Y10 and Y12....

[teachpaint]

If this mess isn’t over soon and we’re not back until September, does anyone have any predictions of what they think will happen to the pupils sitting GCSES/ A levels in 2021?

Some colleagues think we won’t be back until October and may be off again around Christmas, extending that holiday if there’s another winter peak.

Obviously no one knows anything, including my school, I’m just interested to hear what you all think will happen, if we’ll have another cancelled exam cohort or if they’ll somehow scrap elements of the course? I don’t see how that would work though and schools work through the course in different orders, at different rate?

anyone

I think the silence tells you none of us has a bloody clue! Not least the DfE whose silence on many matters is deafening...

I emailed the subject officer for my subject (History) at the exam board we use, saying that I'm really worried as there is no way I will be able finish the GCSE course. I've had to set something brand new for Year 10, and I know most are not engaging with it properly, so I'll have to go over everything again to ensure they will be exam ready. Losing over 4 months teaching will mean it will be impossible to get everything done with Year 11 who only have 4 lessons a fortnight. He completely understood my concerns. I asked whether there may be a reduction in the number of units we are expected to teach, which of course he couldn't answer, but did say they are going to be discussing all possibilities.

I think the only thing they can do is reduce what has to be taught but as we all work from our own schemes of work and don’t necessarily do things in the same order, I am concerned as to how it might pan out. We follow a text book but I know there is another textbook available that does things in a very different order. So how would the reduction work? Complete X number of questions out of Y so students can choose?

I think that is why it is so problematic. And getting students to choose would disadvantage weaker students who tend to get very muddled by exam rubric as it is.

Huge amounts of headscratching required !

Certainly in my subject at GCSE it would be fairly straightforward to have choices rather than 4 compulsory elements. I don't think it would have to be that complicated either. They'll have to cut the content. Either that or massively reduced grade boundaries but I think it serves the kids better to do less content well than to try and rush through it all and accept that they'll be shit at it all.

In maths it will mean more students entering Foundation at GCSE because they won’t have covered enough content to give higher a go. So students who would have got a 6 will now be Foundation.

This then caps achievement at a 5 for them so they wouldn’t be able to lower grade boundaries to get the right distribution of 6s

Do we just accept that all kids will have missed out, let them sit the exams and expect lower grade boundaries?

We all know the disadvantage gap is getting wider every day the students aren't in school. It's incredibly difficult to close this at the moment (I'd argue nigh on impossible from behind a screen).

Cutting out parts of specifications feels the wrong road to go down.

I predict some schools narrowing the curriculum, so some options aren't continued into year 11, giving more time to fewer subjects. I predict ofsted will turn a blind eye to this for the 2021-22 cohort. I hope prog 8 becomes prog 7 or even 6 to allow this to happen.

Would more choice of exam questions do it to recognise that they won't cover all the syllabus but that people will have covered different bits of the syllabus?

I think lowering grade boundaries is one thing but in text based exams, whole texts may be now unstudied. Students may not even be able to attempt questions at all.

Still all of this is a long way off.

I'm coming from a maths pov, having a choice of questions seems very very unfair, lower boundaries would solve most of the issues (apart from the disadvantage gap).

Having a choice in longer essay based subjects does seem like a fair compromise. Students will still have the same skills but they will use different content knowledge to answer.

I expect every subject will have different needs depending on exam/course structure.

@Piggywaspushed
In English lit and subjects like History, surely pupils could do a limited about of the paper, say everyone does 3 texts, instead of 4? (random numbers but you see what I mean hopefully)

@Hercwasonaroll
I agree 100%
I don’t think a choice of questions in maths/science based exams would be fair at all, especially as many of them are designed to confuse the pupils and that would greatly disadvantage already disadvantaged kids.

It's not that simple though because there are two papers so how would anyone know which paper which school would have a choice on? And some schools which do three years GCSEs might have done all the texts already, so might game the system a bit.

And, also, each text does not carry the same number of marks and there are 15 poems, some of which might have been properly covered and other not.

With my other GCSE, there are texts ,as such but they all test completely different elements of the spec and are all worth different marks!

Still all of this is a long way off

Not really. We need to know so we can hit the ground running come September. Any dithering will make it even harder than it already is going to be! I feel so, so sad for my lovely year 10s.

@Sotiredofthislife

Me too. We don’t want a repeat of this year, not knowing until the last minute. It’s just not fair on us or the y10s and 12s.

My tutor class is one of those years and I feel for them so much, they work so hard and desire some certainty.

And, also, each text does not carry the same number of marks and there are 15 poems, some of which might have been properly covered and other not.

So instead of having one poem question you have three or four to choose from in the basis that you're likely to have studied one of them. You're still expected to give a similar quality answer on the work you've done whilst actually at school but it accounts for less coverage of the syllabus. Surely just lowering the grade boundaries will privilege the kids who've had better teaching and/or live in less difficult home situations.

I don't afvocate lowering grade boundaries.

I don't know what the solution is but choices of questions is bewildering for students. That gets messed up every year in the modern text section. Besides, 15 poems means a wide range of done/not done variables.

I guess I'd want the exam streamlined, so something removed : no idea how though.

I meant a long way off rather ironically, given that they still haven't told us what is happening with the current batch of year 11s and 13s!!

Knowing the DfE , they'll say it's a; normal as you taught them from home!

all

I think the boundaries will naturally be lower as there is a similar distribution of grades each year. Boundaries move (sometimes significantly) year on year so lowering them would be "fair" to all.

But what about whole sections worth of boundary lowering? I have to teach a whole text (this is not English and the word 'text' is a complex thing) from home this term which not all students will even be able to access. There won't be time to catch it up. We are talking about 25 marks on paper out of 100 being hugely crap. More than just the loss of a couple of marks here!

Simply lowering grade boundaries wouldn't work in History. If we don't get around to teaching a unit, they won't be able be answer any of the questions on that particular exam. There are 4 units and they have a separate exam on each.

Yes, same thoughts for me. I am actually sure it must be the same for every subject. A whole summer term's worth of year 10 learning can't only be revisiting old stuff. And , if it could easily be taught from home, what would be the point of anything?!

I can only imagine how much chaos this will cause in eg DT , food , Dance , PE !

And MFL : 'learn a whole new topic and set of vocabulary and some grammar all by yourselves, year 10'!

I have both year 10’s and 12’s at home.

They are doing their beat at the home learning but it’s not the same.

DS isn’t a reader (dyslexic) so struggles at school with the work let alone being self motivated at home even with me pushing.

I am worried. I don’t know what will happen.