My Exam Results Postmortem. Press Photos from A Level and GCSE Results Days. A time for celebration. My Exam Results Postmortem. Don’t you just love exam results days? I always have….all the anticipation, the nerves, the agonising wait and then, finally….the big reveal. When that email arrives from the Exams Officer carrying the thousands of mini verdicts on students’ achievements, the first thing I do is to look at the overall headline. Next, I dive into the Physics column. So, rather than talk in general terms, let me share how it went this year. Y13 A Level Physics Class I loved teaching this class and I felt very positive going into the exams that we’d put things in place for a strong set of results. Now, straight away I need to be careful.
Expected grades: The five As, a couple of Bs and Cs were expected. Step-Up Disappointments: Students who were knocking on the door of an A or B and who I felt would deliver that step-up in the final exams. 1. 2. 3. 4. We’ve asked all these questions. So.. there you go. GCSE%20composite%201306%20v2. What I did as a Headteacher when our GCSE results were in decline. I have been a teacher for 25 years, a Headteacher for 10 years and, at the age of 49, this much I know about what I did as a Headteacher when our GCSE results were in decline.
As Headteacher the buck stops with you. Chris Bridge, my boss when I was a Deputy, identified the gulf between being a Deputy and a Head; he said to me that, as a Deputy, I could always go home and sleep at night because, ultimately, the buck didn’t stop with me. Nothing really prepares you for Headship, even five years as Chris’ Deputy. Late August 2003, in my new school, and someone said to me, We haven’t got a Psychology teacher for September. My instinctive response was, Why are you telling me? Sion Humphreys from the National Association of Head Teachers had it right when he said this week, “For headteachers…you’re only as good as your last set of exam results. When things go awry, try to hold your nerve. As a school we held our nerve back in 2010. I never stopped believing we could turn it around. Ghosts. Alevel-student-who-gained-six-a-grades-pens-furious-letter-to-michael-gove-over-offensive-exam-reforms-8784154.
Raphael Hogarth, who gained six A* grades sitting A-levels at University College School - one of the country’s leading independent schools, said the exam would become “harder and more traumatic but such that candidates learn less not more”. Raphael will now be going to Oxford where he will study philosophy, politics and economics. He gained A* grades in maths, further maths, history, German and music and an A* in his extended project - which encourages students to develop their creative thinking skills through an essay. He is particularly critical of the plan to abandon January A-level modules, arguing: “Resitting a module is not a second chance to cheat the system into giving you a good grade.
It’s a chance to work harder and learn all the stuff you failed adequately to digest the last time. “If a candidate fails a module in June and then does well the following January, that’s evidence that they have become better educated in those seven months. GCSE results show increase in pupils sitting biology. Following yesterday's announcement of GCSE results, the Society of Biology is encouraged to see that the number of students for biology has increased for another consecutive year, representing an on-going shift towards the separate sciences. The results represent the first time that new qualifications in biology, chemistry, physics, additional science and additional applied science have been awarded, following changes to the GCSEs introduced for first teaching in September 2011.
The new GCSEs are intended to be more challenging. Further reforms are also being implemented, with more in the pipeline. From September 2012, GCSEs switched from a modular to linear structure across all subjects, and new GCSE science qualifications currently in development for first teaching in September 2015. These changes are happening in parallel to A-level reform. The Society recently responded, via SCORE, to the Department for Education consultation on reformed GCSE subject content. GCSEs: 'extra time' rule overhauled to stamp out abuse. Some 96 per cent of requests from schools for extra time last year were approved by exam boards, it emerged. Ofqual, the qualifications regulator for England, wrote to examiners last autumn asking them to review procedures surrounding extra time amid concerns it may be “given to candidates to help them improve their grades rather than to address a significant disadvantage”.
The Joint Council for Qualifications, which represents major exam boards, is now tackling the problem by introducing new guidance for schools. The disclosure is made just a day before around 600,000 children across England, Wales and Northern Ireland receive their GCSE results. The guidelines – applied from next month – say that: • All schools requesting extra time must submit a formal statement confirming that children have special educational needs or bring in an independent assessor to screen pupils for certain learning difficulties;
Exam Reform. Another blog manifesto. Blogs about examinations and assessment… I’ve written quite a few posts about exams and assessment in the last year. Some of the earlier ones were a bit of a rant; more recently, I think they are more measured. Through this blog and other related activities such as working with the Headteachers’ Roundtable, I’ve been able to meet some of the people from exam boards and OfQual. It is very interesting to talk face to face, to hear their perspective and to discuss the mechanics of the examination system. My main contention is that teachers, politicians and the public at large need a much better understanding of the mechanics of the system so that there is more awareness of the inherent limitations and margins of error.
Of course people are entitled to demand a system that they can have full confidence in…but that doesn’t mean we can wish away or mask the issue of error as if it isn’t there. Too often the debate descends into conspiracy theory territory. And yet, it feels wrong. 1. 2. 3. 4. Pupils returning to traditional subjects, says exam board chief. GCSE students collect their results. Andrew Hall said: 'Even at GCSEs now, pupils are saying, which subjects will help me progress?
' Photograph: Keith Larby/Demotix/Corbis The resurgence of pupils taking traditional subjects such as geography and science is being driven by young people becoming "much clearer" about what they want to do with their lives, according to the head of the UK's largest examinations board. Andrew Hall, chief executive of the AQA board, said the recent entries for A-levels and GCSEs were evidence of a shift in subjects driven in part by career concerns among pupils as young as 13.
"Young people are being savvy. The 2013 class of A-level candidates chose maths, biology, chemistry, physics and geography in greater numbers than before, at the expense of the likes of media studies. Hall said there was "a return to traditionalism coming through the subject choices" at both exam levels, as employers and universities made plain what they wanted to see from applicants. The unofficial exam results phrase book. 21 August 2013Last updated at 20:10 ET By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent A Scottish example of the traditional post-exam levitation photograph The exam results season has its own rituals and its own language.
Here are some hardy perennials among the phrases likely to be heard and some of their meanings. 1) Dumbing down. This has become part of the education lexicon, particularly during the exam season, functioning as a shorthand for a whole set of beliefs that standards are tumbling. But its origins are not really from education at all. 2) Grade inflation. 3) Fiasco. 4) Mickey Mouse qualifications. 5) "Going back to a 19th Century education system.
" Cambridge began offering school exams in 1858 and the first subjects were English language and literature, history, geography, geology, Greek, Latin, French, German, physical sciences, political economy and English law, zoology, mathematics, chemistry, arithmetic, drawing, music and religious knowledge. 7) Traditional. How to subvert target grades. Target grades are good aren’t they? They must be otherwise why would Ofsted be so damn keen on them. Consider this: how would Monsieur d’Ofsted respond when asking an unsuspecting student in your class whether they’re achieving their target grade only to be told that their teacher didn’t let them know what their target grade was? Doesn’t bode well, does it? Here’s a somewhat contentious piece of information: if you grade (or level) students’ work you are actively preventing that piece of work being used formatively.
That’s not right, you may be thinking, I can provide formative feedback on a piece of work which helps students make progress whilst also giving them a grade as a useful signpost to measure their progress against, can’t I? I’m afraid to tell you that you can’t. Even worse, ‘target’ grades are nothing of the sort. But what about Ofsted? Grades can also have a pernicious effect on mindsets. Unless they have something like this stuck in their books: Is this ethical? Related posts. Schools' tricks to inflate science grades revealed. 4 September 2013Last updated at 07:17 ET By Judith Burns BBC News education reporter Teachers in two schools have told a researcher how senior management told them to manipulate results Tricks used by some schools in England to inflate GCSE science results were revealed at a conference on Wednesday.
Some schools switch weaker pupils to BTecs, coursework-based vocational qualifications equivalent to GCSEs, and falsify their marks, claims research. Author Birendra Singh spent five years observing science teaching in three unnamed London schools. The Department for Education said any gaming or inflation of results was "completely unacceptable".
Mr Singh, a former science teacher with 17 years' experience, who has also worked as an Ofsted inspector, carried out the research for a doctorate at University of London's Institute of Education. Anonymous interviews He told BBC News he had originally been looking at methods of assessment, marking and feedback to pupils. "They trusted me. “Start Quote. Poor exam grades crush young people's ambition, study says. 13 August 2013Last updated at 02:40 ET By Judith Burns BBC News education reporter Young people with few qualifications fear for their future, suggests the survey One in five young people in the UK say they have "abandoned their ambitions" because of poor grades, warns a report. Some 34% of 2,300 16 to 25-year-olds with poor grades polled for The Prince's Trust charity believed they would "end up on benefits".
It said many had experienced problems at school or home so exam results did not reflect their true potential. The government said it was "taking decisive action to transform vocational education". A spokeswoman for the Department for Education (DfE) said the government would fund "a place in education or training for every 16 and 17-year-old who wants one". According to the poll, more than a quarter (26%) of those who left school with poor grades believed their results would always hold them back. 'Hopeless and jobless' Skilled trade. Schools moving to 'easy' IGCSE exams to boost grades. 7 questions on GCSE science. Heads warn of GCSE 'grade turbulence'
21 August 2013Last updated at 10:32 ET By Hannah Richardson BBC News education reporter More students could get unexpected results this year Head teachers say thousands of pupils could miss out on expected GCSE grades because of "significant turbulence" in this year's results. As changes to make core GCSE subjects harder begin to bite, heads warn grades are becoming unreliable and incomparable year on year. So much so that many pupils predicted to get grade C in core subjects may not now achieve it, they say. Exams regulator Ofqual says "standards will be maintained" despite changes. Pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be receiving their GCSE results on Thursday. The Ofqual exam watchdog in England has already warned that GCSE English, maths and all science results are likely to "look different" with grades possibly dropping this year because of changes to the exams and the patterns of entry.
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