Schools warned to expect ‘volatile’ results after tougher English and history GCSE exams

Toughened up: New English literature and history exams could result in 'volatile' results
Anna Davis @_annadavis21 August 2015

Schools could face “volatile” results in two key GCSEs after syllabuses were toughened up over fears that pupils were passing exams with a superficial knowledge of the curriculum.

Teenagers who will receive their results on Thursday were the first to sit the more robust exams in English literature and history and schools in which teachers have not adapted quickly enough to the new exams could see results plummet.

The exams were changed in 2013 after it emerged that most English literature students were answering questions on the same three novels, Of Mice And Men, Lord Of The Flies and To Kill A Mockingbird. In history, pupils could get away with answering questions about just one era.

The new exams are designed to ensure that pupils cover the whole course rather than a few core topics.

In English, pupils had to comment on the context of the novels they read and were tested on an entire Shakespeare play rather than a bite-sized extract. In history, they studied a wider historical period.

The overall pass rate is expected to stay stable because exam regulator Ofqual keeps results consistent each year by adjusting grade thresholds, but experts said fluctuations could hit individual schools.

Professor Alan Smithers, director of the centre for education and employment research at the University of Buckingham, said: “In the normal run of things, we might expect the grades to come down.

“But Ofqual controls the grades that are awarded, so if the marks come down it will lower the threshold and the grades will be the same.

“The national results may stay the same, but there could be variations in school results. This is what happened in 2012 [when some schools saw unprecedented numbers of children fail English GCSE.]

“It was the variations within schools which provoked the kerfuffle. This year, individual schools will see volatility. Schools adapt at different rates.”

Latest figures from Ofqual show that the number of pupils taking the new exams has dropped, possibly because of concerns about the more robust content.

The numbers taking English literature and history have both decreased, while there has been a rise in entries for the international GCSE, which was not affected by the changes to the curriculum. English literature GCSE entries are down by 15 per cent to 403,450, while history entries have fallen by five per cent to 227,490.

The warning over this year’s results came as the former high master of St Paul’s School called today for GCSEs to be abolished.

Martin Stephen said the exam was not challenging enough for the most able, too difficult for the less able and was boring for everyone in the middle range.

He said pupils should be able to choose from three things: a school leaving certificate, a vocational suite of exams and an academic suite of exams.

He added: “One size doesn’t fit all where our young people are concerned and the curse of GCSE is that the size on offer fits no one.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in