Anyone getting 'the fear' about Thursday?

[YogiYoni]

I don't normally get too worried, but there are just too many unknowns this year (English).

Thanks, we are very happy! Fantastic work noble, we're one of those lucky independent international schools quietly dodging the Govebomb via IGCSE.

Teaching new specs in the UK - well, let's just say my ex colleagues aren't happy .

English results seem all over the place particularly the 6/5/4 grades

I did IGCSE too, but not independent. PRU! I told our kids it was only us, posh schools and overseas schools who got to do it. They all got a grade. Not necessarily great grades, but for them, with their education history, fantastic!! I am so proud of them!

Well done, FallenMadonna
One of the results that I still remember out of more than a decade of results is a lad with a statement who really struggled, who managed to get a G. I was so pleased for him. People who sneer at the bottom end and dismiss their efforts know nothing.

I've been thinking about that and the use of the word "pass". Even more confusing now with the 4/5 thing. I wish we just referred to grades. I can't see any situation where we couldn't just give a grade requirement rather than the word "pass". Then my students wouldn't feel like "failures" when they absolutely are not.

That's it, all GCSE grades are passes, but no one cares about the ones below the magic grade. They had a real opportunity with the reforms, then blew it the minute they started talking about good passes, then it went further downhill with strong and standard passes (so does that make the others superstrong and substandard passes?).
Although I do not want a return to two tiers at all, at least a CSE pass was seen as a pass and not a failed O-level.

I really admire your attitude to the G grade, Noble, and of course we all want the best for all our pupils whether they are top, bottom, middle outthedooranddownthepub of the heap. However, I have often felt that many pupils who are likely to get a G grade are actually so far from understanding the subject that the whole thing is, not only stressful, but pointless for them for personally. I can only imagine it must be like trying to play tennis but being so unsure of the rules and techniques required to play tennis successfully, that all you can do is occasionally get a serve which will actually go over the net and maybe return the ball once or twice - what's the point and how stressful?!

Having supported lots of students targeted very low grades, I am not convinced it's in their best interests and, in many cases, the anxiety it causes is actually cruel.

You're both so right & I feel a bit of a twat for bragging about our '100 % pass rate' .

So easy to get caught up in that culture. My students are so not any more intrinsically able than those I've taught in the UK. My department isn't magically more skilled.

It's all about high parental expectations & smaller classes making it easier to give individuals the right shove at the right time.

Gah. There's not much about this system that leaves us honestly able to take pride in the kids' genuine achievement in any meaningful way, is there?

Congratulations TheFallenMadonna - I suspect your guys have achieved rather more, in real terms, than my princelings

I moved to my current job from a wonderful leafy lane state school with hugely supportive middle class parents and stellar results. I worked as hard there as now to get those results though. I moved because I get more personal challenge and satisfaction from the difficult setting, and, owing to small classes, I can focus more on teaching and less on other things (marking 200 odd books a week for example). We talk exclusively of progress in our school, and we measure it in many areas, not just academic. It's hugely refreshing. But hard to explain outside when it's all about the top grades, and we don't have them!

Chips I agree, and with this particular student I felt it was wrong to be pushing him to be adding 3a to 2a when they had no idea what it was they were actually doing but could add 3 and 2 so got the right answer. This was years ago and now we would also enter bottom students for more relevant qualification but at the time in my school, maths was GCSE only.
But given things as they were, not as I would have liked them to be, for him to have slogged away for 11 years at maths and have come out with nothing would have been awful. The G showed he had reached a level 1 pass standard, and was an amazing achievement.

I feel a bit of a twat

Noooooo! You worked hard for your results too. My last GCSE group was top set and I was really pleased with their As and A*s, and their '100% pass rate' at Further Maths. I think we should take pride in our students' results if we know that we worked hard and that those results represent an achievement for those students.

Noble I agree with you. Interesting that you say that now you would enter bottom students for more relevant qualifications. I'm finding the opposite. Whereas we used to do that (functional skills etc), now everyone has to do GCSEs - especially with the Progress 8 pressure. Don't get me started........