In the news

I was one of them. Predicted grades of Es because I pissed about but ended up with As and Bs

I think if students think that all that matters is exams at the end of two years, it's a risky strategy and goes against what we are telling them (and doesn't often work) - but it's within their rights to give it a go.

I obviously can't speak for where you teach but, having had three kids at three different secondary schools/sixth form colleges in three different London boroughs, the one thing that has been consistent is that they have taught students to pass exams, at the expense of a more holistic or course-based approach. The evidence that I hope will be inluded is the previous cohorts who have performed when they were told it mattered - the exams - even if their course work was not of the same standard.

I think one of the pieces of evidence schools will be able to use in appeals is the historical step up from mock to final exam. But if they have kick-up-the-arse marked the mocks obviously that is unlikely to be much use as a fallback position.

Well, there's only a few hours to wait for child 2, so we'll see. The other unknown is how universties will react if students have missed offers by a grade here or there. Apparently Russell Group universities have a lot of unallocated places, so clearing will be interesting. Mine has added to the confusion by deferring...

Is that the choice?

Kids who work diligently on coursework year round are rewarded. Not penalising children who achieve most of their performance in the exams doesn't disadvantage the 'diligent' ones does it?

Csb warning.

I had one of my A Levels downgraded because one of my classmates got hold of the exam paper in advance. He offered it to me and I refused. Exam board didn't believe anybody would have said no so downgraded the whole class.

I still fume about that.

I thought the large number of un-allocated spaces was because so many people have deferred in the hopes they get a more traditional freshers year rather than the unknown at the moment?

Don't want to miss all the banging.

That and all the international students who don’t want to try to live in a different country during a global pandemic.

The loss of an entire cohort of international students and their considerably higher fees is going to kick many universities’ business models right in the balls.

a guy i know from down the park when i go dogging... walking the dog is head chef for Brighton Uni and he says their most important part of the year for his dept is catering for all the international students who study over the summer and the uni is basically fucked if they dont pay them a shit ton of money (which they do).

Yeah, a lot of universities are in Massive Panic mode because a huge percentage of their income comes from international fees. They are going to be heading into clearing in a desperate attempt to hoover up as many domestic students as they can to try to shore up their finances. It’s a buyer’s market if you’re a student - even if you get your grades you’d be well advised to go into clearing anyway to see if you can get an upgrade on your current offer. Someone at the bottom of this food chain is going to get absolutely fucked though, and there’s no guarantee the government will step in to bail anyone out given their generalised antipathy to higher education.

It’s almost like the marketisation of the university sector was a fucking terrible idea.

My ADHD and Dyslexia weren't diagnosed until I was 26, thanks to teachers only looking for that kind of thing in the lower sets. I was good at exams, awful at homework whether coursework or not. I am incapable of revising and incredibly good at winging it (in all contexts). I overanalyse because that's how I learn. I only got a C in A-level Maths+Stats because I couldn't reliably pick apart the nuts and bolts of them without getting misdirected by the maze of suspiciously similar jumbles of symbols and operators.

What I have learned in the almost 8 years since diagnosis is that I engage with people and lived experiences. If I had been a teenager this year, I'd be utterly fucked for life, rather than just wishing I'd been diagnosed before the 4 years that earned me a 2:2 BSc.

I think one of the reasons I really like where I work is that we are discouraged from teaching to the exam and encouraged to develop "scholarliness" and going beyond the syllabus. But I'm aware it's unusual and that a lot of "education" is quite formulaic and dull.

Apparently stealing cardboard left for recycling and selling it to recyclers is a lucrative business.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53724620

Moreso when we’re already paying company to get it recycled in the first place! (bike shop).

Hah, sounds like leaving it on the street will attract freelance cardboard recyclers.

That is exactly what happens here in HK mainly by older generation. Cardboard uncles and cardboard grannies. They collect it snd then take to independant recycler middle men who ship it off to China or India.
It's way the support them selves.

there’s no guarantee the government will step in to bail anyone out given their generalised antipathy to higher education.

Educated people don't vote Tory

Either that or they went to elite universities that won't require a bailout of any form.

doesn't disadvantage the 'diligent' ones does it?

Depends how you approach it I guess. Given that you have grade weighting the last min chancers inevitably have an impact on everyone else grades.

Is that about this covid long break or about long summer holidays?

Just the extra long summer holiday.

The general rough consensus is spacing everything out more evenly - which also means students and teachers are less run down at the end of term.

Other's have summarized some of the other benefits which are interesting to read about, but all-in-all it's fucking odd that the first industrialised nation has its education system built on an agrarian calendar.

If the diligent ones don't outperform the 'chancers' then they don't get as good a grade yes, but if they can't manage that then they aren't brighter than the chancers are they? That's the point of the exam to test performance not effort.

If the exam is challenging enough to require more work, then longer term effort will be rewarded over cramming.

Similarly, if the exam is so easy that you can get a good mark with a few hours revision then you'd be pretty dumb to spend half the term preparing for it.

you'd be pretty dumb to spend half the term preparing for it

that depends if - as a student - you're solely exam result oriented or not.
even if you are, you might consider it insurance.

Exams are bullshit anyway, revising it cheating.

Except the OfS implemented new caps on student numbers after the offers had been made. We're more scared of having too many students that meet their offer and ending up with a huge fine...