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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

If you have a Y11 DC, what's the school doing about GCSE assessment?

84 replies

GreenTeaPingPong · 14/03/2021 18:49

Can you help me get an idea of what other schools are doing for GCSE assessment? I especially would like to know when they're going to be doing assessments/tests, if they've told you.

I was dismayed to hear from my DS's school on Friday that they'll be doing assessments in class over 8 weeks beginning in one week's time from 22nd March - meaning they'll have had just 10 days of teaching before they start assessing. They've had minimal teaching online, perhaps 5 or 6 live webinars per week since January, and DS has not been very engaged, so I was really hoping that he would be able to have at least a month or 6 weeks of school before being assessed, so that he has a chance to up his game. But now it seems they'll be assessing basically only on the work they've done from Sept - Dec 2020 Sad.

Is your DC's school doing similar?

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YellowDaffidols · 14/03/2021 18:55

Awaiting final guidance from DoE about what exactly will be required, and counted.
But yes, judging from what I've had go through the photocopying pile this week, an assessment per subject per week starting ASAP, so some can be disregarded, seems to be a recurring theme.

TeenMinusTests · 14/03/2021 18:56

They have some formal exams in the 2 weeks before the May half term.
1 exam per GCSE, except the double award Science which has 3 papers.
They can use info from y10 as well as y11.

There are other in-class assessments between now and then, dependent on the subject.

On Friday we received a very clear document outlining:
a) what info they already have that they can use (eg y10 assessments/exams, y11 Nov mocks, various other bits)
b) in-class assessments upcoming (general, not by date)
c) paper numbers / topics for the final fortnight

Lockdown2021 · 14/03/2021 19:02

DD had assessments in Jan, sat at home and remotely invigilated. They will be doing another set of assessments after Easter, but a week or two after term starts. They all have current working grades and aspirational grades. We’ve been told they will use a variety of evidence to justify the final grade. So there is a lot of additional testing going on at the moment, e.g short tests, essays written in class so that they will have a lot of recent evidence to potentially use. I’m expecting that most of the evidence used will be from year 11 and not year 10. Also told, to get an 8 or 9 for example not all the evidence needs to be at that grade (but presumably more than 50% would be?). This is an independent school.

Original poster
GreenTeaPingPong · 14/03/2021 19:08

My DS had mocks planned for January but they were cancelled. So he will go into 6th form college having zero experience of any kind of exam, except for Y6 SATs.

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Original poster
GreenTeaPingPong · 14/03/2021 19:18

I just checked the DfE guidance here
and it says that exam boards will provide assessment materials at the end of March. No idea why DS's school is going to start assessment on 22nd March, it seems stupid. He won't even get the Easter holidays to do revision for the earliest assessments.

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ImpatientAnn · 14/03/2021 19:30

I am a secondary teacher. We will start our assessments in my subject at a similar time to your child and will also do them over several weeks.

We will be revising key topics then testing those topics - I’d imagine your school will be doing the same. There are lots of small assessments and so less to revise for each paper.

I suspect this will be better for the children then several weeks of revising then one long assessment at the end of ten weeks teaching.

Trust the people teaching and assessing your child - they want to give them the best grades they can.

ImpatientAnn · 14/03/2021 19:32

The exam board provided assessments are not new material - they will simply be selecting some past exam questions from their bank of past questions. Most teachers also have access to this bank as we pay a small fee to the exam board each year for the privilege so we won’t gain much from waiting.

Original poster
GreenTeaPingPong · 14/03/2021 20:14

Thanks for the info ImpatientAnn. I think that approach might be best for many students but not for my DS, unfortunately.

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PettsWoodParadise · 14/03/2021 21:08

Every school is taking a different approach. DD’s school say they will be assessing on a combination of their stage 1 mocks, essays, tests done during lockdown and then a series of tests in late Spring that may be past GCSE papers, or possibly these government mini-tests but as they haven’t seen the latter yet they can’t judge.

Talking to teacher friends they want something more solid to hang the results on other than just their opinion, the chances of parental backlash is very much a driver behind putting our Y11s through more testing and uncertainty.

ImpatientAnn · 14/03/2021 21:22

Also it is difficult for teachers to give an opinion on what a student’s grade is without tests to back it up. In this country there is no set level a student has to reach to be a grade 5 for example. Grades are allocated once students sit the paper - students are ranked then a percentage are awarded each grade from 9 downwards.
How do we decide who is a 5, who is a 7 or who is a 9 unless we give them a test and compare their marks to marks of students in previous years?
If the government hadn’t been so insistent that exams would go ahead they could have used the time to come up with grade descriptors to help teachers grade students properly without having to issue their own assessments.

DonGray · 15/03/2021 07:03

We had remote mocks in January and another set coming up shortly

DonLewis · 15/03/2021 07:06

Study leave after Easter hols for 2 weeks. Then it's a one and half hour paper for each subject.

Also using other data collected from other tests and pieces of work. (my son does 2 subjects with NEAs, he seems to think these will be used too). There is no new teaching, so the minute they went back they were in revision mode.

cptartapp · 15/03/2021 07:32

Teach and test in class ongoing from now, then three weeks of 'mocks' in May.
Considering most learning has been done remotely for twelve months I doubt any of them will be performing at their best.
Haven't heard any compensation will be given for these 'extenuating circumstances' but it seems very unfairly to assess them to the same standards they would have done previous cohorts.

Svrider · 15/03/2021 09:24

I think I'm in a similar situation to you green tea
My DD is doing test after test after test
They are STILL STARTING new FULL modules

So trying to "revise" lockdown learning, that they had been repeatedly told "don't worry if you don't understand we will go over it when you back in school". This is for full modules of content and new concepts not just additional information.

Trying to understand and take onboard new modules, with shit loads of homework.

Revising stuff from 2 years ago, that has not been looked at since. The school has managed to loose several original workbooks, so don't actually have anything to revise from.

Yeah, it's going great over here SadAngry

littlequestion · 15/03/2021 10:52

My DS's school has said exactly the same, @GreenTeaPingPong (might even be the same school - big one on the South Coast)? They have a date for one test - one of the sciences - and DS is putting all his energies into that. He's not doing science A level so I've told him to revise other subjects too as they will be happening in the next few weeks. But he has no idea what topics to revise.

HasaDigaEebowai · 15/03/2021 10:56

exams. The whole thing is a right mess. They've gone from thinking they have exams to thinking there are no exams to the teachers saying well we'll need to do exams..

WhatHaveIFound · 15/03/2021 11:00

We're supposed to be getting an outline of dates today but from the information DS has already had, his first assesment isn't until 20th April. He's been told there'll be no exam leave.

AlexaShutUp · 15/03/2021 11:00

Ours had mocks in November/December last year, then went straight back into a second set of formal exams when schools returned on March 8. They will then do further assessments in May.

I'm exhausted just thinking about it. It's too much pressure over an extended period. Final exams in May/June would have been infinitely preferable.

Svrider · 15/03/2021 11:34

Little question
I agree, my DD hasn't got a clue about where to start regarding revising

She's a good student, but is working on homework until 10pm most nights, so literally had no time to even think about a revision timetable

It really is shit

Original poster
GreenTeaPingPong · 15/03/2021 17:40

@littlequestion - sounds like it might be the same school, although there are several in this city - initial V school?
DS told me the teachers are downplaying the tests as if they aren't all that important, I'm trying to get him to revise but haven't a clue which ones will be first in a week's time.
I would be happier if he had mini exams in April/May to work towards.

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Original poster
GreenTeaPingPong · 15/03/2021 17:48

@cptartapp

Teach and test in class ongoing from now, then three weeks of 'mocks' in May. Considering most learning has been done remotely for twelve months I doubt any of them will be performing at their best. Haven't heard any compensation will be given for these 'extenuating circumstances' but it seems very unfairly to assess them to the same standards they would have done previous cohorts.
I imagine if everyone's in the same boat re missed education (although some schools have definitely done better than others with remote learning, and DS's was pretty shit) then it will even out. It seems from what ImpatientAnn says above that there is no set number of marks that equal a grade, though, so how the exam boards are going to make it fair I don't know. The guidance says they will be checking a small selection of schools to see how they've awarded grades.
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Original poster
GreenTeaPingPong · 15/03/2021 17:51

@Svrider

I think I'm in a similar situation to you green tea My DD is doing test after test after test They are STILL STARTING new FULL modules

So trying to "revise" lockdown learning, that they had been repeatedly told "don't worry if you don't understand we will go over it when you back in school". This is for full modules of content and new concepts not just additional information.

Trying to understand and take onboard new modules, with shit loads of homework.

Revising stuff from 2 years ago, that has not been looked at since. The school has managed to loose several original workbooks, so don't actually have anything to revise from.

Yeah, it's going great over here SadAngry

That sounds very bad, to be starting new modules now! My DS's school seems to be just doing revision, but I guess we were lucky that they start their GCSE options and courses in Y9 so had already covered a lot of content before last March.
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AChickenCalledDaal · 15/03/2021 17:53

No more teaching of content. All focus on two assessment periods, one soon and one before May half term. And then some targeted A level prep likely to be scheduled during June, which I'm pleased about.

I'm also concerned about lack of exam experience for this year group, but relieved on DDs behalf that she doesn't have to face big papers in the assembly hall, because she would undoubtedly have crashed and burned. Her school is sensible and I trust them to get things back on track in sixth form.

Original poster
GreenTeaPingPong · 15/03/2021 17:57

It's all very anxiety-provoking - for parents as well as students. I guess we have to tell ourselves that it will be looked back in years to come as a Covid-19 year and the grades aren't as life-changing as A levels - unless your DC is on the border of the grade they need to study a subject at college.

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Original poster
GreenTeaPingPong · 15/03/2021 18:00

Her school is sensible and I trust them to get things back on track in sixth form.
My DS's school only goes up to Y11, then it's 6th form college, completely different institution. A level prep in June sounds like a very good idea but couldn't happen here Sad

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