GCSE students take too many subjects

Everyone is worrying about the resumption of lessons for next year’s Year 11 pupils.

Of course, things are going to be much more difficult than usual. But I have a suggestion.

For years, I have thought that our students are forced to take far too many subjects for the GCSE. Now is the time to make a sensible decision and cease this ridiculous practice. I was pushed through seven subjects at O level when I was 15. Yes, I passed them all. But I know of many students who tell me that they have to take as many as 11 subjects.

Stop it. Immediately. Core subjects and only a few others. That is all they need.

Philip Colls
Gloucester

An academically disadvantaged generation? 

These are recent headlines/articles from established media:

• “The Prince of Wales warns of the ‘potentially devastating’ impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on young people”
• “As the government admitted that most primary pupils in England would not get back to the classroom before summer, ministers were urged to set out a comprehensive strategy or risk an ‘epidemic of educational poverty’”
• “Teachers, students, and schools are struggling with online education. The effects could last for years.”
• “It will take years for students to recover the learning they’ve lost.”

Parents and students have been bombarded with these emotive headlines throughout the crisis.

Teachers need to be aware that some children will come back believing they are part of the “Covid Generation of Academically Disadvantaged Students”. It will be crucial that staff continually reassure pupils that they will not be disadvantaged.

Engaging teaching, parental support and students enthusiastic to learn will soon see them back on track. Who knows, the experience may even have positive benefits on young people’s attitudes towards schooling as they have had a taste of what life is like when the “whole” educational process is postponed?

Chris Martin
Head of psychology, Netherthorpe School, Derbyshire

No new thinking on Covid catch-up

Same old, same old; the establishment-safe Education Endowment Foundation and Sutton Trust controlling a Department for Education old-school tutorial coaching model based on the chronological myths of “catching up” and “closing the gap”. No new thinking. In fact, closed-mindset metric thinking. No opportunity for transformative consultation for a post-Covid philosophy or pedagogy. No inclusive, equitable agenda (beyond the usual nodding rhetoric), and nothing for the vital early years.

Professor Bill Boyle
Professor of education; chair of educational assessment; director, Centre for Formative Assessment Studies, University of Manchester, 1989-2014; currently an education analyst for The World Bank

Give pupils a choice about what they study

A secondary school headteacher interviewed recently boasted about the “balanced curriculum” that his school offered. But a “balanced curriculum” is not what young people want. They need to be able to cast off unwanted, inappropriate subjects in order to pursue what they’re interested in, develop their strengths and exercise what they’re good at. Their timetables should not be cluttered by things that other people think might be good for them but they themselves find soul-destroying.

Given that young people have no choice as to whether they attend school, to be faced with an array of unasked-for, empty subjects is what causes many to switch off or, worse, to abscond or indeed make a nuisance of themselves in search of a better time.  

At best, compulsory study of unwanted material is an illogical waste of teacher and student time, and of expensive resources.  At worst, it is a source of dismay, misery and frustration to those on the receiving end, and often a nightmare for those having to deliver it.

When will the educational establishment see sense?  The current break in normality is an excellent opportunity to give thought to a new order in secondary education, one that respects and accommodates young people’s feelings and aspirations, and rids us of the unsavoury conflict between teacher and taught that has plagued the system.                                                                                                    
AJ Marsden 
Retired secondary school teacher