Teen sitting GCSE exams while parent is dying

[Decompressing2]

I have often heard about how children whose parent has died, or dies, during their GCSE exams...the most they can get in terms of support is a 5% uplift to their grades. It's wrong. I am supporting this girl.
Teen forced to take GCSEs days after her dad died calls for exam change (msn.com)

The problem with teacher assessed grades is that the biggest piece of evidence they have is the mock results.
In most schools it's drilled into the kids that mocks matter, but still for many 15 year olds they don't really believe it.

The problem is that there's no consistent approach to "mocks". You can't compare child x at centre 1234 with child y at centre 4567.

Public exams are marked to a specific standard by a "small" team of people who are monitored continuously.

In my department of ten, one person will give "benefit of the doubt" marks; one thinks the mark scheme is "too complicated" so uses "gut feeling"... and so it goes on.

Just did some digging around and there's a sentence on the dfe website from last September about mocks.

It refers to one set of mocks which must be retained in case of the government determining that exams are not able to go ahead.

It specifically says that this is not for local disruption.

Would repeating the year be an option?

I really sympathise as DD was unable to complete an A level paper due to spending much of it lying on the floor in pain.In her case it was a pre-notified condition that meant she had a private room. She should not have done that paper as then they'd have used her marks from her other two papers. Special consideration in her case was a maximum of 3%. It dragged her down from an A/B borderline to a D overall. She was on a gap year due to the need for major surgery - had there been the option of an autumn resit she would have taken it, gone back to school for the term.

The real cruelty in the system is not just the low compensation for special consideration but also that the option of an autumn resit is no longer available. (Thank you Mr Gove). For a child like this one resists in a years time seems unthinkably far away - and she wouldn't have been thinking practically anyway - whereas resitting next term would be more palatable

A fairer system would allow the option of special consideration cases redoing affected papers (and just affected papers) the following autumn.

Decoart I am so sorry to hear about your daughter. XXXXX

But having twins at different schools going through the system at the same time - I could clearly see their mocks were handled differently. One big difference between the schools is when the mocks are being done in different weeks/months of the school calendar - meaning some kids at some schools have longer to learn the course work.

My twins just did the UCAS exams at their different schools - my son did his UCAS exams just after Easter - my daughter's school just finished them last Friday....a huge time gap difference. They are also not moderated because the schools use these exams for guidance. As another poster has said if mocks are to be used they need to be standardised.

Quite - and it sounds like this girl dropped by more than one grade, so more than 10%.

If she got a 7 in her mocks but thought she could get a 9, then sat the exam and actually got a 6, are you saying she should have been given 20-25% to push her up into 9 territory? Despite zero objective evidence she was capable of it?

She would have been better pushing her sixth form college to be compassionate and accept her based on her mocks/letter from her current teachers. I’d expect an admissions team to make allowances for mitigating circumstances.

Whilst when you are doing them, GCSEs are hyped up as the most important thing in your life, they really are not.

You need enough to gain admission to your chosen post-16 course.
You need maths and English, and occasionally something else (eg a science for primary teaching).
Universities may look at the grades, but will also look at information provided about extenuating circumstances.

Most sixth forms will use their discretion in the case of a child who has had a bereavement or other trauma, and because this will be at a local level, can talk to the school (if not staying at the same one) about suitability for the course.
There are autumn resits for maths and English.
Nothing's ideal, but it's very difficult to set a fair tariff for how much extra to give; some kids might be unable to think at all, whereas others may be able to switch focus and perform much as normal.
Some kids might be prouder of "6 despite circumstances", than "8 but probably only because they gave me extra because of..."

I think in a situation like this the adults should take over and stop the student from sitting the exams, any way you look at it this girl has been failed. She needs to be protected, cared for and be allowed to forget about exams. Poor kid.

We can't do that though. We can advise, yes, but in the end they have to choose.

Exactly - look at the COVID grade inflation.