Video transcript

Hi everyone, I’m Bella and this is Nathan, we are young people from Off the Record youth support service, and today we are joined by Miss Cole from Educated Minds; who has taught English and drama in secondary schools in the Uk, Bahrain and the Netherlands.  

Thanks to Covid affecting a second year of exam results, there are lots of questions around education at the moment... and many of us are feeling really anxious and unsure about what’s going to happen with our GCSE and A level exam results. So, Off the Record invited you to send in your questions for Miss Cole to answer.  

Hopefully, having your questions answered by a credible source will settle some of the worries and uncertainty you’ve been struggling with so far.   

00:49 How exactly will my teachers grade me? Is this different to last year?

This year they are based on just teacher assessment grades, last year they tried the algorithm which didn’t quite work and actually ended up penalizing a lot of students based on where they live. So it ended up being teacher assessment grades last year after they did a whole U turn on the algorithm. So what they’ve decided to do this year is just go on Teacher assessment grades, so that is a mixture of mock exams, course work, classwork, homework, any kind of essays that you have done. So they have a range of different evidence through your time over the last two years to give you a grade based on that. 

01:41 What was the overall outcome of the way results were handled last year? Were majority of students, teachers etc happy in the end? 

It was a lot of chaos and frustration for both teachers and students last year. It was being based on teacher assessment grades and then the algorithm actually downgraded about 2 million students last year. And so, I think teachers felt frustrated that they weren’t trusted, for one and for students it was the unfairness of it all. A lot of them were penalised for where they lived or the record or history of the school and so I think there was a lot of frustration last year. People were happy-ish in the end, obviously the outcome overall with the pandemic hasn’t made anyone feel at ease but I think that a lot of students were happy with the fact that their teacher, someone who knows them, was actually giving them their grade and not a machine. 

02:44 For the Students that are doing exams next year, do you think the results process will be the same as this year and last year, in that they will have teacher assessed grades? Do you think that the impact of Covid will be taken into consideration in the exams process next year? 

Yes definitely, OFQUAL and the government plan to have students sitting exams however they are aware of lost time. The exams would be reduced in reduced in terms of what you’d have to cover in the exam for example in English, there was an optional unit to take away and so that will probably be the case with all subjects. They say that it may take several years for education to recover and so it’s not fair for those who have started their GCSE’s and A Levels to be penalized for that lost teaching time or classroom time. Yes they hope to sit exams its not clear if that will be. It all just depends on how the next year goes with Covid restrictions. They planned to do it this year and that didn’t work out so they plan to do the same sort of thing they planned last year, for this year. So, we will see. 

03:57 I’m hoping I won’t need to do this, but what would I need to do to appeal if I’m not happy with my results?

Well you can appeal which is a bonus, but hopefully that won’t need to be the case because, as I said, you are assessed by your teachers who have taught you for the last two years and so know you more than what an exam could do for a lot of students. I think sometimes an exam could actually make students feel even more nervous and not perform as well so at least, hopefully, your teacher will have a true reflection of what you’re capable of doing with the range of evidence that they use to do this. But if you do want to, after you get your results you can appeal. So you can appeal to your school and they will look again at the grades and if you’re still not happy with that then they can send it to the awarding organization who will look at your grades. But they would need evidence and input from the school because obviously the grades and evidence come from them. So, yes you can appeal but hopefully you won’t need to get to that stage. 

05:02 Many students may not have applied themselves as much as we would have, had it not been for Covid. What do you think students who are in this situation should be doing? 

You still have time, grades aren’t sent off until June 18th. Like many teachers have probably said throughout Covid, applying yourself to everything that you are doing, turning up for lessons, giving your all in all the lessons that you’re taught whether it is online or in the classroom. Talking to your teachers as well, that might be an option at this point to maybe get an idea of where you’re at currently and if there is anything you could possibly do whether it is a test or, they can give you more feedback about what you should be doing at this stage. I think there is still time to turn it around but the best person to talk to is the subject teacher.  

06:01 Do you think these results changes with change the overall grading process for years to come? I’ve always hated exams and I’ve always believed it brought my overall grades down when I did exams. It would be great if my siblings could have a fairer chance when it’s their turn. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as if the government plan to do this. They believe that exams are necessary to give everyone a fair opportunity and they have no plans in scrapping it. But hopefully they learn something from it and maybe there’s different forms of assessment rather than just exams. I would think that would be great, from a teachers’ point of view, to have that but there are no plans from the government to change anything. They will make allowances of course, for Covid, over the next couple of years but I think it will go back to GCSE’s and A Levels as we know it, or knew it.  

06:57 If I did badly on one paper but well on another paper, how would that grading work?

Like it would for any other exam for GCSE or A Level, it would be weighted for both. So if you got a high A and a high D you might come out with a B or a High C, so it all just depends but again, I think it would be unfair for schools to just factor in those two things. I would hope, within each school that they would also factor in the case of Covid and base it on other pieces of work as well.  

07:31 Some schools have different approaches to the content that they’re telling us to revise. Some schools may say specifically “Your question will be based on this topic”, whereas some schools are saying “Your topic could be on this, but revise most of the course”. There are big variations and we are all working towards getting the same grades. How can students account for those variations?  

It’s hard, there’s such a variation between schools, subjects. It’s probably a good thing they don’t tell you the exact thing you need to study because then they might not get a true reflection of your grade. You could just ask your teachers if there’s anymore guidance or help they can give in regards to the areas you should be covering but if not I would just try to cover what you have over the course so far. And then if you feel these are areas that you are struggling with still and you don’t know about particular content then going to your teacher or finding other avenues to get revision for that particular topic/content. 

08:46 Any advice or encouraging words for students feeling particularly anxious about results this year?

I completely give it to students, I never had to go to school during a pandemic and so just for you guys to get through this is commendable. The resilience you have had over the last year and a half, us as adults can’t even be that resilient sometimes. So you should just be proud of yourselves for that alone. I would also say, just do your best from now until June, that’s all you can do at this point and try to be positive. I said in the video last year, your grades are not a reflection of who you are. Yes, you might not get the grades you anticipated but it does not change the character of who you are as a person. I just don’t want students to feel deflated if they don’t get what they would have wanted because you have gone through a very difficult time this year and just getting through that alone should make you feel proud!  

On behalf of Off the Record, we’d like to say a big ‘Thank you’ to Miss Cole, for all of your very helpful answers today.  

We hope this has given much clarity to the young people who submitted these questions as well as the many other young people watching this video. 

Remember, if you’re aged 11-25, living in Croydon, Sutton or Merton, please have a look at Off the Record’s website to keep updated on the support available to you. 

Bye Bye!