Parents evening that we had to attend for two of our children and an options evening to discuss the options that our year nine student will choose at the end of the year.
We were also advised about the changes that are being made to our children's GCSE exams and ultimately their future which I feel is difficult enough in view of the extortionate house prices and lack of jobs in England as it is. I say England because as I understand the other part of the United Kingdom are not being affected by the changes to the GCSE's.
It is not very often that I will make any comments on anything that our government does but in this case I genuinely believe they have lost every marble that they may have had!
Our poor children have lost the ability to do coursework, yes we have gone back to 1988 when the GCSE's first came in (I know that because I was one of them guinea pigs that took that exam) and after changing them because they didn't work the first time they have decided to give them a second go... Just to make sure that they didn't work!
So sadly, any child that struggles with nerves or anxiety as many children do now, will become further stressed because there work is assessed on a two and a half hour exam only and not several pieces of work and an exam. I would be interested to see the effect this has on the mental health of our children as there are already serious concerns regarding the increase in children who are suffering from mental health issues.
That is not all my dear friends... oh no our government has decided it would be beneficial to increase the difficulty of our exams to the point that the children will be studying many things that were previously included in A levels and on top of that to cap the amount of children that can actually pass these exams in the first place.
So even if they have worked solidly for three years and achieved really good result if they are in a clever year group there is still no guarantee they will pass there exams.
And those poor children who have special needs have no chance, so thank you for making our children future look even bleaker than they previously did.
They're capping how many kids can pass the exam?! What madness is that?
ReplyDeleteI wasn't really sure of what the GCSE's were so I starting reading the Wikipedia article and wow, that's really complicated (at least it seems so to me!). I'm sorry to say that I still don't understand. Are they the exams that the kids in high school need to pass in order to graduate with a diploma?
Yes pretty much we have GCSE's that the children take at 16, they are then meant to stay in school until they are 18 unless they are on a work placement training course but if they stay in school they take mainly A levels which depending on the results they then can go to University. But with the new rules they have brought in even the school think its crazy and have said they are having to start 13 year olds on GCSE work so they can best prepare them. I spoke to the English teacher about my son and said that I am worried but she said he has a really good work ethic and not to worry but last week he spent sixteen hours doing homework. I just think that's too much for someone so young Nathalie. Xx
ReplyDeleteYes, that is a lot. I would imagine that the schools are scrambling to change/adapt their curriculum so they have time to properly prepare them. So does that mean that they will have fewer A Levels to take, then? Or does that remain the same?
DeleteNo that remain the same. They have a hard few years ahead of them. I have always been fairly relaxed with my kids because I like them to have a good home/school balance but I think I am going to have to become a more pushy parent! (I hate that thought). Xx
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