In January 2008, when our youngest was just 3, he started at the nursery school that would become his primary school, and which would feed into his senior school. 13.5 years ago he was a chunky little toddler, full of mischief, but also very full of his own opinions, with one of his favourite phrases being ‘yes, but…..’. He is now 6′ 4″, very full of his own opinions, and is about to finish compulsory education, and in 2 weeks will finish year 11.

Covid made last year very difficult. The then Y11s finished school at Easter, and their grades were based on school assessments and algorithms, and then after the public outcry when results were issued, they were based on teacher grades. It was awful for the students, and for their teachers.

Fast forward to 2021, and this year is worse. The current Y11s have had at least 2/5 of their taught terms online, and 1.5/5 interrupted by isolation, bubbles and distancing, which means only a term and a half have been ‘normal’ and pre-covid. This final term where they would normally be on study leave has been assessments, assessments and more assessments as teachers desperately try to gather the information needed to give grades that will pass inspection by the exam boards in June and July.

This year’s cohort spent from March to the end of the summer term last year doing online learning while teachers tried to get to grips with Teams, Zoom and working from home. Some students had all the gadgets they needed, others didn’t have laptops, tablets or wifi. The summer term was a bit of a disaster even though teachers and students worked really hard to make it work.

In September, summer exams were definitely going ahead, with slight adaptations to curriculum so that the load would be a little lighter. In October exams were definitely going ahead, no centre assessed grades would be needed, but there would be a reduced curriculum which would be announced at the end of January. In sciences, formulae and equations would be given to the students to make the exams a little fairer. In December with cases rising and hospitals preparing for another wave and businesses preparing for another lockdown, exams were going ahead.

At the beginning of January, less than 6 months before the exams, schools were staying open and exams were going ahead. Just 3 days later, schools were closing for at least half a term, and exams were cancelled, but iGCSEs were going ahead. In February iGCSEs were cancelled too.

Schools didn’t open until mid-March, and some schools had phased openings. As with the summer lockdown, not every student in Y11 had access to laptops, tablets or wifi. Not every student could learn.

Over the Easter break, JCQ and Ofqual released info to teachers about what was expected, just 3 months before the deadline of June 18th, but they also announced the appeals procedure, just in case it was needed. While teachers tried to make sense of the information, they also had to plan how to assess, and how to find the time to mark, cross mark and submit ‘robust evidence’ that was fair to their students, and also would pass external quality assessments by the exam boards.

This all means that now, at the beginning of May, just 6 weeks before deadline day, there are hundreds of exhausted teachers and students (and parents) who are still in the thick of it, and are still trying to make sense of it all.

For us, we have two weeks until our son’s assessments are done. Two more weeks of juggling revision and down time, making sure enough has been learned while not heading towards an overload situation. We need to keep the motivation and desire to do well there for the next two weeks, and this will involve study, revision, fruit and lots and lots of donuts!

This summer, on the 12th August, when my son and his peers open that envelope and get their results, I hope they are happy. I hope they are pleased that they got to this point in this shi*tstorm of a year. I hope they realise that to have got through the last 18 months is a huge achievement, but to have sat assessments and exams is something else. I hope they know that they can do anything after this year, regardless of what that results slip says. I hope they know that they truly are amazing, and the future is theirs to grab, and I hope they know that I, and so many other parents and teachers around the country, are immensely proud of them, of all they have done, and of all they will go on to do.