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7 Ways for your child to maximise their GCSE or A-level exam result in 2022
The traditional GCSE and A-level exams are definitely happening this summer. In fact, some students have already taken their IGCSE in Maths – including my son, who got his results this week. Here, I am sharing with you 7 key points that you, as a parent can use to supportyour child as they prepare for the summer examinations. It will be more difficult to get top grades this year (2022), as fewer top grades will be awarded in comparison to […]
Education Arms Race – the secret weapon
Just in case you think the title of this blogpost is rather dramatic, here is a headline from The Times website: “The education arms race is out of control”. Actually, The Times is not the only newspaper that uses the phrase “arms race”, so does The Guardian, The Economist, a report by UCL and many other news outlets. Private tuition, or call it private lesson, is nothing new. In fact, it predates formal education, as it has been around since […]
Return to school; Learning technology and Grade Misallocation – making the best of …
Return to school; Learning technology and Grade Misallocation – making the best of … Once again, another school holiday has begun without parents and young people knowing if they will be going back to school at the end of it or not – thanks to the pandemic. Even before the discovery of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, returning to school in the New Year would have been a tricky one anyway. Here is a headline from BBC’s webpage (see the […]
GCSE-&-A-level-examinations-summer- 2022–update
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 disruption caused by lockdown. We must remember that the government insisted in the months leading up to the 2021 exams that the exams would go […]
Opportunities-in-Education-Grabbing-the-Bull-by-the-Horns
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 unrelated. The expression means to have a direct approach to something, which is exactly what this article is about. In addition, this article reveals that […]
Good Teachers are Worth their Weight in Gold!
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 can remember at least one or two teachers who made a real difference to them during their school days. In my blogpost, I highlighted the […]
There are many reasons for optimism about our children’s education and future; but there are hidden truths…
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 assumed it was going to be. However, when it comes to children, there is a very wide variation in the degree in which children from […]
Why St Andrews is so successful; you can do it, irrespective of which university!
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 Excel, we can very much relate to what St Andrews did well during COVID lockdown. This is because, at the start of lockdown, it took […]
The Top University in the UK is not Oxford or Cambridge
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 university, according to The Sunday Times, is St Andrews in Scotland. I will later highlight the success factor for this university but, before I do […]
The Number One Question asked by Parents of Teenagers… Answered
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 the summer break and everyone, including we parents, and the children just want to have a rest for the time being. This is especially important […]
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