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Coronavirus - political views - supporting or otherwise...

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What I did see at school were 2 groups of people, there were those who excelled in the classroom (not much coursework in my day) but crumbled when it came to exams and also those who just could not get on with the day to day of school work but give them a subject and a few weeks notice and they could get through pretty much any exam (I was more of the latter). That is what estimated grades cannot take into account. The inability of one to handle the pressure of the exam room will remain hidden until later in life whereas the the ability of the other to produce a last minute spurt to achieve a goal will not be taken into account. There is no fair way of addressing this.

Literally no one (unions, Labour, teachers, universities etc) were calling for just estimated grades to be used 2 weeks ago. Everyone knew it is/was an imperfect solution with significant challenges. But at the same time it was also clear that using the algorithms would lead to situations where kids would be treated 'unfairly' due to the use of big data algorithms using large scale past performance data. That is fine if used to look at the whole as one (hence all the initial guff about the grades staying the same year on year) but falls down when dealing with individuals who are unfairly treated. And without getting too political (god forbid ;)) it is a sign of how badly this situation has been managed where estimated grades suddenly becomes consensus as the only way to do it.
 
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Indeed - what is it - because I see a culture of entitlement that spans political leaning; social background and socio-economic groupi...

The actual entitlement might well be different - but the entitlement is there. See for example the entitlement many feel about their tax - that they are entitled to minimise what they pay in tax, and entitled to keep as much of their income as possible. Indeed. And many would add - because they are entitled to a certain standard of living. We all have feelings of entitlement...
That feeling has been coming in over the last 40+ years, us and our children being in the middle of it and quite happy to blame current and future generations for the mess.
 
That feeling has been coming in over the last 40+ years, us and our children being in the middle of it and quite happy to blame current and future generations for the mess.
My immediate thought was that 40yrs is looking way too far back in time surely - into my parents days and they didn't have feelings of entitlement that I noticed - then I realised your 40yrs takes us from 1980 to the present day...so yes indeed. A lot has changed over these 40yrs.
 
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We desperately need young UK kids to get to grip with the sciences to help the planet and people, in areas of biology, chemistry, computing, medicines, engineering, etc. The so-called 'vocational' studies should be taught at colleges and not clutter up Universities with a load of timewasters. The sciences may be harder but then its the harsh reality of work that needs to be the focus; unskilled jobs are being absorbed by automation, AI and robotics.
Last time I looked engineering and medicine were considered vocational courses.
And I don't see why AI can't push pills.
Is there any evidence that learning to push pills is harder than journalism?
 
Junior Shark received her A-Level grades which were exactly in line with projections and what she was expecting. She had an unconditional offer in place from Nottingham Trent University.
But she has told me that the only ones bitching and complaining about the grades they got from her 6th form college are the ones who had done sod all work, dossed through their mocks and had false impressions of what they would get. This of course is not the full picture across the country but very clear from where she was sitting.
 
Junior Shark received her A-Level grades which were exactly in line with projections and what she was expecting. She had an unconditional offer in place from Nottingham Trent University.
But she has told me that the only ones bitching and complaining about the grades they got from her 6th form college are the ones who had done sod all work, dossed through their mocks and had false impressions of what they would get. This of course is not the full picture across the country but very clear from where she was sitting.

That is very unfair to the swathe of students across the country. It should be obvious that pinning the results of this years exams to previous performance in the school would cause a range of unfair results, and that effectively exempting those schools with small class sizes or less popular subjects from the same algorithm would lead to anomalies. BBC More or Less covered the matter nicely this week.
 
Junior Shark received her A-Level grades which were exactly in line with projections and what she was expecting. She had an unconditional offer in place from Nottingham Trent University.
But she has told me that the only ones bitching and complaining about the grades they got from her 6th form college are the ones who had done sod all work, dossed through their mocks and had false impressions of what they would get. This of course is not the full picture across the country but very clear from where she was sitting.

That's complete and utter bull rubbish and your daughter is a lucky one

Plenty get marked down unfairly

Just because it didn't happen to your daughter doesn't mean it didn't happen to someone who did work hard
 
Junior Shark received her A-Level grades which were exactly in line with projections and what she was expecting. She had an unconditional offer in place from Nottingham Trent University.
But she has told me that the only ones bitching and complaining about the grades they got from her 6th form college are the ones who had done sod all work, dossed through their mocks and had false impressions of what they would get. This of course is not the full picture across the country but very clear from where she was sitting.

It might be easier to be relaxed about the grades and the whole process if you have an unconditional offer. And there could be two types of people bitching, those that are bitching as their projected grades from their teachers were not what they expected, in which case they probably had an over inflated opinion of their abilities. And those bitching that they got given much lower grades from their teacher assessments mostly due to the unfairness inherent in the algorithms used. And in the latter case I expect most right thinking people would have a lot of sympathy. In the former may be less so.
 
It might be easier to be relaxed about the grades and the whole process if you have an unconditional offer. And there could be two types of people bitching, those that are bitching as their projected grades from their teachers were not what they expected, in which case they probably had an over inflated opinion of their abilities. And those bitching that they got given much lower grades from their teacher assessments mostly due to the unfairness inherent in the algorithms used. And in the latter case I expect most right thinking people would have a lot of sympathy. In the former may be less so.
I think you have summed it up perfectly. My daughter could list people in both camps that she knows. She is angry on behalf of the latter, shrugs her shoulders regarding the former.
 
Try and read the post before taking your politically-biased opinions. As I stated "this of course is not the full picture across the country but very clear from where she was sitting"

Read it. Still a gross, unfair and almost certainly false assertion. Why are opinions which differ from you or your daughter 'politically-biased'. Sounds like you are the one with the french field potato on your shoulder. Try to educate yourself on the methods used for this algorithm and get back to us with your analysis.
 
Sometimes you love some of our electorate. Just heard caller phone in to Eddie Mair on LBC

Eddie: So John, tell me what you think of Boris Johnson and the government
John: Brilliant, fabulous they did great with furlough, grants - kept me afloat - helped me a lot.
Eddie: What about any things they've done wrong, that they don't listen - the A levels for instance
John: Well it was difficult - maybe they should not have marked down students who got A*s
Eddie: What about Dominic Cummings?
John: Erm - I haven't heard about him
Eddie: Thanks John - get back to me...

:)
 
All the effective Test and Trace work in England has also been done by established PHE teams rather than Dido's hideously expensive and ineffective call centres. We can now look forward to her doing her magic on those PHE teams and destroying that work too.

Even Toby Young agrees with you on that one. And it's a frightening day when you find yourself nodding along with anything he posts.
 
Try and read the post before taking your politically-biased opinions. As I stated "this of course is not the full picture across the country but very clear from where she was sitting"

Read it. Just sounds smug and looking down at others.... Standard
 
Our usual two trolls are in full flow today. My daughter had simply made a comment about the only A-level complaints at her college coming from students who had no business expecting anything better. She knew that was not indicative of the national position and I posted the same. But that was far too basic for a couple of people to understand.

Time to employ the ignore function on this forum for the first time. I can only imagine how unpopular these two are at their own clubs. Sad really.
 
Our usual two trolls are in full flow today. My daughter had simply made a comment about the only A-level complaints at her college coming from students who had no business expecting anything better. She knew that was not indicative of the national position and I posted the same. But that was far too basic for a couple of people to understand.

Time to employ the ignore function on this forum for the first time. I can only imagine how unpopular these two are at their own clubs. Sad really.

How would your daughter know? Maybe she jumped to unreasonable conclusions and gross generalisations based on her prejudices and her lack of understanding how the algorithm worked. Maybe that unpleasant trait is hereditary.

So if you are talking about me, please do hit ignore. Bye bye. You chose your username wisely, at least the first part.
 
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