Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Spitting Feathers
It's nearly a week since the GCSE results and I'm still not sure I can write a reasoned and well thought-out response. I'm not a great believer in conspiracy theories but I can absolutely believe that the results would be altered to become a stick to beat schools by. It's pretty obvious to me working inside a school that this Government does not value teachers and loathes the current system. Believe me, it's not perfect and I do think GCSEs don't cover the same content as the old O-levels, resulting in a knock on effect on A-levels and the degrees, but changing the goalposts partway through the year is not fair on the students, before you even consider how the overall drop in results may be used as a stick to beat schools with.
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3 comments:
If teachers once again taught correct spelling and grammar then more pupils would actually pass their English exams...time to scrap the nasty, nasty GCSE and get back to some proper education and rise the intelligence level of the next generation....and yes...I do know what I'm talking about and am not just a moaning old person
I agree with you Joy, particularly in relation to Maths and Science GCSEs. I am not as familiar with the structure of the English GCSEs. My concern still remains though at why the marking was changed partway through the year, so students taking the paper earlier in the year could be awarded a higher grade than those taking them in June. My biggest concern though remains that by changing the thresholds, more schools fall below the level at which they are forced to become Acadamies.
Don't get me started on Academies.....grrr I still think that if the teaching standards had been up to scratch then it shouldn't have made a difference. GCSE and A level gradings are now a joke, dumbed down to the nth degree. Teachers not to blame..curriculum changes each half term...we need to get back to a higher standard of literacy/numeracy and give our children an education to be proud of not being bored out of their brains because all teachers can do is 'teach to the tests' to reach the targets. I know more about secondary than primary education
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