Calling all Teachers

[Bitteplease]

I realise that there are no concessions given for the exams this year. Guess they have to end at some stage.

However, when speaking to teacher friends, they privately admit that their students are definitely not at the same stage they would have expected pre the pandemic, although this is not something discussed externally and certainly not communicated to parents.

Both work in secondaries, one in an indie where some GCSEs are taught over 3 years (and although in principle they should have had time to catch up as normally run as a 2-year course elsewhere, the school has not been used to teaching it over 2 years and so the change and transition in that itself has made it hard and kids are behind, not to mention staff shortages last year). My other friend works in a high performing state comp (GCSE courses are taught over 2 years so although they are doing well and have caught up some they are still behind, but also due to there being less of a working set up for virtual learning early on in the pandemic).

So, I'm calling all teachers teaching at GCSE level - are your students where you would normally expect them to be, or do you see gaps or expect to complete your syllabus later than pre-Covid?

If I had a phd I would insist on being addressed as Doctor

Yeps agree. Brilliant maths teacher I know (not @noblegiraffe haha) is a doctor so is always described and addressed as Dr xxx. Similarly for chemistry teacher who has a PhD. Not sure why that merits an eye roll.

I must admit I think it a bit daft to insist on correct titles. I don't care whether I'm Miss, Mrs or Ms on books / when spoken to. But some people do care and it is only polite to use the name you're asked to use (within reason). I tend to ask kids at the start of the year if they prefer a shortened version of their first name. I don't have to, but it is polite imo.

Yes @JemimaTiggywinkles but that poster was eye-rolling about it, putting another straw on the camel's back of persistent teacher-bashing.

I remember my physics teacher at school getting his PhD and we asked him if we now had to call him Dr. He said ‘yes, I’ve worked bloody hard for 7 years for this!’

Which seems entirely reasonable.

He said ‘yes, I’ve worked bloody hard for 7 years for this!’ Which seems entirely reasonable.

See, this is what I don't get. The attitude that if you have the time, inclination and money for further education your hard work needs to be noted by every child you come across. I mean, I'll use the title to be polite but the second someone starts banging on about how hard they worked I tend to do an internal eye roll.

But I'm probably biased, because IME it is often those whose work is completely unappreciated by society who actually work the hardest. I'd never dream of telling a young carer (for example) that they must use a particular title for me out of respect for the hard work I did to gain it.

It’s a school. If there’s one place where hard work towards academic credentials should be recognised it’s a school! It gives kids a good role model, an aspiration.

Mad that you think an extremely high level of academic success should be hidden from the kids.

The current year 11 are the only class that had a whole "normal" year before Covid hit (and that was a very long time ago!)

It's not just the lockdown, it's the fact that in between, school wasn't NORMAL. Attendance was low (largely due to isolating) there was year group bubbling, no assemblies etc (younger pupils lost their role models) and face masks (almost impossible to police who was whispering etc, general lack of accountability). Shops were shut, people couldn't get hold of uniform (and it seemed like the least of everyone's worries), so standards slipped.

Plus, teachers felt so sorry for these kids, and we wanted to welcome them with open arms whenever they were in school, so again, standards slipped.

And now we have almost a full cohort of kids who honestly don't know how to behave in school. And staff churn being what it is in education, there will be a huge chunk of staff in each school who also don't actually know their school's "normal" rules.

I wish it were as simple as saying we just need strong management and a bit of tough love. But the kids are fragile. Mental health is a huge problem. I can't even begin to think how many years it will take to undo this damage.

Not a teacher but work with 60 ish schools across my region and can confidently say Y11 broadly do seem younger, immature, less resilient and generally I do worry about how they’ll manage post 16. Serious lack of independence across the board.

Agree with parents - I don’t deal with many but the ones I have just don’t seem engaged, mind that their kids are being brats or want to deal with any of it.

I agree with everything you said and it worries me about post-16. We had a parents evening for Year 11 following the mocks and attendance was less than 40%. We have several who have school numbers blocked to save us bothering them (a direct quote, not a case of their kids blocking school!) Many parents are as apathetic as their children.

My current year 12s are struggling with independence; colleagues supervising on the EPQ are struggling with them.

Mad that you think an extremely high level of academic success should be hidden from the kids.

I never said it should be hidden - I said the kids should use the title they’re asked to use. I don’t think students who forget and accidentally say “Mrs” rather than “Dr” should be pulled up on it though. Same as I’d never pull up a kid who accidentally called me “Mrs”, and tend to laugh when they call me “Sir”. I fundamentally disagree with the stance that “you must call me Dr because I’ve worked hard”. That’s a really crap reason to respect someone’s title or name.

you must call me Dr because I’ve worked hard”. That’s a really crap reason to respect someone’s title or name.

The title is earned for holding the PhD, the academic qualification, not for the hard work.

And I can see why someone who worked hard to earn it might be more attached to their title than someone who merely has a default.

It's not quite as simple as that, but the idea is that there should be some consistency between e.g. a grade 7 year on year. KS2 results are used to make sure that if a cohort is "brighter" than average, slightly more top grades are awarded, but roughly the same proportion of students get each grade each year.

There's a guide from AQA here: store.aqa.org.uk/admin/results-days/GRADE-BOUNDARIES-MINI-GUIDE.PDF

It's very hard to predict grade boundaries because the exam might be harder/easier, and we can't know how students will do on the day until they've sat it. You can look at 2018 and 2019 grade boundaries for a guide. IMO, it would be very unlikely grade boundaries would be higher than 2019, but who knows?

There are no set grade boundaries though- if everyone got less than 50%, the exam board still has to give out some grade 9s. If everyone got better than 50%, some people would still get grade 1s.

KS2 results are used to make sure that if a cohort is "brighter" than average

Not anymore, it's national reference tests taken in Y11 now.

I thought that also, but the AQA guide which they're suggesting is current on their website says KS2 results still?

On a separate point, I hope all the parents on this thread criticising teachers are supporting the strikes so that we can hopefully recruit a "better" workforce in the coming years.

It is worth bearing in mind some students in Y11/13 will have had their education disrupted hugely not just by covid but also by staffing issues in their schools. And this also may be why they've struggled to catch up some of the work missed.

That was written in 2019, and obviously it's been a bin fire since then so I guess they haven't bothered updating as "how have grade boundaries been decided" would just be a crying face emoji?

They were supposed to be starting to use them from 2019 though, as the new KS2 results from 2020 made comparisons to previous years impossible.

The title is earned for holding the PhD, the academic qualification, not for the hard work.

Exactly. Which is why I use the title as requested but think “what a prick” to those who wang on to kids (or me) about how hard they worked. I never said that it was something to be hidden, and you owe me an apology for accusing me of that.

LOL.

I have to say, I'm grateful to everyone for sharing their experiences but it's been a rather sad read. I wonder if the lack of resilience and maturity comes from being stuck at home during lockdown and missing key developmental milestones in terms of socialisation.

Also, with parents WFH then and with WFH still at high levels, perhaps these teens have not had to be independent?

Seems as if there is a real mix here but most teachers saying their students are behind. Some that they are at the same stage with the syllabus as usual, others say they're not.

Time will tell how these youngsters fare in the GCSE (and beyond)...

Time will tell how these youngsters fare in the GCSE

They'll do as well as students did in 2019, which will be worse than 2020-2022. We know this already.

Ah, okay- that makes sense!

And yeah- "how have grade boundaries been decided", someone used a RNG?

I think the "and beyond" bit is most relevant. My Y12s are not well prepared this year.

Which isn't their fault. But there's no spare time really to make up for all the things they have missed. And I don't think that issue is going to go away that soon.

I’ve got a year 11 and there are gaps in learning and not just for him, the results for the whole cohort’s last PPE exams showed the average results and across the board they were awful - this is from a school that is well regarded in the area due to consistently good results.
The school has put in place some intervention lessons before and after school and I was told that although the teachers are trying to reteach some of the work taught in lockdown they are struggling because there is so much new content they still need to get through. During the pandemic when there were class bubbles my sons class was sat in a maths room so there were no science practicals therefor many children have struggled with 6 mark questions during PPE exams. My son has his food prep GCSE exam on the same day as one of the strikes in March and obviously no one can say at this stage what’s happening about that. This year group has gone through so much disruption, I think the pre pandemic grading is unfair.

I would echo @dutysuite your experiences with that of my yr11 DS. I have to say, after a recent parents evening to discuss mock results the teachers were all amazing and so supportive. I know they will do their best for the school and kids but it's not going to be easy. My DS used to love school but has struggled since the lockdowns, lacks motivation and seems to find the amount of work to be revised completely overwhelming (to be honest, so do I). The school runs a 3 year GCSE program but for example, in History, they have just started a new topic. We're just trying to support as best we can without nagging and encouraging him to make use of the extra support from his teachers. I agree that I think deciding to go back to pre pandemic grade boundaries and lack of concessions may be misguided. Reading some of the posts from teachers as well as parents I think we're just scraping the barrel on the long term effects lockdowns, isolations and general disruption may have had on these young, not fully developed minds.