Will this GCSE result impact on A’level predictions? Really worried

[GCSESbegone]

My DS has received a mark a couple of grades lower than he was expecting for a subject he is taking at A’level. It was a real shock as it has always been a subject he’s excelled in and even his teacher has said he would have expected him to do much better and has no worries about him taking the subject at A’level or doing well in it. The exams were marked externally and his teacher had no input. We’ve looked into appealing but are pretty sure it will get us nowhere. I’ve now started a spiral of worrying that this is going to have a big impact on predicted grades and subsequently getting university offers as he needs high grades for the course he wants to do. Can anyone reassure me as I really am worried. All other grades were very good.

Don't worry too much. Yes they will use GCSEs as a starting point, but they will also use how he does during classes and in tests. He just needs to hit the ground running when term starts.

It’ll be fine, it’ll be how he performs on the course that counts. Similar thing happened to me- think I just had a harsh marker. Got a C in the subject at GCSE and ended up with an A at A Level. Just one of those random things.

Whi marked the exams??

Who! Sorry...

@Piggywaspushed they were sent to another school then sent back and SLT applied grade boundaries (2017-2019) so actual teachers were not involved.

Oooh, pretty sure you can appeal that. They are supposed to be teacher assessed grades. Class teachers should have had input and grade boundaries were not meant to be applied. Exam boards sent out useless grade descriptors.

What subject it is? If maths, perhaps not such an issue because marking is objective.

That doesn't sound right. Have the school published their process? Just checking you're in England too.

If push comes to shove, could he plan a year out and apply with grades in hand?

@Hercisback yes we’re in England. I’ve just checked and there is a centre policy published on the website which has been approved by the JCQ. This is the bit about grade boundaries I think:

This section gives details of our internal process to ensure a comparison of teacher assessed grades at qualification level to results for previous cohorts in our centre taking the same qualification.
• We will compile information on the grades awarded to our students in past June series in which exams took place (e.g. 2017 - 2019).
• We will consider the size of our cohort from year to year.
• We will consider the stability of our centre’s overall grade outcomes from year to year.
• We will consider both subject and centre level variation in our outcomes during the
internal quality assurance process.
• We will prepare a succinct narrative on the outcomes of the review against historic data
which, in the event of significant divergence from the qualifications-levels profiles attained
in previous examined years, which address the reasons for this divergence. This
commentary will be available for subsequent review during the QA process.

You need the bit about the evidence they are using to give the grades. The bit above is pretty standard, their process for getting to a point where they have grades sounds unusual. They should be teacher assessed, not awarded by a randomer.

I don't like tge found of any of the stuff about prior performance. That sounds very much like last year's process reapplied internally. Class teachers should not have had all agency removed. In my school our data team made up grades for us which pissed me off but it was based on our marking and we could negotiate.

Is this a MAT?

Excuse typos

@Hercisback this is the tricky bit as the policy just states teachers will mark them and goes through how they will be trained etc. so all looks like it’s their actual teachers marking. In reality the papers were sent to another school to be marked totally bi passing the actual teachers. We were told this by DSs teachers on results day as they were completely unaware of the grade ds had received for their subjects and asked him after he opened his envelope.

@Piggywaspushed what is a MAT? I’m baffled by the whole thing.

The teachers still should have signed off on the grades. Find out who signed off on them because they would have known what grades were submitted.

In your situation I'd probably appeal.

@Hercisback
This is the response I received from school when I queried the grade:

All grades in all subjects were signed off by two members of staff, one of which was always the head of subject as prescribed by the exam boards and made explicit in our procedures. This was done anonymously. So grade boundaries were applied by heads of subject and myself without either of us being aware of the students names.

In the case of this subject, the head of subject does not actually teach the subject in question but another related subject.

The email I received was quite implicit that school had done everything properly and we’d get nowhere with an appeal unfortunately.

Multi Academy Trust. I can't see why you give over marking to a whole other school unless you absolutely believed their marking was to the same standard . Cross school moderation was reasonably common but I haven't heard of schools swapping marking.

The head of subject should have known names.

This sounds like a school which doesn't trust its teachers...

Do you not want to say what the subject is? It could make a difference.

The same format was followed for all the subjects but the mark we’re surprised by is Computer Science. The head of subject teaches imedia.

@GCSESbegone that was the exact procedure our school, and many others used. Calling them teacher assessed was always nonsense as most schools made students sit exams in exam conditions. The only teacher bit about it is we had to write and mark and moderate and set grade boundaries, rather than the exam boards (who we still had to pay). Hopefully it made it as fair as it could be as we had to have lots of evidence to back up the grades.

But you marked and moderated themmum?

For UCAS predicted grades it should be possible to get an upgrade if needed if he's staying at the same school. Teachers will be v aware that students have been through a horrible time with GCSEs & I'd hope make allowances when giving UCAS grades.

@Piggywaspushed I marked students I don't teach, moderated another schools students and never saw the final results of my own students. I set the grade boundaries when I saw the overall profile of the year group - no idea who had scored what. SLT then applied these grades and exams officer sent to exam boards. I found out the grades on Tuesday and Thursday, same as the kids.
We, and many other schools, tried our best to take any bias out the process and try and be as fair as we could to the students. They knew what exams carried what weighting. We tried.