According to the Daily Hatemail.
I know, I know... what on Earth was I doing reading that trash? I accidentally stumbled upon it by following a (seemingly harmless) link from Google. Seriously, I need to hone my surfing skills. It's taken me a week to write the blog because it's taken me that long to cool my blood down and to glue my objet d'art back together.
Well, what proof does the Hatemail provide? a) That a 5 year old took GCSE maths and passed with a C grade; b) that a 9 year old took the same GCSE and passed with an A*; and c) that the pass rates for A*-C grades are getting better, year on year.
Well, the youngsters clearly passed as they were well-coached geniuses (or is that geniii?) who had the luxury of taking just one GCSE. If you coached me for a year on any one subject, I'm sure I could pass. Both children said that they felt that maths was a game - clearly it came naturally to them and they will be building a space station on the moon before I'm a head teacher.
As for the rising GCSE outcomes - well, of course that means the exams are getting easier. Nothing else could surely account for the improvements. Like, for instance, improved teaching? Or the fact that we now test these children at every interval with SATs and officially reported teacher assessments? Or the fact that teachers are expected to monitor the slightest alteration in a child's progress and intervene the second anything declines? Or the examinations culture in which we live, where teachers and students fear failure and strive to achieve the golden C grade (or higher) at all costs. Giving up breaks, before school, after school, weekends and holidays to cram in additional revision sessions. Or the fact that us teachers are governed to ensure that students 'pass' from the moment they arrive in our secondary school classrooms?
For goodness' sake.
You've seen the cartoons, when the money grabbing character looks at an object/animal/item/victim and above each one is a dollar sign and its value? Well, when I look at a class of 30 Year 7 children (all shiny and new and over-keen to impress me to the point of irritation), I see little GCSE targets floating above their heads. There's a C grade. There's an A grade. There's an E grade. There's an A* (no pressure then).
I'm not lying. We are given their GCSE target grades - that's the grade they're expected to achieve at the end of their 5 year journey with us - within the first term of entering the school. Ta da. That child's future is then set in stone. The precious target grade will dictate his/her class set (and as a result, his/her friendship group); it will also dictate the amount of money and resources lavished upon the child.
Every child targeted a C or above should achieve their target because, come Year 11, they will have received 5 years' worth of investment. Some of those with D grade targets will have had the same treatment - convert those Ds to Cs and points means prizes.
In 1960, Armin Hary of West Germany completed the 100m race in exactly 10.0 seconds, creating a new World Record. In 2008, Usain Bolt (Jamaica) completed the race in just 9.72 seconds. I haven't heard anyone complaining that the race must have been shorter; it's just accepted that the athletes are faster and that they have better knowledge and technology at their fingertips (nutritionists, specialist trainers etc.) The 100m race isn't easier: the athletes are better.
Students have more information and technology at their fingertips. They have target driven teachers, who consider what they do to be a profession (gone are the days of the adage, those who can't...) Add to that a growing fear of the current economic situation (understood and translated by sixteen year olds as the dwindling number of places at university and opportunities for jobs) and you have a generation of students who are motivated - positively or negatively - to work hard and do well.
GCSEs are not getting easier but some aspects of the game have changed.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I had no idea that kids enter secondary school with their target GCSE grades- that makes me feel a little sick, and very scared for the children who get written off way too young. Tell me there are good teachers around who don't just want to take on the A* kids. I hate to think of all the potential that could go to waste, especially with those who are on a different developmental curve.
ReplyDeleteThe target is the minimum we have to help them to achieve. Those good teachers out there help all children equally - I'm blessed with a perfect department who looks at each child as an individual.
ReplyDeleteIt would probably be the case in most schools like the one I teach in (state run, inner city, white) that children with a C target are nurtured more than those with A*. Although, the A* targets are probably better cared for in the private sector.
The most depressing thing is that the targets are always shared with the students (from Year 9 onwards, if not, sooner). Can you imagine telling Pudding or Cubby at aged 11-13, you will plateau at grade X three years from now; dictating to them what they can aim for?!
Strangely, the abolition of the KS3 SATs has made this worse. In the past, the GCSE targets would be based on the KS3 SATs result, now they're based on the KS2 SATs result - students are expected to make 3 levels of progress between Year 6 and Year 11.
The targets are set as below
KS2 N >>> KS4 E
KS2 2 >>> KS4 E
KS2 3 >>> KS4 D
KS2 4 >>> KS4 C
KS2 5 >>> KS4 B
If a school manages to achieve these grades for each student in a year group, it is making satisfactory progress. To be considered as good or outstanding, many or most students have to exceed the targets i.e. to be good, we have to turn average children (level 4) into above average children (B grade).
It's all very tedious.
No, I had a teacher try to tell me what Pudding was capable of at 3, I don't stand for that kind of thing any more! I suppose the concern is for about 2 kids of kids. The first, like my brother, who has a high IQ, was constantly told how smart he was, stopped trying, started to get behind, stopped going to school and never took his exams. The second being those kids who are told they'll not do well and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. I'm not proposing any solutions here, with such large class sizes I wouldn't know how to fix it, but it does concern me.
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree and I'm stuck working in this system.
ReplyDeleteI usually work on the - what do you want to achieve - approach. If the child is underselling him/herself, I build his/her self esteem and help them realise they can reach something higher.
I guess that is the solution- build up the self-esteem so the child can focus on what they are capable of. I hope things will change. We're only just starting to learn about the brain and learning styles. Good teachers can change a child's world though- I'm glad the system hasn't broken you yet!
ReplyDelete