Exams cancelled 2

[Orangeblossom1977]

Started a new thread as last one is full.

down to individual schools

We really don't have a clue!

How can this be fair and consistent if

1. It is optional for schools to use these 'mini tests'
2. It does not seem to take into account any regional disparity?

I can't see that it helps anything much apart from putting the extra work and responsibility of choosing to participate in the tests, and also marking them along with other tests and assessments.

It seems to add pressure in a way as ongoing...for the students as well.

Is there likely to be a universal end of year 11 date or will it be fine to individual schools?

What usually happens do they go on study leave? I'm not sure...

@Orangeblossom1977 I don't know. At dd's school I think the official leavers day is a couple of weeks after Easter but they still come back to school for revision/study sessions and exams.
I don't mind when they leave this year but I think for her peace of mind we would like to know.

We haven't had study leave for years. Students officially "leave" on the last Friday in June of the academic year in which they turn 16 - we keep them until they have done the last whole year exam.

Maybe it will depend on when they do these mini tests? Or if they do them? Who knows...

We don't even know what the tests look like yet!

@MrsHamlet are you keen on the test idea? It all seems a bit late in the day to me. Especially if they are in a different format to what they are used to. DD did no revision only homework over half term as she wasn't really sure what to do.

I don't know until I know what they look like. All my teaching is based on "this is how you will be assessed" so they're very well trained to answer questions in the format we usually get.
I hope that they won't fuck around with that, at least!
I'm still taking the approach that "this is how you will be assessed" stands because it's all I've got to hang on to. I'm deeply unhappy at the suggestion that they could be optional though. That doesn't sit right at all with me.

The suggestion of mini tests being optional makes no sense to me at all. If it's up to schools, why on earth wouldn't they just set their own assessments, as they often do?

Tbh, I really don't want more assessments at this stage. DD will be exhausted after 2 sets of high stakes mocks and almost a term of home learning. Another set of exams is likely to push her into burnout territory. It doesn't help that she did brilliantly in the first round of mocks but now feels under incredible (self imposed) pressure to maintain that standard.

Dd has had more tests over the last few weeks in case it is teacher based assessments. There are only so many tests and exams these poor kids can bloody sit.

I am hoping all the end of unit tests in sciences and maths count. However I'm guessing a good chunk of these will have been done at home over the last two years.

DS seems to be getting tested on something most days atm

Was just having lunch and he said Oh no, meant to be in an assessment. I'll just finish this first though. He's so laid back.

If these mini tests, are well easier, that will not be very fair on the schools using standard GCSE papers surely

Gavin Williamson is holding a press conference later today - just been announced. Do you think announcements will happen today?

Hope so @HappySonHappyMum. My dd is desperate to know what's happening. I had understood that the announcement was going to be on Thursday, but I guess they may have moved it.

It’s all so bloody late
Ds is completely fed up and am I.
It’s becoming more difficult to motivate him

Motivation is rock bottom here for my DD as well @Lampzade. When lockdown started she was enthusiastic about it but a year on, listening to zoom lessons, watching videos and answering exam questions is no substitute for real learning. It's so monotonous, there's no interaction, it's so dry and I know this because I've been sitting listening to her lessons for the last year as my computer has been next to hers and we've been working from home together! Her school says she should be preparing for mocks, there's been precisely no revision done, she''s just not up to it, and is beyond anxious about the return to the classroom on March 8th.

I'm feeling really anxious after reading a local college celebrated record breaking outcomes for the November GCSE resits. So basically a lot of our local schools didn't give the children the results they deserved last year so they had to resit and proved what they were capable of . How unfair.
I hope they have learned their lesson.

My dd is going straight back in to mock exams on 8 March. I don't feel this is ideal, and dd is really not happy about it. She is extremely well motivated usually, and she is still doing ok, but even she is flagging now, so I can imagine that lots of kids are really struggling.

We need to know details of the assessment asap - what exactly is happening and when. It isn't fair to keep them dangling like this.

My dc’s school has said they’ll have mocks 2 weeks after they return, so starting 22nd, but I’ve received an email today about LFT which says they’ll go to school starting FROM 8th, be tested, go home to await result and then be able to go into school on a staggered start... so not even going back properly on 8th at all.

Just seen in the media

"MP's have called for certainty over this year's exams so that children who have spent much of the last year out of the classroom can "focus on their futures".

This morning Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, promised he would reveal what will replace this year's exams "incredibly shortly - in the next few days."

....Rob Halfon, chair of the education select committee, told The Telegraph the package announced today was "a serious step in the right direction", but noted the pressure was not off.

"Everything possible should be done to make sure it is the disadvantaged who are helped the most," he added."

All of this was entirely bloody predictable. They should not have cancelled exams before a plan was in place to replace them. Bastards.

record breaking outcomes for the November GCSE resits

What does this mean? November resits are normally taken by kids who failed maths and English so if this November they were also taken by kids wanting to go from a 6 to a 7, then of course they’d be better.

The grade boundaries were interesting....