Colleges teaching to the test have been a contributing factor behind low GCSE grades in English and maths resits, an Ofsted director has said.
When asked about the English and maths resits policy at the launch of Ofsted’s annual report yesterday, national director for education Sean Harford hit out at classes that “are focusing on the exam questions in the first week, as opposed to actually teaching young people the English and maths they need”.
This “causes difficulty, and I think that approach has led to some of that lower achievement”, he added.
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The percentage of students who achieved a grade 4 in their GCSE resits in November dropped compared with the previous year, figures released last week revealed. At one exam board, less than a quarter of students resitting maths achieved that grade.
Ofsted: Curriculum ‘as important post-16’
Students who experience a broad curriculum in the early years of their education are more likely to succeed at GCSE later on, Mr Harford said, adding that curriculum is “as important post-16” as it is in schools.
Chief inspector Amanda Spielman said that, when she has attended GCSE resit classes, the quality of teaching she has witnessed has been variable. “I see great work and I also see sometimes some pretty depressing classes,” she added.
“I think the principles that are built into the new inspection framework around adhering to a coherent, well-sequenced curriculum that actually.. matches the starting points and needs of children [has] just as much power there. As Alison Wolf [author of the Wolf Report on vocational education] has said, English and maths are actually the most important vocational qualifications for young people. We do need to do the best we can, in the space of time children and teenagers are in education. There’s still a way to go to get that right for all 16- to 18-year-olds.”
