New O-Level style exams
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Alice in Underland
- Posts: 159
- Joined: Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:19 pm
Re: New O-Level style exams
I didn't say anything about A* !!!!
My kids had all their primary education in the USA and were well ahead of their cohort when they went into Grammars here. They both had a much better grounding in basics by age 10 especially in English and Maths. They went to local State schools and benefitted from better motivated teachers and smaller class sizes.
The things they have learned most about in the UK have been RE and British History...both of which they find fascinating !
My kids had all their primary education in the USA and were well ahead of their cohort when they went into Grammars here. They both had a much better grounding in basics by age 10 especially in English and Maths. They went to local State schools and benefitted from better motivated teachers and smaller class sizes.
The things they have learned most about in the UK have been RE and British History...both of which they find fascinating !
Re: New O-Level style exams
I thought Gove's idea (and is it set out anywhere official where we can read it yet?) is that there should be O' levels and CSE's again, and that students can sit the O' level at a later date if it takes them longer to work towards it.
It's not much different from the lower tier higher tier idea is it, but then with the benefit of the opportunity to sit the higher tier in a later year.
Is that such a bad idea? Why is it any more two tier than the current system? When people talk about a two tier system don't they mean grammars and secondary moderns, or an academic curriculum or a vocational curriculum which I note he is not proposing.
The thing I didn't know until recently was that prior to CSE days there was a large proportion of children who left school with no qualifications whatsoever, and CSE's were introduced relatively recently (I'm old, OK yonks ago).
It's not much different from the lower tier higher tier idea is it, but then with the benefit of the opportunity to sit the higher tier in a later year.
Is that such a bad idea? Why is it any more two tier than the current system? When people talk about a two tier system don't they mean grammars and secondary moderns, or an academic curriculum or a vocational curriculum which I note he is not proposing.
The thing I didn't know until recently was that prior to CSE days there was a large proportion of children who left school with no qualifications whatsoever, and CSE's were introduced relatively recently (I'm old, OK yonks ago).
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Lah-Di-Dah
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:14 am
Re: New O-Level style exams
Totally agree with your last post Magwich.
Re: New O-Level style exams
Following on from what Magwich and others have said - I don't disagree that there is a large degree of prescriptive answering at GCSE - but a bright intelligent child can be learning all around a subject doing the extra reading experimentation etc and the preparing for the exam. I am sure Magwich's DH could prepare himself for the GCSE in a very short period of time and excel. Yes, it may not be the most stimulating specification for all but that doesn't take away from the worth of it.
Learning the science (or art) of preparation is an important skill -those who think it is beneath them may have some shocks in front of them. DD has recently applied for and been accepted for a fairly prestigious paid internship this summer - as well as having a good background knowledge she spent an entire weekend plus some preparing ... learning about the firm, their ethos, management structure and bits and peices about the actual business they were in. She prepared just in the way she had for her GCSE's - individual thought alone may not have given her the edge.
MY DC are fortunately at a school which learns around subjects, stretching the mind outside the curriculum but also prepares them for all GCSE's to be sat in year 11. The likes of WFG have decided to do this stretching and stimulating via HE.
We don't live in an ideal world and although GCSE's are not perfect the two tier system O level/CSE would be a bad move in my view. The higher/lower tier GCSE's results are one qualification (with differerent grades) - and teachers often decide very late on whether students sit the higher or lower tier including in languages where the lower tier writing may be sat and higher tier listening.
Learning the science (or art) of preparation is an important skill -those who think it is beneath them may have some shocks in front of them. DD has recently applied for and been accepted for a fairly prestigious paid internship this summer - as well as having a good background knowledge she spent an entire weekend plus some preparing ... learning about the firm, their ethos, management structure and bits and peices about the actual business they were in. She prepared just in the way she had for her GCSE's - individual thought alone may not have given her the edge.
MY DC are fortunately at a school which learns around subjects, stretching the mind outside the curriculum but also prepares them for all GCSE's to be sat in year 11. The likes of WFG have decided to do this stretching and stimulating via HE.
We don't live in an ideal world and although GCSE's are not perfect the two tier system O level/CSE would be a bad move in my view. The higher/lower tier GCSE's results are one qualification (with differerent grades) - and teachers often decide very late on whether students sit the higher or lower tier including in languages where the lower tier writing may be sat and higher tier listening.
