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Some thoughts in no particular order about the exams proposal:
1. It says to grade kids on their current performance, not what we think they would have been awarded in the summer. Clearly this is unfair and does not allow kids to compete with last year’s cohort, or any cohort.
1. It says to grade kids on their current performance, not what we think they would have been awarded in the summer. Clearly this is unfair and does not allow kids to compete with last year’s cohort, or any cohort.
2. How do we grade kids anyway? What are the exam boundaries? Do we use 2019, which we can’t because those boundaries were created based on 2 years of uninterrupted education. It’s a thorny issue.
3. Forcing kids to sit exam board exams in the summer is just another high stakes exam system so we may as well just bring back the exams.
4. Massive differences between schools up and down the country in course coverage. Many kids missed a sig part of Y10 and some nearly all of Y11. Virtually impossible to create an exam system that caters for the range.
5. Even if you could have a pick and mix system, how do you then have parity? And there seems to be an assumption that some papers could be sat fairly as anyone can tackle them, like English Language. But teaching how to tackle that paper is, well, an entire GCSE. It’s HARD.
6. How would exam boundaries be set? Would schools just apply their own boundaries? Exam boundaries normally set after all marks are in and grade boundaries set to match numbers of previous year.
7. And how easily could teachers apply a different CAG to that outcome? And if we can easily change the grade, what’s the point in having exams set by exam boards?
8. Vast maj of schools had good moderation and were sensible and fair in their CAG distribution. Some inflation inevitable since these were predications of likelihood and couldn’t account for kids going bust on the day. Some schools clearly gamed though and should be audited.
9. We do need an end point to keep students focused. Schools should set their own assessments - exam boards could help by publishing papers from which we could choose. We then use a combination of attendance, engagement, folio work and final mini assessment to create a CAG.
10. And we need whatever direction is going to be given fast. No dithering as we’re wasting time. My view, given the situation we now face, is we ought to just do what we did last year but with clearer evidence collected - and audit the gamers. It’s the least worst option.
