I think it's cruel

In my day our results were posted to us. It gave one plenty of time to get a story worked out to explain why some of them were so bad

IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL EXAM SITTERS.
I listened to Any Answers on radio 4 this afternoon and was horrified to hear that one child had failed an exam by just 2 marks and another had sat the same subject 7 times.
MY MESSAGE IS PLEASE, PLEASE REQUEST/DEMAND A RE-MARK WITH THE EXAM BOARD IF A CHILD FAILS AN EXAM.
I used to work as a temp at a well known exam board who took on thousands of uni students to check the marks of millions of exam papers and many corrections were made and re-logged on the system. There were also employees who didn't do the job and drew a salary for doing nothing (I reported 2 myself).
So you've got the examiners who mark the papers getting it wrong and papers not being re-checked.
PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW WHO IS INVOLVED WITH STUDENTS TAKING EXAMS AT ANY STAGE.

You can have the results posted to you Falconbird but that means waiting a bit longer for them to arrive. Some examination boards, but not AQA or OCR, display them on line but the school needs to be signed up to this. It's just easier and quicker to turn up at school, and moreover the pupils can get on the spot advice from the teaching staff there regarding their future options.

When I was at school my exam results came through the post. That made it a private matter and was slightly less stressful than having to go to the school. Do they have to go to the school???

I think it's horrible too - and emphasizes that education these days is just a big one-upmanship festival, where the competitive element has overshadowed what education is supposed to be about. So unoriginal too - the same scenario every year.

It's just the "song-and-dancism" of modern life. Maximum fuss all the time. Celebrate. Agonise. Partify.

Anything except just calmly get on with life without excess, the just take stuff in your stride approach.

Sigh.

I don't understand why the media think it is necessary to broadcast so-called news about young people receiving their exam results. I have no interest in them individually unless they are people I know, in which case they will tell me themselves.

Thank you Lillie - that sounds feasible. Her brother got one GCSE pass and sits the remainder next year. Scottish exams have changed too and I don't really understand them either. DH was a teacher before he retired and used to explain them all to me!

There was a girl who didn't get the results she wanted to enable her to take a beauty therapy course. Could someone tell me what qualifications you need to take that course.

Roses I have noticed that too and yes the sensible ones will say No ! It is the 3 minutes of fame culture and quite nauseating and cringeworthy to watch .

Usually thin girls with long hair screaming and hugging each other.
They must get permission for filming from the school, also the pupils, ( the sensible ones will say a resounding NO.)

Why do they always focus on girls? Don't boys take exams get results as well?

Thanks for that Lillie. I thought I remembered office staff dashing off to collect the results from the sorting office and stuffing the envelopes before the students arrived on the morning of the results - a left over nightmare perhaps

It was the change from 9 to 1 that raised my hopes that they would be able to take them sequentially. I always thought it would overcome the complaints (DM style) that students are coming out of school without being able to read or write. I don't think it will change because I think it is a good idea [wry smile] but getting 95% and getting a Level 6 seems better to me for both school and pupil than getting 60% and getting Grade C. You would also be getting a similar percentage - you might decide it only needed to be 75% - that's not so important - it's the knowledge you gain rather than the knowledge you don't gain at each stage. It would also take the pressure off in the GCSE year and mean pupils would move at their own pace in each subject. Speeding up and slowing down at different levels as they do.

Someone being interviewed from my daughter's college the other day was asked about 'grade inflation' and brilliantly (I thought) compared the increases in students doing well to the Olympics and asked if we were just getting more medals in Rio because of "grade inflation". Good answer!

dd you should feel proud and so should your pupils!

It's 20 odd years ago since my DDs had their results. By the time dd2 's results were out there had developed a culture of bottles of champagne in the car park and parents with flowers to congratulate . I thought it was very bad form. My DDs results were very satisfying but I thought how awful for those whose results weren't good. I must admit I am a bit snotty about public celebration like that.

Thank you, that's great.

It annoys me that pupils could be put off continuing with languages because their grades are lower than expected. They are difficult examinations, (compared with many!), and we should be encouraging the pupils, not disheartening them.

Well done for your private pupils.

The overall percentages at each grade have remained fairly consistent, Lillie, but the grade boundaries have risen. You can compare them here...

qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/support-topics/results-certification/grade-boundaries.html?Qualification-Family=GCSE

For example, last year the mark to achieve a C in writing was 35/60. This year it's 37/60.

This would suggest that the standard has risen, but the boards have been instructed to keep the final grades down. It's a particular problem in languages, as I'm sure you know, because the grades can be distorted by the number of candidates who are native speakers.

I belong to a Facebook group of MFL teachers and a number are complaining that they their candidates have not achieved the grades they were told to expect, because their results were based on last year's grade boundaries.

Having said that, all my private pupils achieved in line with or above my expectations. (Not that I'm boasting or anything )

It's all carefully pre-arranged. DD2 read opened hers and some of her friends too- years ago. The TV Channel had contacted the school weeks before, students who would possibly produce shock or extreme results picked- and permission from students and family sought.

Do you have a link for MFL lower grades please Daphne? Thanks.

@Gracesgran

When GCSEs were first introduced, a 'C' was not supposed to be seen as a pass grade, as it is now. The grading from A to G was supposed to show what a pupil could do, so a pupil with (for example) six grade Ds was to be seen as having achieved more highly than one with six grade Gs or no grades at all. Over the years, the obsession with league tables and 'failing schools' undermined that idea.

The reason that percentages don't directly correlate with grades is that exams differ slightly n difficulty from year to year. Some subjects are also recognised as having a higher level of candidate than others, eg. Ancient Greek. The government has decreed that no more than a certain percentage should achieve A* etc in each subject, so the grade boundaries have to be adjusted. This year the grade boundaries for foreign languages have risen quite significantly, so there are a number of pupils who have achieved lower grades than they expected, based on marks to grades conversion from previous years. Hope that makes sense.

Heads and office staff get to see the results from noon on the previous day (Wednesday). They are sent electronically and have to be stuffed into envelopes for the students to open the following day (Thursday).

In future GCSE grades will be 9 - 1, with 9 being the top grade.

Are you sure the schools know them the day before NannyR2016? It's a while since I had any involvement but my daughter is a teacher and I was under the impression they still came in to the school/college very early on the day. 'A' level pupils do know where and if they have been offered a Uni place before they know their grades.

I have been so annoyed at the reporting. Yes the proportion of higher grades are down but there are good reasons for this which get no mention.

I have never understood why GCSEs are not run like music exams so, a level 1 would mean you know what - 95% or more of the Level 1 curriculum and, once you have passed you move to Level 2 - whatever your age. High level music exams are held in high esteem but Grade 4 or Grade 5 still tells you what the student knows and not what they don't.

Think reporters must have had permission to be there, life is tough and we can't and shouldn't protect our children from all of life's slings and arrows.

We had to go to school to fetch ours. I can't remember if they were in envelopes or if the teacher had to shuffle through an open pile of papers on his desk to find each of our results sheets. It was all a bit of a giggle - can't imagine anyone bursting into tears over exam results. Certainly not now from this end of the telescope. In the end it only matters if you got your O or A-levels or not, no one is going to ask if you got an A or a D.

Having said that I wish all today's kids all the best and my condolences to those who didn't do as well as they thought. Nowadays it must be far more devastating not to get into the course you want to.

Poor girl. Let's hope a parent was around to comfort her.