Coronavirus Thread (Off Topic, Politics) (23 Viewers)

[wingy]

Some key information missing from that report. Between the initial positive tests and the closedown were the rest of the staff in self isolation or wandering around passing it on to people?

I was s bit surprised they didn't close last week and this is only for two days for a cleanse.

 

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[SBT]

So were the teacher upgrades

It's easy to see who gets harmed/loses out by grades being arbitrarily downgraded from what they were predicted. Who loses out from those predictions being broadly higher than usual this year?

 

[fernandopartridge]

I'm on about universities where so few actually miss their grades that they won't have places.

With the awarding of predicted grades, virtually all offers will be met. Most universities give out far more offers than they have places. So we'll end up with a situation where the top universities all have to give places to people that have made an offer to and no one will go to the lower ranked institutions. The universities wont be able to cope logistically!

Moreover, there will be a large number of students who will 'take a punt' at going for a better university next year, and they'll be competing with those who have to take exams next year.

Ah getcha

 

[David O'Day]

Nobody misses out because a conditional offer is fulfiled.

At least they've made a u-turn, the car salesman must be dispatched from being SoS and given something a bit more in keeping with his intellect

Exactly what people aren't grasping is these exams will only get you on to other courses or into entry level jobs. No one is going to get a cushy job they don't deserve because of this as they'll still have to pass their uni course or work their way up.

That is unless they have a rich tory dad

 

[David O'Day]

not saying it's perfect but some of the down grades were scandalous.

there was a Spanish born, Spanish raised, Native Spanish speaker who was downgraded in his Spanish A-Level seemingly because he lives and took his exams in Luton.

 

[David O'Day]

Unlikely but if true what has he actually been doing?

 

[clint van damme]

Unlikely but if true what has he actually been doing?

if only there'd been a similar issue in Scotland to alert him to the fact there could be a problem and then he could have jumped straight on it.

 

[skybluesam66]

there was a Spanish born, Spanish raised, Native Spanish speaker who was downgraded in his Spanish A-Level seemingly because he lives and took his exams in Luton.

If they were taking Spanish as a foreign language, is that a bit of a loophole anyway?

 

[Sky_Blue_Dreamer]

What should have happened is that Ofqual/OFSTED/HMI should have been in schools ratifying and cross analysing these submissions months ago. A lot of schools have done a huge amount of quality assurance on these grades to make them as fair as possible. No doubt some schools will have taken advantage of this - but this could also have been mitigated at the start by OFSTED coming out and telling schools to expect their submissions to be analysed and be expected to be able to justify to an inspection team.

Another option might be to have a more modular style with coursework which would provide an actual assessment of ability over the length of the course they could use to extrapolate a more accurate grade from.

Unless of course someone were stupid enough to disband such a system in favour of exams all at the end of the course.....

 

[Ian1779]

Unlikely but if true what has he actually been doing?

He wouldn’t understand the algorithm anyway. He set what he wanted at the start (similar results, independent schools not to be disadvantaged) and expected it to be done.

 

[Ian1779]

If they were taking Spanish as a foreign language, is that a bit of a loophole anyway?

No it’s a home language exam - relatively common these days.

 

[David O'Day]

800 breaches in Manchester this weekend lots and lots involving pubs.

Let us wait for the lurker to post a video of a couple of asian lads in the street in Oldham

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

I can’t get my head around it being an excuse to say that he hadnt seen the algorithm that he has been saying all weekend was fair. He is accountable full stop. They are awful

 

[Ian1779]

I can’t get my head around it being an excuse to say that he hadnt seen the algorithm that he has been saying all weekend was fair. He is accountable full stop. They are awful

They wheeled out a guy from Ofqual to do the announcement/apology. Doesn’t even have the balls to do it himself.

 

[David O'Day]

I can’t get my head around it being an excuse to say that he hadnt seen the algorithm that he has been saying all weekend was fair. He is accountable full stop. They are awful

He's also saying he hadn't seen the data until exam result day which a former Tory spad (Gove era DoE) points out is madness if true

 

[shmmeee]

If they were taking Spanish as a foreign language, is that a bit of a loophole anyway?

Loads of kids do that. What next? Stop kids playing in the CCFC academy from taking PE?

 

[skybluetony176]

In any normal government under any normal PM Williamson would be gone but I doubt anyone would be surprised if that doesn’t happen.

 

[David O'Day]

In any normal government under any normal PM Williamson would be gone but I doubt anyone would be surprised if that doesn’t happen.

That very said PM has spent the weekend telling people how robust the results are

 

[skybluetony176]

 

[Ian1779]

There’s always the danger of people being over promoted beyond their competence.....

 

[fernandopartridge]

"Yeah but imagine any of Corbyn's front bench.... "

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

I can’t get my head around it being an excuse to say that he hadnt seen the algorithm that he has been saying all weekend was fair. He is accountable full stop. They are awful

The truth is that if a decision seems unpopular they reverse it and that forms the basis of how they govern. Now he has done something that will tell all of my students what grade I thought they should get.

 

[Walsgrave]

The truth is that if a decision seems unpopular they reverse it and that forms the basis of how they govern. Now he has done something that will tell all of my students what grade I thought they should get.

This will screw over competent students from next year who will have missed months of teaching and also have to take the exams. I'm all for the concessions but the grades from this 2020 cohort must be presented to employers in future as a 'teacher predicted' grade and only that. Also disadvantages the genuinely able from this year's cohort who won't be able to differentiate themselves.

There's going to be serious implications for comparability as lots of students will reapply in an attempt to get into a 'better' university.

 

[David O'Day]

This will screw over competent students from next year who will have missed months of teaching and also have to take the exams. I'm all for the concessions but the grades from this 2020 cohort must be presented to employers in future as a 'teacher predicted' grade and only that. Also disadvantages the genuinely able from this year's cohort who won't be able to differentiate themselves.

There's going to be serious implications for comparability as lots of students will reapply in an attempt to get into a 'better' university.

No one is going to reapply, they can only try and get to Universities that originally offered them conditional places./

All A levels can do is get you into a bottom rung position or uni. The kids are still going to have to work hard to make it and this is far better than being punished because of how many people were in you A-Level class.

 

[David O'Day]

Wow

 

[David O'Day]

Read some of these stories and try not to be fucking angry - the girl who was downgraded to a U in maths because someone once got a U from her school and the "standardisation"decided some from her school needed to get a U this year

 

[David O'Day]

Dido Harding to run agency replacing Public Health England

Tory peer has been widely criticised over responsibility for England’s test-and-trace system

www.theguardian.com

Did someone say something about being promoted over your ability level?

 

[LastGarrison]

No one is going to reapply, they can only try and get to Universities that originally offered them conditional places./

All A levels can do is get you into a bottom rung position or uni. The kids are still going to have to work hard to make it and this is far better than being punished because of how many people were in you A-Level class.

Not necessarily as they have the option of either adjustment or to self release into clearing if they receive an offer from another, more preferred university.

The rumour now is that the OFS introduced cap on student numbers (home/EU only) is not going to be enforced and at least one Russell Group Uni is rumoured to already be 2000 students over the cap!!

 

[David O'Day]

No one is going to release into clearing as all the places have been taken and how to do you get a more preferred univewrsity than your first choice?

Removing the cap does free up more places but these places aren't unlimited as all they are likely to be is UK students replacing international students who don't come. Universities will still have a finite amount of kids they can teach a year.

 

[BodicoteSkyBlue]

That will be the story. It will have been leaked. Williamson has got to resign

Can’t imagine any member of this shameless government resigning. Williamson will just brazen it out.

 

[David O'Day]

Not necessarily as they have the option of either adjustment or to self release into clearing if they receive an offer from another, more preferred university.
medicin
The rumour now is that the OFS introduced cap on student numbers (home/EU only) is not going to be enforced and at least one Russell Group Uni is rumoured to already be 2000 students over the cap!!

Also kids who wanted to study to be a doctor are in trouble as these places are capped by the DHSC and Oxbridge colleges just don't have the capacity to take many people in.

You also have to take into account the issues with social distancing and you can see that a lot of these kids that have lost places are in the shit

 

[Ian1779]

Read some of these stories and try not to be fucking angry - the girl who was downgraded to a U in maths because someone once got a U from her school and the "standardisation"decided some from her school needed to get a U this year

I read this particular story and it’s utterly disgraceful! Her predicted grade was C but she was bottom of the ranking.
This just demonstrates about the lacking of basic competency here - if that’s gone through any kind of QA post algorithm it gets corrected.

 

[Ian1779]

Wow

This is why I think certain schools may have had advance knowledge of how this would work.

 

[Ian1779]

The truth is that if a decision seems unpopular they reverse it and that forms the basis of how they govern. Now he has done something that will tell all of my students what grade I thought they should get.

This is a side effect of this change. It will create some problems - significantly less than before but I’m sure your rationale will have been spot on.

 

[David O'Day]

I read this particular story and it’s utterly disgraceful! Her predicted grade was C but she was bottom of the ranking.
This just demonstrates about the lacking of basic competency here - if that’s gone through any kind of QA post algorithm it gets corrected.

Exactly because she was bottom of her class (for the tories out there this was a small very good class where her grade even though it was bottom was a C OFQUAL decided someone had to get a U as someone once did get a U at her school.

Madness. This was the kind of downgrade that gets you having to go to a lesser uni, it's thekind of downgrade that means no uni will touch you