Knowledge
Coronavirus & Education A
How will students’ education be affected fter four weeks of lockdown and a further three weeks announced, parents, students and teachers up and down the country have tried to get to grips with home schooling. As a result, probably even the least enthusiastic student now looks forward to a return to school. In this article Nathaniel McCullagh, Director of Simply Learning Tuition considers how the Government’s response to Covid-19 will affect students and offers advice on how best to handle the upheaval of cancelled GCSE and A Level exams and what to do if your, ‘calculated grade’ is lower than you think it should be.
What has happened? The Government sent all children home from school on Friday 20 March, except those of critical key workers or vulnerable children. Exams were cancelled and in their place, a ‘calculated grade’ will be awarded www.polotimes.co.uk
based on a student’s prior attainment including mock exam results, homework marks and other performance indicators. This will be released on or before the usual August results date. A level results will be published on 13 August and GCSEs on 20 August. Work done between Friday 20 March and the end of the summer term cannot count towards this exam grade. This has led to widespread confusion, disappointment and concern for many parents, teachers and students. Home schooled students Some students who are being home schooled or following a distance learning programme will have been entered for their exams at a school, or an exam centre, as a ‘private candidate’. The government have said that these students should also be given a calculated grade but the centre has to be confident that they have seen enough
evidence of the student’s achievement. This may require parents to provide evidence of work done at home, or with a tutor. Otherwise, the student may need to take exams in the autumn. Why can calculated grades be a problem for some students? If, like me, you were a student who hated exams, a calculated grade might at first sight seem like a welcome alternative. However, teenagers have had their brains hard wired to work towards the all-important final exam. Many will have been dragging their heels in the run up to Easter and half term revision, and may have poor homework and coursework marks. Other students will be annoyed that their revision notes and planning for the exams has now been wasted and they will not be rewarded for their foresight and hard work.
Polo Times, May 2020
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