Exams cancelled 2

[Orangeblossom1977]

Started a new thread as last one is full.

What are your thoughts @noblegiraffe?

If there is grade inflation will this help those going onto further education, especially if they have missed large chunks of the exam spec. I assume you assess on the standard of the work done, not taking into account their lack of knowledge of topics they have not had time to study.

It says assessing work done. Teachers can’t assess what’s not been covered.

The devil will be in the detail. It looks like they’ve just gone ‘fuck-it, we can’t figure this out so we will pass the buck to teachers. Sorry, I meant trust teachers’.

Students can probably relax a bit as like I said, teachers will be generous. But the national picture will be a shitshow and there will be inconsistent approaches between teachers and schools which will lead to appeals.

It’s a bit contradictory saying there’ll be huge grade inflation and more appeals than usual. If grades are higher than expected who’s be appealing? I get that the usual ‘has been marked as per guidelines’ situation is different but I don’t see how schools can appeal their own grades.

I just wish year 10, 11, 12 and 13 students could just resit the year.

God no, they’re itching to move on.

Would the appeals be from students?

@caringcarer

I just wish year 10, 11, 12 and 13 students could just resit the year.

Mine wouldn’t cope. Neither of them. Very different kids. And like noble says they very much want to move on. I think a lot of schools have actually (amazingly) covered (or thereabouts) a lot of the curriculum given it was modified. Is there any data on worse case scenario schools?

I don’t see how appeals would work as usually it’s the school ho appeals.

I don't understand the grade inflation argument.
Ie. my child has missed so much education he is currently getting a 4. But if he had been in school and leading a normal life he would have got a 5. So he gets a 5.
Surely that's fair?
Also grade inflation is much better than undernarking and ruining life so many life chances.

I'm sure there may be quite a few challenges from parents, I hope schools have systems in place to prevent harassment to teachers. It will be particularly difficult if one local school assesses more generously than others.

Will schools work together on this?

I suppose there is an issue if a student has not engaged with remote provision but was doing well in early Y10, would you look at grades from then and ignore the last year, as you know what their potential would have been. I assume that is quite tricky to evidence from recent work

I think there’s 2 types of appeals, one is a check to ensure added up correctly and the other is to check it was marked ‘fairly’ and followed guidelines. The papers are not remarked as I’d assumed.
Heaven knows how they’d work on this scenario. Look at the evidence school had submitted and make a judgement on that? Sounds quite arbitrary with no Mark scheme or grade boundaries.

@Cuddling57

I don't understand the grade inflation argument. Ie. my child has missed so much education he is currently getting a 4. But if he had been in school and leading a normal life he would have got a 5. So he gets a 5. Surely that's fair? Also grade inflation is much better than undernarking and ruining life so many life chances.

How dyou know he’d be getting a 5 though? I think there needs to be evidence that the work he’s doing online or does on return is a grade 5 standard. I don’t think they’ll be going back to year 10 when they weren’t in much either (Sept to mid March) and had only just begun the 2 year course whether it be gcse or A levels.

I think a lot of schools have actually (amazingly) covered (or thereabouts) a lot of the curriculum given it was modified. Is there any data on worse case scenario schools?

Some anecdata;
My dd attends one of the best schools in town. Last year, in yr 10, no work was given until June. The work was then extremely limited and no feedback was given other than the generalised feedback lectured to large groups of pupils in their ‘face to face’ time.

Most of yr 11 has been spent doing tests and assessment and mocks. Hardly any time actually teaching.
Remote learning is improving, but again, no personal feedback on any work submitted.
Still no results for the mocks taken in December (results promised in January.
My dd is completely in the dark about how well she is doing, which is adding to the stress and uncertainty.

@ineedaholidaynow

I'm sure there may be quite a few challenges from parents, I hope schools have systems in place to prevent harassment to teachers. It will be particularly difficult if one local school assesses more generously than others.

Will schools work together on this?

That Times article suggested zero moderation, which seems daft tbh. But if schools are doing different things moderation would be tricky. And who does it? The teachers won’t have time to moderate school to school. In department probably but moderation is so time consuming at the best of times. Will be interesting to hear the proper details tomorrow. IF the details are provided tomorrow. Probably be another couple of weeks.

The Times article suggested that Ofqual would randomly sample schools and flag up any that looked crazy. I guess those schools would then be asked to produce their evidence.

@ISBN111 wow no work at all in yr10? What were they doing from Sept to mid March? I know mid March onwards was zero for mine as no new teaching was allowed (bizarrely). Mine only went in for 1 day from mid March to summer hols but they did have online teaching. I know it’s been massively disruptive and feedback from some schools pretty dire but I do wonder just how far behind most kids actually are in yr11 & Yr13.
for example, do you know if your DD has covered the English lit material? Or will have done by Easter. Most parents I know dotted around the country seem to think they’re not that far off. BUT then there’s doom & gloom headlines saying kids are months & months behind. I’d like to see some data as I’m wondering if (in general) they’re pretty much up to speed. I’m wondering if they’ve lost more socially & emotionally than they have academically.

I’m not expecting you to answer that btw, I’m just wondering.

Last year, our "results" were in line with previous years. There was a slight improvement in the grades, which was in line with the cohort data (they were marginally better than the previous year).

A local school saw its best results ever. We now have students in y12 with grades 6-9 which bear no relation to students with grades 6-9 from anywhere else and they're struggling.
They have A level targets based on their GCSE grades which, frankly, some of them are not capable of.
The algorithm was a mistake. A big one. I fear this is potentially worse.

It’s also on BBC news page this morning. No mention of an exact results day apart from early August.

12th August for GCSE; 20th for A level.

Sorry: fat fingers.
10th for A level

Yep just seen it, I clearly wasn’t awake earlier!

2020 DfE: we are going to create a shitshow around exams and results which will never be matched.

2021 DfE: hold my beer.

I am devastated for this year's Yr 11s and 13s. At least when last year's grades were created, schools believed that they would be held to account for them. Even that resulted in massive grade inflation. This year's results run the risk of losing any semblance of credibility. I am gutted for Yr 13 DS who has worked so hard and deserved the chance to sit his exams and prove what he is capable of. Instead, his grades will always be tainted by the process.

Right up until today, I had hung on in the rapidly dwindling belief that there were going to be some checks and balances put in place - I was really clinging on to compulsory mini-assessments.

What a fucking mess.