The Sixty-Sixth Republic - Who will be the medal winners on Results Day? Grade inflation predicted again

[Staffholidayclubrep]

You are most welcome to this school staff support thread to get us through stressful times. It is meant for school staff only – a sort of room of requirement for school staff to let off steam.

Baiters, haters, goaders, and bashers can jog on somewhere else.

If you are NOT staff and just have a general education query please start your own thread.

Do not give the staffroom password to non-staff as it attracts the wrong sort of crowd.

Other requirements for staff room entry include the ability to find the staff room, the ability to find a clean mug in the staff room, knowledge of the photocopier codes, and the ability to sniff out where the booze is stashed - Thirsty Tuesdays, Fizz Fridays now in operation.

My Y13 class is small but I still have an almost full range of grades from A*-D.

Their grades were based on assessments across 2 years, including a full set of papers in May.

I feel confident that their grades are fair and accurate.

AFAIK a surprising number of subjects (including Maths) regularly have a high percentage of A/A* grades, approaching or exceeding 50%.
They tend to be ones people only take if they’re good at them.
I might have a look for the numbers.

analytics.ofqual.gov.uk/apps/Alevel/Outcomes_Link1/

Born this link agrees with you.

We have a grade requirement of a 6 in the subject for everything but maths, which is 7. And maths and science are the subjects which are allowed to let students drop aka push them out early in year 12 and often much later too
Music gets excellent results because only the superstars tend to do it.
English gets the full range, including the Bobs!

We have less strict requirements than you for maths but we do boot them off early doors if they aren't good enough. You can spot those who would get a U and they should do something else.

Thanks Herc for saving me the bother!

My taster session for Computing A level was denary to binary conversion (and vice versa), which meant my students self selected in about half an hour.

It's a long held bone of contention that some subjects are allowed to boot and some are not.
Tends to correlate to which HoDs the head of sixth is scared of! I'm sure I've told this story before: he used to shunt kids failing science or maths into creative writing.

@borntobequiet

Thanks Herc for saving me the bother!

My taster session for Computing A level was denary to binary conversion (and vice versa), which meant my students self selected in about half an hour.

I do a grammar test in week 1 of English language. That tends to concentrate the mind 😂

Good luck to everyone and your pupils going in today and on Thursday. I've not been involved in TAGs this year, but it's taken hours and hours with putting tests together, marking and making sure that the grades are reflective of the work submitted, and consistent with our historical results.

Signing in to new thread.

Good luck to all A level staff setting foot in the place today and any of your own children awaiting results.

Hoping Piggy and family are doing okay, too.

Best of luck to all those who input to results today, I hope they're well received.
Sorry to hear you're unwell Piggy, wishing you a speedy recovery.

We do a test in week 2 of year 12, of the GCSE stuff they need to know for A Level. That usually gets kids focused on the amount of work they need to do, and gives them time to ask to swap subjects if they think it'll be too hard. The kids have 3 weeks at the start of year 12 to decide to swap subjects so if they're still there at the end of week 3 they stay with us. We're not allowed to boot kids off, and we have to take them with a 6 at GCSE if they still want to do it after we've talked them through how difficult they'll find it. I much preferred it when they all did 4, then dropped one at the end of year 12, or earlier if they were really struggling.

46% are A or A* apparently, wow...

Apparently girls have outperformed boys for the first time this year, do we think that’s a function of TAGs or not? Grainne something on Women’s Hour says rise in girls taking Maths though.

75% more getting As and A*s since 2019...

Scottish Highers pass rate lower than usual.

Gosh, things have changed since I was secondary. One of the reasons I swapped to year 6 was because I was sick of being given kids with E grades to do History or Politics at A level and then being expected to work miracles.

I am kind of glad my eldest is a determined 4 or 5. Means there will be no decision making for him- apprenticeship if he's lucky.

Or maybe the girls engaged better with remote learning?

Just back from school. All good with the group I had!

From the BBC article

“• Independent schools: 70.1% A* and A grades

• Comprehensive schools: 39% A* and A grades”

Is that a normal kind of split?

We usually have over 80% A*/A but I teach in a grammar.

Bloody post in AIBU - from a teacher! - saying all those who achieved A*|A today will feel disappointed as their grades are undervalued and given by ‘selfish’ teachers who want to look good.

Yep. Totally gave out the two A* and 3 A grades to my class to make myself look good.

Not sure about what the E given to the student who had a B target says about me...

I guess the 2 C grades I have out where to counter the A*-As. Twat poster. Admits yes they didn’t reach A-level but apparently spoke to 10 A-level teachers who agreed with them.

*were

@MrsHamlet

Not sure about what the E given to the student who had a B target says about me...

That you needed a bigger bribe? 😉

Posts like that make me mad! I know how hard my girls worked. I’ve bloody taught them for two years!