GCSE Support - the results are in

[SheilaFentiman]

Continuing the threads we had going during revision and waiting for results day!

Thank you anyway, and thank you to all the teachers on these threads who have been so helpful over the last few months.

Once autistic children get the rules they fly

@takoneko
Thank you for that information and advice. I will speak to school but may have to approach Pearson myself. School seem to be just accepting what has come through - if it's correct in the end, that's fine. I just can't make it stack up!

@Monstermunchy
Completely agree - we've had parents face-to-face meetings in from September through March and no mention whatsoever of any potential issues with underperforming anywhere along the line this year. All positive and happy with how hard she was working, the time she was putting in, etc, etc, etc.

There are some complications as she was out of school a fair bit with mobility issues relating to a home school PE accident in lockdown. Fairly sure they will bring the absences up but Music was her favourite subject and she worked hard at it. Given she was out of school for over 50% of year 10 and 25% of year 11, the sheer fact that she has passed all her GCSEs with 5 and above just shows how much effort she has put in, I feel!

@beansoup absolutely - this cohort have had challenges that no one’s had to deal with before - that shouldn’t be underestimated 👍🏻

We've had a very emotionally draining couple of days here. DD has definitely missed out on a place at sixth form. She was initially very upset, but is now feeling a bit more positive with her other options.

I'm glad she is feeling more optimistic about her options. DS only just made it into his first choice college. If his Eng Lang had been a 5 and not 6 he would have been out. We thought he'd comfortably make the minimum offer of three grade 6 or above.

I hope she is very happy wherever she ends up.

@Neddevine i sat with my dd going through both her science papers this morning as she missed G6 by one point on both. We looked at what each question total marks were some it’s obvious a right or wrong mark others it’s more subjective but we crossed checked with her revision guidebook. We have decided it’s not worth asking for a remark of one paper, but I’ve asked if a science teacher can look at another because we had some large mark questions she got 1 point on and a whole 17 mark section with nothing. It’s actually been really helpful to see how gaps in what she was taught translated to no idea on these sections. As other sections she got very high marks on them. She wants to do Biology Alevel and it’s helped to see what she needs to get her up to speed. I’m happy to buy in some tutor time to cover some lost sections if needed as they had so many sub-teachers bits of the curriculum were missed but we weren’t told until too late!

DS missed a 6 in Biology by 5 marks. He met the other subject requirements for it - a 5/5 in Chemistry and Maths.

Biology is his 3rd choice A level and we won't know until next week at enrolment whether they'll still let him do it. He still wants to if they say yes but I have concerns about him keeping up because many of the other students will be those with 7-9 grades.

That said he had a bit of bad luck with Biology because his teacher who he really liked was quite ill and ended up missing a chunk of year 10 and the beginning of year 11 so the consistency was a bit lacking.

@OvaHere thank you. It was the fail in maths, as they don't offer resits in DDs school.

Congratulations to your DS!

@SuSummerCycling322
That's great you managed to get hold of the scripts.
Our school seems closed until 4th September and the last day for applying for scripts is mentioned as 4th on the form.
How did you request for yours?
Thanks

Yes I'm also interested in how to get the scripts, they also appear to cost £5 per paper.

@OvaHere i would never ever dream of suggesting what subjects someone should or shouldn’t do - but from experience, I just wanted to say that biology is a hard A level. I did it 30 years ago and it’s unrecognisable after seeing what my dc had to do.
Of course maths and chemistry are also tough but I’ve no experience of those.
does your ds have another option for his third up his sleeve or does he need biology?

Scripts are free to request although some schools seem to charge for the admin!
The deadline for priority scripts is the 7th

No he doesn't need it and he has 3 none science back up choices if college say no.

One of those might be a more sensible option but if college do relax a bit and say yes I think he will take it and obviously it's up to him at the end of the day.

It's quite likely they will steer him in another direction as it's a very over subscribed college and a lot of kids will want biology.

@OvaHere of course - it should be his choice - hope he gets to do what he wants to do.

DC2 suggested he wanted to do chemistry but his other choices are not ‘full’ sciences so I was secretly relieved when he changed his mind!

Similar here DC parents evening the week before exams started had them at 7s, some 8s (science and art) results were 65 (science) and 6 art. I have absolutely no idea what happened, DC didn't think they'd done that bad in the exams, like I'd expect with such a drop. They revised and weren't silly, so disappointing for them.
DC had a question mark over A Levels due to the science 5 but thankfully the teachers have said yes and they can join 6th form as planned.

I don't know if any teachers can answer, just being nosey really but do the subject teachers get an email sent to them with their classes results or don't they know until they return back? Some teachers were at results day but not many. Are they really interested in what each individual pupils get?

@Letskeepgoing we can see the results on a system called SISRA. I was by the pool looking at my students last week (but there is no obligation to do this). Usually make sure I'm around results day but this year my own kids were only free last 2 weeks of holiday. And afraid they come first.
I will contact my students when I'm back at work on 4th.

@Letskeepgoing it depends on the school! We get sent a spreadsheet of pupils' results broken down by tutor group, subject etc but we don't receive it until results are released to the pupils (with the exception of a small number of admin staff/key members of SMT).

I can see all of the AQA ones at question level because I have access to centre services for my school. Overall grades are on SISRA, as a previous poster mentioned. Nothing is visible until results day.
I was at results day because I was in the country this year. But we're not back til the 4th.

I bet its quite interesting looking to see. I guess there's also a lot of pressure. Did you have any real surprises this year? Pupils who did a lot better than expected and vice versa?
That's lovely you contact them when term starts!

We requested to view my DD scripts for 2 subjects via her school exams officer and the were emailed across as pdfs Friday evening. She’s missed by 1point a G6 in two sciences so they are keen to see if it’s worth a full review.

We have requested two scripts, biology and history. History she missed a nine by one mark and it’s her A level choice and she’s desperate to study it at university so the 9 is important to her.

Biology she missed an 8 by 3 marks. Asked her science teacher to look over it first to see if it’s worth a review. He emailed back to say no, just send it for review, not likely to lose marks so just submit the review.

Not very helpful so once I get the papers I’ll try and see if I can spot anything. I got an E in science so not sure I’m the best person for the job 😁

Fingers crossed her history teacher will be more helpful.

I don't know if any teachers can answer, just being nosey really but do the subject teachers get an email sent to them with their classes results or don't they know until they return back? Some teachers were at results day but not many. Are they really interested in what each individual pupils get?

I'm Head of Department and I'm very interested in what the students get, both individually and collectively. We get emailed all pupils' GCSE results on results' day. As HoD I can also look at a breakdown of marks and I do a full analysis to see what went well as a cohort and where marks were lost as a cohort. I email my department a summary of results for each class on results' day and they are very invested in their own class's results. I don't give them the full analysis until we're back in September.

It's tricky as parents/ pupils seem to expect me to be constantly on-hand from results' day onwards, and while I understand that, I do have two little children of my own. I'm spending a lot of evenings dealing with emails and questions about reviews of marking after my kids have gone to bed!