Exams cancelled 2

[Orangeblossom1977]

Started a new thread as last one is full.

In the Telegraph today

"GCSE students hit the hardest by school closures, finds largest study of its kind"

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/02/08/gcse-students-hit-hardest-school-closures-finds-largest-study/

"The toll of school closures on GCSE students has been revealed, as the biggest survey into the impacts of lockdowns on education has found they are the hardest hit of any cohort.

Students in years 10 and 11 are less likely to receive help from their families, get into a suitable learning routine at home or understand the work they have been set, the study found.

Year 11 students are also the most likely of any year group to suffer from anxiety.

The research, released on Monday by ImpactEd, an education non-profit, followed 62,000 pupils for seven months. It is the largest sample size of any report into the effect of the pandemic on students.

It comes as Ofqual, the exam regulator, considers responses to its consultation on how GCSE students will be assessed at the end of this academic year."...

"By May 2020, GCSE pupils were already behind compared to pupils in all other year groups, the study found, but years 10 and 11 then declined 38 per cent more than all other pupils over the course of the year.

The findings will further amplify calls for students to return to the classroom before the planned reopening of schools on March 8."..

The findings will further amplify calls for students to return to the classroom before the planned reopening of schools on March 8

They couldn’t help themselves could they? An interesting piece of research used to push an anti lockdown agenda.

I think Y11 were the group most likely to be isolating due to covid from Sept to Dec too, not sure why.

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-gcses-2021-lockdown-hits-exam-year-students-hardest

Same study mentioned in the TES. I can't view it all though.

They couldn’t help themselves could they? An interesting piece of research used to push an anti lockdown agenda

It's hardly anti-lockdown to want Y11s in school. Especially as 16-18 year olds were the age group with the lowest infection rate before Christmas. It would be quite easy to rotate Y12 and 13 in a sixth form college and I am sure it isn't beyond the ability of schools to work out a way at get their Y11s in safely in some way.

It's hardly anti-lockdown to want Y11s in school.

No, but the ‘voices calling for a return to school before the 8th’ that they are suggesting are amplified here, are their own. They’re using it to push their political agenda which wants lockdown restrictions lifted.

Not sure where you got the idea that 16-18 had a particularly low infection rate.

Sixth form colleges already are allowed rotas.

Please could we not turn this into a 'schools thread' and stick to the exams topic? We've had plenty of those threads already

I think it’s really important that this information is published so that everyone can see the impact the school closures have had on the Y11s/Y13s both from an academic and mental health point of view.

And yes I agree that any possibility of getting them back into school earlier the better in my opinion.

Hopefully they will take it into account in the exams situation

It reminds me again how GCSEs and A levels exam/grading ought to have been treated as separate consultations by ofqual.

I'm not surprised to hear the Year 11s and 10s are suffering the most stress. They must be so overwhelmed having to do that many subjects remotely, many compulsory which they won't necrssarily enjoy - during high stakes years.

Year 13s I think are suffering with their mental wellbeing for lots of reasons - losing a crucial chunk of years in which they usually experience many firsts and develop true indepence. Driving, socialising in pubs and parties, concerts, boyfriends/girlfriends, part time jobs, trips away. But they are studying fewer subjects and subjects of their choosing. Their experiences and needs are different - mentally and academically.

I too hope y11s and y13s are allowed back in to school soon, on a rota basis at least.

Sorry not to mention BTECs. I know less about those.

Glad there is a study highlighting year 11 as one of the most hardest hit.
As pp says they are trying to study many subjects in the most important year and some they are not even interested in.
After all this time I still can't get over the fact that there wan no plan b already organised to give these poor children some stability in what the process will be.

Mine has found the ones like DT and music tricky. Well all of them but those in particular.

In the Times today on schools opening, it mentions

Exam boards are to ditch plans to force teenagers to sit mini exams to help them decide their GCSE and A-level results, under plans set to be published next week Instead the tests will be voluntary and teachers will hold one-to-one meetings to students about the grades they should be aspiring to in order to avert last year’s grades fiasco.

OK. Well ours are doing mocks as soon as they go back and also have been doing formal assessments online in the last weeks...

teachers will hold one-to-one meetings to students about the grades they should be aspiring to

Well that is different from the current focus on levels they are working at is it not.

Bob should be aspiring to a grade 6 but he's done no work all year (even in school) so a chat won't help much.
FFS.

Yes and how will Bob's friend David feel when teacher tells David he should be aspiring to a grade 7 and he works really hard, as he has done all year, but then gets a 5 on results day.
If David's parents are solicitors how will the teacher feel?!
Also what will happen to their friend Ron who isn't doing well at all? He is predicted 2s in everything!

It sounds like they think it is too difficult to think about how to do something half decent, so they will just wash their hands of it, forgetting that there are real human beings suffering at the end of their non-decisions.

The same as when schools opened last September - too difficult to work around the problem and put new measures in place, so just open up as normal. Pretend there is no problem and it will just go away.

By they - I mean the government. The government who clearly have no idea about the reality of what goes on in a school.

I'm really looking forward to 54 conversations with year 11. I've totally got time for that. In fact, given we have two GCSEs, make that 118.
And the 15 y13 ones.
Fuck sake.

108. I don't teach maths.

Surely if the study has been going on for 7 months, they are talking about two different sets of year 10 and 11 students?

My DD has 300 in her year - she's taking 10 GCSEs so that's 3000 individual conversations that need to be had. I'd rather the teachers were teaching to be honest!

Grades they should be aspiring to is a nonsense phrase, especially when the conversation would be with the person who will be directly responsible for assigning that grade.

Hopefully it will be binned.

I’d lost you!
Whilst I agree there should be honestly and transparency regarding the TAGs, 1:1 sessions with all yr11’s and yr13s to discuss their ‘target’ grades is utter madness.
Teachers haven’t got time to do hundreds of 1:1 sessions. Besides, they’ve been giving feedback on an ongoing basis via school reports and parents evenings. These give information of where students are working at, what they need to do and how to keep evidencing that including how to improve for the best grade possible. Maybe it’s to enforce schools to give some amount of feedback where that’s been lacking. Feedback from our school is great but reading other threads that isn’t always the case.
I am wondering if these teacher:student conversations will be very difficult for some. Telling a student face to face that they’re not doing so well is not easy. Failing people face to face is actually extremely difficult. Plus teachers are likely to have a flurry of emails from distraught students and/or parents.
I do like the idea of honesty and transparency but I’m not convinced this will be the best approach.

I wouldn't like to be the colleague telling the kid who works really hard that they're getting a 1. Because that is what will happen.