The way forward for LC2021

Leftwaffe wrote: »

The SEC have told me that students can do the oral who have opted for the predicted grade. So anyone can do the oral essentially. They're just added to the end of the examinations aide roll.

Assuming you have an interviewer available? Not every school would have an interviewer available for longer than they initially signed up for.

For anyone who’s doing the oral aide job, has there been payment forms released yet? Haven’t seen them anywhere.

I have approx. 120 students on my roll for the orals but only about 75ish are actually doing it and timetabled to do it. Why is there this many on my roll and what do I write beside the name of those who aren’t doing it? Did not attend?

Enright wrote: »

"Withdrawn" for those that pull out "Did not attend" for those that do not turn up

Thanks. I’ve had no withdrawals and all students on my roll were made aware of the orals and given an option to be timetabled. I assume “Did not attend” is my option here then.

Mmmml80 wrote: »

Hi all, has anyone heard anything about marking the orals? I’ve applied but heard nothing yet. Thanks!

Same. I don’t expect to hear until the date for sitting them has passed. They have no idea how many they have until they are all done.

Same for summer marking, they don’t really know how many they will have until the final date for change of mind passes.

km79 wrote: »

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2021/0401/1207337-disconnect-work/

Department of Education please take note

I wonder will that have any effect on the Friday evening info drop?

I know my principal is often caught between wanting to inform us and not wanting to encroach on our personal time.

Random sample wrote: »

I wonder will that have any effect on the Friday evening info drop?

I know my principal is often caught between wanting to inform us and not wanting to encroach on our personal time.

It’s one thing a principal sending out emails after hours if they don’t expect a response to them until the following day/ Monday. It’s another if they are sending out emails and expecting a response.

Just chatting with friends from work on WhatsApp and one of them mentioned doing some particular inservice in May. Seemingly an email was sent out by principal in the last few days asking if people wanted to do it and clearly there are way too many staff in my school logging in to check their email and responding. He uses that to his advantage.

And then they wonder why we have poor working conditions. I’m on holidays. I’m not checking my emails.

Bobtheman wrote: »

Not looking forward to last term.
I have some records on my 6th years. But I don't think I'm fit to judge them overall. NO mock.
Then into the mix comes the fact that our grades last year were marked down even though they were well within the past performance of our school.
Thus do I simply inflate my grades which I'm not entirely sure of-given I have never corrected for the SEC? Then take a swig of whiskey and hope for the best?
The department guidelines are useless as you'd expect. The whole thing is farcical.

Have a look at your schools past performance, the performance of your students at junior cycle and the national average for your subject. All of the teachers in your department should be sitting down and working out grades within what is normal for those.

Bobtheman wrote: »

I don't think you read my post fully. We kept within past performances. Perhaps we didn't look at the JC result but I'm not sure that had to be done last year?
Boys in particular don't take the JC that seriously.
Plus is it fair to not assume kids can improve after 2 years??
No rhyme or reason to their system

I read your post. Junior cert results for each cohort were used last year. Might not be fair for students who didn’t know it would go towards their leaving cert, but same can be said for 5th year Christmas exams, which are the last exams I have that i fully trust as a marker of ability and possible outcomes for leaving cert. past performance and national average together is what i suggested, not just looking at one over another.

Again, if you have other teachers in your department, your method is going to affect their students too, unless the department agrees to use the method as a whole and let the algorithm do the work.

Nothing about any of this is fair.

rainbowtrout wrote: »

When did you get the letter? My subject has a new course and we all got an email telling us that we would have to reapply to mark this year (i.e. no automatic appointments from last year).

End of February or very early March. Big subject, it'll be in the top 3/4 subjects being taken if not the most popular I'd say. Normal paperwork, just confirm you will

am_zarathustra wrote: »

It's dependent on subjects entirely. Huge numbers for biology, maths, geog, etc but very low in languages!

I don't think students are being informed about the nature of the bell curve. There is a belief that everyone can get "better" grades now the exams are "easier".

Definitely, ours told the same. The irish etc is down to students not seeing much margin for improvement and the oral being quite soon after!

I can't see that IT article behind the paywall, but I read earlier that some very small % had opted for exam only?
https://www.thejournal.ie/leaving-cert-2021-accredited-grades-choice-irish-5407270-Apr2021/
Eg in Irish: "946 students, or 2%, will take the Irish exam and have turned down the option of an accredited grade."
How will that work? I had understood that we would be working out accredited grades for every student.

Random sample wrote: »

They could be students without a teacher. Maybe students who are repeated higher level Irish for primary teaching. If they are in our classes we are required to provide them with an accredited grade even if they don’t apply for it, in case of illness or isolation when the exam is on.

Yeh, that’s what I thought. But 2% would be 1200 or so students? That seems high.

derb12 wrote: »

Yeh, that’s what I thought. But 2% would be 1200 or so students? That seems high.

Students exempt from Irish might have ticked the no box for accredited grade.

Any idea when we will have confirmation for the exam layout for LC subjects in 2022?

Many teachers give regular exams in 5th year and if the exam structure is going to change next year teachers should be told about it so they can better prepare their students. For instance, in history the normal 4 questions in 170 minutes was replaced this year with 3 questions in the same time. This essentially meant that the H1 students in 2021 who want to stand out have to prepare 6-7 page essays instead of 4-5 page essays as nobody knows how the SEC is going to separate the wheat from the chaff when awarding H1s. The changes have meant more work, not less, for all those students who had prepared well by the existing criteria.

Likewise, if the SEC is going to change the 2022 exam to take into account of this year's Lockdown, we should be told asap so that we can allow our students to change their exam technique by, for instance, preparing much longer LC essays and taking longer to write them.

I’m working on the basis that the changes made in august for the 2021 class will be made again for the class of 22. I don’t think they will get the same allowances as the March announcement.