The Fifteenth Republic - A Level and GCSE Results storm coming!

[StaffAssociationRepresentative]

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If you come with a stick to beat us with then please do so elsewhere and not in the staffroom

I've said before I'm not a teacher but by god this government has again proved their disrespect towards the teaching profession.
I'm hoping there will be enough teachers left so schools can function in any form.
Cannot think of many jobs where you would have to just suck up totally no respect and complete disregard of your professionalism as the norm and trundle into work happily and grateful you have a job.
I'm extremely concerned that we're going to see an exodus of teachers over the coming years.
The system is only as good as the enthusiasm and dedication of the person that stands in front of a class. Sadly that holds no value to this government

I think exams officers must be forming orderly queues today to throw themselves off the nearest viaduct...

The car park at my local secondary was full this morning. Maybe the Head has opened rooms for staff to go and have a quick Scream in.

We also have a sixth form but we don't let anyone in without 5 in English and maths so we don't have resit classes. And I'm given to understand that they remain our responsibility even if they go somewhere else. So we might end up with some students who are staying on plus others who have left wanting to redo all manner of things.

Another email reminding us that we are not allowed to discuss CAGs or rank orders...

I'm not sure what happens with the resists of English and Maths for the ones who didn't pass. Will their responsibility pass to wherever they go next like normal years? Or will they be coming back too?

Do you predict many resits of other subjects?

@Hercwasonaroll ask me tomorrow!!! I feel sick thinking about it

I have just written a very long email to my MP. I am so cross.

Good idea, Appuskidu. I'm going to join you

I’ve just had a text from my DM-reading parents saying what good news it was and how DC will be laughing now.

I very nearly imploded .

To be fair on her though, the DM headline reads like kids can just pick a grade they like the look of and they’ll get it, so hardly surprising she’s missed the point.

I think exams officers must be forming orderly queues today to throw themselves off the nearest viaduct...

University admissions officers will be close behind. When will they let us know if the mock grade has been accepted? What are we supposed to do with all of the just-missed students who are happy with their existing grade but haven't quite got the grade for our course and might get in if we take all the existing grades but not if some of the other students' grades are increased through use of mocks? How can we know that some schools won't find mock grades down the back of a cupboard, in two weeks' time (in the school holidays)?

(I'm thankfully NOT in this role this year. Exams work was hard enough).

If the appeals process was ‘Schools will be able to use valid mock results as evidence for an appeal’ then this would have been a far more palatable headline than ‘kids can get their mock results’.

But the crucial point is what will be the evidence? We have a spreadsheet of scores, will that be enough if a kid has binned their mock? Who decides whether the grade boundary attached to that score is valid?

Was Gav just assuming that ‘mock’ meant full past paper sat in exam conditions?

It's not Gav, though, is it? It's the paid lackeys at Ofqual

I can’t believe that Ofqual had anything to do with this. I mean, it’s their literal job to ensure the integrity of qualifications.

I can’t believe Gav even knows what a mock is. I can’t see him being in his job for very much longer.

‘No pupils will be disadvantaged‘ by him cancelling the exams, isn’t that what Boris said? I hope there are photos of that flying around social media tomorrow.

Remember when we were all saying ‘what are the DfE doing in lockdown? Why is there no leadership, why are we being left to sort things out for ourselves individually?’

Oh for those happy days when the DfE were on furlough.

@Appuskidu it is like the headlines saying poetry has been dropped from English Literature GCSE, cue many parents on my FB saying their children are so happy they won't need to study poetry any more, when the chances are if they have studied that element the school will drop another one they haven't studied instead.

My year 11 will be most annoyed when they find out they still have to do poetry. A colleague had already told his class they didn't need to worry about the Shakespeare... every day a new excitement!

There was an interesting letter in the paper about Ofqual and who they appoint, though. They are political appointments.

The thing that is wryly amusing me is the conversation I had with my HOF along the lines of 'thank God we don't have to use the mocks because some of them were so badly marked...'

On the subjective coursework, the irony us you get annual feedback on its accuracy, marks can be adjusted and the internal moderation processes are usually very vigorous. People font have time, or the motivation, to do this for mocks.

Maths coursework was so terrible that it was abolished by Labour. Gove didn’t even get anywhere near it.

I feel sorry for Ofqual. They designed their approach ages ago, consulted on it, communicated it to schools and we all knew exactly what we were working with. It wasn’t perfect but was probably the fairest possible under the circumstances.

Once CAGs were in, their processes worked exactly as planned. The media spun it as evil algorithms “targeting” disadvantaged pupils via a “postcode lottery” and this chaos ensued. Which Ofqual now have to sort out.

I know Maths mocks are slightly more accurate but they aren't moderated or checked. Big mark Qs are notoriously badly marked internally!

What about places that do one part of a paper as a mock. Thinking of our History dept here, and English. They don't do a full mock until April.

@noblegiraffe

Maths coursework was so terrible that it was abolished by Labour. Gove didn’t even get anywhere near it.

I have a vague recollection of doing some maths coursework for GSCE!

All my English was Coursework-no exam at all!

I genuinely don't think that matters. It's not a fashionable thing to say but Eng exams are pretty skills based. The difference between one paper and another is in the marking, often, and also just child preference sometimes.

We did maths coursework. It was something to do with fields and ploughing. I have no idea why.