Exams cancelled 2

[Orangeblossom1977]

Started a new thread as last one is full.

@NotDonna

I’m so annoyed about that. Surely it should be a representation of their best pieces of work as that’s the best work they can do rather than a blanket approach.

I think there needs to be some room for flexibility in how the grades are arrived at, as kids have been affected differently at different stages of the pandemic. One of the boys at dd's school went from a 9 in his November mocks to a U in his March mocks after a very difficult third lockdown. I would hope that the teachers will be allowed to disregard his March result, even if they wish to take the March exams into account for other kids, because it clearly isn't representative of his actual ability.

Of course, I know that kids can have a bad time during exams in a normal year, but at least they know what's riding on each exam. This year, they've been doing the assessments without having any idea of how much weight each one might carry.

None of it actually makes any sense.
Grades would be much lower if kids assessed at ‘where they are at’. Higher if follow 2020 as Gav said. Roughly the same as always if ranked and need to meet 17, 18, 19 profile. So who actually knows which idea any individual school is following. And still we wait for the exam boards and ofqual to give detailed info at the end of March. Way too late when they are sitting the exams 1st day back after Easter.

Why are they sitting exams 1st day back after Easter?

That seems poorly planned by the school.

It is not a consistent approach across other schools and is not a requirement of the exam board.

Ours did exams the first day back after lockdown! Far from ideal for many of the kids...

This is all very irritating and it is back tracking via the back door. We had been told pretty much that school would cherry pick evidence to some extent, that they could use a variety of evidence for each pupil, so if you had done badly in an assessment it wouldn’t necessarily matter. Our school will not be using the questions to be made available by the exam boards but are setting their own assessments to be sat in the first half of May. I don’t know why schools wouldn’t take advantage of a bit of extra revision time and set their assessments as late as possible within the time frame that has been set out. Once they have sat their assessments it’s also likely motivation will go out of the window (if it hasn’t already!) so the later the better I would have thought.

Lockdown2021 I totally agree.

I don’t know why schools wouldn’t take advantage of a bit of extra revision time and set their assessments as late as possible within the time frame that has been set out.
You do know how long it takes to mark and moderate right?

Yes I appreciate that so obviously there has to be time for marking and moderating but they do have till the 18 June. Our school are allowing 2 weeks for the gathering of evidence and moderation.

Why are they sitting exams 1st day back after Easter?
There’s a huge risk of bubbles bursting and isolations so I guess they need some in school assessments. They’re all having assessments these two weeks too. Classroom based ones for every subject (2 papers per subject so 2 exams a day over the two weeks) and zero revision time as they’re still finishing the syllabus. Neither exam years had mocks due to lockdowns, tiers & isolations so I’m not sure there’s much evidence since Sept/October. The pressure is insane though. They’re being tested on anything. No clues as to topics - told to revise everything over Easter hols. They don’t break up til mid next week, have exams daily until then and are already getting practice papers for the holidays.
Maybe it’s best doing them early as they’ll be burnt out otherwise!

So we have had very bad news. I am baffled at the approach our school is taking.
Our school is using mocks from November for large parts of the kids results for some subjects.
DS got grade 2 in English Literature Nov mock. This will make up 40% of his grade.
He may as well not bother studying for the rest of the assessments which will make up 60% of the final grade. He would have to score around a 6 to lift the 2 to average out and get a final grade 4.
He had always received 4s in last two years or reports.
He won't make the 6 so wasting his time even trying.
Anyone got any good advise?

My Year 11 had tests all last week. Basically mocks crammed into a week. He'd done no revision (had done some revision in December for the mocks that had been due to take place in January). He was so tired after each day as he often had 3 subjects a day and has no stamina after lockdown. How will the school compare the marks from these tests with other schools who are testing later?

We've also been told that Y11 and Y13 will finish on 21 May. I just don't know what I will do with them at home for all that time. No mention of catch up or extra curricular activities to make up for all the lost time during lockdown. I feel really let down.

Ours will be done on 28 May. Tbh, I'm glad because dd is really struggling with going over and over the same work in school. She seems to have done really well in her recent set of exams and she did really well in the exams that they did before Christmas as well, so I think it all feels a bit pointless now. It's hard to stay motivated!!

I’m also worried about a long empty sumner as well. DS’ best mate is moving away so things are looking rather bleak here for him.

Otoh we've been told kids in til end of June potentially. This is a nightmare. Spreads more covid, the kids won't do the work/tasks we set as there will be no point. Wish the government would make a decent decision for all.

I will have 108 year 11 scripts to mark in a fortnight, followed by a further 108 in the following fortnight.
At my peak I can do 10 an hour, but an inexperienced examiner will be much slower. I will have to fit that round teaching my full timetable.
Moderating each paper will take at least a couple of hours (we normally spend 2 days on it in the summer series)
2 weeks is putting staff under immense pressure.

10 scripts in one hour! Wow! Seriously speedy. And all for free! It’s way way too much for everyone concerned (bar DfE & exam boards)
There’ll be lots of marking over the Easter hols for our teachers given my DDs are having exams at the moment & right up to the last day of term. Teachers didn’t get a decent xmas break either as they were planing the roll out of LFTs (that were then cancelled due to lockdown). They must be knocking back the RedBull!

I'm not working or setting work over Easter. We all need to recoup before next term. All my students have loads of revision materials and can ask for more but I'm setting nothing specific. I never do.
Still a week to go, nearly

*regroup

We've been told today they're finishing 14th May! That seems awfully early...and still don't know how they're being assessed

@ihearttc

I’m also worried about a long empty sumner as well. DS’ best mate is moving away so things are looking rather bleak here for him.

I might encourage mine to volunteer or get a summer job, finish D of E stuff perhaps

I noticed another post on here saying the exams will be published online before the Easter holidays, anyone know if this is correct?

How is that any way fair on ones who have already been doing assessments I don't know. What a mess. Ours have been told topics but not the questions

For those who are worried about the long summer, I think NCS is running this year - or hoping to, at least.

An article on the BBC today saying grade inflation and teacher predicted grades.
Oh they have absolutely no clue.
As I said above my DS grades will be using high percentage from November mocks and future assessments over two months. Teachers aren't using predicted grades or 100% where they are now.
Our school do not care about the poorer learners. If they did badly in November mocks some can't even claw their way up to a 4.
Real GCSEs would have been more consistent and fairer.

I agree the media have no clue. No journalist will aim to convey the true picture of what is happening if they can get a bigger click rate from going with the hyped up story of grade inflation.