A-Level results day is one of the most nerve-wracking experiences in a student’s life – and it’s finally here. This year’s A-Level students saw the biggest drop in top grades on record. Around 600,000 fewer A and A* grades have been awarded this year as the Government tries to calm down on record grade inflation….
A recent study investigated potential links between students and how their schools influence the likelihood of them staying in school or leaving prematurely: teacher support, connectedness to school, and the use of detentions, suspensions and expulsions were all found to be relevant. The central question was “how can the school system improve schooling from…
GCSE and A-Level pupils will be given a choice of topics and advance information in order to “maximise fairness”. According to the Department for Education (DfE) the decision was influenced by the learning disruption caused by Covid. After a consultation that amassed over 6,000 responses, the decision is that for GCSE English literature, history and…
Education secretary Gavin Williamson has recently outlined his plans for Ofsted, exams and catch-up funding. Here are some of his key education objectives for the near future: Accelerated Ofsted Inspections Williamson is considering accelerating the timetable of Ofsted inspections. There are some schools that have not been inspected for 14 years, and many of them…
According to a recent Tes poll, 8 in 10 teachers believe that the workload for grading GCSEs and A Levels has been too intense. Two thirds of teachers have reported that they have lost at least a week of their own time to grading work. A Tes survey conducted of 2,800 teachers suggested that 64 percent worked…
This year’s teacher assessed GCSE and A-Level grading system has put immense pressure on both teachers and students. Students particularly feel overwhelming pressure due to the amount of mock exams and assessments they have had to perform in order to generate evidence for their grades. Unfortunately, this has taken its toll on the mental health…
Ofqual’s director of standards and comparability has stated that exam boards would request samples of work from every school for quality assurance. Some of the requirements include: Schools Will Need to Provide Samples of GCSE and A-Level Work Once schools submit grades, exam boards will request evidence from no less than five each of A-level and GCSE…
Summer is soon approaching, which likewise indicates that GCSE exam results are impending. After last year’s grading disaster through Ofqual’s predictive algorithm, many teachers fear the outcome of this year’s new grading approach. New government instructions require headteachers to carry out an “excessive” amount of assessments on students, as well as use historical data on their…
Since the dependency of online learning due to Covid, some are predicting that it could lead to the transitioning of paper to online exams much sooner than expected. The Department for Education (DfE) has suggested that a shift in attitude towards digital GCSEs has occurred due to the cancellation of summer exams. Sources close to…
