Top independent school puts lessons free on iTunes. 31 August 2014Last updated at 20:55 ET By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent Courses from the school are available online beside university courses A leading independent school is making dozens of its courses available free online, so lessons can be downloaded by pupils or teachers at other schools.
The ground-breaking initiative by Stephen Perse Foundation school in Cambridge will make A-level, IB and GCSE courses available online. They can be downloaded free through Apple's iTunes U service. Principal Tricia Kelleher says: "The digital world requires teachers, like everyone else, to work differently. " The Stephen Perse Foundation, one of the country's highest achieving schools, has been experimenting with digital learning, with every pupil having their own iPad.
Digital text-books The school has been building digital support materials for each subject, including video, audio, written materials and links to online resources. Every pupil in the school has an iPad 'Amazing step' General Certificate of Secondary Education. The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification awarded in a specified subject, generally taken in a number of subjects by students aged 14-16 in secondary education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
It was introduced in 1986 (with the first examinations taking place in 1988), replacing the former O Level / CSE qualifications. As well as amalgamating the two former examination systems, one of the main changes was to allow students to complete coursework during their two years of study, which was marked by their teachers and contributed to their final examination grade. The qualification is equivalent to a Level 1 or Level 2 (grade depending) Key Skills Qualification (in Scotland, the equivalent is the Standard Grade). Some students may decide to take one or more GCSEs before or after they sit the others, and people may apply to take GCSEs at any point either internally through an institution or externally. Structure[edit] Grading[edit] Tiers[edit] GCSE results 2014: girls pulling further ahead of boys.
'Nobody likes GCSEs, but they're the best we've got' Why do private schools get such good results? A-level. The A Level logo The General Certificate of Education Advanced Level—generally termed the GCE Advanced Level or, more commonly, the A Level—is an academic qualification offered by educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the British Crown dependencies to students completing secondary or pre-university education.
A number of countries, including Singapore and Mauritius have developed qualifications with the same name as and a similar format to that of the British A Levels. The qualification is generally studied for over two years and split into two parts, with one part studied in each year. The first part is known as the Advanced Subsidiary Level, or AS Level, and was previously known as the Advanced Supplementary Level, with the same abbreviation. The second part is known as the A2 Level. Current usage[edit] A number of countries use the A Levels as a school leaving qualification.
United Kingdom[edit] Brunei[edit] Malaysia[edit] Mauritius[edit] Seychelles[edit] Singapore[edit]