Exams cancelled 3

[HappySonHappyMum]

Started a new thread as number 2 is full…

@mrshamlet I'm really shocked. You must be so disillusioned. I know all my teacher friends are.

Disillusioned comes with the territory sadly. Not by teaching but by the contempt with which teachers, students and schools are routinely treated.
I love my job.

Another Sunday night full of stress and upset!

DS has Sen and has really dug deep in the last few weeks to complete all of the fifty billion exams that school has set but there are 2 subjects (physics and chemistry) that he just freezes at. School have rescheduled them 3 times with the next one tomorrow. We have tried everything but he just feels so underprepared and panics - partly his Aspergers but partly because the lessons over the last 15 months have been rubbish.

School have said that without the 5th and 6th pieces of work he will likely be ungraded. DS is aware of this but we are at a point when the mental health of the whole family is suffering because of these 2 poxy subjects.

He has said he won’t complete them and we have said we are very proud of what he has achieved- now we just have to break it to school tomorrow morning.

Sorry for the rant!

Awww your poor DS @Nixand2 having exams rescheduled is so difficult for everyone let alone a neurodiverse student. I hope school help him over this hurdle. Are they able to use previous work completed seen as it’s an exceptional circumstance? School re-scheduling 3x is pretty appalling and not his fault. Given he’s done 4 ‘exams’ already will he really be ungraded? Have they given you any clue regarding his marks for those? I know they can’t grade but... We’re they very poor and they’re hoping exam 5 & 6 will give him a good uplift? Either way his MH is more important and if he really can’t face it then maybe he shouldn’t. Could you have another chat will school as ask what they can do? I’m sure your DS isn’t the only one with these challenges.

Apologies for the numerous grammar & spelling errors. Even more than my usual.

My daughter, has been under so much pressure. Tonight she has come down twice just for hugs as she is stressed to the point of paralysis over her English essays. She does procrastinate, there's no denying it, but she also agonised over every word and phrase. She had three to do for language, three for literature. They are coming in at over 3000 words long each. She can't eat, is not sleeping well. Tomorrow she has history and biology exams too. She is counting the minutes until half term and so am I. Unfortunately due to covid outbreak in her year assessments have been extended for a week after half term. So far she has done well, except for a devastating math exam, where the teacher ridiculously said he could tell who studied and who hadn't! She said it made her feel doubly worse as she had studied, and then felt she had let the teacher down and he was judging her, when actually she just struggles with math (though surprisingly is expected to get 8s in chemistry smd physics and enjoys those subjects).
I do hope they review the whole exam process fjr future years. I did not grow up in England and did not have exam based assessments. Kids still managed to get the grades needed to go to the right universities or training. This year has only made my daughter, who enjoys learning, hate school.

Thanks @NotDonna. I have emailed the school and hopefully they will get the message that these exams are not going to happen.

I feel desperately sad that DS last 2 weeks will end like this . He feels like a failure for not being able to do what the school are asking of him.

What a messed up year it has been for them.

@Nixand2 Unless the quality of what he has produced so far is ungraded, they shouldn't be awarding an ungraded just because he missed assessments. I'd appeal that! They can fill in a form to explain why your ds evidence differs to the rest of the cohort and grade him accordingly.

That’s exactly what I was thinking herc. There’s bound to be a few children who miss the assessments for a variety of reasons. How’s it going for you teachers? I’m so annoyed that you’re been treated so poorly. There’s no way of letting teachers know that they’re appreciated as it’ll come across as sucking up. Or even malpractice!

@NotDonna

That’s exactly what I was thinking herc. There’s bound to be a few children who miss the assessments for a variety of reasons. How’s it going for you teachers? I’m so annoyed that you’re been treated so poorly. There’s no way of letting teachers know that they’re appreciated as it’ll come across as sucking up. Or even malpractice!

My plan is to send emails after June 18th, and then potentially follow up again in Sept with wine or amazon vouchers or something.

My DD is taking in a few small gifts for teachers who have gone above and beyond on over the last 18 months on leaving day. Surely that can't be seen as malpractice?! Test are over at that point. It's a gesture of thanks for the help and guidance she's been given.

Yes definitely treats after exams ended. I just think teachers could do with a boost now. Not just teacher tbf but lots of folk!

Some of our teachers have been great but annoyed at two of them at the moment.
Was meant to be an assessment tomorrow but got changed to today when in lesson so DS didn't get to revise the night before like he wants to and for a different subject last week revised the night before only for it to be changed to the week after.
Parents have been told of dates of some exams but not others.
Can't wait for it to be over.

DD2 is going present shopping for her teachers tomorrow - they've been great.

I don’t feel like I can be buying presents for teachers until after the date grades are submitted. It would feel like bribery even if it were just a genuine wish to say thank you, so we are holding off until after 18 June.

DD got her first raw score back today, 47/50 in history so she is thrilled as it is a subject she plans to do at A level and thinks that ‘should’ translate as a 9 but no certainty.

DS is on now on week 5 of assesments. 15 tests so far and another 19 to go in the remaining weeks.

He's exhausted. So exhausted that he didn't even make it to school this morning, in fact he barely managed to get out of bed. The school are being very understanding as his fatigue has been going on since last Autumn. His HOY deserves a medal for all the support he's given us.

DD has her 17th and last A level assessment/test tomorrow. It's the worst one - it could include anything from the As or A2 teaching from the past two years. So, the whole course basically. And half of it will be multiple choice, which sounds better, but isn't, because there's no way to pick up any marks from working out. But she's less than 24 hours from finished and I am starting to get my daughter back.

@Livingintheclouds

My DD reached peak stress last two weeks. A week of headaches, followed by a week of not being able to eat and having a few crying meltdowns over things which wouldn't ordinarily bother her. Ive encouraged her to add as many calories to the foods she is able to eat, like smoothies, and tried to get her to at least eat a few mouthfuls of dinner or breakfast. I've drilled the importance of eating protein for breakfast on an exam days and she normally manages something but she's definitely lost weight. But she was similar during GCSEs. It's just this has gone on longer, on the back of a year full of downs and not so many ups.

I should have written chemistry is that final exam. it's the one which is most essential to where she will end up for uni!

Sorry for your struggling dcs. We never wanted it to be like this. I don't think Ofqual envisaged this either. However I can see why doing multiple assessments means schools can grade more accurately, especially given the broken year this cohort have had.

Presents aren't necessary, a heartfelt thank you and perhaps a card is enough. I hope everyone's dcs do as well as they need to for whatever comes next.

I'm interested to get teachers thoughts on what they think should have happened this year? I just feel very let down on my DD's behalf as I don't feel the grades will be universal. All the schools around us appear to be doing things totally differently to each other. I can't see how grades awarded are going to be fair when they are all being assessed on different things with no real moderation?

As a parent my dd has really struggled through the last year or so. She is dyslexic and her school are keeping us totally in the dark as to any predicted grades (at all) I have no idea what results she is likely to get on results day.

By the time she finishes school next week she will have done 45 assessments since going back after Easter.

Teacher here that would have preferred exams. Possibly with some kind of mitigation for students who had many weeks of online learning/isolation. Or exams with choice of paper for subjects like English and History where that is possible.

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation do you feel the children will end up with fair grades this year?

Some of DD's friends at other schools seem to know the content of their exams before they are sitting them 🙄 her school don't appear to have used any of the papers available online. Saying that we only checked her exam boards ...

@HercwasanEnemyofEducation

Teacher here that would have preferred exams. Possibly with some kind of mitigation for students who had many weeks of online learning/isolation. Or exams with choice of paper for subjects like English and History where that is possible.

What Herc says.

I must admit I would have preferred exams to have gone ahead with a much wider choice of questions. I'm not sure how that would have worked for science and maths though.

@alrightfella I think on a population level they will end up with fair grades. I think the vast majority will be enough to go on to whatever students what to do next. I think we can never make it fair across centres without some kind of external moderation and even then its questionable. I accept there will be some students who get a grade "4" with less ability than anothrr student who gets a grade "4" in a different school.