A Level Screw Up

[vetran]

Slightly controversial but this cock up lays firmly at the feet of the teachers and unions. They were out the door at the first chance and are still creating cock and bull stories to not return and have treated furlough as a big holiday.

Disadvantaged kids not being in school where the distance learning has been none existent vs the excellent distance learning provided by the private schools was always going to create a gulf especially when they push to retake the exams.

Agree

Miss V1 - her Uni closed early and little or no support.

Miss V2 did get some support after a few weeks but nowhere near a full syllabus.

Miss V3 had some work sent home and went back for 6 days over 3 weeks at the end of term.


My employer built & issued ~ 200 laptops in a week just before lockdown (we had a number of desktop users). Everyone helped, I was unpacking boxes with the CIO & BAs so the infrastructure / client device guys could do the needful. We were pretty much all working from home at the start of lockdown.

[TheGreenBastard]

If there were more than 15 students in the class they didn't use teacher predicted grades.

A-level results: Government accused of 'baking in' inequality with 'boost' for private schools | UK News | Sky News

This does make it a farce.

[NotAllThere]

So it is fair that independent schools get higher grades due to having classes smaller than 16?

It's not fair™. But is fair. What isn't fair, is that not every child is able to have a decent education, Private schools with smaller classes and better teachers (as a result of being able to pay more and/or offer a better working environment) are able to provide this.

[vetran]

This does make it a farce.

You would have thought they did these sort of checks before releasing it.

[SueEllen]

You would have thought they did these sort of checks before releasing it.

This government?


Oh and they have scewed up BTechs. Many haven't got their level 3 results.

[BABABlackSheep]

So if your child got 9 9s at GCSE and now got three Ds would you be happy?

Seriously?

ok, so this scenario means you have a school capable of producing kids with straight 9’s At GCSE who the teachers have classed as presumably going to get A*A*A* but through a combination of poor past performance at A levels, coupled with an influx of better genius kids in the sixth form results in three D’s.

Really?

Not all schools and A level colleges took the piss. Not all schools do mocks. The problem is unless the government found out which schools and A level colleges in England did a form of continuous assessment with summer first year exams, mock exams etc they have no chance of having a fair algorithm.

As I said. Past performance of schools is very consistent.

If all the schools had been honest then problem solved. They haven’t. If the government like Scotland went with teachers grades then the class of 2020 would never be trusted by Employers as having achieved those grades.

Hopefully the appeals process sorts out those that deserve it.

[eek]

Seriously?

ok, so this scenario means you have a school capable of producing kids with straight 9’s At GCSE who the teachers have classed as presumably going to get A*A*A* but through a combination of poor past performance at A levels, coupled with an influx of better genius kids in the sixth form results in three D’s.

Really?



As I said. Past performance of schools is very consistent.

If all the schools had been honest then problem solved. They haven’t. If the government like Scotland went with teachers grades then the class of 2020 would never be trusted by Employers as having achieved those grades.

Hopefully the appeals process sorts out those that deserve it.

I have seen multiple examples of SueEllen's example and worse. The worst is the A*A*A which went to CDD - and the appeal means she is waiting a year for Uni as the course is now full of private school students who kept their A's because cohorts of less than 6 went by teacher grading.

As for past performance of schools being consistent - any evidence to back up that tulip...

[BABABlackSheep]

It's not fair™. But is fair. What isn't fair, is that not every child is able to have a decent education, Private schools with smaller classes and better teachers (as a result of being able to pay more and/or offer a better working environment) are able to provide this.

It’s also not fair that(in usual circumstances) I can jump the queue to get health treatment before others because I have private medical.

Our Taxes pay for free schooling and Health care. Private schools and hospitals would close overnight if people stopped paying for their services. There is demand for them therefore they exist, and the people who can afford them have already contributed heavily via more taxes.

Further, closing private schools/hospitals puts further strain on the public sector.

Are these children at an advantage.. yes massively. Is it fair.. to the children no, to the parents yes.

Anyway.. kids being born into starvation, poverty and death..suggest we right that wrong first.

[Old Greg]

It’s also not fair that(in usual circumstances) I can jump the queue to get health treatment before others because I have private medical.

Our Taxes pay for free schooling and Health care. Private schools and hospitals would close overnight if people stopped paying for their services. There is demand for them therefore they exist, and the people who can afford them have already contributed heavily via more taxes.

Further, closing private schools/hospitals puts further strain on the public sector.

Are these children at an advantage.. yes massively. Is it fair.. to the children no, to the parents yes.

Anyway.. kids being born into starvation, poverty and death..suggest we right that wrong first.

So until this wrong has been righted, no lesser wrong should be righted? Classic.

[Whorty]

I would say I'm from a similar background, my secondary school closed due to under performance a couple of years after I left. Who were instilling the message degrees were for posh kids? I never saw that coming from the school or its staff. Culturally however, it was rife.

Definitely cultural in that until I went to Uni, except teachers, I had never met anyone who had gone to Uni. It was never a consideration when I was doing my O'levels and I only went on to 6th form for A-levels because my mates did and the 6th form was part of my school.

Same message came from teachers too, at least the career advice teachers; the suggestion seemed to be Police, Army, YTS or factory. Not exactly inspiring for kids when they aren't even aware of the options available to them.

Are you implying they wouldn't have been given a chance due to their academic record prior to covid, and now is a good time to give under achievers a opportunity?

Are they all underachievers, or are some of them as smart as those in more privileged areas but they've never had the opportunity to shine? I'd argue that a kid in a struggling school who gets an A has actually worked much harder under the circumstances compared to a kid in a public school, with smaller classes and often parent paid for private tuition. We all look at the absolute grades and not the grade in relation to the background of that kid.

There will be many many kids in poorer areas who will never reach their full potential because the door is shut on them from an early age.