The best argument for getting rid of exams is that they having a bad effect on society by strongly suggesting that the only way of being successful in life is doing well in academic qualifications. They prioritise the cognitive elite at the expense of those who have completely different talents, especially those David Goodhart calls... Continue Reading →

This week, Liz Truss (who turns out to be the Women and Equalities Minister when she is not being the Trade Minister) made a speech repositioning the Government’s approach to equality. Essentially, she said that there has been too much emphasis on race and gender at the expense of the more important issues of socio-economic... Continue Reading →

There has rarely been a more important time to consider the importance of mentoring, particularly for new teachers. The ITT Core Content Framework (2018 p. 3) acknowledges that “Mentoring and support from expert colleagues forms a key element of this multi-year entitlement”. In 2015, the Carter Review of Initial Teacher training which had been commissioned... Continue Reading →

Some children have learnt little since March, others have learnt more than they would have done had they been in school. Understandably, parents and teachers’ unions are calling for some adjustment to public exams in June 2021 to recognise this fact. Most people would agree with me that, if adjustment could be done it should... Continue Reading →

A group of independent and state school teachers have announced that they do not like GCSEs.  I am glad – it is always good to question the way we do things. So we might help them by laying out a few background thoughts. 1) What are GCSEs for? You cannot reform GCSEs without answering this... Continue Reading →

The values, beliefs and customs that make up an organisation’s culture are usually established in response to perceived problems that need addressing. Assumptions are made about how those problems can be solved. Solutions are found, and these form the conditions in which rituals and routines take seed, which in turn shape the way things are... Continue Reading →

How are we doing as a country? This is such an important question – a high level question.  While we flounder around worrying about exam grading we too rarely ask the bigger question – are other countries doing better than us? In September this year the OECD published its Education at a Glance analysis which... Continue Reading →

1) Grades went up. Normally I would comment on the grade distribution but there is little point this year.  Everyone did well because teacher predictions were used. Some pupils were even awarded grades higher than their school prediction. 2) AS-levels are fading out in England. AS-levels still count towards the A-level in Northern Ireland and... Continue Reading →

Has A-level grading been a disaster? Yes for a significant minority of pupils. The Ofqual algorithm did not use centre assessment grades for most pupils, it used historic grades.  Individual pupils who are at the bottom of the rank orders, but are in fact better than their predecessors, have suffered. On the other hand, the... Continue Reading →