Exams cancelled

[noblegiraffe]

Alternative arrangements will be made.

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

JustRichmal I agree.

With all of the interruptions and lockdowns my DS's school has put tests, extra homework, catch up and enrichment all very quickly into place. On the one hand this has been great knowing that they are on the ball - but incredibly stressful where tests have run next to each other with tight deadlines.

I am worried about how this is going to work out, but shall wait until Gav speaks before losing my rag

Thank you @NotDonna and @KittyMcKitty.

Discovered this morning that he has two more BTEC exams next week.

Had a yr 13 last school year as well as a then yr 12 and yr 10. Was nowhere near as stressful as this.

@KittyMcKitty my DD1 yr13 was scheduled mocks end of Jan (I think, it could have been after half term) as there’s still a lot of content to cover. Especially maths & chemistry. DD2 yr11 was due to have mocks starting today, they were then moved to the following week to allow for the school mass testing everyone. They’ve both spent all Xmas holidays studying & revising but that’s no bad thing as there is bound to be testing of some sort.
We’ve just had an email from the head this am saying they’ll make decisions re A & GCSE mocks once Gav has announced what’s happening. DDs have been sent a similar email. I think that absolutely fair enough. I feel so sorry for teachers and heads having the goalposts moved every two minutes. They’ve been treated appallingly!

Interesting how you can compare last year to this thunder. It’s the lack of preparation the govt has done. Leaving schools guessing. And thus us & the teens.

DS2 is very academic and very driven. (11 GCSE grade 9 - the best results his state school had ever seen).
He's in year 13 now and is gutted that his A levels are cancelled.
With the rampant grade inflation (resulting from made up grades last year) continuing into this year, kids like him are disadvantaged because he won't stand out in the same way.
He's also planning to take a year out and this means he'll almost certainly be competing for university places against people with real A level (examined) results rather than the devalued made up ones he'll have.
Nothing anyone can do - just ranting.

@NotDonna. I think the difference last year was that DD had properly completed 6 1/2 months of yr 13 before school were shut. Her school had already covered all of the a level syllabus.
She also had predicted grades and offers from universities.

I was far more worried about my then yr10 and yr12 knowing that the can was just being kicked down the road for them and that they had far more disruption then and ahead of them. And here we are months later with our yr11’s and yr13 ‘s not having a clue what’s happening and yet surely somebody somewhere could see this happening and planning for it.

If COVID had blown over by July, I wonder if exams would still go ahead for those that want to sit them? Students could then be given the better grade of CAGs or actual attained grade.

I am in same situation and have started to wonder whether re-sitting a year is the only option. Last year I was not in favour of this and understand the arguments against it.

However, this is such an unusual situation for all our children's development that I have seriously started to wonder if starting a year later is better for their social development, as well as academic.

The young are suffering disproportionately - we can all relive next year as adults, for kids there is only one experience of schooling.

I've started a thread in AIBU to see how other feels on this.

Gavin talking now. Waffling on about laptops at the moment

Saying putting in trust in teachers not algorithms

Based on teacher assessments, training will be given

Is it a real option -not just hypothetically- to re-take exams in private next year?

So what do we do with our year 11 children who should be revising but that's now pointless.

@RainbowRaine I would hope that work and assessments will continue for year 11 and 13s so that they can accurately give deserved grades.

Training will be given to teachers and I hope that means they will given a plan about a series of assessments taken over the course of the next few months.

So what do we do with our year 11 children who should be revising but that's now pointless.

Why is it pointless? They'll be assessed by the school and so they need to keep working.

Our school does some iGCSEs and these are currently still on..

If my children were in that situation (in fact ds's girlfriend is in year 11) I would be advising them to be continuing with their schoolwork and attempting to finish the syllabus especially in core subjects and those they want to take onto further study.

"Why is it pointless?"
To continue to revise for exams they will now not be sitting.

I have a year 11 and 13 who would also have done better in exams. DS1 far exceeded his GCSE predictions.
I hope they can get them back in schools and college in enough time to test/assess them sufficiently, as really don't think it's fair to be considering marks achieved last year when students were sidetracked with UCAS applications and all along they were led to believe exams were going ahead.

What types of teacher assessments are available for teachers to use?

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats

DS2 is very academic and very driven. (11 GCSE grade 9 - the best results his state school had ever seen). He's in year 13 now and is gutted that his A levels are cancelled. With the rampant grade inflation (resulting from made up grades last year) continuing into this year, kids like him are disadvantaged because he won't stand out in the same way. He's also planning to take a year out and this means he'll almost certainly be competing for university places against people with real A level (examined) results rather than the devalued made up ones he'll have. Nothing anyone can do - just ranting.

The rampant grade inflation was not in the state sector. My son didn’t get to sit his A levels and received a CAG lower than his mocks. His certainly wasn’t inflated. Infact I would say he was robbed. Don’t believe everything you read in the media - it has been pretty inaccurate on this issue.

DD2 is relieved, as her teachers are fully aware of how much progress she has made since the start of Yr12 and how much her grades have improved. And she has every intention of carrying on with the work, it will be of use to her at university to keep increasing her knowledge and honing her essay skills.

Right exams cancelled, so what now? I hope they have a plan for the teachers for assessments or are they expecting everyone to just keep on stumbling ahead

Most Yr11/13s aren’t at the revising stage yet. They’ve got a lot of work ahead to cover the content of their courses.

What a mess! This government is so behind all the time. Scotland and Wales started the academic year announcing that there will be no exams and it will be from teacher assessment. Was it not obvious to those in England that you couldn't predict what the situation would be like in 2021? This government is the biggest campaigner for the SNP, and they are going to win big in May elections.

I really hope they give specifics about what teacher assessment Enfield shortly.

DD is disappointed as she wanted to do the exams, although she’s also relieved to have the pressure of exams off the table. But that relief is tempered by the unknown of how the teachers will assess.