Setting standards
Students will be sitting exams for some new GCSEs in summer 2017. We want to be clear with them, ahead of 2017, about the new grading system and the levels of performance expected.
A levels and GCSEs
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 inevitably however, the media focused fairly narrowly on what we …
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 to be a major priority, of course. We will begin …
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 going forward for teaching in 2015, and the design of …
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 was not a decision we made lightly. We considered carefully …
GCSE Results – a view from the Chief Regulator
Looking back on last week, the story around GCSE results feels different this year. I hope people think that Ofqual and the exam boards did a good job setting out what it all meant, and what was behind the headline …
Some thoughts on the A level results
I have been able to take some time to reflect on the A level results published last week, and the way they have been received. We can see a very stable set of results here. The headlines were a 0.3 …
Chief Regulator Glenys Stacey looks ahead to GCSE and A level results
A level and GCSE results days are nearly upon us, and we are seeing the inevitable speculation that happens every year at this time. There is more speculation than usual about GCSE results for a number of reasons. We at …
Setting the bar
The Times Educational Supplement recently included an in-depth look at GCSE results and the subject of how we use what has become known as comparable outcomes, asking whether rising results are now a thing of the past. I am pleased …
GCSEs to stand the test of time
This week I've been speaking to school leaders and teachers at the Education Show in Birmingham about the opportunity we have to reform GCSEs.