for the next chapter in their education (or words to that effect) rather than sitting tests? Surely the whole point of them going back to school is achieve the most amount of learning time possiblex

That’s an excellent and thoughtful response from OCR, probably more thoughtful than the original Ofqual proposal. In particular this section:

The proposal is very clear that teachers should not be asked to decide the grade a student might have achieved had the pandemic not occurred. However, many stakeholders feel that by ruling this out altogether the proposal introduces a significant unfairness. It is not any student’s fault if their learning has been severely disrupted so that they are performing at a lower level than they would have in a normal year.
• Many students and parents are not aware that the approach this year will be different to last year’s – if an estimation of how a student would have performed was acceptable last year, they may argue it is unfair to change the approach this year.

is a bit of an elephant in the room. The idea of mitigating the impact of e.g. repeated isolations on a student’s grade seems to have completely gone out of the window.