A*'s in Their Eyes

Lisa Freedman:

It is now widely acknowledged that GCSEs don’t stretch the most able, so how do schools with only bright pupils cope?

My nephew, a bright boy, goes to the type of school where everyone gets an A* in their GCSEs. On the morning his own results were published, he couldn’t be bothered to find out what they were. Instead, he went off to play tennis.

For able children, GCSEs have become what Tony Little, headmaster of Eton, described as boy scouts’ badges. More than half of those taking this year’s edition were awarded an A* or A and, if you narrow the field down to the top selective schools, independent and state, the figure shoots up to over 80 per cent.

GCSE doesn’t distinguish sufficiently well at the top, says Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Education Research at the University of Buckingham and a special adviser to the All-Commons Education Committee. They award persistence and care, not talent and ability.

But those who teach the talented and able as well as the diligent and the careful have increasingly tried to find ways to make the exam system more relevant to their pupils.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at October 14, 2007 12:00 AM
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