New GCSE Grading System
Post-Sixteen qualifications – A-level subjects and courses option after GCSE
The GCSE exam results are released today, with fewer top grades of 7, 8 and 9 (A and A*) being awarded in comparison to last year, but higher than in 2019. Although A-level grades are the main determining criterion for admission into the top universities, GCSEs still matter and there are two reasons for this.…
Read MoreEducation 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…
Read MoreGCSE-&-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…
Read MoreThere is light at the end of the tunnel for GCSE and A-level students
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…
Read MoreIs Online Learning the future for school children?
Is Online Learning the future? Closure of schools, caused by the lockdown as a result of the pandemic has forced society to learn how to utilise technology in solving a very big problem – loss of learning by children. However, before we get too excited about how brilliant online teaching technology is, and start thinking…
Read MoreShould the pandemic limit young people’s option to five GCSEs?
Should the pandemic limit young people’s option to five GCSEs? According to the Sunday Times, the government released a set of guidelines about the 2021 GCSE examinations on 2nd July. They are recommending that, in exceptional circumstances, pupils may be allowed to take as few as five GCSEs. This is in recognition of the lost…
Read MoreHow good is the Quality of Online Teaching after School Closure due to the pandemic?
Since the lockdown and school closure in the last week of March, all secondary schools have been making some sort of provision for their students. The standard of education being provided varies very widely. Some schools are using online technology, such as Zoom, Skype, Microsoft One Note, Google Classroom and so on, to provide live…
Read MoreAlas, how come some public schools don’t teach their students GCSEs, and they still take exams in it
A lesson for me from a sixteen-year-old, which you may find intriguing I was at the intensive revision course for our A-level and GCSE students today and, during the break, I was chatting to the teenagers, as I usually do. I usually try and make small-talk and chat about their travelling experience, school and so…
Read MoreFailure to plan for A-level or GCSE Exams is a plan to Fail
I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase several times that “Failure to plan is a plan to fail.” This very much applies to teenagers as many of them face what is, perhaps, the most important test in their lives to far – the summer examinations. Hard work is important and most young people are working hard…
Read MoreArt and Music versus STEM subjects, McJobs …
On the Radio 4 programme that I mentioned in the first part of this blog post article, some of the panellists, in my view, wrongly blamed the introduction of the EBacc as the reason why there is a decline in the number of young people who are taking Art and Music at GCSE; in fact,…
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