Back in March I wrote a blog post about what we did and didn’t know about the new GCSE. However, if Ofqual get their way it looks like it will need updating … and just when I thought we were starting to know where we are … a week ago Ofqual announced a consultation about the grading for the new GCSE they cunningly called it “Setting the grade – part two”!

Before I go on, let’s take a step back to Sept 2014 when Ofqual confirmed how the grading would work. At which point I think it is apt to say that this is what we have been working with across the country – current year 10s are halfway through the course and yet again they are having the goalposts moved, just because someone did jackshi1t research before making the decisions. The original approach (yes, the one we’ve all been working with!), which is shown below, followed a consultation in spring 2014 on ‘Setting the Grade Standards of new GCSEs’ focused on setting the grade standards within the first year for new GCSEs, specifically in English literature, English language and mathematics.

grading

Having read this new consultation paper (it’s not as funny as Hot Shots – Part Deux by the way!) I thought I’d try to convince some of you to respond to it. Basically Ofqual are proposing a move away from the above and are proposing a new formula to determine the proportion of pupils receiving top grades in each subject to account for variance in the number of high-achievers sitting each exam. They’ve come to the conclusion that applying a universal rule for deciding the proportion of top grades across all subjects is difficult as the “underlying academic capability of students sitting different subjects is not the same.”

They’ve commissioned a company to model three different ideas for allocating top grades:

  • the original 20 per cent plan;
  • a tailored model proposed in Ofqual’s consultation;
  • a model in which half the pupils currently receiving A*s receive a grade nine.

It found Ofqual’s original 20 per cent approach would result in more grade nines in some subjects (not Maths by the way!) than the current proportion of A*s – even though the grade nine is supposed to be more difficult to achieve. The original idea of the 20 per cent approach apparently creates problems in other subjects which unlike Maths and English are not taken by entire cohorts.

Well … I’d say given that these other subjects don’t get examined until 2018 make the changes for those subjects but hands off Maths!! You made your decision now stand by it … after all, this was only ever for the first examination because thereafter new protocols will be introduced.  Nicky Morgan has committed to no “in year” changes and reducing workload. This just adds to the stress of being a teacher (oh that reminds me DFE are still yet to publish their consultation on year 7 resits, which is another flipping mistake in my opinion!).

I’m not sure about you but I’m getting a little weary of the moving goalposts.

It also worries me that the last consultation ran from 3 April to 30th June and the results were not published until September so we could be going into the last 8 months before the biggest change at GCSE  since 1988, not knowing what percentage could actually constitute the highest grades possible. Up until now we have been working on the premise that about 4% of the cohort would get a 9 – according to the report Ofqual commissioned it is actually 4.2% of a cohort of 585,000 which is approximately 24570 students and the money shot is that under the approach that Ofqual favour this will drop to 3.7% or 21645 students. This means that 2925 will get an 8 instead of a 9 … small numbers in the scheme of things but for some schools that are unlikely to get lots of these it will make a difference.

So getting a grade 9 could become even harder for our current year 10s.

One thing that did come out of the consultation that hasn’t been confirmed until now is that Ofqual intend to award grade eights so that there is an equal space between grades seven and nine and also equal space between grades 1, 2, 3 and 4.

PLEASE, PLEASE DO RESPOND. Badger the DFE, Ofqual, Nicky Morgan, your local MP … anything. Hands off Maths. Make your changes to other subjects but you made your decisions now live with it! Stop messing poor year 10’s around. Over and above that though is the principal of having decisions made only to then have them changed – this results in a workforce who feel that they are walking on quicksand. It has to stop!

This whole thing has also got me thinking about my plan to enter the new GCSE myself so that my year 10’s can see the amount of work required in the lead up to the exam … by entering (if I get a 9!) am I robbing a student of a grade 9?  I am assuming that the awarding is age related … if not maybe I can get every secondary maths teacher to enter with me and really throw the results out! … hmmm I wonder if there are 22,000 secondary maths teachers out there prepared to sit the maths papers.