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11 April 2026

Tag: exams

Schools struggle with rise in special provision requests

The Exams Officers’ Association (EOA) is pushing for a consultation with Ofqual to review exam access for students with a learning disability or difficulty. It follows association research that found school staff struggling to cope with a rising number of requests for special provision. Andrew Harland, chief executive of the EOA, said the rise was […]

Teachers ‘need more incentives’ to become examiners

An awards scheme for examiners should be created to entice more teachers to take on the “unattractive” job, a veteran examiner has suggested. Roger Murphy, an emeritus professor at the University of Nottingham, has been an examiner for about 40 years, but says the role is more bother than it is worth. He said as […]

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 allegation adds fuel to worries over the government’s plan to reintroduce grammar schools – with poor test regulation joining statistics that show the schools exacerbate inequality in outcomes. Andy Williamson, who led Wilmington grammar for boys […]

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, down to 66.9 per cent for A*-C grades. The number of A* grades alone declined by 0.1 percentage points and A*-A grades fell by 0.7 to 20.5 per cent. The drop has been linked to the […]

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. But A-level questions from decades ago now available on the web, are proving that there is still a huge appetite for demanding physics Social media allows global circulation of all sorts of conversations that previously would […]

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 implemented equitably, argues Andrew Harland Access arrangements (AA) help pupils with special educational needs, learning difficulties, disabilities or temporary injuries, to access the exam system. They are often seen as the preserve of pupils with special […]

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 remove open-ended tasks from the exam system altogether I was once an examiner. It was a mind numbing, cheerless experience that was paid at a pittance, but I did it, year on year, because it gave me […]

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 to use precious classroom time, says Gerald Haigh When I was a child I had a Meccano set. It was the daddy of them all, ultra deluxe, in a wooden chest gold-stencilled “Meccano” in that distinctive […]