Special consideration for GCSEs. Any teachers around?

[kackle]

Hi
My daughter is being granted special consideration for her GCSE grades.

Our school have been very vague about how this works.

How has this been applied in other schools please?

Thanks

It all depends on what grounds special considerations are being requested.

There is no special consideration in this years exam series. Schools will have made adjustments as per their TAG policy.

It’s been awarded due to serious parental illness.

I know it’s not being awarded this year.

I was just interested in how teachers were applying it for their cohorts

I am a secondary school teacher . As pp said , the teachers will have already taken into account any special considerations when they calculated their teacher assessed grades . We than need to fill in a form for the child to put with their evidence outlining the special consideration .

Thanks candy apple. What I want to know is how the teachers take circumstances into account. Do they look at a child let’s say with a grade 5 but know let’s say child is capable of a 6 and award a 6 grade?

I’m interested in how teachers are actually taking circumstances into account and how they affect the grade awarded.

Guidance was given to schools as to what kind of circumstances would attract what kind of consideration.

Depending on the circumstances, special consideration is either granted or not granted. If granted, the appropriate percentage uplift is applied to that student. It may be applied to one paper, one subject or all subjects depending on the particular circumstances for that student.

The difference this year being that schools decided and applied the special consideration themselves. Where as in normal years the schools apply to the exam board and it is the exam board that decides whether or not to grant it and what percentage is appropriate.

The maximum percentage given is 5% and that's for the most extenuation circumstances such as a parent or sibling dying within 3 months of the exam date (I think it's 3 months, don't quote me on that, it's a while since I read them)

Schools will not be able to tell you what has been applied. Only that it has been taken in to consideration, the same as if it had been the exam boards awarding it.

Thanks. Our school day that % allowance are not being applied this year.

So in your school , if a child had pieces of evidence showing grade 5,6,7,7 how would special consideration be applied ( the grades 5 and 6 were when my child was adversely affected) and what would the resultant end TAG grade be ?

In another subject she’s got evidence for a 9,8 7,6( 7 and 6 when my daughter was adversely affected). How would special consideration be handled and what grade would be awarded ?

Clutching at straws to understand the process as our school are being very vague.

Clutching at straws to understand the process as our school are being very vague
That's because they're not allowed to discuss anything at candidate level.
What our schools did isn't going to help you understand how your child's grade will be calculated because we all did something different. I appreciate that's not what you want to hear.

I guess I’m just interested as to how I get schools are applying special consideration. I accept this May not be the way our school will do it b

Honestly, the whole process of awarding TAGs involves so many different processes and different schools will be doing it in different ways. Special consideration is really a tiny bit of the whole process.

Just some of the factors that may be considered:
For each subject, how many different bits of evidence are they going to consider?, which ones will they be? Will there be any weighting applied to any of them? If one class sat a different paper, was it harder than the one the other class sat? Does there need to be an adjustment made there? What will that adjustment be? If a student missed a piece of work, do they get 0 and that 0 is included in an average mark? (So an average of 6,7,8 and 0 = 5.25) Or do you discount that piece of work and just take an average of the work they did do (So an average of 6,7 and 8 = 7)? Big difference, which is fairer ?. Are all bits of evidence moderated? Or just a sample? Which samples? Who moderates?
Then add the teachers holistic judgement. Then compare the results with previous cohorts, are they in line with what the school usually gets? Is there a reason they should or shouldn't be in line? At what point do you put special consideration in? Before or after or in the middle of the above?

Oh, and do all of the above plus more while still teaching your classes as normal, or even remotely as some of them are having to isolate.

In the vast majority of cases, special consideration will not change the overall grade. There is no way of extrapolating the 4 grades for the evidence you have in to the final TAG grade.

By all means ask if they have taken your DC circumstances in to consideration but the only thing you will find out will be either yes or no. As long as they say yes, then it's done. There is no benefit to you to try and second guess what grade your DC will get, or what difference the special consideration made, there are just too many different factors involved and as PP has said, different schools will have done it differently. All in the best way they could think of to award their students with the fairest grades they deserve.

I hope your DD gets the grades she needs to continue with the path she chooses and good luck for results day.

@xyzandabc

Honestly, the whole process of awarding TAGs involves so many different processes and different schools will be doing it in different ways. Special consideration is really a tiny bit of the whole process.

Just some of the factors that may be considered:
For each subject, how many different bits of evidence are they going to consider?, which ones will they be? Will there be any weighting applied to any of them? If one class sat a different paper, was it harder than the one the other class sat? Does there need to be an adjustment made there? What will that adjustment be? If a student missed a piece of work, do they get 0 and that 0 is included in an average mark? (So an average of 6,7,8 and 0 = 5.25) Or do you discount that piece of work and just take an average of the work they did do (So an average of 6,7 and 8 = 7)? Big difference, which is fairer ?. Are all bits of evidence moderated? Or just a sample? Which samples? Who moderates?
Then add the teachers holistic judgement. Then compare the results with previous cohorts, are they in line with what the school usually gets? Is there a reason they should or shouldn't be in line? At what point do you put special consideration in? Before or after or in the middle of the above?

Oh, and do all of the above plus more while still teaching your classes as normal, or even remotely as some of them are having to isolate.

In the vast majority of cases, special consideration will not change the overall grade. There is no way of extrapolating the 4 grades for the evidence you have in to the final TAG grade.

By all means ask if they have taken your DC circumstances in to consideration but the only thing you will find out will be either yes or no. As long as they say yes, then it's done. There is no benefit to you to try and second guess what grade your DC will get, or what difference the special consideration made, there are just too many different factors involved and as PP has said, different schools will have done it differently. All in the best way they could think of to award their students with the fairest grades they deserve.

I hope your DD gets the grades she needs to continue with the path she chooses and good luck for results day.

Perfectly put

xyzandabc explains perfectly.

I would just try and relax and trust the schools system. It has been nearer and more robust than last year. The fact that we teachers had to compile a portfolio of evidence and explain how we had considered special cons is a sound system. I really hope she gets the grades she deserves.

Thanks all. We are desperately worried about one of her grades which will determine if she can go to college or not. She’s borderline between 2 grade boundaries and needs the higher grade for the course she wants to do at college.

So in your school , if a child had pieces of evidence showing grade 5,6,7,7 how would special consideration be applied ( the grades 5 and 6 were when my child was adversely affected) and what would the resultant end TAG grade be ?

In another subject she’s got evidence for a 9,8 7,6( 7 and 6 when my daughter was adversely affected). How would special consideration be handled and what grade would be awarded ?

Personally, if I taught this child, I would award 7&8.

I know this might sound simplistic but it's just not worth worrying about entry grades. For one, the grades are entered and nobody can do anything about it. You won't be able to work out the grades for yourself and will just drive yourself mad trying to do it. TAGS mean grades are all over the place and so entry requirements will be different to usual one way or another but no school/college can tell you by how much until the grades come in (and won't tell you even then). Also there's very often wriggle room for students who are on a borderline when it comes to entry grades. I often hear on MN of sixth forms that are so strict in grades but I've never worked in one! And where they are strict it's for a good reason.

@kackle

Thanks all. We are desperately worried about one of her grades which will determine if she can go to college or not. She’s borderline between 2 grade boundaries and needs the higher grade for the course she wants to do at college.

If your dd is borderline between 2 grades and there are extenuating circumstances then the college is very likely to take this into consideration. So try not to worry too much about it.

Thank you all.

@kackle

Thanks. Our school day that % allowance are not being applied this year.

So in your school , if a child had pieces of evidence showing grade 5,6,7,7 how would special consideration be applied ( the grades 5 and 6 were when my child was adversely affected) and what would the resultant end TAG grade be ?

In another subject she’s got evidence for a 9,8 7,6( 7 and 6 when my daughter was adversely affected). How would special consideration be handled and what grade would be awarded ?

Clutching at straws to understand the process as our school are being very vague.

It doesn’t work like that, if a student is present in the exam but likely to be seriously disadvantaged, due to circumstances they are not responsible for, they get a percentage added to their mark, before the grade boundaries are applied, so whether it affects the grade or not depends on how close to the grade boundaries they are

For example, death of parent, or inquest into parents death, or court case relating to parents murder, less than 8 weeks before the exam, +5%. This is the highest category of for oak consideration. It never goes above 5%

Roughly, the scale goes like this

4% if- you are recovering from major surgery on the day of the exam. You are severely or permanently injured at the time of the exam, etc

3% if you break a bone or witness a death on the day of the exam

2% if you are ill injured concussed have severe morning sickness are in Labour or have more than 6 hours of exams on one day

1% for a fire alarm, severe anxiety for which medication has been prescribed , severe hay fever, etc

These are the clear cut ones.

Most applications I have made for special consideration have been for when a candidate has missed an exam, eg through being arrested for no fault of their own, etc. ( if it is their fault, they are not entitled to special consideration)

In your situation, an ill parent, depends if it is life threatening within 4 weeks if the exam (3 or 4 %) otherwise, you could maybe get 1% if your child has been on anti anxiety medication because of this

Personally, I think if she doesn’t get the grades, her best bet would be to explain the mitigating circumstances to the college. Succinctly. Or resit