The Fifty-fourth Republic - Easter holidays anyone?

[StaffRepFeistyClub]

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It’s the briefing from home Jan, not the U.K. one.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=CrkCOEKxfvs

It’s about 6mins in here and then one of the press questions at the end. It seems to be to do with viral load. So vaccinated people will have a lower viral load if the get infected than unvaccinated and the test isn’t sensitive enough to pick that up. I’m not sure I’ve seen anywhere in the U.K. where that’s ever been mentioned.

Definitely not in UK guidance. Um you could plonk it on the Data thread for them to mull? It would be kind of funny if it turns out there's an increasingly smaller pool of adult who they can palm the LFTs off on! I did read something yesterday about the saliva tests being approved, which sound good. Easier and more accurate.

Yes. Got an e-mail about that from work. Hopefully I should get either LFTs or LAMP within the next few weeks.

I’m going to go on the policy that if Dr Brink says it it’s likely to be more reliable than anything coming from here. Presumably we’re just trying to get rid of all the ones we bought for that moonshot thing.

I’m sure I saw something about LFTs now being available for all workers?

Well we’ve got to get rid of them all somehow.

Dr Brink also talked about the very small false positive rate. Be interesting to see how many positives they get from 80,000 tests on an island where there’s no circulating covid.

Hi folks. I enjoy following this thread as many of you are secondary and it’s good for me, as primary, to get perspective on things you are dealing with in secondary. Could I ask what arrangements your schools are doing concerning assessment of GCSEs? My son is Y10 but doing Geography and French a year early. I must admit to being quite shocked to discover that his mock this week is, we have now been informed, “D-Day” for his final assessment. No only is he doing this GCSE a year early, but he’s doing it in one year (a controversial approach I know but we are where we are). Is this standard for current GCSE assessment? It seems crazy to me. I would have thought that they would want their students in lessons for as long as possible before any judgement is made. Data is submitted from 26th May I believe, so why on Earth are they deciding now?!

He was doing well until January but did lose motivation during lockdown. 4 weeks to get back into the swing of it and now this is it. Can’t believe it. Just after some comparisons here. If this is standard then we’ll just have to suck it up and hope for the best on Wednesday which is being treated like a real GCSE (not that anyone told parents this was the case). Being called by his teacher on Friday that he needed to pull out all the stops on Wednesday felt late in the day for something of such magnitude but too early in the day for a GCSE judgement in my view. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for being told we need to kick ass but something doesn’t seem right here. If this was to ensure he wises up by May and works over Easter fair enough but for this Wednesday?

Thank god this isn’t Y11 when he does all his others. Will there be any dispensation next year or have these guys got to just get on with it?

We're not assessing year 11 until after Easter, so it seems bonkers to do it to year 10 now when you could just put it off until November.

You mean what you and he thought was his mock turns out to be the final assessment? Are they using no other evidence?

Not secondary, but that seems mad. Why would you choose to assess year 10 now using CAGs especially given the year they’ve had to do the GCSE in has been hideously disrupted?

There were Y10s last year assessed with CAGs, but that made sense as they’d covered the whole course, same as Y11.

Maybe they’re thinking the November exams will be for those unhappy with CAGs rather than first sitting so they’re giving the kids CAGs to make them eligible for November and getting them out of the way early to give time to Y11?

I quite agree. This is my take on things. I’ve emailed his teacher and hope for a response tomorrow. I’m seriously considering asking he does it next year, repeats the course. Absolutely, no point in it if he’s being judged in March and inevitably gets a lower grade than he is capable of. Thanks for your perspective here guys. It really helps.

Y11 and Y13 are mostly being assessed after Easter for us.

Sounds a bit bonkers to me. Not sure a few days notice is ethical either - how is that fair on students to have no revision time on top of having missed a lot of learning time. Our year 10s won't do mocks till the last term but they are not exam years at our school so just normal mocks but even so we have built in time to both review this years content and to revise the exam question styles.

I've just a futile little rant at ds about how I have to do everything around the house and even if he does do something I have to ask, nag and argue with him and how nice it would be if he could just go ah look the recycling is full, I'll put it out. He's 14 and I was so sure I was going to raise a boy who pulls his weight and is useful around the house. Instead I appear to have raised a Bob god help me.

DD only went back 2 weeks ago as KS2 and y11/13 only went back that date in Wales.

It's been a constant series of QMAs and exams for the fortnight.

My primary took the line that we were to spend the 2 weeks easing them back into working, making sure they were enjoying being back in school. Luckily the All-Wales tests (that they take in reading, maths and mathematical reasoning in every year from y2 to y9) have been cancelled completely again this year. And for the foreseeable.

Mostly, however, I'm bogged down with planning and considering the new curriculum which is coming in next Sept, but has been a legal requirement to be planning towards - without actually having had any details or a draft curriculum for a good while, which we do have now thankfully- for at least the last 2 years. Cos that makes sense - plan for the unknown! And a more wordy and ridiculous curriculum I've never come across before, it spends about a million words without actually being clear about what needs to be taught.

In Health and Wellbeing, the ENTIRE PE curriculum is summed up in one statement of learning at progression step 3 (to be worked up to in y4/5/6).... It says

"I can develop and apply a range of skills in familiar, unfamiliar and changing situations, exploring space creatively in response to a variety of stimuli. I can motivate myself to engage confidently in regular physical activity and sport, and am aware of my own progress."

There are 23 other statements, all to do with behaviour and wellbeing and relationships. But the above is all we have to go on for planning PE.

It's similar across the board. Woolly and sometimes vague statements, with no details.

I trained in the original National Curriculum (all 13 folders of it, to be collected from the lecture hall on the first week of my BEd and somehow carried home) dammit.... I'm used to clarity and direction!

Rant over. I'm at least on holiday now - hats off to those of you who aren't finished yet. Keep on keeping on!

@TheHoneyBadger

Sounds a bit bonkers to me. Not sure a few days notice is ethical either - how is that fair on students to have no revision time on top of having missed a lot of learning time. Our year 10s won't do mocks till the last term but they are not exam years at our school so just normal mocks but even so we have built in time to both review this years content and to revise the exam question styles.

I've just a futile little rant at ds about how I have to do everything around the house and even if he does do something I have to ask, nag and argue with him and how nice it would be if he could just go ah look the recycling is full, I'll put it out. He's 14 and I was so sure I was going to raise a boy who pulls his weight and is useful around the house. Instead I appear to have raised a Bob god help me.

Well exactly. Notice of the mock was given on the 18th but not of the gravity of it in the assessment process. I really thought this would be one of several assessments to judge the students. Giving school a chance to put me straight if I have this all wrong. I’ll keep you posted.

I wonder why I can still be surprised by the callous and thoughtless way that some schools treat children, parents and staff, and the way they can take a difficult situation and make it infinitely worse.

Morning all! 3 more get ups!

Just logged onto emails. 2 year groups out so back to sitting in an empty classroom and teaching remotely. One of those is my performing arts lesson as well. Pain in the bum!

Spent the weekend remarking work that Yr 11 keep sending me for their evidence folders. Their mocks are being held after Easter so more marking to look forward to.

Still, it’s nearly Easter!

We've been told no more assessment in 11/13 now until the exams after Easter. Which has caused much confusion.... as I explained to mine, I'm still setting them timed questions as a practice. They're not assessments because they get feedback. Others are panicking that they're not allowed to do that.
I wish SLT would a) think b) run stuff past people who actually teach a full timetable and c) write clearly and succinctly.

Response on ALGI Facebook group to the Teacher Tapp survey about mini exams:

Article in Sunday Times. Really worrying that teachers can deny students right to sit mini exams. Easy option. Lazy too. Especially those non conformist kids such as SEND. It wouldn’t surprise me. We weren’t offered it last year. And all staff did was send out power points - not what I call ‘teaching’.

Charming.

They are a nasty bunch anyway, bitter about their children's outcomes last year - and still campaigning. I do hope the DfE and the ST are please with themselves.

The ALGI group literally believe that no teacher can mark or award grades accurately so why they want them all sitting mini exams is beyond me!

I have no idea what the second half of her post even means!

@MrsHamlet

We've been told no more assessment in 11/13 now until the exams after Easter. Which has caused much confusion.... as I explained to mine, I'm still setting them timed questions as a practice. They're not assessments because they get feedback. Others are panicking that they're not allowed to do that. I wish SLT would a) think b) run stuff past people who actually teach a full timetable and c) write clearly and succinctly.

So true.

I also have Yr 9 essays to mark, Yr 10 essays and my Yr 13 NEAs but they’ll have to wait until the holidays as all spare time is taken with Yr 11.

What was the Sunday Times article and how has ‘not doing mini exams’ translated to ‘denying the right to mini exams’? What right?

I can't link it. It reported on the Teacher Tapp findings. Wills see if I can copy and paste.

Not sure if this will work

Wow they should have run that article by someone with a clue before printing. Exam boards aren’t setting mini exams and if you’re worried about parents helping, you don’t want schools using assessment materials that are going to be on the internet with mark schemes attached.