2022 gcse exams?

[Wowwellokthen]

So much disruption in schools at the moment. My yr11 ds has had 2-3 of his subject teacher (different ones) off school I'll for the last 8 weeks. Now three sets of assessments plus mocks and not having finished the syllabus.

Can't help but wonder if exams might be cancelled again....not sure what I think would be better to be honest!

Thought?

@savagebaggagemaster

Recently I read some research via Teacher Tapp (sorry I can't find the original link) which suggests this current Y11 could very well end up being the most disadvantaged cohort so far. I think this is also based on the idea that grade to mark boundaries will probably be raised to try and get back to issuing results more in line with 'normal' years. I don't think it matters whether they close schools or not. The exam boards will need to take proper account of the disruption across the board. Many kids are being taught by supply or non-specialists. Many subjects at GCSE can't be taught by a non-specialist and most can't be at A level. Half my classes have missed several weeks of their lessons due to pupil infections. I caught Covid at school myself and so did my dh (also a teacher) and both dc - we were all off for several days as a result. We taught from home but it was not as effective and very difficult. My dd (Y11) has has had to do many lessons posted online due to her teachers being absent. Last year, TAGS were hellish for both the teachers and pupils. Everyone's mental health has been affected by this. It worries me greatly and I've no idea how my colleagues will go on.

Yes this exactly. They are very disadvantaged.

Yes, Y11 are the year group hardest hit by covid and isolations. Vaccinating them sooner would have really helped.

I think there was a lot of anger last year that schools were essentially open as normal in June and yet exam classes had already finished school having sat the assessments that counted. There wasn't any covid-related reason that they couldn't have sat exams.

So why would exams be cancelled? To account for the differing levels of disruption experienced by different schools? I think we are now way beyond the ability to tell what a student would have got were it not for covid.

@Igneo, I realise I am not all teachers but in my school we did everything we could to ensure fairness.

Firstly, the exam papers were numbered rather than having names on in our school. The exams officer had the list. My department has 2 teachers; we are an optional subject at GCSE and very small at A level. Both teachers marked all written papers (different colours) and only then were we given the numbered list. Students sat 2 sets of written assessments - Music GCSE's written component is 40% of the total - both invigilated by normal independent invigilators. With the performances, because they were videoed I knew who they were at A level. However, we both had to independently write comments justifying where on the mark scheme we placed them.

Once all those marks were in, they were compared to FFT data and the individual student's overall grade profile. We spent 3 hours on GCSE discussion with a group of 18 and an hour on A level with only a few students. Every mark was scrutinised by SLT and we were asked to produce evidence to substantiate any results which deviated from the school's expectations. In some cases, clever kids who aren't great musicians (but enjoy the subject) didn't get the 8/9 they got in other subjects. Conversely, we have some less bright but fabulous musicians whose result in Music was above their other grades. SLT accepted our rationale in all cases.

Exams and NEA are so much easier and less hassle for staff like me. I prepare them, submit work before the deadline and that's it. This was ongoing for months with loads of extra work but because I am conscientious and care about my lovely students, I did it. If this crappy government gave a shit about anything, they would put things in place NOW so we all know what is likely to happen.

I personally think the exams will go ahead. DD is in a small school and she has had multiple teachers off with Covid, one was off a month as was quite unwell. DD had Covid herself and missed school. They have had so much disruption; I only hope that the exams take this into account.
Every school has done mocks differently so to my mind it isn’t a level playing field if these end up being used as TAGs. I also agree that some schools teach to the exam. They have a rough year ahead. No one will remember this cohort in future years and will be disadvantaged compared to the (quite frankly) inflated grades from the last 2 years.

I really don't know what would be better...exams or no exams...maybe exams but with mocks/TAGs taken into account. My DS is going to be burnt out by the time the real exams happen. Plus he hasn't finished the syllabus in most subjects.

They’ll make the BTEC students do them even if the sky is falling I think but not A level and GCSE. Huge disparity in fairness with the BTEC’s last year.

Ds year 10 and in a welsh secondary is supposed to be sitting his English gcse on January 11th. It seems mad to go ahead as they are not returning to school now until the 7th and they have had so many teachers off since September. It seems unfair and a huge pressure. I think many of them did badly in their mocks and having not sat exams for ages they simply have no experience especially of how to revise.

[quote Igneo]**@cauliflowersqueeze
I don’t know how you can make such a sweeping statement that no teacher under graded. I had a yr 11 with TAGs and just don’t understand how they came up with some of the grades they did based on ongoing performance, including mock exams run under tight conditions. That you can’t believe that a single teacher would mark with unconscious bias makes me think you are ignorant of the racism and classism that some teachers perpetuate in our classrooms.
As for the appeals process, I actually couldn’t understand the stuff they sent out. How is that a fair process?[/quote]
Agree with this

Not saying intentional.

And appeals process needs to be clear and transparent.

@mumonthehill

Ds year 10 and in a welsh secondary is supposed to be sitting his English gcse on January 11th. It seems mad to go ahead as they are not returning to school now until the 7th and they have had so many teachers off since September. It seems unfair and a huge pressure. I think many of them did badly in their mocks and having not sat exams for ages they simply have no experience especially of how to revise.

As a teacher and parent I agree with this. It just isn't fair to expect kids to do exams at this stage; equally any mocks done will not reflect the kids ability, just the fact they've missed lots of teaching due to their own or teachers' absence. TAGs based on mocks would be so unfair imo.

TAGs will be partially based on mocks. Schools have to do 3 assessment sessions, so mocks, something probably March and then June.
If there are no TAGs then skip the March ones.

It’s terrible for them.

My ds is doing:
TAGs in December (just finished these)
Mocks in January (starting 6th Jan)
TAGs in February
TAGs in March/April
Real GCSE start beginning May

Each tag/mock set seem to take 2 weeks to do. I'm tired for the kids just thinking about it.

I think that if there are further widespread closures (either because schools are officially closed, or because there are outages because staff absence levels mean some have to close for a while because they cannot safely open) then there will have to be a level of assessment alongside exams - for A levels (and all 16+ and 13+ exams, not only GCSE)

Exams only will simply not be fair - it's bad enough with the amount of variation arising from closures/isolations that have happened over the last two academic years without the possibility of more, and of it falling unevenly.

When they said the announcement of possible changes to exams would be made in February, it seemed crazily late because there was so little time left after that. Now it seems rather more sensible, for by then we will know if there has been a lost/badly disrupted January.

Thanks @cauliflowersqueeze for the further details. It’s good to hear about some of the things your school have put in place to make TAGs more robust.
I also get what you are saying about grade inflation, and how unlikely it is that teachers would consciously mark anyone down out of dislike for the individual child.

My problem is that not all schools took the same approach, and certainly there was a lack of transparency in our school about howthey arrived at the marks.

In my case, my child was eventually awarded grades which were in a couple of subjects, 2 grades lower than what she had achieved in her December mocks. I was told that they weren’t allowed to use mock results at all in their calculations.

My experience is that different schools took different approaches and I suspect ours won’t be the only school that were consciously trying to avoid grade inflation, did the system they chose to use happen to disadvantage bame and WC kids?
We’ll never know how they arrived at the conclusion not to use the mock exam results in their TAGs... And knowing the school the way I do, i just don’t trust them.

The way it worked out, No teacher can say was fair based on their experiences. Schools managed the crisis in their different ways and I don’t believe there is an overall view that can be arrived at about the fairness of GCSES for those yr 11’s

Needless to say , I would prefer my current yr 11 to sit the exams.

The exams MUST go ahead. Only 16% of A level grades are predict correctly.

www.economicsobservatory.com/should-we-stop-using-predicted-level-grades-university-applications

My DD was over predicted by 2 grades in her A levels. DS, however, was under predicted. School predicted 5 and 6s for GCSE, he got 99988888777 (8 A stars!). Covid meant A levels were cancelled. He given a C grade in maths and so lost his university place. He sat the October exams and got an A star (up 3 grades!!) and went up one grade in another subject too. TAGs are great for some, but are unfair for others.

Cranmer,
I don’t think TAGs are good for many; especially if they hate exams, better to only do them once. TAGs meant multiple sittings of GCSE exams for my dd. It was awful.

How's our opinions on this now?
Ds is still trying hard with January mocks revision.

Fingers crossed they’re cancelled, it’s my last shot at my maths resit before I leave college. My class works been good so hopefully that’ll push me over

Classwork* sorry typing in the bath rn

my DD is in year 11. So far she's been reasonably lucky (not having any isolations for being a close contact) and they had mocks before christmas. However shes had a pretty crap xmas holidays and now has covid. I imagine its going to be very disrupted with teachers and pupils absent after christmas.

Ds has his mocks second week back in January. I know he has had nowhere near the same teaching as Dd had at same stage (4 school years ahead). He’s currently trying to teach himself further maths using online videos. Awful for them.
I hope exams can go ahead though.

I know its not a pity contest or a race to the bottom, but I actually thought at the time that when the first year of GCSEs was cancelled, although this was a new situation and very disruptive (and an enormous amount of work for teachers) that the 2020 GCSE students were at least in the position that by March they would have covered most of the syllabus and were potentially in a better position than those in year 10 (in March 2020)
At that time DD was in year 9 and I never really imagined we'd be in this situation again.

I think the current year 11s have had a really raw deal. Two years of disrupted teaching. No fun stuff like school trips. And now facing lots of exams with no certainty about which exams will count. That’s pretty shit really.

It's a bit of a roller coaster....mid December I thought probably cancelled....last week I thought probably not cancelled....this morning I'm back to probably cancelled. I wonder if the decision will be made 7th Feb when they said that the changes to individual exams would be finalised. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I am angry for the Year 11.
Their future employers won't care about covid when it's over and all this disruption gives them less chance of exam success

@mumonthehill - my DS is in the same boat. He had huge disruption in the last four weeks of term before Christmas - he was home with Covid for eight days and his English teacher didn't put up any work despite me messaging several times to ask her to (she sent a lovely message saying he should just concentrate on getting well, but didn't respond when I replied that he was completely asymptomatic and bored to tears, and I got no joy with his head of year either, other than 'Oh, I'll remind her...'). He then had six days out of the last ten when the entire year group was at home because of staff shortages, and now they're not back in until the 6th. We've done what we can with him over the holidays but we're not English teachers. Talking to his classmates' parents, they're all woefully unprepared, especially for the unseen poetry, which they've barely touched in class. I have no idea why the WJEC crams the whole of English Literature into one term in the first place, and it's madness under the current circumstances. They've been promised some intensive sessions but they only have three days! :(