Reflections on the GCSE results
Understandably, the GCSE English results have attracted the largest share of the headlines overnight and this morning. The 1.9% drop in grades A* - C in this important subject looks...
A levels and GCSEs
Some thoughts following the A level results last week
The media has made much of the ‘first overall drop in A level results for 30 years’. It seems quite a story, at first sight, but I feel I should...
Waiting for results
A level results come out next week, with GCSEs the week after, and many thousands of young people and their families are waiting in nervous anticipation. In recent years, we...
Creative subjects do have a place in education
It’s been a week since we released our consultation on the reform of remaining subjects at GCSE and A level. Commentary on social media and in the news suggests that...
Practical Science
Practical work and experimentation is at the heart of science. It matters to science students, their teachers and their future universities and employers. But A level students do not always...
Setting standards
Students will be sitting exams for new GCSEs in maths, English literature and English language for the first time in the summer of 2017. We want to be clear with...
Making a mark…
We published our final report into exam marking last week. It’s a good piece of work, worth a read to get a full sense of what is going on. Perhaps...
Happy New Year – and an outlook for 2014
Hello all and Happy New Year. I wish you all the best for 2014. Like many of you, we are facing another busy and challenging year. Qualifications reform will continue...
Our A level consultation
Last week we launched our latest consultation on A level reform. It covers a number of important issues, including our proposals for the role of non-exam assessment in the subjects...
Our announcement on speaking and listening assessments
As we expected, our decision to stop speaking and listening assessments from counting towards final marks in GCSE English and English language has disappointed many teachers. We understand this. It...