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For the third year running the pandemic casts a shadow on traditional GCSE and A-level summer exams. The examinations were cancelled in both 2020 and 2021 and replaced with teacher assessment. The government’s position remains that those examinations will go ahead, albeit with minor adjustments to account for loss of learning time due to the…
Opportunities Abound in Education – It’s all about Grabbing the Bull by the Horns It’s interesting, using this expression “grabbing the bull by the horns” in relation to children’s education. The expression brings many things to mind. Education may not particularly be one of them. Though on further thought, the two ideas are not completely…
A Good Teacher is Worth their Weight in Gold! There is a saying that goes “a good teacher is like a candle, it consumes itself to light the way of others” – a quote from Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The difference a teacher can make to the life of a child cannot be overemphasised. Every adult…
Much has been said about how many children have lost teaching and socialising time as a result of lockdown, which is true and, sadly, may be even worse than we thought. It is reassuring to see that the economic impact of the pandemic is turning out not to be as bad as it was previously…
One of the factors attributed to the success of St Andrews is their teaching, especially the way they reacted to lockdown. Yes, like other universities, they moved their teaching online as a result of COVID-19, but they did small group teaching in a way that their students feel is better than other top universities. At…
In its almost 30-year history of ranking universities in the UK, The Sunday Times has placed a university that is neither Oxford nor Cambridge at the very top. You should be forgiven for thinking it may be a Russell Group university, but it is not one, and it is not even in England. The top…
a conversation with a caring parent – written in August 2021 Dear Caring Parent I trust you and your family are making the best of the summer and that your son/daughter is looking forward to the start of the new academic year in September. I know we are only in the first few weeks of…
A seventeen-year-old, with a national swimming award, and predicted grades of A*A*A has been rejected by Liverpool University and this is just one of many. According to The Guardian newspaper’s education website: “… Eve could have expected a string of top university offers in an ordinary year.” There is nothing ordinary about 2020, as COVID-19…
Here is a short story of Charlie, who was awarded A and B in Maths and Further Maths, respectively, in his A-levels by his teachers in 2020. His actual predicted grade in these two subjects was A* A*, so he not only missed out on gaining admission to Warwick University but has to carry these…
Many young people who are in their final GCSE and A-level years have been studying diligently over the Easter break, and they are doing this in preparation for teacher assessment in the next couple of weeks or so. In most good schools where students achieve top grades year in year out, the headteacher and staff…
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