Blog

Correlation between affluence/education and how people voted in the referendum At present, the future of the country is uncertain, however, one thing is certain from the analysis of the result of the referendum in newspapers. There is a clear correlation between affluence and how people voted in the referendum. Analysis of the election results indicated that most of those who live in the more deprived part of the country voted for Brexit. Only time will tell if those people have […]

There have been many speculations in terms of what the future holds for education before the Brexit vote, and the worry people have has not eased after the result of the referendum. Some of those speculations have come to be realised while some have not, or perhaps not yet anyway. What we have now is a situation in which, in addition to worry and uncertainty about the future of the country, the political situation is such that no one knows […]

It must be born in mind that despite the increase in the number of challenges for re-marking exams and the increase in the number of exam grades that are changed as a result, it is still the case that the majority of appeals are unsuccessful. Most requests do not result in a change to the original exam grade that was awarded in the first place. There are things that the student can do in order to make the job of […]

The financial cost of re-marking Whilst I find it difficult to understand the solution being proposed by OFQUAL – which is to make it more difficult to challenge exam grades, I’m also not too sure about a £10m fund, as I feel that, in the end the number of challenges to grades will keep rising and £10m will be grossly insufficient in the long run. Figures published in the teachers’ magazine – the TES last Friday indicates that it cost […]

An increasing number of schools are asking for their students’ examination scripts to be re-marked. They do this because they believe that the grade awarded by the examination board is not true reflection of a particular student’s ability in that subject. At a well-known independent school in North London – Haberdasher Askes School in Elstree, well over 50% of the scripts that were asked to be re-marked resulted in a change to the original exam grade that the student was […]

At this critical stage of the academic year as we approach the summer examinations, remember that extra tuition or revision courses are not the only way to help your son or daughter achieve high examination grades. However, when you have come to the conclusion that sending your daughter or son on a revision course is likely to help, please do not do so until you have asked the tuition centre or the revision company the following questions. What is the […]

Putting it all together for your son’s or daughter’s success at GCSE and A-level DAPPS – Desire, Action, Plan (Organised Plan), Persistent and Sixth sense I’m using the acronym DAPPS to present a few things that need to be in place in order for success to be achieved. For success, the right behaviour needs to be in place and when behaviour turns into habit – a good habit – then success will surely be achieved. Desire Every achievement starts with […]

What I have for you are seven key principles for boosting your son/daughter’s Exam Success. I hope they will be handy at this time of the academic year as we approach the summer examinations.  Have a dialogue and encourage your son/daughter to decide and be very clear on the target grade in each of the subjects that matter. Get him/her to set achievable goals and put together a brief plan on how to achieve those grades. The written plan need not […]

Poor exam performance at GCSE – is this part of a wider issue? In my last blog article I tackled the issue of a high number of young people not achieving good examination grades in the vital subjects of English and Maths. One of the main focuses of that article was the appallingly high failure rate among those who resit GCSE examinations. In this particular blog, I am looking at a wider issue of the quality of teachers in primary […]