Mista: its not just secondary schools. I was governor at primary school that was "in measures" - before I was involved - following the head's involuntary retirement on health grounds following investigations of cheating in SATS for 11 year olds and more. I know its one bad apple in a barrel of good apples (I hope!) but when you make it a competition, that's what you get. But if you dont have standards, inspections and public accountability, isnt that even worse?
Last edited by ramAnag; 15-08-2020 at 12:00 PM.
Of course not, and I agree with your comments about going abroad...but why do we suddenly announce these things at 10.00 pm in the evening and seemingly give people thirty hours (I think) to get home which just - judging from the TV pictures - leads to horribly overcrowded
ferries etc.
One ‘expert’ (non-government) yesterday was actually telling people that they could manage the drive from Southern Europe in that time but weren’t allowed to stop for fuel/toilets/refreshments. Helpful that.
Not sure thats true, what I've seen is heads pointing out that the results awarded are significantly less than historic results which is borne out by examples I've looked at.
Not sure how you can blame teachers either, they didn't over predict pupils grades by 40% (its actually impossible under the system they have to work to to do that!) and that is also blown out of the water by the guy who having looked at the system to be used predicted that OFQUAL would downgrade the results by 39% and told the government this over a month ago! He had no idea what the teachers would predict, but had done a mathematical calculation as to how the moderation process would work and that was his conclusion, which was spot on!
Firstly teachers don't just give an assessment for a predicted grade, they have to work within OFQUALs guidelines - their predictions involve ranking all pupils they are assessing in each subject, from 1- 20 or however many pupils there are, oh and they cant rank a pupil equal 3rd, one has to be 3rd and the other 4th these rankings are then evidenced by using grades obtained by pupils in As levels and actual work they have done in school, plus reference to their GCSE score.
As for the system used then to determine the actual grades - this highlights the issue.
"Dave Thomson, chief statistician at education think tank FFT, illustrated the problem starkly with figures from a real, anonymous, school. At that school, he writes: “12.5% of entrants achieved A* between 2017 and 2019. And none achieved a grade U”. So, what of the school’s 2020 exam-less results?
That historic data is combined with information about individual students in a process called the “prior attainment adjustment”. This is the part of the process which has been waved away over the past week as “the model” or “the algorithm” by ministers, and it involves trying to use data about A-level pupils, including their GCSE grades, to judge how accurate their predicted grades are.
For the school Thomson analysed, that adjustment process took a school which had not had a U grade for three years, and predicted a 2.3% chance of a U grade in 2020; and the historic 12.5% A* achievement was downgraded to a 5.71% chance of that grade this year.
From there, the rounding process wrecks things further. That school, with its class of 27, was given one A* and one U – 3.7% for each. “This seems rather harsh,” Thomson writes, “given that the model prediction is for fewer than one pupil (2.30%, when each pupil counts as 3.70%) to achieve this grade.
Beyond the rounding, though, it is the adjustment process that “is absolutely fundamental to understanding how this year’s grades have been calculated”.
“Unfortunately, it raises more questions than it answers,” he says.
And that U, which was only ever predicted for just half a pupil, must be given to one pupil – whoever is ranked bottom of class by teachers – no matter how well that individual performed."
The system used is clearly flawed and the government knew this to be the case.
Couple that with the fact that Private Schools results are less affected because their averages over the years are higher (because they avoid entering less able pupils into subjects and have fewer pupils put forward for an exam) compared with say a state comprehensive who will have more pupils with a wider range of ability.
End result, some very bright pupils who have historically scored highly in GCSE's and As levels are having grade reductions.
These grade reductions are meaningful if one is looking to do certain careers, like medicine for instance. But also at the lower end will severely damage a pupils career prospects.
So we have a system applied which reinforces the inequality between those who are well off and those who come from lower income backgrounds, we have a generation of children already badly affected by a lack of education for 4 months and its summarily dismissed as being the fault of teachers?
Whether the Scottish answer is correct or not, the government have had 5 months to tackle this matter, did nothing despite knowing what would happen and then suddenly decided an appeal based on mock exam results was OK, when its ludicrous because there is no standard on how mock exams are done.
In the circumstances and accepting this is an exceptional year, allowing the predicted grades arrived at by teachers under a regime set out by OFQUAL would be the fairest. So some may get inflated results? So what? Their start in life would not be disadvantaged and after that whatever they do will be up to them and their own efforts, but at least they wouldn't have been unfairly penalised from the start!
Last edited by swaledale; 15-08-2020 at 12:49 PM.
Exactly. I’ve aimed my criticism at ethnic minorities and youngsters in U.K., very happy to to condemn those who think they can switch off once abroad, far too many (gotta say French and German too) are treating a holiday from home as a holiday from the rules as well. We’ve made a point (helped by my chronic unsociable tendencies, Mrs F has found it a struggle) to talk to no-one not wearing a mask or the other side of a screen
It isn't easy to police, but I dont get why staff walking around the store don't need to but customers do. Still I'm a passive sheep so will wear one. It's not difficult. Those that don't /won't... simple don't serve them. Close the self service tills first, though! If they then try to shoplift, security can handle it. It's only bloody mindedness in most cases.
It was a law Mista, you have to give people a chance to comply, but I agree that its crazy that shop workers are exempt, unless they're working behind a screen.
The argument, not yours, that its impossible to police really annoys me. Who polices serving booze, fags, knives and glue to underage shoppers? Have you ever tried buying more than 2 small packs of paracetamol?