Year 11 - Computer Science

Spendless

DS has come home with a letter that says 'Due to changes to the patterns of submission for GCSE Controlled Assessment in computer science, the school has been made aware that the current yr11 CA that your child has been working on can only be submitted in the exam period 2017'

It goes onto say that though many schools are challenging this, DS school is asking the children to re-do the work just in case the kids results are compromised.

A different subject and I may have said 'que sera sera' but this is the subject DS wants to study at college for years 12/13 so I am mightily relieved that his school is re-submitting work even though it means more work for DS.

Anyone else's child/ren affected?

MPD

Does this mean the marks will be submitted the year after the relevant exam has been sat?

That would be odd.

Spendless

MPD wrote: »

Does this mean the marks will be submitted the year after the relevant exam has been sat?

That would be odd.

Hmmmm, well I read the letter with a different slant, that the schools have submitted work that relatres to the 2017 exam. Whether that is a mistake in what the examination board has asked for or whether some schools have mis-inrterpreted what was asked but I don't actually know.

I was hoping some other people whose son/daughter is affected, or anyone who is connected would reply too, so I understood a bit more.

peachyprice

That doesn't sound right for a yr11 child, it sounds like the school has messed up big time.

I know that the vast majority of GCSE's this year have changed over to submitting course work/controlled assessments and taking exams at the end of the 2 years rather than at the end of each module/year, but that can't be right for a child in yr11 who is half way through surely, there must be a transition period where the yr11 children can submit their work this year.

I think I would contact the exam board involved for clarification.

Spendless

peachyprice wrote: »

That doesn't sound right for a yr11 child, it sounds like the school has messed up big time.

I know that the vast majority of GCSE's this year have changed over to submitting course work/controlled assessments and taking exams at the end of the 2 years rather than at the end of each module/year, but that can't be right for a child in yr11 who is half way through surely, there must be a transition period where the yr11 children can submit their work this year.

I think I would contact the exam board involved for clarification.

That was my initial thought, but the letter says 'a number of schools are challenging this' so it sounds like loads of schools are affected. It relates to the controlled Assessment part of GCSE Computer Science.

I did try googling to see if there were any news stories about this, but didn't come up with anything.

GwylimT

Basically IT has ended as a GCSE on some exam boards, however when this happened some pupils had just completed year 10 IT so they were halfway through, the exam boards however allowed them to transfer to the second half of computer science.

Now normally the computer science coursework would begin in year 10 and completed, but cannot be cashed in until the may of year eleven, so for pupils starting the course at the start of year 10 would submit around may 2017. The exam boards have failed to alter this for those who had to transfer onto computer science.

As a course computer science has been created as it counts as actual science in the new progress eight system.

Sadly this situation isn't unusual, three years ago AQA altered the texts that could be used for exams in December, forgetting that some people would be sitting the exam only a few weeks later in January. Nothing was changed but AQA allowed students to resit the exam free of charge in the summer to give them time to learn a whole different set of texts that they would normally study for over a year.

Spendless

GwylimT wrote: »

Basically IT has ended as a GCSE on some exam boards, however when this happened some pupils had just completed year 10 IT so they were halfway through, the exam boards however allowed them to transfer to the second half of computer science.

Now normally the computer science coursework would begin in year 10 and completed, but cannot be cashed in until the may of year eleven, so for pupils starting the course at the start of year 10 would submit around may 2017. The exam boards have failed to alter this for those who had to transfer onto computer science.

As a course computer science has been created as it counts as actual science in the new progress eight system.

Thank you for the explanation GwylimT. That explains things a lot more clearly. DS school is having them do the work again and stopping behind for extra sessions.

DS needs at least 3 GCSE'S in English Language, Maths and Computing to get on the next couRse, BTEC in computing. The min entry requirements are 5 GCSEs inc English and Maths but DS already has 2 gcse's at these grades.

Spendless

GwylimT wrote: »

Sadly this situation isn't unusual, three years ago AQA altered the texts that could be used for exams in December, forgetting that some people would be sitting the exam only a few weeks later in January. Nothing was changed but AQA allowed students to resit the exam free of charge in the summer to give them time to learn a whole different set of texts that they would normally study for over a year.

DS's school has no sixth form and he is wanting to go to a FE college in a different county for BTEC level 3 diploma and has a conditional offer for. If this wasn't an area in which he wanted to study/work I would have less qualms, or if he was going to be at the school for A levels then I'd think then maybe it could be sorted at a different point in the calendar.