News

Imposter students are sitting 11-plus entrance exams

Imposters are taking the 11-plus entrance exam to get children into competitive grammar schools, claims a former headteacher. The...

Billy Camden
Billy Camden
News

GCSE A*-C pass rate drops sharply

The 2016 GCSE results are out and show a sharp fall of 2.1 percentage points in the pass rate,...

Features Team
Features Team
Opinion

Exams may have got easier, but pupils have an appetite for hard questions

Exam question changes in the past two decades have often been made for clarity and “accessibility”, says Tim Oates....

Expert Contributor
Expert Contributor
Opinion

Access arrangements — are they a right or a privilege?

Recent changes to the official guidelines on access arrangements and assistive technology have wide-reaching implications for all pupils if...

Expert Contributor
Expert Contributor
Opinion

Multiple-choice exams plus portfolios – proposal for a new assessment system

Marking can never be 100 per cent reliable. So perhaps it is time, says one-time examiner Debra Kidd, to...

Debra Kidd
Debra Kidd
Opinion

SPAG bol***** — Why grammar tests are a poor use of classroom time

Grammar exercises and tests do little but fill in the government’s beloved tick-boxes and are not the best way...

Gerald Haigh
Gerald Haigh
Opinion

Why access to exam appeals — rather than how they are re-remarked — is the real social justice issue

Many people will say changes to the GCSE and A-level re-marking system are unfair, but are they correct? Editor...

Laura McInerney
Laura McInerney
News

Pupils can bypass schools to request GCSE and A-level re-marks this summer, Ofqual announces

Individual pupils will be able to request re-marks of their GCSE and A-level exams directly, rather than having to...

Sophie Scott
Sophie Scott
Opinion

Ignore social media, pupils can cope with hard GCSE exams

What do drunk rats, teenage boys and an independent drugs company have in common? Despite sounding like key components...

Laura McInerney
Laura McInerney