Although we still don’t know how the GCSE exams will work next year, we do know mock exams will need to happen. But when is the right time to sit a mock?
As soon as the announcement came for the 2020 GCSE grades to be generated using data gathered from internal assessment, the humble mock grew in its importance.
Although they didn’t know it when they sat them, for the current Year 11s, the mock exams became a key deciding factor in their official GCSE grade.
But how important will the mocks be for next year’s GCSE exam cohort? And when is the best time to sit them?
Mocks have increasingly been used by schools to mimic the real exams as much as possible, and they have increased in frequency, too: it’s not unusual for KS4 students to sit up to three mocks before their actual exam.
How seriously the pupils take them, though, is questionable. And how teachers mark those mocks can also be more about how they are trying to motivate a pupil, rather than what they are actually scoring.
Add this into the fact that we still don’t know what the 2021 GCSE exams will be like, or when they will be held - and also that schools will be trying to catch children up on missed content and support any mental health or safeguarding fallout from the Coronavirus lockdown - then suddenly deciding on what to do about mocks next year seems incredibly tricky.
GCSE 2021 mocks
The message from exam boards seems clear: hold off on formal assessment.
Julian Clarke, head of curriculum for science at AQA, says that, although teachers will want to assess their students learning on their return to the classroom, a mock exam isn’t the way to do it.
“Mock exams are useful to assess how well prepared students are for an exam, but students have been away from the classroom for more than 12 weeks,” Clarke explains. “To sit a full mock exam in the first few weeks of returning to school won’t necessarily help teachers gauge their students’ strengths and weaknesses in a subject, and it could even be counterproductive.”
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However, will schools be happy to wait before getting their hands on that crucial data?
For some school leaders, not doing a mock in that first term will feel like a risky gamble. Not only will schools not have data to identify students at risk of not achieving their target grades, but they could risk going into a second period of school closures without any assessment data if a second wave of coronavirus comes this winter.
The argument for early mocks
“My school senior leadership team have sent out dates for mocks in the first three weeks of returning in September,” says one teacher who wishes to remain anonymous. “When the rationale of this was queried, we were told it was so they could action interventions as soon as possible.”
Many schools will do the same, but there are examples of some that are not.
For some heads of department, the time spent organising, completing and marking mocks is not an effective use of the first term back.
Katherine Childs, a head of English in Dorset, says mocks should be put off until after Christmas.
“It’s going to be difficult to do mocks if we don’t actually know what the exams will look like next year,” she says.
“Currently, we are still waiting to hear what the exams will be, and when they’ll be sat, so planning a mock without that information seems like a poor use of time.”
David Bunker, a leader of literacy at a secondary school near Bristol, agrees, stating that before a mock can happen, there has to be quality teaching time.
“Mocks could take place in February or March,” he suggests. “That would give enough time for both students and staff to acclimatise to the routines of school, as well as provide adequate opportunities and sufficient teaching time for school staff to deliver the curriculum that students will be assessed on.”
What should happen when students first come back, says Bunker, is a chance for teachers to identify and support those with mental health and anxiety issues as a consequence of Covid-19 and lockdown. And then, once that’s done, the focus can go back on the learning.
“We will need time to actually teach! Mocks drain so much curriculum time. And we can’t afford to lose much more,” he says.
But will that be too late for teachers to make a meaningful difference if the mocks show up areas of concern?
“Choosing when to set mocks is a fine balance between best for the students and best for the teachers,” says Crispin Knill, assistant principal and lead for English at Space Studio in West London. “It needs to be far enough away from the exam to target knowledge gaps but close enough so that the whole year doesn’t turn into one giant exam.”
Do we need mocks at all?
Of course, if mocks do drain so much time, and if their effectiveness next year will be questionable, we could scrap them altogether. Is in-class assessment not enough?
After all, many looked at their mock data and felt sure that it wasn’t a reliable way to predict outcomes at GCSE.
Rebecca Lee, head of English and Specialist Leader of Education at Wyvern St Edmund’s Learning Campus, feels there is still an argument to be had for keeping them, though.
“I think students should probably have mock exams next year,” she says. “It’s a good chance for them to experience the conditions of exams, and see how they manage their time and responses in those conditions.”
Clearly, the picture across schools is going to be extremely variable. Schools are making decisions based on multiple factors - including the nature of their own cohort - so differences in opinion are inevitable. But what seems certain is that very few pupils are likely to have the same mock experience as previous years. How much of a factor will that be come the GCSE exams? We shall soon find out.
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