When it was first announced that all schools would be shutting and that there would be no public exams taking place in May or June due to the COVID-19 outbreak, many thought that those in Year 11 had been let off and were lucky to not have to sit their summer exams, but this is not the case at all.
Rather than celebrating that they would have a 5-6 month Summer break without having to do any work and no longer had the pressure of exams looming over their heads, most students that I know of were left shocked and anxious about what was going to happen. The Prime Minister and Health Secretary were frustratingly vague when announcing that there would be no exams in May or June, leaving us wondering whether they would simply be postponed or whether we would have to sit them online or something similar, creating lots of ambiguity and confusion.
It wasn't until the afternoon of the Friday on which all schools across the country would be closing that it was announced that students would be receiving a grade based on previous assessments from their teachers, meaning that many were left with two days of uncertainty and, for most, no time to celebrate the end of the school year and say goodbye to their peers as they normally would.
There is also cause for concern regarding the awarding of the grades themselves. Although most schools will have plenty of records of their students’ work and attainments over the last couple of years in order to provide them with a fair grade that reflects how hard they have worked - meaning that the past three years have not all gone to waste - there is certainly potential for teachers to be overly-generous and award their pupils unrealistic grades. Even if this simply consists of teachers giving their pupils the benefit of the doubt when undecided between two grades and offering them the higher one, if everyone does this then the grades of those who were actually likely to achieve what they were awarded are undermined.
There is also a strong possibility that even if the grade that students are awarded is fair, there will be (essentially) an asterisk beside it which informs potential employers and others that they never actually took their exams, causing the grade to lose its credibility. Furthermore, as much as mock exams and tests can help to prepare students for the real exam, it could be detrimental for many students in the long run - especially with A-Levels - that they never had a chance to take a full set of public exams.
In terms of having 5-6 months off school, this isn't as great as it seems either. Not only are many students likely to lose their daily routines and do less work over the next few months than they would normally which will make next year even more of a struggle, they also won't be able to go out and enjoy themselves to the extent that previous Year 11s have in their extended summers following their exams since the whole country is currently in lockdown.
I'm sure many others have realised how dull it is to be stuck indoors all day at the moment, so it’s not going to be any better for the Year 11s who won’t have much to do until they go back to school in September.
By Oliver McCabe.
