GCSE 2020 Appeals

[Stroller]

You’re right, but choosing not to vote throws away a meaningful opportunity to challenge the status quo.

[Tolstoy]

Thankfully mine counted this year. Sadly didn’t affect the status quo

[Moon unit]

The hard job for us as parents of children who were down graded is to try to help them keep some sort of faith in how this country is being run which isn’t easy.
The fact there is no appeal process is an utter shameful disgrace.
My children know that had they been at private schools they would have had their CAG grades inflated.
I know no private school children who didn’t get higher than their mocks.
At my daughters grammar many,many got one or two grades lower on CAGs and the algorithm.
There is absolutely no explanation for this that her school can offer other than they used objective data.
Are they really saying that between a mock in Nov and a real exam in June with six months of teaching and revision a child would have gone down one or two grades?
It is utterly unfathomable.

[quasimodo]

The hard job for us as parents of children who were down graded is to try to help them keep some sort of faith in how this country is being run which isn’t easy.
The fact there is no appeal process is an utter shameful disgrace.
My children know that had they been at private schools they would have had their CAG grades inflated.
I know no private school children who didn’t get higher than their mocks.
At my daughters grammar many,many got one or two grades lower on CAGs and the algorithm.
There is absolutely no explanation for this that her school can offer other than they used objective data.
Are they really saying that between a mock in Nov and a real exam in June with six months of teaching and revision a child would have gone down one or two grades?
It is utterly unfathomable.

It is a very sad state of affairs.It is very clear there have been many individual injustices despite the large number who have received much higher grades than had they actually sat exams.The way the systems of Appeals has been designed is to cover up these injustices.Sitting exams in November is supposedly the remedy.Many from these vulnerable groups have had no teaching during lockdown and no support since with schools sole concerns to bat away these Appeals and deal with School openings with all the covid changes.Now we are in flu season and covid infections in some schools it is already clear exams in some schools will be impacted.There are enough articles in the newspapers to show groups of children up to year groups in secondary schools having to isolate.What will they do in that situation with those grades.Resit in the summer ?
The education secretary has with members of Ofqual an appearance before the education select committee this morning.I don’t expect much justice will come for these children.

[Guest55]

... Many from these vulnerable groups have had no teaching during lockdown and no support since with schools sole concerns to bat away these Appeals and deal with School openings with all the covid changes.
The education secretary has with members of Ofqual an appearance before the education select committee this morning.I don’t expect much justice will come for these children.

Vulnerable children were never not able to go to school ... they were in school during the Easter holiday and half-term. They had more access to face-to-face tuition than anyone.

Where is your evidence of 'no support'? Do they have any evidence from reports that they were downgraded?

[quasimodo]

... Many from these vulnerable groups have had no teaching during lockdown and no support since with schools sole concerns to bat away these Appeals and deal with School openings with all the covid changes.
The education secretary has with members of Ofqual an appearance before the education select committee this morning.I don’t expect much justice will come for these children.

Vulnerable children were never not able to go to school ... they were in school during the Easter holiday and half-term. They had more access to face-to-face tuition than anyone.

Where is your evidence of 'no support'? Do they have any evidence from reports that they were downgraded?

I am using the term “ vulnerable groups “ as referred to in the Education Select committee report which is one of the links on this thread.You are confusing this with “vulnerable children” in reference to those groups who were allowed to attend school as a result of Covid19.

I have just watched the education select committee questioning the Education Secretary on the evidence they have received of downgradings and there are large grants for schools for Covid19 catch up funding.

[Guest55]

Vulnerable children are part of vulnerable groups - they were in school. Well they all were around here anyway!

[Moon unit]

Children in my neck of the woods who were CHINs certainly weren’t in school.
I regard them as vulnerable.

[quasimodo]

https://www.tes.com/news/SQA-swinney-un ... ls-process" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In Scotland students have no exams in November but the SNP education minister was today coming under pressure to introduce appeal rights. These would not then rely on the schools who are judge and jury at the moment.I don't know how this will play out but there is a Children's bill going through the Scottish Parliament which would strengthen the rights of children and give the Children's commissioner greater legal powers including the right to bring public interest litigation on their behalf.All four home states with different governments all had to abandon standarisation this summer and resort to central assessed grades only England have the November exams and all have children who have lost out through the way the process operated.


For those who may be unable to open the article which is free once registered by Emma Seith
today at 4:35pm the article apart from the tweets which appear in the link states as follows;

"SQA results: Scotland's education secretary, John Swinney, is under fire over the appeals process
Students who believe their teacher-estimated grade awarded in this year's SQA results is incorrect or unfair feel their “rights have been abrogated” because they need the backing of their school to appeal, say MSPs.

MSPs who sit on the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Skills Committee raised the issue with the education secretary, John Swinney, today.

Labour education spokesperson Iain Gray told Mr Swinney that students who disagreed with their teacher estimate had no recourse because “the sole route of appeal is by the examination centre – ie, the school – which, in these circumstances, the young people are appealing against”.

Other articles:
1.Background: SQA to respond to all appeals by the end of September

2.Campaign: 'No student should be disadvantaged'

3.Children’s commissioner: 'SQA results failed students'

4.More from today's committee: SQA exams update delayed after rise in Covid cases

5.SQA exams: Was this the day we learned that 2021 exams won't go ahead?

Daniel Johnson, also a Labour MSP, pursued the issue with Mr Swinney, saying that students who felt “evidence or circumstances” had not been taken into account in their estimated grades required “the consent” of their school to put in an appeal – even though the appeal risked highlighting that the school’s own “estimation process was incomplete”.

SQA results: Controversy over appeals system
Mr Swinney, however, argued that because students wishing to make an appeal against Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) grades would require evidence, they would have no choice but to work with their schools. He said that appeals were “most effectively undertaken when young people do that in partnership with their schools”.

He added that there was also an appeal route for young people who believed they had been subject to discrimination. However, Mr Johnson pointed out that to access this, students still needed their school’s backing.

Mr Swinney said: “If a case can be put together that assesses some form of prejudice or disadvantage or discrimination that was experienced by a young person then that can be the subject of appeal, and that opportunity has been available to young people as a consequence of the opportunities for appeal that have been put in place by the SQA in these very, very difficult circumstances.”

The appeals system put in place by the SQA allowed for appeals under three different sets of circumstances – but they included no direct right to appeal for students.

Children’s commissioner Bruce Adamson has criticised “the lack of an appeals system directly accessible to young people, including those who disagreed with their teachers' estimate”.

Dr Tracy Kirk – a legal academic who specialises in children and youth rights – has also been vocal about the system’s shortcomings, saying that students have "quite literally been left out of a process that is about them and their futures". She has urged the Scottish government to widen the appeals process “so those who have been disproportionately disadvantaged have redress instead of feeling left behind”.

She says that students who have suffered include those who were absent from school for a significant period due to cancer treatment, mental illness and other medical conditions, as well as those who were being home educated.

Following Mr Swinney’s comments in the Scottish Parliament today, Dr Kirk tweeted that she was still getting messages “from students who feel lost and as if their futures have been adversely impacted as a result of Covid-19 as the SQA does not provide them with grounds to appeal”.

All appeals had to be submitted by schools and colleges by 7 September, with the SQA promising outcomes by the end of this month. The result of priority appeals were scheduled for 4 September."

The English Education secretary also appeared before the Education select committee today but offered no concessions on this issue.He appears to be the only one not under a bus. We have had resignations of civil servants in the Education department and the head of Ofqual and many children still impacted and suffering from the grades awarded in exams this summer.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-54175557" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Moon unit]

My DDs school will be very busy indeed if the girls get the right to appeal.
They bucked the trend with lots of algorithm grades bring higher than CAGs.
As there seems to be pretty much universal agreement that the algorithm marked many down there has been widespread anger amongst pupils.
My DD has been lucky to have moved on for sixth form.
Lots of her friends are finding it hard to be taught by teachers who they feel let down by over their CAGS.