Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[vikingTON]

8 minutes ago, madwullie said:

Sorry what did I say that was wrong? Shite area = shite historical average. I thought we all understood that

There are quite a few good schools operating in shite areas as well as mediocre schools operating in good areas champ. There's absolutely nothing to suggest that the SQA has literally been using postcodes to cruelly bump down straight A track students based on the SIMD as people are now genuinely suggesting took place. 

Edited August 5, 2020 by vikingTON

[engelbert_humperdink]

1 minute ago, eez-eh said:

I remember at the height of lockdown @JTS98 getting on his high horse about people in the UK following the rules set by the UK Government. His argument pretty much being that we should be adhering to the much stricter rules which were in place wherever the f**k it is he lives - I think Malaysia.

People going out for a walk or a run locally were scum, despite being told by authorities here that these were things perfectly acceptable. Don’t they know they should all have been following the standards set in a country in the far east! 

I think on that basis his remarks on this can be safely filed in the bin. Although worryingly there were actually quite a few people on here agreeing with him at the time.

Quite a few folk on here can be considered doom mongers, although Jambos kickback is a thousand times worse. I get the impression half that forum thrive on any bad news and take glee in criticising people who instead of hidding under there beds, are getting on with their lives

[madwullie]

7 minutes ago, virginton said:

If Braidhurst's prior performance was piss-poor but they submitted nonsense grade predictions then they absolutely should be smacked down more than a school with a proven track record of delivering good results because that's where the bulk of the missing failures and lower grade passes are likely to be found. That's simply using the evidence that you've got to reach a logical conclusion, as opposed to the special case pleading of folk who think that good prelim results made them a shoo-in for straight A passes over the entire course (which wouldn't happen in any other year either).

We get it, you view these results on a purely statistical basis. That doesn't help individual kids who have been given results worse than they would have achieved had they had the chance to sit an exam though. 

Edit: for all you know braidhurst submitted perfectly realistic results. That didn't stop their kids getting doubly fucked though if so. 

Edited August 5, 2020 by madwullie

[Melanius Mullarkey]

3 minutes ago, NewBornBairn said:

I made it out of Aberdeen before the lockdown - phew.

I was up there with work and yesterday ate out twice. At lunch I waited in a socially distanced queue into the restaurant in Turriff which had taken half the tables and chairs out and only half of those left were occupied. My name and telephone number were taken. All staff wore masks and were constantly cleaning. The bill was a surprise as I'd forgotten the 50% off. All in all, a pleasant experience.

Dinner was in an Indian Restaurant in Westhill. When I went in, there were 4 couples evenly spaced around the edge of the room so I got a table in a corner at a safe distance. Nobody took my contact details and only 1 waiter wore a mask - pulled down over his chin. No gloves either. After I ordered, groups of workmen started to arrive and all sat at tables close together in the middle of the room. By the time they numbered over a dozen, the restaurant was getting quite full. Added to which one woman at a table not far away had been coughing persistently and not covering her mouth.

I had my starter but asked for my main course to go as a takeaway and paid the bill - no discount applied.

 

If that restaurant is typical, it's no surprise they've had an outbreak

^^^^absolutely riddled with the ‘Rona.

[madwullie]

4 minutes ago, virginton said:

There are quite a few good schools operating in shite areas as well as mediocre schools operating in good areas champ. There's absolutely nothing to suggest that the SQA has literally been using postcodes to cruelly bump down straight A track students based on the SIMD as people are now genuinely suggesting took place. 

Thanks for filling me in bud. For someone so focused on averages being king, you're still quite willing to pull out the odd outlier to attempt to prove your point. 

[Newbornbairn]

3 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

^^^^absolutely riddled with the ‘Rona.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

Except that the pass rates of schools in the top quintile of the SIMD were also downgraded by about 10 per cent and the bands will have been smacked down accordingly so no, you're actually talking nonsense.
This is where actually being able to read and interpret that basic table would have helped you out. 

The problem with broad-brush downgrading is that it punishes those who have done things by the book. They could easily have told those local authorities who had courses in their schools to go back and review their estimates - Dundee managed to review their estimates and adjusted in the space of a week - surely they could have asked others to follow the same procedures.

Even then if they were adjusting why downgrade those who did not go over their previous grade average? Why should my pupils have a band lower than the previous 2 years, and lower than any in the past 5 years? Clearly they have not looked at historic data in all cases.

I am just thankful that the group I am most concerned with had submitted their assignments - worth 58% of their marks - that will now have to be marked by SQA - that they will prove that their grades are utter nonsense.

I'm fuming at the lack of leadership shown by SQA - it is not fit for purpose - even before this pandemic many were complaining - late issuing of changes to courses, late issuing of coursework tasks, a lack of guidance regards changes to marking principles I could go on. LAs too have to take some of the blame for not being tougher when it came to grade inflation - teachers needed to be challenged before estimates were submitted. I personally had no issue with going back and reviewing grades - it is part of a professional discussion - it seems clear to me that this has just not happened consistently.

[vikingTON]

13 minutes ago, madwullie said:

We get it, you view these results on a purely statistical basis. That doesn't help individual kids who have been given results worse than they would have achieved had they had the chance to sit an exam though. 

Nobody knows what they would have achieved in a final exam. They could have made a total arse of it after flying through the prelim and coursework.

The bottom line is that if the teaching profession had simply submitted realistic predictions across the board in the first place then the SQA could have signed off on the lot of them, no doubt with the same bump up in overall passes to placate torn-faced parents. Instead the system was gamed from inside and so some collateral damage may have occurred in restoring a semblance of credibility to the overall results. That's not a conspiracy against folk living in shite areas.

[madwullie]

OK

[Mark Connolly]

6 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

Here come on I have cued up a lifetime of screenshotting who says this exclusively to harvest greenies and you're messing it up.

I guess those screenshots can be safely filed...

[Miguel Sanchez]

2 hours ago, ICTChris said:

 

not sure if this is veriifed but you have to wonder at the mentality of people who hear that all pubs are going to be closed due to potential transmission of a virus so they pile into the nearest boozer.

 

one of the myriad downsides to being a nation of tragic alcoholics

[eez-eh]

38 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

Here come on I have cued up a lifetime of screenshotting who says this exclusively to harvest greenies and you're messing it up.

The shame! I’ve been reading too much P&B.

[The Woolshed]

I made it out of Aberdeen before the lockdown - phew.
I was up there with work and yesterday ate out twice. At lunch I waited in a socially distanced queue into the restaurant in Turriff which had taken half the tables and chairs out and only half of those left were occupied. My name and telephone number were taken. All staff wore masks and were constantly cleaning. The bill was a surprise as I'd forgotten the 50% off. All in all, a pleasant experience.

Dinner was in an Indian Restaurant in Westhill. When I went in, there were 4 couples evenly spaced around the edge of the room so I got a table in a corner at a safe distance. Nobody took my contact details and only 1 waiter wore a mask - pulled down over his chin. No gloves either. After I ordered, groups of workmen started to arrive and all sat at tables close together in the middle of the room. By the time they numbered over a dozen, the restaurant was getting quite full. Added to which one woman at a table not far away had been coughing persistently and not covering her mouth.

I had my starter but asked for my main course to go as a takeaway and paid the bill - no discount applied.
 
If that restaurant is typical, it's no surprise they've had an outbreak

Have lived in the latter for 5 years and never ventured to the Indian restaurant here, thankfully we have the Echt Tandoori nearby. Doesn’t surprise me at all though about your experience in Westhill

[Iminavest]

1 hour ago, NewBornBairn said:

I made it out of Aberdeen before the lockdown - phew.

I was up there with work and yesterday ate out twice. At lunch I waited in a socially distanced queue into the restaurant in Turriff which had taken half the tables and chairs out and only half of those left were occupied. My name and telephone number were taken. All staff wore masks and were constantly cleaning. The bill was a surprise as I'd forgotten the 50% off. All in all, a pleasant experience.

Dinner was in an Indian Restaurant in Westhill. When I went in, there were 4 couples evenly spaced around the edge of the room so I got a table in a corner at a safe distance. Nobody took my contact details and only 1 waiter wore a mask - pulled down over his chin. No gloves either. After I ordered, groups of workmen started to arrive and all sat at tables close together in the middle of the room. By the time they numbered over a dozen, the restaurant was getting quite full. Added to which one woman at a table not far away had been coughing persistently and not covering her mouth.

I had my starter but asked for my main course to go as a takeaway and paid the bill - no discount applied.

 

If that restaurant is typical, it's no surprise they've had an outbreak

Both of these are Aberdeenshire and as it stands currently, can remain open.

[Boo Khaki]

4 hours ago, Gaz said:

Going to Forfar is acceptable to get a bridie and nothing else

Naebody would have the slightest clue what their lofts looked like if it wasnae for Forfar.

[Willie adie]

2 hours ago, NewBornBairn said:

I made it out of Aberdeen before the lockdown - phew.

I was up there with work and yesterday ate out twice. At lunch I waited in a socially distanced queue into the restaurant in Turriff which had taken half the tables and chairs out and only half of those left were occupied. My name and telephone number were taken. All staff wore masks and were constantly cleaning. The bill was a surprise as I'd forgotten the 50% off. All in all, a pleasant experience.

Dinner was in an Indian Restaurant in Westhill. When I went in, there were 4 couples evenly spaced around the edge of the room so I got a table in a corner at a safe distance. Nobody took my contact details and only 1 waiter wore a mask - pulled down over his chin. No gloves either. After I ordered, groups of workmen started to arrive and all sat at tables close together in the middle of the room. By the time they numbered over a dozen, the restaurant was getting quite full. Added to which one woman at a table not far away had been coughing persistently and not covering her mouth.

I had my starter but asked for my main course to go as a takeaway and paid the bill - no discount applied.

 

If that restaurant is typical, it's no surprise they've had an outbreak

Up in my neck of the woods Turriff!! 

[Boo Khaki]

2 hours ago, virginton said:

Nobody knows what they would have achieved in a final exam. They could have made a total arse of it after flying through the prelim and coursework.

This is something that I'm finding a bit perplexing.

Folk elsewhere are claiming that there should have been more focus on awarding grades on individual merit, so that kids who coasted most of the year but were expected to turn it on come exam time got the results they were hoping for. This being the case, we would have naturally arrived at a more realistic overall level of achievement without the SQA needing to take a sledgehammer to overall grades just to maintain some semblance of credibility.

Where my confusion arises, is that surely this only follows if someone, somewhere, was simultaneously willing to be honest to the point of offence, and confront irate parents with the fact that wee Billy is in fact just a loafer, who, despite being academically capable on a rudimentary level, puts in zero to minimal effort, and was bound to utterly flop come exam time. The same for parents of anxious kids who would be overcome with nerves. 

Honesty is honesty, it works both ways. You can't just expect that every child in Scotland would be given realistic grades leading to an overall realistic level of attainment without factoring in that some kids f**k their exams up. Who were the kids these folk were planning to have SQA award f**k all to in order to keep things 'realistic'?

Edited August 5, 2020 by Boo Khaki

[DeeTillEhDeh]

This is something that I'm finding a bit perplexing.
Folk elsewhere are claiming that there should have been more focus on awarding grades on individual merit, so that kids who coasted most of the year but were expected to turn it on come exam time got the results they were hoping for. This being the case, we would have naturally arrived at a more realistic overall level of achievement without the SQA needing to take a sledgehammer to overall grades just to maintain some semblance of credibility.
Where my confusion arises, is that surely this only follows if someone, somewhere, was simultaneously willing to be honest to the point of offence, and confront irate parents with the fact that wee Billy is in fact just a loafer, who, despite being academically capable on a rudimentary level, puts in zero to minimal effort, and was bound to utterly flop come exam time. The same for parents of anxious kids who would be overcome with nerves. 
Honesty is honesty, it works both ways. You can't just expect that every child in Scotland would be given realistic grades leading to an overall realistic level of attainment without factoring in that some kids f**k their exams up. Who were the kids these folk were planning to have SQA award f**k all to in order to keep things 'realistic'?

For my subject at N5 no pupils were moved to N4 after not coping with course eg failing class tests, prelims etc. Instead we moved them to the NPA at Level 5. A lot of schools have started to do this - it is one possible explanation of why there might be fewer pupils from SIMD 1/2 failing N5.

That being said there is absolutely no way it accounts for a 20% rise in estimates for passes for those pupils.

[Monkey Tennis]

3 hours ago, virginton said:

 

The bottom line is that if the teaching profession had simply submitted realistic predictions across the board in the first place then the SQA could have signed off on the lot of them, no doubt with the same bump up in overall passes to placate torn-faced parents. Instead the system was gamed from inside and so some collateral damage may have occurred in restoring a semblance of credibility to the overall results. That's not a conspiracy against folk living in shite areas.

Harsh but largely true.

I'd heard a few weeks ago that the estimate information was shaping up nationally as "horrific".  The guidance given and the need for internal checks should have prevented this, but it's not.  I think the downgrading has been necessary, and I think that basing it on historical school data is pretty valid.  However, individual injustices are likely to be numerous.  The appeal system can hopefully catch them, but even if it does, there will have been lots of stress and suffering on the way.

I wish that schools had made a better job of estimating.  Had they done so though, the noise from those feeling cheated would be even louder.

[madwullie]

19 minutes ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Harsh but largely true.

I'd heard a few weeks ago that the estimate information was shaping up nationally as "horrific".  The guidance given and the need for internal checks should have prevented this, but it's not.  I think the downgrading has been necessary, and I think that basing it on historical school data is pretty valid.  However, individual injustices are likely to be numerous.  The appeal system can hopefully catch them, but even if it does, there will have been lots of stress and suffering on the way.

I wish that schools had made a better job of estimating.  Had they done so though, the noise from those feeling cheated would be even louder.

I disagree. Getting it right for every child doesn't involve completely ignoring every child and giving them the grades similar kids who have now left school got. The sqa could have interacted with schools, found out specific reasons why one particular class may have performed better this year (smarter cohort, smaller more focused group, now subject specialist in school whereas previous years the certificate classes were taken by cover etc etc.) Forced schools to regrade if the evidence didn't back up the predictions. It doesn't seem like they've even glanced at the evidence though. They could have published their methodology, consulted on the methodology - collegiately come up with some kind of better way to deal with this. They could have employed the thousands of markers to look at at least a sample of the evidence submitted, and draw further conclusions based on that.

Instead they said "This is what the results should be", didn't bother telling anyone how the process would actually work and just delete and copy pasted this year's names in. Any non-folio work done by these pupils all year, any work done by the teachers to painstakingly grade, sort them (those who did it properly) might as well just have been filed in the bin to coin a phrase and everyone could have fired movies on from August last year. 

I'm snp through the middle but I've always had issues with the way they deal with education. Roll on indy so we can vote for people that have proper education policies. Sturgeon actually said we should judge her on education. In no world is that going well for her atm 

Edited August 5, 2020 by madwullie