Exams cancelled

[noblegiraffe]

Alternative arrangements will be made.

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

@JellyBabiesSaveLives My year 11 was revising for mock GCSEs and had been told to do so since October.

Personally I would have liked for them to give the option to take exams if a student wanted to.

So give a teacher assessed grade earlier than August results day. If it's not to the student's liking as they believe they would do better taking the exam, let them have the opportunity to do that to then be marked in time for August results day.

Logistically hard maybe, but my DD isn't alone in wanting to take exams. No missed learning, no isolations etc. If her assessed grades were enough to get her Uni offer (AAA) then no need for the exam. But there would be an opportunity there if she didn't reach the required grades.

Might just be in dreamland though.

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.

Same here

Ds got a 4 in his mock Business Studies GCSE. He's been consistently working around a 4/5 grade all year. He got a CAG of 3.

We can only assume that this was based on one poor assessment just prior to lockdown. Ds was not himself around this time. He was lethargic, headachy and had a really bad cough that lasted 3-4 weeks from just after February half term. (We are convinced now he had covid but no-one was interested back then).

@Comefromaway
That's is disgraceful. Did you contact the school about it?

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.

Likewise. My DS's school did its own internal moderation. DS's results were, if anything, overall lower than he'd expected (including some grades lower than mock grades). The biggest increase in results was in the private sector. Many students last year were completely screwed by the lack of moderation between schools and are screwed again, because "everyone" assumes their results are inflated.

[quote Cuddling57]@Comefromaway
That's is disgraceful. Did you contact the school about it?[/quote]
There was no point. CAG's could not be altered at all. No right of appeal on that. Ds just about got what he needed for his chosen college course.

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.

You mean he'll be competing against current Year 12, who are stuck with non-moderated GCSE results where teacher assessment was imposed on them with no warning and every school did their own thing, have hardly had a great Post 16 experience so far and it's far from definite they will sit exams next year? I'm not saying it isn't tough on current Year 13 students - of course it is; but let's not start comparing one lot against another to see who has it worst.

I’m listening to parliament & Gav but he’s not actually saying anything! About anything. Primary, secondary, uni, exams, uni accommodation, lack of tech. Nothing much at all. Waste of space.

@Coffeeandcocopops

From the Ofqual website
Overall A level results in England are higher at grade A and above compared to 2019 (27.6% in 2020 compared with 25.2% in 2019
Private schools got a 4.7% increase in A & A* grades
State schools got a 2% increase
6th form colleges only got a 0.3% increase.

This is clearly therefore not only about private schools scamming the system. All sectors got better results although the private sector did best out of it.

And thank you for the advice - but actually I don't rely on the media for stats.

Anyway DS2 is in the state sector - so may end up being further disadvantaged.

My DC did very badly out of CAGs last year and I am so stressed about my current Y11 DS.

He missed so much work by struggling massively with his mental health over lockdown. School just dumped huge amounts of worksheets and tasks on them, there was no one to ask for help and he couldn't cope with the volume of it and gave up. They've been in and out of school this last two terms with having to isolate. He's had Covid himself last term and is still not fully recovered. He took Mock exams in Nov that he did really badly in - they were assessing how pupils had done with work set in lockdown, and obviously he hadn't.

He had high targets of 7s and 8s and is looking at 4s for most subjects. Based on his current depression over this latest lockdown I suspect he'll be given CAGs of 3s and 4s - meaning he won't get into sixth form.

How is it fair to assess him on how well he's done on teaching himself stuff in a pandemic year? I'm so fed up.

I can't get over how unfair the CAG were for some children last year and there was no right to question them!
This isn't how modern day society is meant to work. Those poor children.
I'm now really worried about my Y11 who is being predicted 5s but we think could have done better with a revision push for the real exams. To think he wouldn't even get the grades he is 'working at' is unthinkable.

Personally I would have liked for them to give the option to take exams if a student wanted to.

I very much agree with this, but doubt it will happen. I am also concerned that there will be no clear communication of how schools are deciding grades and the whole process will not be open and transparent. For instance, to be told a student has got 50% in tests on average and that is why they were awarded a C means nothing without knowing what the boundaries between grades were and that they were applied consistently. Also, that the assessments are spread out and students are given plenty of warning and are not given lots of different assessments on the same day, as happened to dd in September.

If it is to be teacher assessment, rather than tests, I do not see how it could be ensured not to be biased.

To PP who said:
He had high targets of 7s and 8s and is looking at 4s for most subjects. Based on his current depression over this latest lockdown I suspect he'll be given CAGs of 3s and 4s - meaning he won't get into sixth form.

That some children have worked so hard for most of their school lives to be hit by such seemingly huge movement of goal posts towards the end . The idea of continuous assessment ( particularly when not mentioned at the start) can be more pressure than an exam at the end.

I’ve said it so so many times this week to anyone who will lesson but lots of schools haven’t even done mocks yet, how are they supposed to give a teacher assessment when there is little data to use.

DS is predicted fairly decent grades however due to an unusual set of test results ironically he will do worst in his best subject (maths-predicted an 8 and got several 4’s as he moved maths sets and they hadn’t covered the work) and better in his worst subject (English-predicted a 5 and got 7’s on all his last assessments.)

In an exam once he’d actually learnt the content, he’d probably get an 8 in maths and a 5 in English!

I have a y11 daughter and she's refusing to even talk about it. I don't blame her really. She's been on teams today and teachers are carrying on setting work so hoping she stays engaged in learning. Her school managed to squeeze in mocks in early December so maybe will they be included in the teacher assessments? She hasn't had any results as yet.

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats 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.

Oh come off it, with 11 Grade 9 GCSEs of course he will.

@RainbowRaine

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

I would hope that they will still revise because it'll improve their work in school and improve their knowledge so that can only be a good thing.

Thank you for the flowers @yoyo1234.

He is presently screaming at his Xbox and refusing to do any of the work being set because the exams have been cancelled. I am pretending I'm ok, but I'm really not. Every conversation with him about how he needs to look at the work teachers are setting or take part in his Teams lesson is met with What's the point? They've cancelled exams and teachers will just fail me.

I have no idea where to go now. I've spoken to the school, but they are fairly helpless. The data they have on him obviously suggests he's struggling to answer exam papers - mainly because he hasn't taught himself the course. It's not a reflection of what he'd have achieved if he'd actually spent two years in school being taught by staff. He's basically been given Mock exams having spent Sept - Mar of Y10 in school, then had three separate two week periods at home between Sept - Dec of Y11 and then he's back at home again.

How can he possible take an exam paper based on four or five terms teaching instead of eleven (which is roughly what they would have normally had)? I'm going on a 6 term year btw.

Going back to why some schools have no data. I more skeptical view might be that some schools didn't want to do mock exams early and risk having low results (which wouldn't be a shock given all the missed time) and then these results be held against them. Our school planned to do 2 , one set very early in the first term which were labeled as 'internal assessments' and another set later this term which will obviously now not happen to avoid this.

Our school always do mocks after Christmas. The HT said they were sticking to that arrangement to give the kids the maximum amount of learning time possible and to allow them to revise over Christmas considering how much learning they missed.

As frustrating as this situation is there are always going to be winners and losers with every scenario. My DD will be OK, she's worked consistently hard throughout her school life, she's the type to complete all her homework and engage with her teachers and lessons. She copes OK with exams, her GCSEs results would have reinforced this - she will be fine. If she had not worked hard throughout, had planned to blitz her revision and have a big push at exam time then teacher assessed grades would be a disaster for her. My DS worked hard as well but went to pieces in his exams and came out with mediocre results. What I'm trying to say is that the current situation is not going to suit everyone - just as taking exams doesn't suit everyone. The crucial part though is that our DC get the opportunity to move on to the next stage in their education - the numbers don't matter as long as you can move forward. Colleges and Unis will take these unusual circumstances into account. Right now all we can do is wait until they've bashed out the details - which incidentally they have had plenty of time to do as a Plan B scenario should have been devised months ago

@NovemberR

Thank you for the flowers *@yoyo1234*.

He is presently screaming at his Xbox and refusing to do any of the work being set because the exams have been cancelled. I am pretending I'm ok, but I'm really not. Every conversation with him about how he needs to look at the work teachers are setting or take part in his Teams lesson is met with What's the point? They've cancelled exams and teachers will just fail me.

I have no idea where to go now. I've spoken to the school, but they are fairly helpless. The data they have on him obviously suggests he's struggling to answer exam papers - mainly because he hasn't taught himself the course. It's not a reflection of what he'd have achieved if he'd actually spent two years in school being taught by staff. He's basically been given Mock exams having spent Sept - Mar of Y10 in school, then had three separate two week periods at home between Sept - Dec of Y11 and then he's back at home again.

How can he possible take an exam paper based on four or five terms teaching instead of eleven (which is roughly what they would have normally had)? I'm going on a 6 term year btw.

I sympathise. My Ds is Y11. His curriculum was stopped in March like everyone's. We have a poor internet signal yet despite Autism, Dyslexia and clinical Anxiety (medicated for) he has no EHCp and school had not arranged any exam concessions. Very little work was sent home 1st lockdown and he struggled with that. We emailed and called School but no response. He then had back to back isolations - 3 of them. Then was unwell for a fortnight (MH related, due to stress of all this). He is now at home again, no reliable laptop, no place in school. In utter panic. School have done no formal assessments since NOV 2019 - none - and the few internal ones he has missed. How the heck will they assess him? How can this be fair in any way???

@dootball

Going back to why some schools have no data. I more skeptical view might be that some schools didn't want to do mock exams early and risk having low results (which wouldn't be a shock given all the missed time) and then these results be held against them. Our school planned to do 2 , one set very early in the first term which were labeled as 'internal assessments' and another set later this term which will obviously now not happen to avoid this.

Our school always do gcse mocks in December and A levels some in September but full mocks after Christmas- always have done.

The school I work in (no 6th form) have always done paper 1 of core subjects in October and then full mocks December and January.

Different schools do them at different times to fit in with the individual school and the different exams / year groups they have.

A question for noblegiraffe and/or other KS4/KS5 teachers. 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

@52andblue

That sounds terrible, I'm so sorry. I'm not blaming schools or teachers in any way, here, but the whole situation is so hard for our children. Our school didn't suspend the curriculum - they continued to set work (which I understand - they wouldn't get through the course otherwise) but of course my son struggled with coping with it alone. Testing him on what he didn't learn then shows how poorly he did.

I feel utterly helpless. Hope your poor boy does ok.