Current Year 11 2021/2022 support thread pt II

[StColumbofNavron]

Thread for those with Y10s finishing July 2021 ready for Y11 in Sept 2021.

All welcome.

@aramox1 I have heard from some others that schools did not want to give grades in case it went to teacher assessment again. They have said the grade distribution will be in between last year and 2019. Some of the grade boundaries do seem very narrow, not sure which boundaries they used to mark the mocks.

Hope your DS enjoys the taster day @legosnowqueen

DS had a "mock interview" at school yesterday which went well, we got his feedback sheet and in one of the comments it says "overall very impressive" so chuffed about that.

Still not a great deal of revision going on here (though he is reluctantly rereading Lord of the Flies) but the science subjects in particular seem to be setting loads of homework on seneca so I think that is useful for him to be doing. His next set of mocks start five weeks on Monday! He has a geography end of unit test next week which he is supposed to revise for as well.

We are still waiting for feedback on his drama portfolio draft, also waiting for a reply from his biology teacher. She missed parents evening (as she was ill) so I emailed her asking for general feedback and if she had any suggestions for how he could improve his grade, that was two weeks ago and no reply. Disappointing.

We’ve had sixth form interview for the school Ds1 goes today, and where he will more than likely go. He has been offered his conditional place for history, classics, politics and Spanish. She suggested he could take AS maths but he is adamant that he will be letting maths go once it is no longer compulsory. She also put the idea of Oxbridge into his head and since the interviewer is a history teacher and he wants to study history it was a pleasant interview.

It’s possible that if he gets an interview for the standalone sixth form he might decline.

Just wondered if anyone had seen an update on this point. Ignoring the fact this is a DM article - a few weeks ago Nadhim Zahawi stated this years results would be a combination of both end of year exams and teacher assessments. Has anything else been released about this yet? Thanks.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10383701/Education-Secretary-Nadhim-Zahawi-says-pupils-sit-Level-GCSE-exams-summer.html

My daughter has sat two lots of mock exams so far (November and January) with grades issued, which have been based on 2019 grade boundaries.

However, according to this article it appears that the grade boundaries used will be at a mid point between 2019 and 2021 grade boundaries, plus there will be advanced topic information provided to schools by 7.2.22.

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/headteachers-call-advance-material-2022-22861875

cupoftea2022 - when he referred to teavmcher assessed grades I think he is referring using grade boundaries for 2020 and 2021 that resulted from teacher assessed grades.

www.gov.uk/government/speeches/ofquals-approach-to-grading-exams-and-assessments-in-summer-2022-and-autumn-2021

As in any other year, exam boards will use data as a starting point, to align their standards in a subject. That will be based on an average of 2019 and 2021 results for each subject. But the grade boundaries for each specification will be set by the senior examiners, after they have reviewed the work produced by students.

‘Results overall will be higher than in 2019, and not as high as in 2020. The exact position may vary by subject and by grade. At this stage we can’t be precise because schools and colleges haven’t made entries yet – shifts in entry patterns can mean results look different, for example as more or fewer able students than in previous years enter for each subject – and of course senior examiners haven’t reviewed any work because students haven’t yet taken their exams.’

@aramox1 good that the interview went well but frustrating to be waiting for the feedback...
@StColumbofNavron that sounds like a great interview experience, very encouraging
Just been told that the March mocks will be over two weeks, one each side of DS's 16th birthday weekend when we are going to London. Not going to cancel as have tickets for an evening event...DS has promised to revise on the train journey

@legosnowqueen that’s unfortunate, but as long as there is decent, steady revision happening more generally then life has to go on alongside, plus 16 is a bit of a milestone isn’t it. The last weekend of Feb half term is chocka for DS1 for his birthday too.

@House1999

cupoftea2022 - when he referred to teavmcher assessed grades I think he is referring using grade boundaries for 2020 and 2021 that resulted from teacher assessed grades.

www.gov.uk/government/speeches/ofquals-approach-to-grading-exams-and-assessments-in-summer-2022-and-autumn-2021

As in any other year, exam boards will use data as a starting point, to align their standards in a subject. That will be based on an average of 2019 and 2021 results for each subject. But the grade boundaries for each specification will be set by the senior examiners, after they have reviewed the work produced by students.

‘Results overall will be higher than in 2019, and not as high as in 2020. The exact position may vary by subject and by grade. At this stage we can’t be precise because schools and colleges haven’t made entries yet – shifts in entry patterns can mean results look different, for example as more or fewer able students than in previous years enter for each subject – and of course senior examiners haven’t reviewed any work because students haven’t yet taken their exams.’

Thank you for this reply. I never realised that is what it meant but I think you are right.

The only part I don't understand is the amount of pull back on the existing grade boundaries.

On the basis this Year 11 has been the most disrupted of the last 3 years how can it be right that the results are going to be higher than 2019 but not even as high as 2020? Given the disruption I would expect them to be at least as high as 2021 but in fact they are going to be less than the half way year of 2020, so less than 2021 and 2020. So the grades of the most affected year are going to be marked closest to the totally non affected year. I don't get it. I know there are some adjustments but is anyone seriously asserting that these put this year's, Year 11 back to the position of the unaffected Year 11 students in 2019?

I agree @cupoftea2022 it makes no sense at all, they are the most disrupted year group and will continue to be so until the end of March minimum all the time isolation rules are in place, One of DSs close friends is off for the 2nd time since September with covid, unfortunately still testing positive on day 5 so missing at least another week in total in addition to over a week previously.

I think 2021 boundaries were way too low, results were really high causing issues for colleges with students who are not at the required level for A level courses. '

I have no idea what the right thing is but nowhere near enough allowances have been made IMO for this cohort.

The grade boundaries will be adjusted once exams have taken place. Examiners look carefully at the work of students around the grade boundaries to decide where the grade boundaries should be set.

Potentially, if needed, the grade boundaries could still be as low as 2020. The decision will only take place until the papers have been marked. This is where I feel the problem lies, as children have had such differences in how the pandemic has impacted them. Some schools taught online in the first lockdown. Some schools only held child minding places for key worker children, whilst other schools taught.

My two children had very different experiences. My ds school said that they would not be teaching key worker children as it would be unfair on the children who were at home.

Not all children had access to computers. My dd school ran out of laptops and children had to use mobile phones during the second lockdown to access Microsoft teams.

However, all schools have been allocated catch up money for mainly pupil premium children and schemes such as the national tutoring programme have taken place.

Until the exams have taken place we won’t know the impact of the pandemic on this cohort and this is where grade boundaries can be adjusted to reflect the results.

No mention of March mocks here. Just done Jan ones which went ok. Ds failing his one language though. He wants to let it slide. I still think he could save it with more work/ emergency tutoring- but he's always struggled with languages and never put in the hours. He has 9 others but goes against the grain to let him just give up.

DS2 in year 9 is already saying he is going to ignore whichever language he picks. I think that since he has to do it he should at least try to get a 5-6. I don't think I am going to have much control over that one though. It is infuriating because he is actually quite good when he does put in some work, but I can see him coming out with 2-3 tbh. They only do 9 at our school so he will have to make sure that the others are decent.

I always thought languages gcse had got quite easy but they must've got harder again. Ds appears to have been using google translate to do the homework since y8 - you'd think school would have been wise to it

DS says Spanish is the hardest GCSE out of all of them. He varies 3-4 grades between the 4 elements also! He is only doing 8 GCSEs in total, his school do 9. He couldn't do all 9 as the options didn't work in his timetable, he would have had to take either German or geography, German he'd never done and geography he had hardly done in Y9 as his private music lesson was at the same time and as he'd planned to take either history or business they said it didn't matter to miss it. He has 3 hrs of study during the school week so it's not a bad thing.

TBH it's worked out OK, he's predicted 6-9s in everything and only needs 5 x4s for his college course so it's no issue but would have been a pain if he needed more.

DS gave up on French in yr9 in the first lockdown when he was getting no teaching other than some worksheets. When I realised how much he was struggling (dyslexic) I gave him permission to stop working but the school have still insisted that he take it as it is their policy that everybody does French. He is being entered for foundation tier so the best he could get would be a 5 but he got a 3 in the mock. They have predicted him a 4 but he does no work so I don't see how he will pass.

I have been focusing on English with him as he also struggles there and it's much more important! He is predicted 5s in English but I am hoping that we might be able to improve that with lots of work. He has a limited amount of time and attention and he just cannot make himself interested in a subject he hates. Roll on September when he'll just be doing maths and science at sixth form!

Such a stupid policy to insist everybody must do it, stupid Ebacc, stupid school.

IThinkIMadeItWorse - my DS2 (Y9) is very similar, luckily the school he is at has a dyslexia/learning support unit so allow the pupils who struggle to not take languages, they allow them to drop them in Y9 if they are below their predicted levels but DS2 is just about reaching them, its almost a shame as it would really take the pressure off him if he didn't have to take 2 languages alongside everything else however he will be able to drop them in Y10.

We have put down all vocational options so are hoping the school agree to that as whilst ability-wise he is capable of higher, with his processing difficulties 5s are going to be his best case results I'd imagine. He is eligible for additional exam time but I am aware that's a battled to get agreed even with diagnosed speech and language disorders. I'll be back on the support thread 2023 no doubt

DS is struggling with French too, he tries hard but isn't a natural linguist & of course online learning plus not having a French exchange trip hasn't helped. We thought he might be put in for the Foundation level but apparently not. I hope that he passes but given where he's at would rather he focussed on getting maximum marks in the subjects which he wishes to take at A level.

Virtual 6th form taster day went well - although there was a Teams cock up by the school...first welcome event was set as public with everyone as hosts & apparently kids were messing about kicking each other out of the session which the 'host' functionality allowed them to do. Hardly the best start to the day 😂 but DS enjoyed his taster lessons & it has sharpened his thoughts on the subjects 3 & 4 dilemma.

My ds hates his language option too. Spanish is the school's main language and one is compulsory at gcse.

DS got a 6 in his y10 exams which he was thrilled with and then in his end of year report his teacher wrote that he knew ds would have been disappointed with a 6 as he was capable of more!! Ds just doesn't give a fig about it. He's literally counted out the number of lessons he has left before he can burn his books!!

I actually really believe in languages and think they are important, but they are hard and we teach them too late essentially. @aramox1 I took two languages at GCSE and two at A Level (one of them not studied before) and I definitely think it’s harder now. DS2 also uses Google for homework,
I adopt a slack attitude to it because Google isn’t going to sit the exam. He is trying to learn another language that I speak outside of school so I don’t think he hates languages more that he doesn’t like the way that they learn them at school.

My DS also detests spanish and would love to drop it as it is his weakest gcse. Also does his homework with Google translate, must be a big issue these days. He is doing an extra lunchtime session to try and help him but think it’s quite a half hearted effort.

DD is unusual in that she loves Spanish and is planning to take it for A Level (and probably study it in some way at university). Not sure where it's come from but she is very motivated (and has even got me learning some spanish).

DS in year 13 did the "ignore Spanish" route.

Ds1 is taking Spanish A Level too, in fact every time I ask him what he is revising it appears to be Spanish. I don’t think it will negatively impact DS2 too much not getting French/Spanish (even if he could manage it) but DS1 has lofty ambitions that require a bit more of a sweep across the board.

Really interesting, ds has also been considered to have possible processing issues and I wonder if that's got in the way of languages. I am a huge believer in them. Think I'm going to shift focus now to the equally failing chemistry, for which he's done 10 times as much work but with little apparent impact!

DD just got an offer from Kings Maths School though need to see if there is a way to make that work, very long commute from here. Her friend also got an offer but similar dilemma.

That’s great news.