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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

2022 gcse exams?

95 replies

Wowwellokthen · 17/12/2021 21:48

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?

OP posts:

GloriaPunniford · 11/01/2022 07:52

My child has spent a long time studying An Inspector Calls. A few weeks ago he was told that the exam board have now removed it from exams so that children don’t have to study as much as other years. No one seems to appreciate that the kids have already done the studying.

spiderlight · 11/01/2022 08:20

@GloriaPunniford - that's awful!! What a waste of his time and effort - poor lad must be livid!

Igneo · 11/01/2022 09:22

What a mess.

SalonSharon · 11/01/2022 10:08

[quote spiderlight]@GloriaPunniford - that's awful!! What a waste of his time and effort - poor lad must be livid![/quote]
I feel for the poor teachers too.

Lightsabre · 11/01/2022 20:11

Come and join us on this thread for support!

Current Year 11 2021/2022 support thread pt II www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/4301269-Current-Year-11-2021-2022-support-thread-pt-II

Rummikub · 11/01/2022 22:37

@GloriaPunniford

I asked my year 11 dd and age said she still has to revise it. They’ve completed the study of it.

Exhausteddog · 11/01/2022 22:45

@Igneo
Thank you, she did well and is happy with what she got. However I think they must have significantly downgraded the mark scheme for some exams. She said one of the French exams was almost entirely on a topic they had not covered. She got 25/50 which was apparently a grade 7 (which seems quite generous compared to some of the other mark schemes)

Naem · 12/01/2022 11:14

@GloriaPunniford That I believe is the school's decision, so you might want to take it up with them.

If you check the various boards (is she doing AQA? - see www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/gcse/english-literature-8702/changes-for-2022) you will see that they have given the schools the choice as to which part of the curiculum to drop, so that:
"Choice of subject content
For 2022, we're reducing the required subject content by giving more options.
All students will be assessed on a Shakespeare play.
Schools and colleges can then choose two of the following three areas:
Anthology of poetry
Modern text
19th-century novel."

I believe an Inspector Calls comes under Modern Text -so what that means is that your school has decided that they will focus on the Anthology of poetry and the 19th Century novel, and drom the Modern Text. DD's school, in contrast, has decided to keep studying An Inspector Calls, and drop Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (29th century novel). Others are presumably choosing not to do the Poetry anthology.
So there will be questions on An Inspector Calls on the exam paper - for DC like mine to answer, it is just that the exam papers will have optional questions, and you will choose two out of three - so I would have thought (although you should check with someone who knows) that if your DS has studied An Inspector Calls, and prefers it to one of the others, he could in fact answer those questions on the exam paper in preference to the others, and not be constrained by his school. But don't take my word for it, ask some of the English teacher experts (who teach the board he is doing) on here.

spiderlight · 12/01/2022 13:03

@mumonthehill - what did your DS make of yesterday's paper? Mine seems reasonably happy about it but says the poems were quite similar and tricky to contrast. He can't remember the names of either - just that they were 'poems about depressing council estates'.

mumonthehill · 12/01/2022 13:13

@spiderlight yes he said the same the poetry was not easy and they were difficult to understand. He also said that the lower sets had only been taught to answer the character question rather than the theme one and there was no character question on the paper so those students found it very difficult. Luckily he had done themes so seemed ok. Now we just have to wait.

spiderlight · 12/01/2022 13:35

That's not very fair on the lower set students. They must have struggled :( Mine was quite pleased that loneliness came up because it was a theme we'd gone over and he had a few quotes he could use. I'm confused about the results now though - the WJEC page says 10th March, but is that their final overall result or just their grade for this paper? Mine says he has two more controlled assessments to do in class (Macbeth, I think) and the school has told us nothing about when/what they are!

mumonthehill · 12/01/2022 16:48

I do not think they will get the grades until results day, yes they still have assessments to do. Ds said that his history teacher is rushing them through course work as he is due to go on paternity leave and wants in done so the can focus on the exam in the summer. Starting in year 10 means it goes on for years!!!!

LadyLazarus40 · 12/01/2022 16:52

We were talking about this at work this week and everyone thought they’d go ahead.

LadyLazarus40 · 12/01/2022 17:36

@LadyLazarus40

We were talking about this at work this week and everyone thought they’d go ahead.

Sorry probably should have added cote subject at secondary school.

mumonthehill · 12/01/2022 17:55

@spiderlight an interesting up date from ds, he says the second English lit exam is not going ahead and they will just sit the controlled assessment on Romeo and Juliet instead. So grades will be on the exam on Tuesday and controlled assessment only.

Rummikub · 12/01/2022 21:37

Will your ds be sitting more exams in English?

spiderlight · 13/01/2022 08:20

@mumonthehill - yes, that's what our school is doing as well. Apparently schools were given the choice of doing two papers or one and the controlled assessments (I wonder whether they're at the same school now!). Has yours done a controlled assessment on Macbeth already?

mumonthehill · 13/01/2022 09:22

@spiderlight he is doing Romeo and Juliet for the assessment. He is pleased no more English literature exams!

TattiePants · 13/01/2022 17:19

@GloriaPunniford as @Naem mentioned above, English Lit paper 1 now consists of 3 optional units and each school decides which two units they will cover. Your school needs to tell the exam board which two units they are covering and the children will only see the questions relating to those units (I assume it’s 3 different exam booklets).

We are in a similar position with DS in that school have decided to drop A Christmas Carol which he knows well in place of poetry anthology which they’ve barely touched upon. After speaking to our school, DS can stick with ACC but is unlikely to get anymore teaching on it so it’s a bit of a risk. It might be worth speaking to your DC’s school if you think they’ll be unfairly disadvantaged.

PugInTheHouse · 15/01/2022 11:05

DSs school have just finished mocks but we haven't been told anything about how they are assessing in any other way. DS has got really good mock grades but from speaking to other parents from the 2020 Y11 class some actually were awarded a lower grade than they received in their mocks so I have no idea what to think.

I think DS will do well in exams however they are still learning the syllabus till Feb half term in some subjects so I have concerns about the fact they could have to isolate and will miss the final fact to face learning, several teachers have been off for significant lengths of time and also he has 2 practical subjects so I have no idea what will happen with these. We have been given very little guidance.

A couple of close friends of mine have DCs who have struggled a fair bit but are just starting to improve their grades but if they are not given the chance to take exams they may not have the opportunity to get the grade they are capable of.

DS2 is in Y9, last full year at school was junior school and he has additional learning needs, autism and ADHD. I am dreading how much he is going to struggle going into Y10.

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