The next time my Principal Teacher or Head Teacher try to engage me in a conversation about exam results or use the phrase "professional judgement" I am going to get quite angry.

I spent a LONG time carefully considering the work, effort, home learning, assessments... https://twitter.com/thetimesscot/status/1290684810101391367

...of my certificate level pupils before reaching a decision over what grade I felt all of that would merit.

Then I spent a LONG time discussing that with another teacher who shared the class and who had, independently, done the same as me.

In most cases we agreed.

Where we disagreed we both looked, again, at the evidence available and reached a shared conclusion.

Then we had a LONG conversation with our Principal Teacher about what we had discussed. In most cases she agreed with us and where there was disagreement or a question...

...we presented our reasons and satisfied her that our professional judgement was exactly that.

On a few occasions we did not feel that the pupil concerned would have performed any better than they had in their prelim exams...despite most pupils improving by around 10%...

...between prelims and final exams. Why? A drop off in attendance, a failure to complete coursework, an unwillingness to return home learning. In those instances we felt comfortable in saying that their prelim mark was representative of what they deserved.

In NO case did we use the lack of final exam as a means of upgrading ANY pupil beyond what we genuinely believed they were capable of. That, usually, meant that pupils improved by between 5-10% in our estimation.

Nobody who failed the prelim was awarded an A...

Nobody who achieved a C was awarded an A...

We were determined that it was the pupils performance that should guide our decision making and not some warped desire to show an unrealistic improvement on previous years performance.

Apparently my grading was "not credible".

Fine.

Don't ask for my "professional judgement" again. Just be honest about things.

What today has shown is that where you live and how well/poorly other children have performed in the past is a better tool...

...for determining how well, or otherwise, your child will do. Not the judgement of people who work with them on a daily basis and who know their capabilities. Instead a statistical model, an algorithm or a government/civil service body has determined what your child deserves.

Putting the issue of independence to one side their is no defence for what the SNP have done to education in Scotland over the past decade.

It should be a source of shame that today they have decided to take aim and fire at teachers in this way. But it won't be.

Instead people, in pursuit of independence, will defend the indefensible and take shots at anyone who dare criticise Nicola Sturgeon and her basket of incompetents.

What a great welcome back to teaching this is.