First years: this isn't for you! You'll be completing the group newspaper practical assessment during this week!
2nd years: you must read all of this post before your learning conversation. If not, the learning conversation will not work. This is information you ALL must know!
Also, this post is discussing events which are happening right now! Everything is subject to change. We need to wait for exam board guidance for the real information...
What's going on?
From Monday 15th March to Friday 19th March, we'll be running student learning conversation online during your lessons. This will take the form of 1-1 chats over Teams. You will need to make an appointment with your teacher in advance.
Why are we doing this?
We need to use every minute of in-class lesson time preparing you for the in class assessments you will be taking after the Easter Holiday. We also need to give you your 'current working at grade'.
What is my working at grade, and what if it's lower than my UCAS grade?
Your working at grade is a frank estimate of what grade you would get if you were chucked in to the exam around about now. They were submitted a couple of weeks ago, so they're already out of date.
- They are not your final grade
- We haven't factored in your finished coursework yet
- We haven't factored in any 'final assessments' yet, because you haven't done them yet!
- We do not officially know what work 'counts' more than other work (you're going to need to talk to your teacher about this one... it's complicated!)
Therefore, it is very possible your working at grade will be lower than your UCAS predicted grade
Why are you doing this to me :(
By and large, we have been cautious with these working at grades. We are always cautious in media studies, and historically more cautious than other subjects. This is a really good thing. First of all, we're being honest. If you sit an exam before you finish the course, then your grade will not be as good as it would have been if you had have finished the course. It's also much better to demonstrate improvement rather than showing that a student has got worse. Because almost every student improves during the last part of the course, often by quite a significant amount!
If I get a 'working at grade' of [X], does that mean that I cannot get lower than that grade no matter what?
We cannot answer this yet. Basically, any questions about any upcoming assessment, including how many or how little there's going to be, how much they are 'worth' we cannot answer. We need to talk very carefully about this, and I really hope you understand why! When we know, you will know.