Y11 2023/24 thread 5 - results!

[Techno56]

New thread as no 4 is nearly full

All these comments about schools only bothering with the high achieving pupils makes me so cross. It is ridiculously unfair, and just plain wrong. My DD did very well yesterday, as did the majority of her year group - they are in a selective grammar school, and are a particularly good year group. There were certainly plenty of pupils chatting to teachers outside yesterday and hearing congratulations and seeing lots of smiles.

The ONLY pupils who were given more than that, were the ones who had struggled. Anyone who was in tears, or looked shocked or upset in any way was ushered inside and given a ton of support and comfort. For everyone else, it was smiles, congratulations, and then told to phone the school later in the day to discuss changes to subject choices for next year if required.

One of DD’s friends didn’t get the grades she had been hoping for and is now rethinking her choices for next year. The reality is, that she didn’t do enough work - she’s a bit of a messer and just didn’t knuckle down enough. She knows that, her parents know that, the school knows that - absolutely no-one berated her yesterday - the school offered her nothing but support, comfort and encouragement. Equally an another girl who busted a gut through some really awful health struggles, also didn’t achieve what she’d hoped for - through absolutely no fault of her own - she received the exact same support, comfort and encouragement. THAT’S how it should be done.

English lang shock here but the other way. WJEC board. DS got 3 in mock and just hoping for a 4. Papers didn't go well and one question unanswered altogether. Got a 6! All of us still stunned.

Some teachers are pompous doom-mongers. DS’s school has no 6th form. Had to race round 6th forms by bus in rain to get him sorted on a course when he hadn’t done great. He was white and in a daze. I had to challenge one teacher at a middle-class favoured school who patronisingly said (after we’d waited over an hour in utter chaos) the 3 in English Language was not only a bar to entering their school, but would be for uni and employers too. No solution (e.g. he can retake it while starting an A level). Just negativity in front of obviously devastated DS.

In contrast, arriving at college were met at door by lovely head, who said don’t worry, not a problem. We’ll make sure you pass the retake and you can go straight onto BTEC level 3 if you want, which means you can be studying law at uni in two years. I wonder how many kids have given up on further education due to insensitive, negative teachers.

It’s AQA English Language DS got a 3 in. Loves English and worked so hard. Got a 4 in the Lit. Reading this thread, I feel like a super-complaint to AQA. There are clearly a lot of kids who’ve been disappointed and set back by that one. Do AQA make money from the reviews?

DS was AQA English. Had been a high 6 for lang in mocks, got 7. Lit consistently high 8 in mocks, got a low 7. So a drop but not a massive one.

His combined Science grades were several grades below mocks and he thought papers went well so that was main shock for him.

@FerminRomeroDeTorres

they are in a selective grammar school, and are a particularly good year group

So that school isn't concerned about keeping good students for sixth form and there aren't very many struggling.

Schools are desperate to keep their high achievers as they need the funding and good results encourage others to attend that sixth form.

I don't agree with it and there should be support for all students but you can see why from a business point of view why in schools where less kids did well they are keen to get them signed up to sixth form

DD did the same board for English Language and got a 5 over the moon for her as struggles academically

@FerminRomeroDeTorres After DD's GCSE results collection I actually wrote to her school and complained/suggested improvements.

My view was that vulnerable kids who had done less well than hoped should have an indicator against their name and a member of pastoral staff or whoever available when they opened their results. Duty of care to the end.

@Midnightstar76 it's such a relief isn't it? Well done to your DD!

@Rumplestiltz are iGCSE only available to private schools? State schools don’t have it as an option at all? Do you know why this is? We saw in Covid when then were teacher based assessments and grades how inflated their grades were. I can only imagine that this happens every year with the igcse.

Just to say that DC at an indie school and they do bog standard GCSEs. I don't know any in our area that do iGCSEs.

@Muchtoomuchtodo yes gove banned them from state schools when GCSEs were reformed and made harder. Private schools can still choose them, or choose them for certain subjects. Certainly the local private schools near me use them, and my friends who go there openly admit to supporting their dcs who need it with the English coursework. Because of course you do.

inews.co.uk/news/education/igcse-private-school-benefits-education-reform-386152?srsltid=AfmBOopdWtQh-nXrriPnhMOqrSooqmgAK4uoMKwCkstpW2ORMBJQ9db0

Dd 2 marks form 9 in English language is it worth remarking and how much does it cost

Year 12 - 2024/25 - Support, Discussion and Looking After Each Other http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/further_education/5148656-year-12-202425-support-discussion-and-looking-after-each-other

For discussion beyond GCSE results

Well something has obviously gone wrong with AQA. English results! Will anyone actually do anything about it though…

My DCs did the Cambridge English which is 50% coursework. They did it in school supervised and the teachers can see if they access it on the drive outside of school so certainly neither of mine had additional help. They do get feedback after a draft but it's minimal. My DS1 did really well in the coursework, 9, 8, 8 then got a 7 overall so the exam can't have been that easy, he was a mark off an 8 but we didn't get a review as a 7 is really good. DS2 got 5s in course and 5 overall. He had no interest in adding more to his coursework to get higher and the school/us let him do that as its the grade he deserved.

I definitely think the coursework for English makes sense, it is a great way to assess the Eng lang ability. I hate the exam only GCSEs and think there should be more half and half ones. It does rely on really good teaching though, my DC have done some vocational ones at school and due to some extremely poor teaching have been severly let down with the coursework elements and have had to scrape their marks up through the exams which are worth sometimes less than half.

The school should be able to provide you that info, we got it in with the exam results envelope. I don't believe they actually remark though just review. Does an 8 or 9 make a difference for college? It's worth speaking to the teacher first to see what they think.

For ds’s school , the teachers will get the exam papers ( if they feel it is appropriate) and then if they want a review by the exam board after looking at them , they will organise it and there isn’t a charge to parents. Where teachers aren’t requesting them, there is a different process. I think that the exam papers should really be looked at by their teacher first tbh. So I am leaving it in the hands of school. It’s probably worth emailing the exam team of your school.

I understand why there are sometimes such discrepancies for English tbh. With science or maths for example, these are subjects you either know or you don’t. Whereas with English it really depends on the question and your ability to put together a coherent answer on the day. You could have a student that writes a grade 9 essay with one question and a grade 6 essay on another question where they didn’t feel so confident or just waffled.. And with just two essays on some of the exams you can see why there can be huge differences between mocks and final exams.

DS and his friends did AQA English and all seem to have got the grades they were predicted - no real surprises. The results didn't have the Eng Lang mark just the letter, so I've emailed the school to ask for this.

Can DS ask for his marked papers back? He's interested to see how they marked his papers. He is taking A Level Eng Lit and got 157/160 so would like to replicate this in all essays in future!

I agree with chickentickle it's harder to predict final marks in the essay subjects as the marks schemes are far more vague and individual examiner's presumably have more scope during marking.

DS was one mark off the higher grade in two exams but both were sciences so we're not going to ask for a review. I understand the need when it is the difference between getting the result you need for next steps though.

@Rumplestiltz DS did IGCSE English and there is no coursework. It was all exams.

Can DS ask for his marked papers back? He's interested to see how they marked his papers. He is taking A Level Eng Lit and got 157/160 so would like to replicate this in all essays in future!

Yes. He just needs to contact the centre and ask for them.

Our school used to do iGCSEs but the gov wouldn't count them in Progress 8 marks so they stopped doing it.

@deuxgarcons the point is that’s a choice your school made. The option is there to do the coursework instead of an exam with igcse. And plenty of schools use this. I don’t have a problem with coursework - but it should be a fair playing field.

Thanks MrsHamlet. I'll get him to do that today.

DD did AQA English Lit - was really worried she had screwed up one question, but got 100 percent of marks!