Damn, that's really shitty. Sorry to hear that.
I don't think the 'grade inflation' issue can be dismissed entirely. .
T - i do not disagree that results have gone up but am a bit concerned at the willing acceptance of the terminology of 'grade inflation' in a contextless account - a discussion the current government do not want.
why have grades gone up? Well partly because there is a constant pressure to make sure every kid that can will get a C. So, where in the past kids might get a bit of extra homework they are now having to come in during the Easter holidays or forego PE so that they can cram for exams. Also in the coursework kids just went in with what they could get, now it is endless redrafts to get them up to scratch. There are many more examples of 'intervention' but I am aware that I am going on a bit about something I know something about but which gets misrepresented in the media so ridiculously.
Why are teachers doing this? Especially when they are contributing to 'grade inflation'? Cos they too are under pressure to get results which show the school heading up league tables, to stop OFSTED arriving, to keep senior managers off their backs, because the kids have been they are going to get these gardes by the predicted grade algorithm in the FFT data base.
If there was an acceptance by the government that the targets were unrealistic and generated by unrealistic data then we wouldn't be squeezed to magic up marvellous results.Or work ourselves to the point of mental exhaustion, rack up large numbers of sick days and see good colleagues go under and sign off for months on end with stress.
it is unfair and disingenuous of the government bodies (The Fischer Family Trust et al) to set targets which are unachievable. If a kid starts a gCSE and is informed, wrongly, that they can get a C then their whole career choice is based upon specious reasoning and setting them up to fail. They fail to get their college course, they fail to get their qualifications, they enter the world of NEETS through no fault of their own other than believing that they had been given a fair chance. It is all well and good offering opportunities to aspire to but be realistic - there's no good me aspiring to be astronaut at my age and with my fear of heights!