If you have kids getting English GCSE results tomorrow I'm sorry

[fleckneymike]

They were going to get a C but then someone didn't just move the goalposts, they created a new sport and put them on a different planet

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/aug/22/english-gcses-marked-down-teachers?CMP=twt_gu

[danny.]

Iz it cos kids today cant of been writing english proper tho? pmsl!

[Guest MattP]

Well at least we seem to have got by the stage where you got an E for writing your name down.

Good luck to anyone tomorrow, still remember GCSE day, I was very upset at my results but it turned into a big turning point in my life.

Whatever you get don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either.

[fleckneymike]

They're going to need that luck, schools reporting drops of between 10 and 30% for A-C levels.

This is pure politics, they moved the boundaries without telling teachers. Essentially if you were a C grade student you are more than likely looking at getting a D tomorrow.

[I am Rod Hull]

My lad is getting his tomorrow.

Oh dear...

*Edit - Hold on a minute..... Being born a year late could fvck my lads future up?

[fleckneymike]

My lad is getting his tomorrow.

Oh dear...

You can thank Michael Gove. I hope your lad is ok but his generation have been shat on from a great height.

This scandal appears to be targeted at C grade students in order to force their schools into special measures so the Govt can force them to convert to academies.

[Libertine Dream]

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/lisa-freedman-gcses-are-not-too-easy--theyre-just-irrelevant-8073567.html

Whilst I dont agree with a single national diploma, she's right in the fact GCSEs are irrelevant, they don't really matter too much now.

Still its good to see the government inspiring kids with confidence, making sure they do as well as possible.

[I am Rod Hull]

http://www.independe...nt-8073567.html

Whilst I dont agree with a single national diploma, she's right in the fact GCSEs are irrelevant, they don't really matter too much now.

Still its good to see the government inspiring kids with confidence, making sure they do as well as possible.

My lad needs 5 A to C to get into Ashby 6th form, its a good school and I`ll be well pissed off if it goes tits up. He`s been in the top set in all subjects since he went to secondary school but his confidence is not as high as it could be.

Fingers crossed.

[Libertine Dream]

My lad needs 5 A to C to get into Ashby 6th form, its a good school and I`ll be well pissed off if it goes tits up. He`s been in the top set in all subjects since he went to secondary school but his confidence is not as high as it could be.

Fingers crossed.

It appears that the brighter students won't be as affected. Its the C/D borderline students that are affected apparently and its on results from June that are affected. Reading that TES and on Student Room apparently some of the better students have done better.

It appears a typical Tory thing of making the better students better and making sure the weaker students do a lot worse and thus school pass rates become lower meaning special measures are enforced. Typical Tory policy.

[The Doctor]

Aah Gove - could he be more of a pointless cunt?

[Libertine Dream]

Aah Gove - could he be more of a pointless cunt?

Yea, he could be Theresa May

[fleckneymike]

Yea, he could be Theresa May

Don't leave out the oik

[Cat Burger]

I'm an English teacher at a school in a non-affluent area, which performs above the national average but was given 'satisfactory' in our last ofsted, so this is not great news...We will be forced to become an academy within the next two years, the staff know it, everybody knows it.

I am only three years into my career, it could be worse for me (holidays, stable pay), but my head of department (who has just taken early retirement at 61 due to his indifference to the pressure being placed on him by senior management) has told me that conditions and expectations placed on students and teachers are the worst he's ever known in his 40 year career.

Not sure how long I'll stick with this career choice to be honest, which is a shame as day in day out I find working with the students incredibly rewarding.

[I am Rod Hull]

I'm an English teacher at a school in a non-affluent area, which performs above the national average but was given 'satisfactory' in our last ofsted, so this is not great news...We will be forced to become an academy within the next two years, the staff know it, everybody knows it.

I am only three years into my career, it could be worse for me (holidays, stable pay), but my head of department (who has just taken early retirement at 61 due to his indifference to the pressure being placed on him by senior management) has told me that conditions and expectations placed on students and teachers are the worst he's ever known in his 40 year career.

Not sure how long I'll stick with this career choice to be honest, which is a shame as day in day out I find working with the students incredibly rewarding.

If its any consolation, you have the best avatar on FT.

[The Year Of The Fox]

My lad needs 5 A to C to get into Ashby 6th form, its a good school and I`ll be well pissed off if it goes tits up. He`s been in the top set in all subjects since he went to secondary school but his confidence is not as high as it could be.

Fingers crossed.

Best school ever

[absolutelegend]

They were going to get a C but then someone didn't just move the goalposts, they created a new sport and put them on a different planet

http://www.guardian....hers?CMP=twt_gu

Typical guardian story this. Bet they wouldn't have published it whilst the so successfull blair and brown were in power.

Who buys this rubbish? Basically the daily mirror in disguise.

[Finnegan]

Whatever you get don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either.

Thank you, Mary Schmich.

[Jon the Hat]

Stories like this annoy the shit out of me. We hear the media complaining about grade inflation for a decade, then it goes slightly the other way and it is a disaster!!

[Finnegan]

Stories like this annoy the shit out of me. We hear the media complaining about grade inflation for a decade, then it goes slightly the other way and it is a disaster!!

Justifiably though really isn't it? Surely if you want to change grading levels you do it gradually throughout the year or two the kids are studying? Make the curriculum harder, lessons harder, mock exams more challenging, whatever.

Building their expectations up, teaching them to a required level, having them sit their exams and THEN hiking the bar up is pretty awful to anyone, surely?

I'd like to think politics don't even factor in to this, right or left this is incredibly harsh.

[Rincewind]

I'll leave it for the teachers and students to decide. I don't buy any newspapers but I imagine anyone that criticises the Guardian must be a Mail reader and I wonder what angle they have taken. No doubt they will come up with some wonderful statistics to demonstrate that in fact lower grades will benefit the students.

But it is a few years since I was at school, at atime when if you were not in the top two forms tou never had the chance to do GCSE's.

I still did OK in the forms that I was in. Even came top in RI which just shows how thick the others were. My worst subjects were PE, woodwork and metlework.

[Fox92]

Good luck to anyone tomorrow, still remember GCSE day, I was very upset at my results but it turned into a big turning point in my life.

Whatever you get don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either.

I agree... My results were poor, but it was a turning point for me as well. I never wanted to have poor results again.

So I went to college to study something I liked/wanted to do, and achieved the best grade possible. I applied to Uni in January, got accepted, and starting that next month.

[Jon the Hat]

Justifiably though really isn't it? Surely if you want to change grading levels you do it gradually throughout the year or two the kids are studying? Make the curriculum harder, lessons harder, mock exams more challenging, whatever.

Building their expectations up, teaching them to a required level, having them sit their exams and THEN hiking the bar up is pretty awful to anyone, surely?

I'd like to think politics don't even factor in to this, right or left this is incredibly harsh.

You are taking a Guardian article quoting teachers and their unions and telling me there are no politics at play? The whole article is chucking mud at gove to see what they can get to stick. i don't see a lot of facts in there do you?

To you point though, changing the goal posts after the fact is exactly what moderation does, with the aim of ensuring that the goalposts are the same year after year. Exams are not the same, and it is reasonable to assume that a different year of kids are no brighter than the last. Conceptually it is a good thing. Did you complain in the last decade when grades got better and better that this was unfair on previous students? My GCSEs look pretty weak against a lot of the A* coming out now...

[Jon the Hat]

I agree... My results were poor, but it was a turning point for me as well. I never wanted to have poor results again.

So I went to college to study something I liked/wanted to do, and achieved the best grade possible. I applied to Uni in January, got accepted, and starting that next month.

Well done. Glad you were able to see past the tuition fees myth.

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

My worst subjects were PE, woodwork and metlework.

...and spelling! D'oh

[Fox92]

Well done. Glad you were able to see past the tuition fees myth.