A-levels | Schools Week

New GCSEs and A-levels finally signed off – just days before schools break up for summer

The exams regulator has announced today it has finished accrediting new qualifications, less than two months before they are due to be first taught in schools. Ofqual has faced criticism for much of this year over the pace at which it has dealt with 156 new GCSE, AS and A-level frameworks for first teaching from […]

The feminism A-level debacle shows how biased we are about ‘best thinkers’

Women have been thinking, campaigning and contributing to politics throughout history, just as men have. It is therefore self-evident that the A-level syllabus should reflect this You couldn’t make it up. The Department for Education revises the specification for A-level politics, somehow manages to reduce the prominence of women within the new syllabus, triggers an […]

Examiners are more generous during re-marks, study finds

Examiners are more generous when they re-mark GCSE and A-level papers immediately after the summer results, a talk by the chair of Ofqual has revealed. A study described by the exam regulator’s chair, Amanda Spielman (pictured), suggests that papers re-marked immediately after exams as part of an appeal later failed to get higher grades when […]

How exam boards make sure GCSE and A level results are on a ‘level playing field’

Once again this year there has been outcries that “grade boundaries” have been moved so that it is “harder” to get a grade C. Below, Pearson’s Lesley Davies explains the boundary setting process. And, here, Ofqual goes through comparable outcomes and how it affects grade. The process of setting grade boundaries can seem complicated and […]

Where pupils live affects their A level choices, data reveals

Regional differences in post-16 provision could affect young people’s chances of getting into top universities, data released today shows. Analysis by Education Datalab’s chief statistician Dave Thompson, based on children who completed GCSEs in 2011, found that pupils at secondary schools without sixth forms were less likely to get places at Russell Group universities. A […]

What policy conclusions can we draw from the A Level results in 2015?

Politicians often claim that results show their favoured policy reform worked – but do this year’s figures stand up to scrutiny? Editor Laura McInerney checks out the data. Forty-five minutes after the release of today’s A level results a statement from schools minister Nick Gibb popped into my inbox, headed with three statements: […]

So after all the huffing about A level resits – it matters exactly 0.1%

Today’s A level results have moved at fingernail pace. The overall pass rate is up 0.1% and the proportion of A* and A grades has moved down 0.1%. Don’t all faint with excitement, please. But there’s an important policy lesson here. This cohort were the first to sit AS and A2 exams without January resits. […]

Hartsdown Academy pupil Holly gets top grades after devastating house fire

Cerebral palsey sufferer Holly Brooks, from Hartsdown Academy in Margate, is heading to Canterbury Christ Church University after achieving a double distinction in child care and health and social care, just weeks after a fire wrecked her family home. Holly, 18, lost her independence when her specially designed £7,000 electric wheelchair perished in the blaze […]